Leverage. Janie Crouch
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times to know clear and well what it felt like: it stole your breath, caused you to wonder which end was up, made your whole body tingle.
Of course, it was usually followed by agony. But in this case it might be worth it.
Striking was the only word for Shelby Keelan. Her red hair fell around her face and shoulders in long wisps and curls that had escaped from the loose braid she seemed to have attempted at some point. Her eyes —now looking at him rather than Tucker—were a clear emerald green with a hint of gold in them.
But, for the love of all things holy, it was her freckles that were killing him. Scattered across her nose, her cheeks, her forehead. They were quite possibly the most alluring thing he had ever seen.
Shelby Keelan wasn’t a traditional beauty, but she was striking.
From his corner booth where he could see the main entrance, kitchen entrance and emergency exit—old habits died hard—Dylan had seen her come in. He’d been almost positive who she was from that moment, and then her brief conversation with Sally had confirmed it.
He should’ve said something when she sat down at the table near his booth and started talking to Tucker, but he couldn’t resist seeing how that played out. Poor Tucker still looked as if he was going to have a heart attack.
Shelby Keelan sat in her seat at Tucker’s table, her green eyes zeroed in on Dylan. She did not look amused.
“Confused strangers are the top entertainment around here, I take it?”
Uh-oh. Dylan stood, giving Shelby his most charming smile. “Not usually, I promise. I just couldn’t resist seeing how Tucker was going to react.”
Tucker was still staring at Shelby. “I, uh, I mean, I’m not Dylan Branson.” He finally got the words out, much too late to be helpful.
Dylan walked over and slapped Tucker on the back good-naturedly. “I think she caught that much, Tuck. Ms. Keelan is dropping off some items for me to deliver.” Dylan looked over at Shelby and held out his hand for her to shake. “I’m Dylan Branson. A pleasure to meet you.”
Shelby stood and grasped Dylan’s hand. Dylan shook it, then kept it, glad when she didn’t snatch it away, and led her over to his booth. “Let’s leave Tucker to finish his meat loaf.”
A huge crash of thunder shook the windows in Sally’s diner. “I can’t take off in this anyway. I’ll need to let Megan and Sawyer know I’ll be delayed for a few hours.”
Shelby looked out the window at the rain now pouring down and nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
“Maybe you’ll let me buy you dinner to make up for my rude behavior. Since we have some extra time before I can fly in this.”
Shelby didn’t look convinced, but Dylan wasn’t going to let it go. The way he saw it, this situation was the best of all worlds: a chance to spend some time with a gorgeous woman, but one who would only be around for a couple of hours. Once the weather cleared and she gave him the codes, they’d go their separate ways. No complications.
But for now he could just enjoy her; her company and her beauty.
“Unless you’re in a hurry and just need to drop everything off and run.” Dylan gave her another smile. “But I hope that’s not the case and you’ll have dinner with me.”
She gave him a confused look, but then nodded. “Okay, dinner. A chance to redeem yourself.” One of her eyebrows arched as she looked at him.
“Deal. Let me contact Megan and Sawyer to tell them about the storm.” Afraid he might yell at Megan for not preparing him for how beautiful Shelby was, Dylan just sent a text to Sawyer.
Shelby in pocket, but storm will delay flight. Will contact with updated ETA soon.
Dylan received a reply just moments later from Sawyer.
Roger that. I’ll inform Burgamy.
Good, let Sawyer handle Burgamy. Dylan wanted as little communication time with his ex-boss as possible. He caught the attention of the young waitress who brought them both menus. Shelby began looking through it, but Dylan didn’t even need to.
“Already know what you want?” Shelby asked him.
“Yeah. Sally’s chicken pot pie is my favorite. I usually get that.”
“That sounds good. Perfect for a rainy night and to recover from my near-death experience a little while ago.”
As far as Dylan knew, most people didn’t have near-death experiences around Falls Run. He hoped she wasn’t talking about poor Tucker. He wasn’t that bad. “What happened?”
They both ordered pot pie and sweet tea then Shelby told him about the car that had driven her partially off the side of the road. It sounded as if the driver never even saw her.
“Wow, first almost being run off the road, then almost having to have dinner with Tucker. That’s a double whammy.”
She laughed and relaxed back against the booth. Her eyes sparkled with genuine amusement. Dylan assumed he was forgiven.
“Yeah, the roads around here can be dangerous even for someone who’s driven them for years,” he continued. “And somebody not paying attention? You’re really lucky.”
“I thought the same thing after my pulse settled down to something below two hundred beats a minute.”
The waitress brought them their iced tea.
“So you and Megan went to college together? Were you close?”
“Well, sort of. Megan was so young when she was at MIT, child prodigy and all that, so she’s younger than me. Plus, I’m not a real outgoing person, so I tend to keep to myself. But we banded together a little bit because we were both females in an overwhelmingly large group of men.” Shelby took a sip of her tea. “So she married your brother?”
“One of the two, yes. Sawyer. The playboy of the family. It was amazing how fast he fell.” Dylan chuckled at the thought.
“And now they have a new baby on the way. I’m happy for Megan. I know back in college she always felt concerned she’d never really fit in anywhere.” By the way her face lit up, Dylan could tell Shelby authentically cared for Megan.
The waitress brought their food and they began to eat. “So how many siblings do you have?” Shelby asked between bites.
“I’m thirty-five and the oldest of four kids. Sawyer is the youngest. Cameron is a couple of years younger than me and our sister, Juliet, is sandwiched between Sawyer and Cameron.”
“Anybody else married?”
“My other brother, Cameron, to a woman he was involved with a few years ago. They reconnected recently.” Dylan didn’t mention that Cameron and Sophia had reconnected when Cam had taken Sophia hostage while working undercover. That would probably come across as a little weird. “Juliet just got engaged to our longtime family friend Evan. They work together.”
Again, mentioning that Juliet and Evan had fallen in love after living through an attack by a crazed stalker probably would be an overshare. Love in the Branson family tended to be less than traditional.
And that was part of the reason Dylan tried to stay as far as possible from it.
“How about you?” Shelby peeked over her pot pie at him.
“Married once, a long time ago. But not in the cards for me any longer.” Dylan definitely did not want to talk about that. “You?”
“Nah. Haven’t found anyone yet I like more than my pets.”
Dylan laughed. “I don’t blame you. Are you a dog person? Please, not cats.”
“Both, actually.” Shelby smiled at him and began telling him a story about some trouble one of her dogs had gotten into.