Page 51 of Peach Blossom Hollow

“Want to stop?” he asked her, puzzled about what was going on.

She leaned back in her seat. “Nah. I’m just being a snoop. I’m sure I’ll hear all about whatever this is soon enough.” She peered through the window againas the limo crawled along. “Maybe Hannah is opening her own day care or something.”

The small group in front of the store turned, watching the car. Leo asked the driver to stop.

“Come on,” he said. He opened his door before the man could come around, and reached for Violet’s hand.

“No way.” She gestured to her fancy outfit. “We have to get to the gala and I’m just being nosy.”

“That’s exactly why we need to stop.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “Be curious, Vi. I don’t mind. Besides, you look beautiful. Show yourself off a little.” He knew she wouldn’t quite believe just how amazing she was from the inside on out until it was reflected back to her by her own world.

Mrs. Fisher squealed, her hands performing a jittery dance as she hustled up to Violet on the sidewalk, her red-and-gold Christmas-garland earrings swinging. She embraced Violet in a hug, surrounding her with the scents of coffee and bacon. “Oh, sweetheart! Look at you.” Clasping her shoulders, she held Violet out in front of her, taking in her gown.

Her friend Jackie Moorhouse grinned at her. “You’re hotter than a black leather interior in hundred-and-ten-degree heat with no air-conditioning.”

Mrs. Fisher turned to Leo. “Don’t y’all just melt looking at this woman?”

“I do.”

The sincerity in his voice made Violet’s cheeks burn.

“She’s going to be the most beautiful woman at the gala tonight,” he said.

Okay, going too far. She gave him a dry look, the spell broken. “Daisy-Mae’s going to be there.”

“Oh, I bet she’ll look like she stepped out of a magazine,” the older woman gushed.

“Not my type, Mrs. Fisher,” Leo said easily.

“Christine Lagrée is his type,” Violet stated, feeling a strange wringing sensation in her chest at the thought of Leo finally capturing the woman he’d been pursuing for several months.

Hannah gasped. “She’s gorgeous!”

Violet nodded, knowing Leo was starting to have doubts about Christine. She hoped that tonight she could show him that he didn’t need a loveless relationship, and could find career advancement in something a bit less old-fashioned than a marriage geared to that. She had seen the RSVP list and knew who to introduce him to. She just had to be quick and not think, or she’d clam up. She needed to show him he could receive help when it came to finding success and happiness—without tying himself into a loveless relationship.

Jackie, eyes wide, mouthed the wordhotto Violet, tipping her head in Leo’s direction. Violet introduced the two, then quietly pointed out Henry Wylder, the great-uncle of the Wylder brothers, to Leo. He was scowling through the dusty window of the building, and she decided he was a lot like the local armadillo, Bill. Best not disturbed.

Mrs. Fisher waved a hand. “You’re never gettingChristine, Leo. She’s not gonna fall for a cowboy like y’all.”

Violet giggled as Leo glanced down at his very classy, not-at-all-Western tuxedo. “For what it’s worth, I’m starting to believe I have a thing for women with dark hair and mysterious eyes,” he mused.

Violet giggled again when Hannah sighed, but stopped when Leo winked at her, his gaze lingering just long enough that she couldn’t quite brush off his words.

Was she projecting her own feelings onto him, seeing what she wanted to see, like she had with Owen? She knew he was just flirting, playing the role of the adoring date in front of her friends to make her feel good. He wasn’t flirting in hopes of their friendship becoming more.

She just had to remember that.

“And what about me?” Leo asked, striking a pose. “Don’t I look good?”

“Very nice,” Hannah and Jackie said together.

Violet had barely allowed herself to look at him. He was so gorgeous. A cowboy in a tuxedo? It was like her knees didn’t remember how to work properly.

But now she drank him in, from his freshly styled hair to those devilish eyes that charmed her with secret tales she felt only she could translate. The jacket was cut to showcase the width of his shoulders, the power hidden beneath the fine woven cloth. The pants hung from his hips as if their designer saw him the way a hungry woman would.

---