On Lone Star Trail by Amanda Cabot Page B

so different from the men she’d met at Juilliard and on concert tours.
    None of those men had piqued her interest the way TJ did, and that was surprising. Those men were the kind of men she was expected to marry. TJ was not. It was true that he was no less educated, but he was definitely less polished than the perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed men who’d been part of Gillian’s life since she’d graduated. She couldn’t picture him in a concert hall or a five-star restaurant, and she definitely couldn’t imagine him being comfortable in the back of a stretch limo, yet somehow those differences made him intriguing. There were depths to TJ that she’d never seen in the men she’d dated. Perhaps that was the reason those dates had never been more than casual.
    â€œI’m not planning to get married any time soon,” she said, suddenly unsure whether she was convincing herself or Sally.
    â€œI wasn’t either, but look what happened to me.” Sally refilled Gillian’s glass. “I really think you should stay here, at least for a couple months. And don’t roll your eyes at the idea of Dupree. It may be a lot smaller than New York and Chicago, but the town is changing. We’ve got Drew Carroll’s web company coming in, and Marisa St. George—pardon me, Marisa Kendall—has opened a bookstore. The seniors are even planning to start a book club once we figure out where to meet.”
    Gillian wasn’t certain why Sally thought those changes would affect her. Admittedly, Gillian relished a well-stocked bookstore, but that wasn’t a reason to spend months in Dupree.
    â€œThink about it, Gillian.”
    And, though it was the last thing she’d planned to do, Gillian nodded. “I will.”

7
    T he town was more appealing than he’d expected. The business area, if you could call it that, was larger than he’d realized. There were more empty buildings than he’d like to see in a town this size, but Pecan Street boasted a number of small stores including what appeared to be a first-rate bootery and the shop that was the likely source of the quilts he’d seen at Rainbow’s End.
    One of the letter-named streets even had a decent barber, who’d managed to salvage TJ’s hair after the crude hacking he’d given it. The fact that the man had made no comment other than that curly hair was a challenge earned him a healthy tip.
    With his hair no longer sticking out in odd ways, TJ continued his tour of the town, discovering that Dupree was bookended with construction. An apartment complex was going up on the south side, while a sign on the north end showed an artist’s rendition of the office building and cluster of duplex houses that were currently little more than cement foundations. Even when both were finished, Dupree would not be a boomtown. Still, it had more charm than TJ had expected.
    He looked at the display on his camera, surprised that he’dtaken more than a hundred pictures. It wasn’t as if he planned to remember his time in Dupree. As soon as Eric finished repairing his bike, TJ would be gone. And yet, something about the town intrigued him. Though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason, he felt comfortable here.
    Retracing his steps on Lone Star Trail toward the center of town, TJ studied the businesses lining the oddly named main street. Several of the buildings were empty. Others needed a good coat of paint. Still others needed their bricks repointed. But somehow this time the flaws didn’t bother him the way they had the first time he’d noticed them. Instead, his mind began to whirl with ideas about how to renew the town. Odd. He’d never felt that way about a place, not even the suburb where he and Deb had spent their entire married life.
    Glancing at his watch, TJ realized he had half an hour before he was supposed to meet Gillian. He might as well go into the Sit ‘n’ Sip