Read Online Down Home Dixie by Pamela Browning - Free Book Online

such as why reenactors do what they do, and showing me consideration and kindness.
    That was the clincher. In the many snippets of advice Memaw Frances had sent Dixie’s way, her admonition to find a man who was, above all, kind and considerate stuck in her mind. When Dixie was younger, she’d had in mind to find a handsome guy whose genes could be transmitted to their beautiful children. She’d wanted someone who could dance, who liked to laugh and took his financial obligations seriously. All those things were still important, no doubt about that. Still, if a man wasn’t kind and considerate, day-to-day life could get pretty grim. If he didn’t challenge her to think, their marriage would be boring. If he didn’t have a passion for his work or his hobbies, chances were that he wouldn’t be able to muster passion for much else, either. Including, possibly, the woman in his life.
    So. She’d better check her makeup, decide if she needed more lipstick. Break out the mouthwash. Find that bottle of perfume she’d buried in a box of bathroom supplies.
    Thank goodness she didn’t have to worry about eyeliner. Unlike many other things in life, her tattooed eyeliner was permanent. Her teeth were a newly bright and sparkly white. And her hair had never looked better.
    Ignore all that, Kyle Sherman, and you’re crazy.
    When you’d maximized your chances the way she’d done, you had a right to expect results. And she was sure she’d see some—plus a lot of other interesting things—tonight.
    Â 
    T HE B I -L O SUPERMARKET was only a short drive away. Kyle rushed through the store, scooped ice cream out of the freezer and seethed when the customer ahead of him at the checkout insisted on laboriously counting out change.
    When he arrived back at Dixie’s house, she looked as if she’d run a brush through her hair, maybe even refreshed her lipstick. She’d set out two bowls, and he opened the carton of cherry-vanilla ice cream. As he scooped it into the bowls. headlights swung across the trees outside. “Are you expecting anyone?” he asked, figuring the visitor was one of Dixie’s numerous relatives.
    â€œNo,” Dixie said blankly. She moved to the door for a better view. “Oh, drat. I don’t believe it. Of all the bad timing.”
    Playing it casually, Kyle licked a runnel of ice cream from his finger and went to peer at the figure approaching the back steps. “Who is it, anyway?”
    She darted him a wary look. “My former boyfriend,” she said. “Milo.”
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    T HEIR VISITOR REMINDED Kyle of something, though at first he didn’t know what it was. Then it occurred to him that Milo resembled his childhood teddy bear after the stuffing had started to get lumpy and fall out. The man had round cheeks, chubby hands and an abundance of curly brown hair, not to mention the beginning of a paunch under his neatly pressed plaid shirt.
    Kyle tried to recall what Dixie had told him about the relationship. He didn’t recall if she’d said why a marriage between them would have been a mistake, yet she’d seemed firm enough in her belief. So what was the guy doing here?
    As Kyle busied himself dishing up a third portion of ice cream for their unexpected guest, Milo apologized for showing up unannounced saying he’d learned where Dixie lived through their mutual friend Bubba who’d suggested Milo drop in to see her. He hoped Dixie didn’t mind.
    Dixie said no, she didn’t mind, not at all, and why didn’t he have a seat at the kitchen table because her living room was piled high with boxes, seeing as she’d moved in only a little over a week ago.
    Through his annoyance and from the gist of the small talk between Dixie and Milo, Kyle gathered that unannounced visits were the norm in the rural South, and if you were considered a really good friend, you never entered through the front door,