The teal was close to the color of her eyes.
Cat looked awed. “It’s beautiful.”
“Would you like to try it on?” offered Romely.
She would, but she wouldn’t. Law could see Cat’s mental debate. He watched as she fingered the price tag, paled, and became all business.
“Mr. Lawless is here to tour the shop, Romely,” Catherine reminded the manager. “Thank you, but there’ll be no fashion show.”
“Pity,” Romely whispered as she passed Cat. “One look at you in this gown and he’d be a goner.”
Not necessarily a goner, she thought. Law saw her as the type of female who wore long gowns. Such lingerie was sensual, but not strip-down sexy. She bet the women he bedded came to him in skimpy corsets with hot-pink G-strings, or wrapped in short silk robes covering nothing but skin.
“Anything further?” Romely asked on her return.
“Catherine needs panty hose,” Law said. “A pair got ripped last night.”
Cat wanted to swat him. He made the incident sound as if they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and had torn off their clothes, hungry and wild.
Romely’s raised brow indicated she thought so, too. “Crotchless?” she asked.
Law smiled, flashing dimples.
Cat contemplated the hosiery display. Innocent or wicked? Should she choose good girl over bad?
Her Wonder Woman alter ego would have gone with rhinestone-seamed thigh-highs and a silver thong with garter straps.
Cat went with practical. “Size small, sheer taupe, seamless toe,” she said to Romely.
The manager’s expression called Catherine boring. She collected the proper color and size, then gave Cat a last piece of advice. “Slitted is far more fun.”
Cat wandered the store as Law took his sweet time at the cashier’s counter. She couldn’t tell if he was hitting on Romely or if the manager saw him as fair game. Either way, Cat remained patient while he wrapped up the sale and met her at the exit.
He passed her the gold gift bag tied with multicolored ribbons. “Your panty hose.” His gaze was warm, his grin easy.
“Thank you.” She appreciated his gesture. “We’ve one last stop before your commercial shoot. A Likely Story is in a Victorian house on the outskirts of town.”
The bookstore welcomed its customers onto a wide verandah with a long row of white wicker rockers. Confederate jasmine scented the air, the white blossoms bursting on privacy hedges.
The store’s recent face-lift included a fresh coat of gray paint. The shutters were a bottle green.
The owner, Luella Fern, bore the frail air of a tragic heroine from a Jane Austen novel. Her hair was pale blond and styled to take ten years off her age. She wore a brown shirtwaist, accented by a pearl choker.
Cat noticed Law took great care when shaking Luella’s blue-veined hand. He didn’t want to squeeze her fingers too tight. The lady looked as if she could be easily broken.
“Feel free to look around,” Luella told them once they’d entered the foyer. “The bookstore’s on the lower level and I live upstairs. There are a few customers in the Tea Room, and I need to check on them.” She hurried off.
Rooms opened off a hallway of dark hardwood floors. New and used books were displayed on shelves as well as mobile carts. Heavy velvet curtains were pulled back to allow streams of sunlight through the sheers.
Cat followed Law through the converted living room into the drawing room and on into the library. He moved on, and she remained.
The spacious Victorian house offered hardback and paperback best sellers as well as gilt-edged, leather-bound classics. Vintage magazines were stacked in large wooden bins. The sign tacked to the side read YOUR CHOICE, $1.00.
The container smelled musty and a spiderweb festooned one corner. Cat dove in anyway, feeling like a kid at Christmas.
An 1895 volume of Puck, one of Joseph Keppler’s Victorian USA lithographs, caught her eye. Issued weekly for a dime, the humor magazine depicted colorful cartoon characters and political satire. There were water stains on the back pages, yet Cat recognized something old, rare, and valuable when she saw it. She set the copy of Puck aside and dug deeper into the bin.
She scanned both a New Yorker and Life magazine from the late 1930s. An assortment of vintage comics were buried at the very bottom. She retrieved all seven. Annie Oakley and Millie the Model made her smile. Fire-hair brought romance to the pioneer West.
Several of the pages on Blue Bolt were dog-eared. The cover on Human Torch had faded. Someone had drawn mustaches and devil horns in Magic Marker on a 1965 X-Men, a classic devalued.
Catherine stared in disbelief at the final comic in the stack: Captain America #1. She had no idea of its worth, but she knew the boy in Law would totally freak. She stood still, clutching the comic close until he returned to the library.
Crossing the room, he soon nudged her with his elbow. “I’m ready to go. This place has potential and personality. Let’s close the deal.”
Catherine nodded, barely able to breathe. She wanted to jump up and down and wave the comic in his face. Instead she played him, just a little.
The recent panty hose incident was still fresh in her mind. She hadn’t fully forgiven him for allowing people to think he’d ripped the stockings off her.
She nodded toward the bin. “Can I borrow a dollar? I left my purse in the SUV and I have something I’d like to buy.”
No hesitation on his part. Out came his wallet and a George Washington changed hands. He looked at her curiously. “What did you find?”
A drum roll would’ve been nice, but the wild beat of her heart sufficed. Ever so slowly, she turned the vintage comic toward him. She wished she’d had a camera to capture his expression.
He blinked, his jaw dropped, and it took a full minute for his shock to wear off. When she handed him the comic, he was a kid again.
His elation zapped her. The room was electrified.
Law handled the comic with the care given a newborn. He was soon deep into the issue and evaluating the comic cover to cover. “This is the find of a lifetime,” he said. “An unrestored copy in near-mint condition.”
After several minutes, he carefully closed the comic. “This issue depicted a believable villain in Adolf Hitler, and Captain America gave evil a well-deserved punch in the face. The menacing Red Skull makes his first appearance as does Bucky Barnes, Cap’s sidekick.”