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He knows you're traveling and he invited you to a festival. Not to his house or his bed, but to something where there will be millions of people there and—
    "Millions?  In a place called Cotton Creek?"
    "Okay, you're right. Not millions, but at least hundreds and the point is, if you say yes and show up, he's gonna see you so what's the big deal."
    "He called me pretty."
    "Well you are, dummy."
    Analise sighed, forgot about dinner and flopped down on the small sofa. "Well, I don't feel like it."
    "Ah honey, you're just letting the rat bastard back in your head."
    "No, no, I'm not. Rick never called me ugly or anything. He just … he just ignored me for the most part. At least after the first few years. The last few … well I don't know if he even realized I was around unless he needed something."
    "And that's part of the reason you’re better off without him. But back to you. You're really pretty Analise. You have a nice figure, not all wrinkly and scrawny and your hair still looks good so all in all you've got nothing to worry about  Besides, what does he look like?"
    "I don't have a clue."
    "Exactly. He could look like a barrel with the middle hoop busted out."
    Analise laughed. Katie had a country way of phrasing things. "Yeah, you're right. So, how should I respond?"
    "I don't know. Just don't obsess about it, okay?"
    "I'll try not to."
    "Okay, so how long are you going to be in New Orleans?"
    "A week maybe?  I want to see as much as I can while I'm here."
    "And then?"
    "Then Galveston, Corpus Christie and San Antonio. I decided to go to that conference and registered this morning. Think I could crash with you a couple of days after that?"
    "You know you can. And I'm so glad you decided to go to the conference. It'll be fun. You want to drive here and leave your RV and ride with me?"
    "That'd be great."
    "So…you going to take him up on his invitation?"
    Analise leaned back and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I'll sleep on it."
    "Okay. Oops, there went the bell on the stove. Gotta scoot. Call me in the morning. Love you!”
    "I will and love you too."
    Analise put the phone down on the couch beside her. Katie was right. She and Riley were friends and their friendship wasn't based on looks. Heck, if she really thought about it, it was founded on her asking him a million questions.
    Thus far there hadn't been a lot of quid pro quo in the friendship. Unless you count the recipes she'd given him for simple meals. Apparently he wasn't much of a cook.
    Still, she was reading way too much into all of this. Pushing herself up, she got focused on finishing her meal and sat down at the small table to eat. She opened a video on her Kindle and watched it as she ate. The messenger app popped open with a personal message.
    It was a private message on her author fan page on Facebook. A little spark of nervousness hit her until she realized it wasn’t Riley. She didn’t get a lot of personal messages through her author page, so curiosity had her opening it. As he read her eyes widened.
    Hi. You don't know me but I live in Cotton Creek and am a friend of Riley Morgan's. I know you are too and I thought you might enjoy this. Sorry the video is so bad. The bar was really crowded so you probably can't see him, but that's him singing. He's not bad.
    Oh, I read your new book. It was good. Colt sounded a lot like Riley.
    Have a good night.
    Cody Sweet
    Analise clicked on the link and her browser opened on a YouTube video. She could see a crowd of people in what looked like an old bar. At the far side of the room there were men on a wooden stage. Two of them were seated, each holding instruments. A third man was at the drums and at the front of the stage two men stood at the microphone, one heavyset and the other tall and lanky.
    She couldn't make out their features, and people kept moving in front of the camera, but she could hear the music despite the crowd. She listened and then listened again. Which one was Riley?  Was he the