Operation Babe-Magnet: Operation Babe-Magnet / Operation Beauty. Kristin Gabriel

smiled, placing a hand over his heart. “Hey, I’m a sensitive guy. Ask anyone.”

      Dexter shook his hand, the urge to punch Doogie in the jaw gradually fading. But he found Kylie wasn’t ready to be so forgiving.

      “Can you believe that?” she asked, as they walked out of the radio station. “He ripped you and the book to shreds! We’ll be lucky if anyone in Columbus buys it now.”

      “Aren’t you the one who said any publicity is good publicity?”

      “He made you sound like a pimp!”

      “Not me. Harry.” He slowed and turned toward her. “There is a difference.”

      She took a deep breath. “I know that. I just wish the Doogster would have been a little more supportive of How To Jump-Start Your Love Life instead of making it sound like it was just written for losers. Ridiculing the author and the book certainly isn’t going to help sales. I should have complained to the station manager.”

      He clasped her arm, pulling her to a stop. Her cheeks were flushed and her brown eyes glowed with angry sparks. He wanted to tell her she was beautiful when she was angry, but Hanover’s book had specifically warned against using tired clichés. So he tried to calm her down instead. “Look, anyone who listens to Doogie’s show expects him to act that way. That’s the reason they tune in. If he had gushed over the book, they never would have believed him. This way they got a few laughs at the same time they got exposed to the information.”

      “Exposure is good,” she conceded grudgingly.

      “Right. And the next time they’re in a bookstore and see How To Jump-Start Your Love Life, they’ll remember it. More importantly, they’ll probably buy it just to see what Doogie was making such a fuss about.”

      She smiled up at him. “You’re pretty smart, Harry, did you know that?”

      He thought about his decision to kiss her instead of Gertrude.

      “I have my moments.”

      Kylie squared her shoulders. “Okay. Doogie set the ball rolling. So now I just need to think of some way for us to take advantage of it.”

      7

      THREE DAYS LATER, Dexter sat in a Cleveland shopping mall at a table piled high with copies of How To Jump-Start Your Love Life. So far he hadn’t sold a single book, although he had given several people directions to the rest room.

      Kylie had spent most of the last three days on her cell phone, although she had brought him a chocolate ice cream cone a few minutes ago to relieve his boredom. Dexter licked the top layer of the cone, wishing he could apply the frozen treat to his eyes instead of his mouth. They were dry and itchy, despite the fact that he’d added the lubricating drops the optometrist had given him when he’d purchased the contact lenses.

      He glanced at his watch, suppressing a groan when he realized he still had over an hour to go before this interminable book signing came to an end. And twenty-one more days to go until his mission was over. This last week, spending every day with Kylie and dreaming about her every night had been sheer torture.

      By the time Kylie reappeared at his table, he’d finished the ice cream cone and had counted all the holes in the ceiling tiles above him.

      “How’s it going?” she asked, looking expectantly around the mall.

      “I think the people in Cleveland are satisfied with their love life,” Dexter replied. “Is there any way we can ditch this thing early?”

      Kylie shook her head. “I have a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer coming down to do a story. She should be here any minute.”

      “I’m afraid the story is going to be that the book is a bomb.”

      Kylie sat down in the chair next to him. “Actually, I’ve got a different story in mind.”