He Could Have Coped with Dragons: A Jukebox Story

By Dean Wesley Smith

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had made a different decision? A bar napkin with a strange saying and a dragon gives Richard Cone just that: A second chance.

Bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith returns to his popular Jukebox series with an origin story of the new owner of the Garden Lounge.

USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than ninety popular novels and well over 100 published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom.

He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: May 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452344553

Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA TODAY bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published far over a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres. He currently produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and the superhero series staring Poker Boy. During his career he also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds.

Book preview

He Could Have Coped With Dragons

A Jukebox Story

Dean Wesley Smith

He Could Have Coped With Dragons

Copyright © 2012 by Dean Wesley Smith

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover Design copyright © 2012 WMG Publishing

Cover art copyright © Kurt Rickard/Dreamstime

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

He Could Have Coped With Dragons

A Jukebox Story

One

Richard Cone stood in the doorway, feeling completely out of place in his construction clothes, and gaped at the medieval castle decor of the new hotel bar. Crest-covered satin banners draped over the fake stone walls above the booths. A gigantic wood and fake-candle chandelier hung in the center of the room above high-backed cloth chairs and wood tables. He was glad he hadn’t been hired for the building crew. Just hanging that chandelier must have been a nightmare.

The two waitresses wore long, peasant dresses that seemed as out of place as he felt among the suits and modern outfits of the few hotel guests scattered around the bar this early in the afternoon. The hostess wore a brown dress that forced her moderate-sized breasts up into a huge mound of cleavage.

Richard would have bet anything that it was uncomfortable. She glanced up over the ornately printed, Please Wait to be Seated sign and Richard noticed she barely held back a frown. Can I help you?

Richard glanced