A Bride at Last Read Online Free PDF Page B

think bald men can be very attractive, on him it’s not.” She leaned forward. “So what name did you give this pretend guy?”
    Nadine closed her eyes in concentration. She had to write his name down somewhere or she was going to blow it completely. “Trace Bennet.”
    Donna pulled her mouth down. “Sounds like a country and western singer. What does he look like?”
    “Goodness, Donna. He’s fake.”
    “Knowing your grandma, she’s going to phone me asking about all the gory details. We’re going to have to do a biography on this guy.” Donna laughed. “We need hair color, eye color…” She pursed her lips, thinking. “Job, place of employment”
    “Don’t bother.” Nadine waved a hand over the table in dismissal. “I just blurted it out this morning because I was angry, and wanted to keep her off my back. There’s no getting around it. I’m just going to have to go home and tell her, ‘Grandma, move out.’”
    “Why don’t you let her stay and you move out?”
    “Don’t tempt me.” Nadine pursed her lips as she looked out of the café’s window, which faced thenewspaper office. Some days it seemed as if her life stretched ahead of her like a prairie road. Predictable and the same. Not that she needed high adventure, she added to herself. She was content here in Derwin. She enjoyed her work, enjoyed her life. She just wished she had someone she could share it with. She recalled her morning meeting with Clint. The way he’d looked at her just before the phone call. For a moment it had seemed as if something was building between them. Nadine shook her head, dismissing the notion. Just wishful thinking. She wasn’t his type.
    She glanced up at the clock. “Yikes. I’ve got to get going. I promised Fletcher I’d get pictures of the rodeo.”
    “And you’ve got to get ready for a big date,” Donna teased.
    “Right” Nadine paid the bill, tossed a wave at Donna and left.
    Donna watched her go. She knew her friend wouldn’t be able to face down dear little Grandma Laidlaw. Nadine might be able to poke holes in Clint Fletcher’s composure and fast-talk her way out of awkward interviewing situations, but family situations were another story. There Nadine always avoided rocking the boat.
    And now Nadine was making up fake boyfriends in a bid to keep her grandmother off her back. But Donna knew, if Nadine had her way, she wouldn’t keep up the sham very long. A very principled person was her friend Nadine.
    Well, Donna was going to give things a little push and help Nadine persuade Grandma that Nadine was just fine. She grinned. Donna knew Grandma Laidlaw and knew exactly how to go about it.
    The movie was a dud. Nadine struggled through it, scribbled a few comments and as soon as the credits began to roll, fled the theater. Outside, the streetlights had just come on, competing with the setting sun. The evening still held vestiges of the day’s warmth, and beyond the town Nadine could hear the faint drone of combines and tractors harvesting the fields.
    She knew she should have been home, working over some stories for the next issue, but she had told Grandma she would be out tonight.
    If Grandma found out she’d gone alone to the film, she would start her matchmaking all over again. It was frustrating, not to mention slightly humiliating. Before Jack, Nadine had never gone out with many guys, just a few casual dates. But nothing had ever clicked. And after she broke up with Jack she ended up back in Derwin, taking care of her mother.
    Nadine loved her job, loved where she lived. The time she had spent going to school in the city had cured her of any desire to work and live there. But the other reality was staying in Derwin, slowly seeing her friends move away or marry the boy they had gone out with since high school.
    Nadine hadn’t dated much in high school, and hadnever really minded that much. Until Clint Fletcher. How acutely she’d felt the lack of a boyfriend once Clint began dating