Baby It's Cold Outside Read Online Free PDF Page B

tease his grandmother. Partly because she was so easy to trip up and partly because she enjoyed it so much. “You’re on.”
    As the reading of the last meeting’s minutes washed over him—a recap of the town budget, whether to do an expansion of the high school’s locker room at the hockey rink and how to deal with an errant moose who had been making a nuisance of himself in the wee hours of the morning at Patty’s General Store—Walker found his usual seat at the back of the room.
    He had a quick handshake with Mary’s grandson, Mick O’Shaughnessy, and then dropped onto the cold, unforgiving metal of a shiny folding chair. Before he could answer his friend’s whispered “Yo,” Walker’s gaze caught on about a mile of blond hair a few rows in front of them.
    Long, artful waves tripped down her back, and even without a view of her face, Walker knew he’d never seen the woman before.
    His grandmother’s voice filled the meeting hall as she moved from a reading of the minutes into new business, but Walker heard none of it. All he saw was the long luscious fall of hair as he waited for the woman to turn her head.
    Who was she?
    From the corner of his eye his gaze snagged on Mick’s fists, where they were balled on his knees. “You okay, buddy?”
    “Hmmm?” His old friend was looking in the same direction Walker had been.
    Was Mick as enamored with the blonde as he was?
    And how in the hell had he managed to channel his high school self and get angry at that fact?
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah.” Mick nodded his head ever so slightly at the women.
    “So why do you look like you’re ready to do battle with Patty’s moose?” At his friend’s wry stare, Walker added, “And who’s the woman who’s got you all torqued up?”
    “I don’t know who the blonde is, but the little ball of fire next to her is Grier. Jonas Winston’s daughter.”
    Walker heard the barely suppressed note of longing in his friend’s voice and felt his stomach muscles unclench. “I know who Grier is. I’ve been representing her.”
    Mick rubbed a hand over the three days’ growth of beard on his face, then turned to face him. “Right. Right.”
    “They seem awfully tight.”
    Mick’s gaze returned to the women. “The blonde just arrived today. It was all anybody over at the landing strip could talk about. They were rather offended seeing as how she took the train up from Anchorage.”
    Ah, yet again, the small-town grapevine was in full swing. How could he have thought it would be anything but ripe with information?
    “Maggie needs to get that stick out of her ass and spend a bit more time focused on air traffic control and a little less time on gossip. The train ride up is beautiful and a hell of a lot easier on the stomach for a newbie.”
    Mick held up his hands, but a small smile played at the corner of his lips. “I’ve had far too many pukers to argue with that.”
    “So do you know who she is?”
    “Grier’s friend from New York. That’s about all I know. Since the entire town’s taken Kate’s side, no one’s bothered to talk to Grier. Therefore, no one’s got the gossip on exactly who the friend is or why she’s here.”
    “Maggie must be dying to know the details.”
    Mick nodded, the smile moving into a full-on grin. “Pretty much. I’m hard-pressed to complain since it’s taken her attention firmly off the grandmothers’ competition.”
    As if on cue, Sophie’s comments to the assembly shifted into a series of instructions for the coming days.
    Walker let out a light groan. “Every time I think they’re going to give this damn game up, they ratchet up the stakes. Do you know my grandmother actually tried pitching this to the morning shows?”
    “Tried?”
    “Editorial killed it at the last minute.”
    “You know why?”
    Walker thought about the discreet phone calls he made to a few old friends from college. “Let’s just say I still know a few people and know how to pull a few