From the Boots Up Read Online Free PDF

chatted with
for a bit. No big deal.
    So why couldn’t she stop thinking about her?
    Dammit barked and nipped at Bugoff and they raced
straight down the path, yelping and whining at each other. Meg laughed and
nudged Rusty into a trot as they crested the last rise and headed down toward
the spread. Ninety minutes later she clunked down the steps of the lodge and
entered the kitchen through the back. She had showered and changed into clean
jeans and a Colorado State University tee.
    “Hey, Alice. Hi, Dad. Hey, Anna.”
    “There’s my darling daughter,” he said in greeting.
He was leaning against one of the counters going over menus with Alice. “Did
you find any naked calves up there?”
    An image of what Gina might look like in shorts
flashed through Meg’s mind and she stifled a giggle. “Nope. You want me to go
up tomorrow? I’ll take Mark, if you don’t have him doing anything.”
    He straightened. “I’ll see if Mark and Davey can go.
I’d like you to stick around. We’ve got fifteen arriving tomorrow. And that’ll
be the first full day with the reporter. I need a native Diamond Rocker on hand
for questions if I’m not around.”
    “Diamond Rocker, huh? Maybe we should get some new T-shirts
made with that on it.” She ran a hand through her still-damp hair.
    “Not a bad idea,” he said with a grin. “We could
offer them to people who survive at least a week with us.”
    Alice laughed. “A week with Meg’s nothing. A week with
you, however—” she gave him a look and he pretended to be offended.
    “Are you saying I’m difficult to get along with?”
    Alice caught Meg’s eye and they both grinned. “Yes,”
they said together. Stan gave Meg a mock glare that she responded to with one
of her own. They held the stare-down for another few seconds before she burst
out laughing and he smiled.
    “You look more like your dad every day,” Alice said
with a chuckle.
    “That’s okay, as long as I don’t grow a mustache.”
    “I don’t know, hon. You might look good with one,” he
teased. “I’d teach you how to trim it and you’d be just as handsome as me.”
    Meg rolled her eyes as the door swung open from the
dining room and Alice’s kitchen help appeared.
    “They’re comin’ in,” Troy announced. He was on the
cusp of fifteen, and his voice was deeper than what his wiry, awkward frame
suggested he should sound like. Jenny was right behind him, all business, hair
pulled up into a tight little bun. She was a student at the University of
Wyoming, a little younger than Meg, but from a nearby ranching family herself.
    “Well, all right. Let’s eat.” Stan clapped a hand on
Meg’s shoulder and steered her into the dining room. She filled a plate from
the buffet and took a seat on the bench at the middle table, across from the
young married couple that had arrived yesterday, Tim and Laura. Tim’s parents
sat at another table talking to Jackson and Mark. Meg glanced around the room,
but didn’t see any strangers who might be a reporter. She was a little
relieved, since she wanted to eat first. Maybe she could avoid dealing with the
reporter until tomorrow. She had just taken another bite of chicken when
Marjorie, the artist from St. Paul, appeared with a plate piled high with food.
She sat on Laura’s left and they all greeted each other.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever been so hungry,” Marjorie
said. She had a nice matronly way about her, like Alice. Except Alice had a 40s
actress thing going while Marjorie was kind of plump and solid.
    “It’s the fresh, clean air,” Tim said, laughing as he
reached for the basket of rolls in the center of the table. “Right, Meg?”
    “That’s what they say. So what’d you do today?” She
set the chicken bone on her plate and picked up her fork to dig into her potato
salad. Conversations, laughing, and the clink of silverware on plates filled
the room. She glanced around again. Thirty people. There’d be more coming in
tomorrow. The ranch