Love Somebody Like You Read Online Free PDF

couple blocks. A restored old hotel called the Wild Rose Inn had a fine-looking dining room and Western-style bar; a coffee shop called Big & Small offered sandwiches, wraps, and salads; a Japanese restaurant called Arigata looked interesting. He wasn’t a sushi guy, but he liked teriyaki, tempura prawns, and a few other Japanese dishes.
    He settled on the Gold Pan, a diner that was two-thirds full. It had Formica tables and red leatherette booths, a long counter and red-topped stools, even a jukebox. John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” wove beneath the sound of customers chatting. On the walls hung black-and-white photos of gold miners, some looking haggard as all get-out, others beaming and holding up sizable nuggets.
    Feeling right at home, Ben took a seat at the counter. The middle-aged, auburn-haired waitress gave him a plasticized menu and a big smile, which he returned. The air smelled of frying chicken and grilling beef, and everything on the menu sounded delicious.
    Thinking about what would work best for takeout, he ordered meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw for two. Normally, as part of his fitness regimen, he took it easy on the carbs, but women liked dessert—that was his excuse and he was sticking to it—so he also asked for a couple of slices of strawberry-rhubarb pie. “That’s to go,” he told the woman. Terry, her name tag said.
    She clipped the order slip to one of those old-fashioned carousels that hung between the diner and the kitchen, then turned back to him. “How are you liking our fair town so far?”
    He figured the population was small enough, she’d know he wasn’t a local. “Looks nice, but I haven’t seen much of it. I’ve been out at Ryland Riding, visiting Sally. She’s an old friend.”
    Her dark eyebrows arched. “You’re a friend of Sally Ryland’s?” Her tone held disbelief.
    He eyed her quizzically. “Yeah. From way back. Before she got married.”
    â€œHuh. Didn’t know she had friends except for Dave and—” She broke off, flushing. “That sounded terrible. Sorry. It’s just, well . . . she keeps to herself, you know?”
    No friends? The Sally he’d known had been so outgoing. But then, Pete’s death had probably messed her up, not to mention left her swamped with work. “Since her husband died?”
    Terry shook her head. “I’ve never once met Sally, and she’s been here seven, eight years. I don’t know if she’s set foot in town more than a few times, and her husband wasn’t here much more often. They built Ryland Riding and it was, like, their own little world. Just the two of them.”
    â€œYou mean, except for students and people boarding horses, right?”
    â€œSure. But Sally and Pete didn’t socialize.” She took a lattice-topped fruit pie from the display case. “Seems they didn’t need anyone except each other. That’s true love for you. I guess. I mean, it’s not how me and my hubby, Jeff, back there in the kitchen, like things.” Slicing pie, she chuckled. “Well, obviously, eh, or we wouldn’t own a diner. We like being in the center of what’s going on in town.” She put two generous slices of pie into a take-out container.
    â€œI remember when Sally and Pete first met. It was like, bam, neither of them had eyes for anyone else.”
    â€œWell, I guess it stayed that way. I heard that the rare times he did come into town he’d buy flowers for Sally.” An order was up, and she went to deliver it.
    Maybe Ben had better not take flowers tonight. He didn’t want Sally thinking he was trying to compete, or compare, with Pete.
    Idly, he glanced at the write-up on the back of the menu. It said that the Gold Pan had been open for ten years, and its name was in honor of the town’s history. Caribou Crossing had its origins in the 1860s gold