Mended Hearts (New Beginnings Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

pleasantly surprised. He’d expected to find a run-down dive of a bar. But instead, found a fun, funky place with a comfortable atmosphere. He paused to look at the framed poster of the house band on the wall just inside the door. By process of elimination, he identified Gracie Laurent as the cute brunette standing slightly in the foreground of the group shot. She was wearing a breezy smile as if she’d been caught at the tail end of a laugh. Sure enough, when he looked down the length of the room to the stage, she was standing front and center belting out a Martina McBride song, and holding her own doing it. More than holding her own, he thought, impressed.
    He glanced around and the place was close to full. It was, after all, nine -thirtyish on a Friday night. He noticed a free bar stool at the far end of the bar, closest to the dance floor and the stage. Normally he would have picked a seat farther away from the action, but he was there to make contact with Gracie, and he had to be close enough to do that. He hobbled on his crutches as he made his way slowly through the crowd. He was trying not to slip on the peanut shells scattered over the floor and mess up his only surviving good knee. He eventually made it to the stool. Luckily, no one had grabbed it before he could get there.
    The bartender caught his eye and Sonny ordered a Heineken. There was a group of women next to him who were trying to catch his eye too. He pretended not to notice. He paid the bartender for the beer and turned around on his stool to watch the band.
    Gracie had segued into a duet with the lead guitarist . . . Meet Me in Montana . The band played another two or three songs as Sonny watched the crowd. The dance floor was full. Obviously the band drew a large weekend crowd and he could see why. He knew Gracie hadn’t been with them long, but you wouldn’t know that by watching and listening to them. They had really seemed to gel in a short amount of time.
    He’d been there for about a half-hour when the guitarist announced the band was taking a break. The jukebox kicked on as the band members trooped off the stage. Sonny watched Gracie to see how he might be able to get her attention. He wasn’t the only guy in the room trying to catch her eye, though. As she skirted the dance floor several men spoke to her. She smiled and spoke to them all briefly, but never stopped moving—directly toward where he sat at the near end of the bar. Good, he thought, he wouldn’t have to clumsily cut her off at the pass on his crutches.
    Gracie was cute from a distance but, as she came closer, he realized she was beautiful. Long , dark tousled hair fringed around her face, making her warm brown eyes look enormous. She was short, probably just an inch or two over five feet. She was wearing a short denim skirt with flat-heeled western boots. She had on a tightly fitted cotton western shirt with pearl snaps down the front. As she moved toward him, he could see small glimpses of her midriff peek out periodically between her shirt and the skirt’s waistband—sexy in an innocent sort of way.
    She glanced up as she came closer and caught him studying her. She jerked her eyes away and continued on to walk around behind the bar. She slid her right hand across the granite of the bar as she skirted around it. Her nails—not too long, but not too short—were painted the color of dark, dark grape juice, almost black. He noticed a delicate lacy-looking silver ring with tiny diamond chips winking in the bar lights on her middle finger. She stopped at the closest cooler and pulled out a bottle of water as the bartender walked over and handed a glass of ice to her, a lemon wedge dropped inside. She smiled up at him.
    “Thanks, Will!” Her voice sounded a little husky and Sonny didn’t know if it was strained from singing, or if she naturally had one of those “late night phone call” voices.
    She stood not ten feet away from him, her back turned toward him as she