No Strings Attached (Last Hope Ranch Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her eyes.
    “Sweetie, are you okay? Here, maybe you need to take a sip of my energy drink.”
    Sally felt the nudge to her head and straightened. “Where on earth did you hear this?”
    Denise looked at the ceiling as though trying to grapple with the origin of the rumor—which in theory wasn’t really a rumor, just a misguided perception. Sally pictured her fingers closing around her once-best friend Aimee’s throat.
    “I think it was at Betty’s.” Denise was really pondering this. “Or maybe it was the other night on my bowling league—that would’ve been Thursday night.”
    Sally groaned audibly.
    Denise studied her. “Goodness, if it’s not true, there are certainly going to be some upset bachelors in this town.”
    Sally glanced at Denise. “What… all eight of them? Nine, if you count the UPS guy who comes through on Monday?”
    “Poor guy.” Denise sighed. “Kurt, seemed so hopeful, too.”
    “Oh, my God.” Sally held her hand to her forehead, hoping to quell the chaos swirling in her skull. She shouldn’t have said a word to anyone. “Denise,” she began forcing calm into her voice. “you’ve got to help me squash this rumor.”
    Denise straightened her shoulders. “Of course, sweetie. If something isn’t true, then for sure Maggie ought not be sending it to print.”
    Sally’s stomach lurched. “She isn’t—” She snatched her purse and ran out the door. Stopping to judge the fact that she might not be good behind the wheel in her mental state, she turned on her heel and sprinted down the block to the newspaper office. Checking her watch, she had just enough time to get there if they hadn’t closed early for the day. She stumbled to a halt, holding her stomach as she tried to catch her breath. Her gaze zeroed in on the tiny red, white, and blue clock attached to a plastic suction on the door, turned to the side that read ‘closed.’
    She became a most desperate woman, banging on the door. “Maggie! Maggie!” For a split second she did glance around, grateful that on that particular late Friday afternoon there were few people left, few stores open still. With a sinking feeling, she noted there were no lights on inside the office. She dropped her head against the door, wishing the earth would simply open up and swallow her whole.
    “Sally? Sally Andersen, is that you?”
    Startled to be recognized, she straightened and saw Nathan Smith, having just locked the door to Smith Drug and Radio Shack, walking toward her.
    “Nate. Hey. I was looking for Maggie. I had hoped she’d still be here, it’s kind of important. Looks as though that she’s closed early.” Sally managed a weak smile.
    Nathan was engaged to Charlene Whitecomb—a bit of fact that Sally found very comforting at present. Charlene worked in the End of the Line library housed in the basement of the County courthouse in the middle of the town square.
    “Maggie was in the store earlier today. Mentioned something about meeting her daughter down in Billings for dinner.” He studied her with concern. “Sally, you look a little pale. Can I do something to help you?”
    Sally’s shoulders slumped. Hope deflated inside her. The upside—if one could find one—is that there was no weekend edition of the Daily End Times . The other sliver of hope she clung to was Maggie’s professional integrity. Surely, she’d not go to print without first corroborating the facts with Sally first.  “No,” she glanced at Nathan. “I’m fine.” She waved off his concern and adjusted the collar of her coat around her neck, realizing then she’d left her gloves and hat in the truck back at the store. “It’s been a dreadfully long week—for you, too, I’m sure. Nothing one of Dusty’s famous margaritas won’t cure.”
    Nate’s gaze cut across the street where Charlene was walking across the courthouse lawn to meet him.
    “You two have big plans tonight?” Sally asked, grateful to turn her thoughts—and