Rugged Hearts Read Online Free PDF Page A

who waited impatiently at the back-room door. “They’ll be starting without you.”
    He swaggered toward the door, then glanced over his shoulder with a parting, impish grin.
    “Good Lord,” she muttered and finished her drink.
    “Mind if I offer a piece of friendly advice?” Dusty spoke, his focus intent on the pilsner he polished.
    Aimee hopped off the stool and slid into her jacket. “You mean about Steve? Yeah, I know a player when I see one, no worries.” She tugged her purse over her shoulder. “But thank you for keeping an eye on a girl.”
    A slow smile crept over the bartender’s face. “He and his buddies live a few miles down the road. They come in a couple of times a week to play pool. You okay to drive home?”
    “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks, Dusty.”
    “Come on back anytime.”
    Aimee smiled. Unless she was with someone, the chances were slim. She stopped at the end of the bar and turned to him. “Say, listen. Maybe you can help me out with something. You said you know a lot of folks around here?”
    He shrugged. “Seems, eventually, they all come through here. I’ve got the only jukebox and bar for miles around.”
    She chewed her lip and wondered whether it was wise to inquire openly about the stranger on the ranch. What could it hurt? The worst thing she’d possibly find out was that he was married, recently divorced, or engaged in some bitter custody battle over his kids. She took a breath and charged ahead. “I was wondering about something…someone, actually.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    “Well, I stopped to get directions at this place up the road. Looks like a giant ski lodge down in the valley…south a little ways, just off eighty-nine.”
    He nodded. “Yeah, I’m guessing you mean the Last Hope Ranch. Fine looking place. Jed Kinnison, God rest his soul, and those three boys created quite a cattle business down there. Hard workers, all of them.”
    Aimee swallowed. “There’s more than one?” She tried not to sound giddy. “I only met one of them. He’s got dark hair, intense, kind of bossy.” She gave him a half smile. “ Very bossy.”
    “Yeah, that’d be the oldest of Jed’s boys—Wyatt. I heard Dalton and Rein had left on their annual sales trip.”
    “Sales?” she asked, her mind simmering still on the old-fashioned name of Wyatt.
    “Yep, Last Hope is one of the last working cattle ranches in these parts. Has been for as long as I’ve been around. Every winter they sell off some of the herd to feedlots down in Iowa and Missouri.”
    “But Wyatt isn’t involved in…the sales?” Bartenders were a lot like beauticians, Aimee discovered. Get them started and they could dish on about anybody.
    He chuckled. “Not Wyatt. No, he prefers to stay home, keep an eye on things at the ranch. Kind of a loner but a nice enough guy. Quiet. Now you take his younger brother, Dalton. There’s a social guy. You’d like him. Flirts like hell, loves to dance and kid around, but he has a good heart. The boy would give you the shirt off his back. They all would. Jed raised some real fine men.”
    “Sounds like you have a lot of respect for them.” Aimee adjusted her purse and started to leave, her attention drawn momentarily to the loud ruckus going on in the back room.
    Dusty glanced toward the sound, sighed, and waited for the noise to settle before he spoke. “Jed, rest his soul, did lot for this community. Rein is the third of Jed’s brood. His nephew that came to live with him when his folks were killed. Now there’s a guy with a head for business. He helped me get this place back on track after I hit a rough patch. Jed raised the three as brothers. Left himself quite a legacy in these parts.”
    Aimee smiled, even more curious why it was she’d never heard any of them mentioned by her peers at school. Still, she supposed teachers and ranchers didn’t necessarily run in the same circles, unless of course they taught their children. Which left a question burning in the