The Rancher Read Online Free PDF Page A

I'm Alex."
     
    They entered the newly built
hotel, greeted Joseph Brighton, the owner, as he said hello before
they turned, heading to the restaurant. They'd made it a regular
Monday ritual of having an early supper when the new hotel was
built and so far, Alex had enjoyed her time alone with him.
     
    They were seated, handed menus
with the days special and had ordered before Alex sighed. Holden
looked up, noticed the look on her face and knew, there was
something she wasn't telling him. He crossed his arms on the top of
the table and just waited.
     
    "Nobody likes her."
     
    Holden didn't comment. It was
pointless to debate the issue when he knew his daughter was
probably right, especially after hearing what the men at the saloon
had to say about Laurel.
     
    She looked up at him before
lowering her gaze. "Benjamin Atwater called her a shrew today. He
said that's what his pa said she was. A hateful, dried out old
shrew with no heart and she heard him. And you know what she did,
pa?"
     
    He shook his head. "No."
     
    Alex looked almost remorseful as
she sat back in her seat. "She looked like he'd thrown a rock at
her head. Her eyes got all glassy like she was about to cry and
then she just smiled and pretended he'd never said it, even though
everyone was laughing at her."
     
    Holden stared at his daughter as
heat crawled up his neck. The conversation he'd heard earlier in
the saloon came back to mind and he wondered how many others would
be so bold as to tell Laurel what they thought of her. His own
anger at her diminished, remorse filling him as he thought of her
and how she'd feel knowing she was disliked. Knowing that he'd had
ill thoughts about her, too.
     
    If what Alex said was true, then
it just proved Laurel did have a heart. It might have been black
and shriveled to the size of a prune for some unknown reason but
she did get her feelings hurt.
     
    He sat back and thought of the
conversations he'd had with her. She'd been very straight forward
at the ranch and here in town, hadn't cracked a smile and had
looked very stern, but he didn't miss the pink tint her cheeks took
on when she first saw him. Or the way she avoided looking at him if
she could. How straight her spine was, as if facing him was the
hardest thing she'd ever had to do.
     
    No one really knew her. Hell, he
didn't for that matter. Their night together was about pleasure.
They hadn't talked much once he entered her hotel room and he had
no inkling of what circumstance brought her to Willow Creek. She
may act like a spiteful woman who wanted nothing to do with him,
but was she really?
     
    Their food arrived and he
watched Alex dig into her fried chicken while he sat there
wondering what it was exactly that made Laurel act so bitter. It
had to be something. Women didn't snap like she did without cause
and he'd done nothing to offend her which made him think that
someone, somewhere, knew why she had such a sour disposition. He
knew just who to ask about it, too. His brother, Morgan, would be
able to find out. There wasn't a person alive who could escape his
scrutiny.
     
    Making a mental note to talk to
Morgan, he looked down at his plate, the meatloaf still slightly
sizzling while his thoughts whirled. Laurel Montgomery was an
enigma to everyone in town but one way or another, he'd find out
what caused her to be so surly.
     
     
    * * * *
     
     
    She'd survived another day of
class but still felt the cold rush of fear skating down her spine.
The kids, and the people in town, seemed to dislike her more than
she'd hoped they would. She bolted the front door of the school
house and walked back across the space, entering the small room
behind it that was now her new home. It was sparsely furnished. A
bed, a table with two chairs, a stove for cooking and a wardrobe
for her belongings.
     
    As rooms went, it was better
than most boarding houses she'd found herself in. It was private,
it didn't smell and the colorful rag rug on the wood floor gave it
a