The Taming of the Bachelor Read Online Free PDF Page A

was less grating than Carol Bingley’s high shrill tone, and Carol Bingley wouldn’t shut up. She was in the middle of a breathless monologue about silly women from California—
    Suddenly Dillon was listening and then he wished he hadn’t eavesdropped because Carol was mocking none other than her helpless, hapless neighbor, Paige Joffe, a woman who didn’t even own a toilet plunger.
    Dillon was seriously tempted to go tell that horrible busybody, Bingley, to shut the blank up, but the last thing he wanted to do was create a scene in the diner, aware that it’d get back to Paige. At least Paige wasn’t here today. She didn’t work Saturdays. The weekends were her time to be home with the kids, which is why he’d agreed to meet Shane/Sean here today. Dillon only ever went to the diner on the weekends. The rest of the week he avoided the place.
    Dillon frowned down into his empty cup, in need of a refill. Unfortunately, this morning Main Street Diner was packed and service painfully slow. The only waitress working was Flo and Flo might be an old pro but she wasn’t keeping up with the kitchen, or ensuring hot coffee was flowing.
    Miserable, he checked his watch. Eight fifteen. Shane/Sean was late. Only fifteen minutes but late was late, and Dillon would give just about anything to be back in bed.
    But it was too soon to write the writer off, especially if Shane/Sean was coming from Bozeman. There could be snow or ice or something else delaying him.
    Dillon told himself to cool his heels. Be patient. Which would have been a lot easier if he’d stuck with beer, or just with whiskey, but beer, whiskey and tequila was a mistake. What was the expression? Beer before hard, you’re in the yard. Hard before beer, you’re in the clear.
    “Head hurt?” a warm feminine voice asked, with just a hint of amusement.
    Dillon glanced up to find Paige at his side, a steaming coffee pot in one hand and an apron tied tightly around her small waist. Her cheeks looked rosy, her blue eyes bright and with her thick blonde hair pulled tightly back into a gleaming ponytail she looked like a high school cheerleader. “A bit,” he admitted gruffly.
    “I thought you could handle your liquor.”
    “So did I.”
    “What happened?”
    “Stayed too late and drank too much.”
    “What did you drink?”
    “Everything.”
    “Shouldn’t mix your liquors.”
    “Yeah.” He couldn’t quite open his eyes all the way, not with the light shining into them. “But it’s good to have the reminder. Won’t do that again for awhile.”
    Her lips curved and a dimple briefly appeared at the corner of her mouth. “So why not sleep it off? Or are the beds not comfortable at the Graff?”
    He stared at the dimple, fascinated by it. Even hung over he found the dimple—and her—so damn sexy. Thank goodness he wasn’t Dad material. It kept him from making a move on her. “I have a meeting this morning. We’d agreed last week to meet here. Seemed like a good idea then. Now, not so sure. What are you doing here this morning? You don’t usually work weekends.”
    “Candace didn’t show up and Flo couldn’t get anyone else in. So here I am.” She did a little curtsey. “Thank goodness I’ve grandparents close by. They let me drop the kids off with them so Tyler and Addison didn’t have to come in with me.”
    “Anything I can do?”
    “You want to put on one of these red frilly aprons and wait tables for me?”
    “Not really.”
    “Didn’t think so.” She flashed him a smile and then was off to top off the coffees at the next table.
    Dillon followed her progress around the diner, her smile warm as she talked to everyone, her blonde ponytail swishing. He liked watching her. Liked everything about her from her golden hair to the lean line of her back to her curve of her hips. She had a great body, feminine. Appealing.
    He’d wondered for years what she’d look like naked.
    Beautiful, he bet. Not a girl but a woman. He liked women. Loved