The Taming of the Bachelor Read Online Free PDF Page B

it wasn’t true.
    He was attractive. Very attractive. But he was also way too young for her. Eight years too young. She couldn’t imagine what they’d even have in common.
    “Got a perfect score on his SATs his senior year at Marietta High, earning him a full scholarship to MIT, before heading to University of Texas where he graduated with a Master’s in Bio-Engineering at twenty-two, while most kids were just finishing their undergraduate degree.” Flo nodded towards the door. “He’s got a good head on those big shoulders, so don’t discount him just because he’s also inherited the Sheenan charm and pretty face.”
    “I’m not discounting him, but he’s too young for me—”
    “That’s not discounting him?”
    “Flo, he’s nine, ten years, younger than me—”
    “So?”
    “And he’s leaving for Austin. This week.”
    “Then get to know him before he leaves.”
    “In two days?”
    “He’s at the Bachelor Auction tonight, isn’t he?”
    “And what am I supposed to do....chase him down, corner him? Flirt with him?”
    “That’s a start.”

Chapter 4

    P aige must have tried on a half dozen different outfits, unable to decide what was best for the Bachelor Auction tonight.
    Most of her friends would probably be in boots and jeans, but Paige was sick of jeans and boots, thick socks and heavy down coats. She’d grown up just thirty minutes from the beach in Southern California and spent the first thirty-five years of her life in short skirts, flip flops and breezy tops, and missed those skirts and silky tops, flirty flats and sexy heels. She didn’t think she’d put on a pair of heels since Lewis’ funeral.
    It was time to be pretty again, and girlish and sexy. Time to feel like a woman.
    Not a mom, not a business woman, not a baker or a restaurant owner. But a woman. A thirty-seven—almost thirty-eight-year-old, because Saturday, one week from today, she’d be thirty-eight.
    Crazy.
    Crazy how she’d gone from a thirty-five-year-old wife to a thirty-five-year-old widow and she’d been stuck there ever since.
    Not just grieving Lewis, but grieving who she’d thought they were as a family. His death had forced her to realize that he’d never really been there all that much. He was a traveler, an adventurer, a man in love with the road and what was around the corner...
    So while he explored the world, globetrotting, she hunkered down with the kids, raising them, loving them, making sure they had as many of their needs met that she could meet and it didn’t cross her mind that she might have needs not being met...
    It hadn’t crossed her mind while he was alive to be frustrated, to feel neglected, to feel anything but gratitude when he returned from his last adventure... the latest jump from a plane. The latest deep sea dive. The latest reckless pursuit.
    Her friends in Tustin had never understood why she was so patient with his exploits in the first place.
    How do you stand it? They’d ask. How do you manage? Doesn’t it bother you that he’s never here?
    But Paige had been happy for him, proud of his daring and hunger to know the world, to try all the things that she didn’t feel compelled to do...
    How cool that he was who he was...how amazing he could face fear, look death in the face, take those crazy risks...?
    She’d been so naïve. She honestly didn’t think anything would happen to him. But why should she? Nothing bad had ever happened to her. She’d grown up in a cocoon of kindness and honesty, and then she’d had her faith, which had allowed her to feel safe. Even if something bad did happen, she had God. She wouldn’t be alone. Things would work out.
    But then Lewis died and she hadn’t been prepared for the pain, and the grief. It was hard. It was consuming.
    It was hard having faith when one’s children wept at night, asking for Daddy.
    Lewis’ death tested her. The suffering tested her faith. She still wasn’t sure what she believed anymore.
    Paige stepped from