Chapter 23
Alison
“Ooh. This one looks good.”
Ali picked a book out of a box she was supposed to be shelving. The colorful cover featured a bright cartoonish image of a
woman in a lab coat being kissed by a nerdy-looking guy in glasses.
“Oh, man. I need it.” Tess Hutchins picked up another copy from the box. “I read her last book in, like, a day and a half.
It was sooo good.”
Ali grinned. “I can’t wait to finally have time to read all the books I want to. As soon as I finish the bar exam, I’m going
to curl up for days and work my way through my entire epic to-be-read stack.”
“Do you remember that summer when we devoured every single one of The Hunger Games books?” Tess asked as she pulled out more books to stack on the table of new releases in the front section of Bridger Books.
“Yes,” Alison admitted. “I reread that whole series a few years ago and enjoyed it every bit as much as I did when we were
fourteen.”
She and Tess had been friends since middle school, when they had been assigned a partner project in their Wyoming History
class and had extensively researched the fossil fields near the small, rugged mining town of Kemmerer. Her dad had taken them
on a field trip there so they could wander through the museum, and she and Tess had been firm friends ever since.
Tess was a second-grade teacher at the elementary school now, but worked in the evenings and summers at the bookstore. Ali was thrilled to be able to spend time with her, too.
She was suddenly aware her time in Bridger Peak would be gone before she knew it, and she hadn’t spent nearly enough time
with her friends.
“I hear there’s a concert tonight on the roof of the Bison Brew House,” she said on impulse. “I haven’t been there yet.”
“It’s really fun. The drinks are good and the sound system is fantastic. I saw J.C. Wyatt there a month ago.”
“This band is The Canyon Drifters. I’ve heard good things about them. Want to go with me?”
Tess made a disappointed face. “Oh, man. I would love that. Seriously. But I promised my brother I would watch his kids while
he and Abbi go to a wedding out of town. I can’t bail on them.”
“It seems weird to think of Abbi and Tom having kids, doesn’t it?”
“Right? Seems like only yesterday he was my annoying younger brother, always trying to read our texts over my shoulder and
make dumb comments on every single one of my social media posts.”
“Remember that time he told Lucas Porter you had a crush on him?”
“While I was standing right there . Yes. Still one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.” Tess grinned. “Now Tom is a husband and a dad of two adorable
kids, along with being a business owner of a window-washing company. He really turned things around from his wild youth.”
Tom had been the epitome of a teasing younger brother. Ali knew he had married right out of high school to the girl he dated
since eighth grade. He was two years younger than they were and already had a growing family. She couldn’t quite wrap her
head around it.
She had always envied Tess her big family. Her friend was the middle of five, all of them close. The Hutchins house had always been noisy, chaotic, messy and wonderful.
As an only child, Ali had never doubted her parents loved her. She had been showered with attention, supported in every endeavor,
given incredible opportunities. Still, she had often wished for a sibling, someone who would always be there for her, especially
now that her parents were gone.
Maybe that was why she was so focused on creating a strong bond with June, to make up for all she had missed when she was
a kid.
“Excuse me,” a customer interrupted them. “Where are your craft books? I’m looking for a specific knitting pattern that I
can’t seem to find anywhere.”
“They are two shelves over and toward the back,” Tess said. “Here. I’ll show you.”
As Tess guided the customer away, Ali returned to shelving books.
She carried several more titles to the new-releases table and grabbed a few more to place on an endcap featuring staff-recommended
reads, highly visible from her favorite cozy reading area of the bookstore.
As she was heading back to the front of the store, the bell on the door tinkled.
Ali looked up with a smile of greeting and felt her heartbeat give a little kick when she saw Clint Maclean walk through.
What was he doing here? Clint didn’t strike her as someone who spent a lot of time in bookstores, but maybe she was making
unfair generalizations.
His gorgeously rugged features beneath his Stetson lit up when he spotted her. “Ali. Hey!”
“Hi, Clint.” Fighting the urge to check her reflection in the window to make sure her lipstick hadn’t smeared, she walked
closer to him.
“Welcome to Bridger Books. Can I help you find something?”
“I’m not much of a reader,” he said.
That didn’t come as a huge surprise to her and she had a sudden memory of once helping Clint pass their sophomore-year English
class as a sort of informal tutor. She had helped him edit and basically rewrite two or three important essays.
“Don’t get me wrong, I read,” he clarified. “But mostly farm and ranch journals. I do like to listen to audiobooks while I’m
working out in the fields. I’m a big fan of thrillers and crime fiction, especially when they’re set in the mountains.”
She had to admit she was glad to hear that. She wasn’t sure she could have an unrequited crush on someone who didn’t read,
no matter how gorgeous he was.
“Audiobooks absolutely count as reading. You’re only taking in the story a different way.”
“Exactly,” he said. “I love getting lost in the story. Sometimes I’m so into it, I stay out on the tractor until past dark.”
“We don’t sell a lot of audiobooks,” she said. “Most people download them through apps on their phones.”
“That’s what I do,” he said. “I have a subscription to a service, but I also find a lot of them from my library.”
“I get it.”
She loved libraries, she truly did. They were fantastic for those on a limited budget or to introduce readers to new authors.
She used her own library often. But she also knew small bookstores like her grandmother’s couldn’t survive without people
actually coming in and spending money.
Tess and the customer she had been helping, now holding an armload of knitting books, headed up to the cash register. As they
passed, Tess raised her eyebrows at Ali in a meaningful way that made Ali flush. Her friend knew all too well what a crush
Ali had always had on Clint. It was bigger, even, than the one Tess used to have on Lucas Porter. Tess had outgrown hers,
but somehow Ali’s for Clint Maclean was holding on.
“Actually, I had to stop in at the bank and since your bookstore was down the street, I came by hoping I would bump into you here so I could say hey.”
He had stopped to see her? She blinked, not quite sure how to respond.
“How nice.”
“So hey,” he said with a charming smile that made her pulse ratchet up.
“Hey right back.”
He gazed down at her with a bright smile. “Listen, there’s going to be live music tonight on the rooftop of the Bison Brew
House. The Canyon Drifters. They’re pretty good. I was wondering if you would like to go with me to hear them.”
Was Clint Maclean asking her on a date ?
She stared at him for a long moment, trying to process her shock. Impossible. He had never been at all interested in her before.
She remembered that appreciative look when he had bumped into her at the restaurant the other day with Xander. It wasn’t completely
impossible, was it?
Tess, she saw, must have overheard his offer. As she helped the customer check out, she was giving a covert thumbs-up.
“I... Sure. Sounds like fun.”
His lean, rugged features lit up and he gave her that killer smile again. “Oh, great. That would be awesome. How late are
you working? Should I pick you up here or at your dad’s ranch?”
Her ranch now. “I’m off at four. I’m assuming the band won’t be playing until this evening.”
“I think they’re supposed to start at eight. I can pick you up at the ranch at seven-thirty. You’re not far from the Rocking
M.”
They were basically next-door neighbors, on the other side from Beck’s place. If not for the river that split them, The Painted
Sky and the Rocking M land would adjoin each other.
“That would be great. I’ll look forward to it.”
“Me, too.” He smiled down at her, looking like he’d stepped off the cover of a romance novel.
“I’m so glad you came back for the summer,” he said, his voice slightly husky. “I can’t wait to spend more time with you.”
If she were one of the women in the books she loved to read, she would have some smart response, something cute and flirty.
But she was not like those women, especially not when she was facing the man who had occupied all of her teenage daydreams.
“Um. Me, too,” she said, a completely ridiculous response that somehow didn’t seem to bother Clint.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he said and then he tipped his hat to her and to Tess before turning and walking out again, right
behind the crafty customer.
As the door closed behind both of them, Ali slumped against the nearest display, a table full of young-adult fantasy books.
Talk about a young-adult fantasy. That was Clint Maclean. In the flesh.
Tess rushed over before she could catch her breath. “Seriously? Did Clint Maclean just ask you out on a date?”
“I guess so?” she said, hearing the question in her own voice. She wanted to grab the nearest paperback and fan her face with
it, but she didn’t want to risk breaking the spine.
“I don’t think he has dated anybody in the past year. Not that I’ve heard about, anyway. Not since Angel Herrera broke up
with him for about the hundredth time since they started dating and then left town.”
Angel and Clint had dated all through high school, though they were always on again, off again.
“Maybe he’s just looking for company until she comes back.”
“I think he’s going to be looking for a long time. Last I heard, Angel was engaged to a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles with a hell of a lot more to offer than a broke-ass cowboy in Bridger Peak, Wyoming.” She paused. “Looks like you’ll get to go listen to the band at the Bison after all.”
“I guess. Should be fun.”
Tess reached for her hand and squeezed it in both of hers, eyes suddenly dark with worry. “I know you always had a thing for
Clint. He is gorgeous and I totally get why, but I hope he doesn’t break your heart. I can’t help thinking there had to be
a good reason he and Angel couldn’t manage to stay together.”
“We’re going on one lousy date. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
Another customer came in before Tess could say more but she didn’t really need to. Ali wouldn’t let her heart be in danger.
With everything she had going on right now: studying for the bar, dealing with a sister she hadn’t yet told about their connection
and still grieving for her dad, she didn’t have time for a fling with Clint Maclean.
She only wanted an evening of fun, music and dancing with a hot guy.
Who could blame her for that?