A Word with the Bachelor Read Free Page A

have to start somewhere.”
    â€œAnd you think talking about the story is the way to go.”
    â€œIt worked for Corinne.” She folded her hands in her lap. “If you have a better idea that would be awesome.”
    â€œLook, I appreciate your willingness and enthusiasm.” Although he could think of better uses for it. “But I write action-adventure. A woman like you has no frame of reference for that so talking is a complete waste of time.”
    â€œI haven’t been in the military or gone to war if that’s what you’re saying. But I read extensively and go to the movies. I can help you dissect the plot. I have ideas and that can be helpful.”
    He’d started his last book as a therapeutic exercise to work through all the crap life had thrown at him. Pulling that stuff up was like exposing his soul. Doing that with her just wasn’t going to happen. For reasons he couldn’t explain, he didn’t want her to see the darkness inside him.
    â€œIdeas?” He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the unnaturally tidy top of his desk. “You’re Pollyanna. No offense, but you can’t possibly have suggestions for what I write.”
    â€œReally?” She sat up straighter in the chair, almost literally stiffening her spine.
    â€œIn my opinion, yes.”
    â€œIt’s hard to form an opinion without information and you don’t know anything about me if you truly believe I’ve had no life experiences.”
    â€œSo you were engaged. There was a proposal. Probably a ring. Not a big deal.” He saw something slip into her eyes but it didn’t stop him. He’d been engaged once, too, even took the next step and got married. It didn’t work out for a lot of reasons, but mostly he wasn’t very good at being a husband. “Since you used past tense I guess you broke up with him. Still not gritty—”
    â€œHe died. Whether it happens in a war zone or the home front, death is not pretty. It’s raw and painful. I think that qualifies as life experience.”
    He studied her and realized his mission, real or invented, had been successful. He’d managed to put clouds in her eyes and make the sunshine disappear.
    Damned if he didn’t want to undo what he’d just done.

Chapter Two
    E rin sat in the passenger seat of Jack’s rugged jeep trying to figure him out. First he’d said he had no use for her, then later in the afternoon offered to take her into town. She had a long-term rental car from the airport and was prepared to shop on her own, but he’d insisted on driving. His excuse was that they might as well buy supplies together, but she had a sneaking suspicion there was another reason. One that would tarnish his tough-guy image.
    â€œSo, Jack,” she began, “I think your ogre act is just that. An act.”
    He turned right onto Lakeview Drive, then gave her a quick, questioning look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    â€œYou were all gruff and abrupt earlier. Patronizing me about a ring, a proposal and a broken engagement being the equivalent of a hangnail in the action-adventure world.”
    â€œIt is.” His profile could have been carved in stone on Mt. Rushmore. It was all sharp angles and hard lines.
    â€œBut when I corrected your assumption that I was shallow and typical by revealing that I lost someone close to me, I think you felt bad about jumping to conclusions and invited me to go shopping to make up for it.”
    There was another glance in her direction before he returned his gaze to the road. “In the army I operated on gut instinct and never second-guessed my actions.”
    â€œThat was training for combat situations. In the regular world you replay a conversation and sometimes regret responses. It’s normal. You asked me to go shopping because you can’t take back what you said and are trying to be