High Impact

High Impact Read Free Page A

Book: High Impact Read Free
Author: Kim Baldwin
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recorded snarl. She unconsciously rocked on her heels, scanning the faces in the room and seeking an answer to her growing anticipation. Something big was about to happen, she was sure, but she had no idea where or when. She wasn’t even sure whether it would be good or bad. She only knew it would somehow change her life, so she was growing impatient with its reluctance to show itself.
    Since nothing suggested that she’d have any answers here tonight, she searched the half-filled roadhouse for dinner companionship. Many of Bettles’s thirty-six residents often visited the Den, the village’s social center. She’d gotten to know most of them during her twenty months here but didn’t see any of her close friends. In fact, the bulk of the crowd was unfamiliar, which wasn’t unusual, since Bettles was the jumping-off point for a variety of adventure trips and the Den provided the only rooms in town.
    Pasha headed toward the long bar running along one side of the enormous room. A barstool was a great vantage point to observe everything going on while catching up on all the local news, weather, and gossip. Everybody opened up to Jerome “Grizz” Hudson, the bartender/proprietor. He was a reliable source, since he often heard every side of every story and had known all the participants long enough to determine who told the truth. Perhaps he had some tidbit of news that could shed some light on her recent feelings of impending change.
    She chose a comfy padded barstool near the center, with a good view of the booths that lined the perimeter and the scattering of mismatched tables and chairs that filled the rest. No one sat near her—the only others at the bar were two oil-rig workers on the far end whom she vaguely recognized. When Grizz finished waiting on them, he headed her way, pausing to pour coffee into a mug. His moniker suited him perfectly. His shoulder-length brown hair and unkempt brown beard streaked with gray framed pale-blue eyes and a grin distinguished by prominent, pointed canines. “Hey hey, baby girl. What’s shakin’?” He added a shot of Kahlua to the coffee before he set the mug to her left, indicative of his remarkable attention to detail. Grizz had noted during her first meal that she was a lefty and never failed to adjust her place settings accordingly.
    “You tell me.” She wrapped her hands around the mug to warm them and swiveled the stool to glance around the room. “Anything interesting to report?”
    Grizz absentmindedly wiped down the bar with a frayed towel as he too surveyed the crowd. “Well, let’s see. Frank…” he nodded toward the bespectacled bachelor nursing a beer, alone, at a table for two, “was asking if he could use our computer a couple times a week. Wants to join one of those dating Web sites.”
    “Wonder if he’s going to volunteer that he bathes only twice a year.”
    Grizz laughed. “And Helen’s taken a room upstairs, at least for the night,” he went on, referencing another familiar local. The Battling Biandos were among the best entertainment around. From their ongoing complaints about each other, it was hard to believe they’d been married for nearly fifty years. “ She says she’s staying put until he starts wearing his hearing aid cause she’s tired of shouting. Eddie claims she’s here because he cut off their TV service. She’d been buying things on those home-shopping networks again.”
    “I predict a twenty-four-hour standoff, max.” She sipped her coffee, remembering the way Eddie always seemed to have one steadying hand on Helen’s elbow or back.
    “So, what’s new over at the office?” Grizz asked. “From the bookings here, looks like you all are gonna have a real busy season.”
    “Yup, it’s shaping up to be a great year. We’re already almost solidly booked through the fall. Dita’s bringing in some guides from her other offices and talking about adding some more trips.”
    “Speaking of, where is she?”
    “Working late.

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