his position had resembled that of a hoarder. The room had been stacked with papers and books, archaic computers, monitors and keyboards, all of which had been shelved from service years ago. After the mess had been carted from the building, Curtis had quickly turned the space into a bare, sanitized space that always made Lydia think she was stepping into a hospital room instead of her boss’s office.
As for the man himself, he would definitely be a cutie if he’d ditch the cardigan and black-rimmed glasses and let his sandy-blond hair get a little mussed. But in spite of his nerdish fashion choices, Lydia found him easy to work with, and that was the most important thing to her.
Rapping on the frame of the open door, she asked, “Got a minute, Curtis?”
Scowling, he looked up from the latest edition of the Gazette. No doubt he’d been reading the op-ed, a piece he took great pains in writing himself.
“Sure. What’s up?”
She made her way to his desk. “There’s a man in the main office putting an ad for a wife in the classifieds. He wants to know if responders can contact him via the newspaper. He says he’ll be glad to pay extra for the bother.”
His brows pulled together. “That’s rather an unusual request, isn’t it? Especially for such a personal advertisement.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “If you ask me, the whole thing is more than unusual. It’s downright weird. But it takes all kinds, I suppose. And we’re in business to make money.”
“True,” he agreed. “But it might turn out to be more of a nuisance than it’s worth. Is this man a local? Someone we know?”
“He’s one of the Dalton gang,” she told him. “I’ve never met him before, but I got the impression he’s new in town. I’ll make a prediction, though. This guy is going to get the paper plenty of attention. And we could certainly use all the free publicity we can get.”
Unimpressed by her positive forecast, he waved a dismissive hand at her. “What makes you think he’ll cause extra readers to pick up the paper?”
Probably because just looking at the guy was enough to give a woman a heart attack. When the single women around here learned he was looking for a bride, all hell was going to break loose, Lydia thought.
To Curtis, she said in the most nonchalant voice she could muster, “He’s a cool-looking cowboy. The women around here go gaga for his sort.”
Still frowning, he tilted back his office chair. “Are you still asleep this morning, Lydia? This is Rust Creek Falls, Montana. You can find his brand on either side of the street every day of the week. But—” Seeing she was about to argue, he held up a hand to stop her words before she could get them out. “If you’re willing to deal with the extra work of handling the responses to the ad, then I don’t care.”
A part of Lydia wanted to let out a squeal and dance a happy jig, while the more reserved part of her wondered if she was taking on a huge mess. The only thing she knew about Zach Dalton was that he had a smile that could melt a snowdrift and the type of woman he was looking for in a wife couldn’t have been more opposite Lydia.
Tall and willowy? With her chin up and her shoulders back, she might be considered average height. And her build was more lush than willowy. As for the long, straight hair... Her mane could be long if she spent hours ironing out the curls that caused it to spring up several inches shorter than its natural length.
No, she decided, Zach Dalton would never look at her as a potential bride. But he might like her as a friend. And since Lydia was a woman who knew her limitations, being friends with the man would be enough for her.
“Thanks, Curtis. I’ll go tell him and get everything set up.” She tossed him a clever grin as she turned to leave the office. “You’re not going to regret this decision.”
Snorting, he reached for his coffee cup. “That’s right, I won’t. But you might.”
Biting her tongue, Lydia hurried back out to the main lobby, where her desk was located, and found Zach Dalton still sitting in the plastic chair where she’d left him.
Even before she gave him Curtis’s verdict, he smiled at her and Lydia could only wonder why some woman hadn’t snagged him before now. And what in the world had pushed him to the point of advertising for a wife? It didn’t make sense to her, but then Zach Dalton’s love life was none of her business.
“Good news, Mr. Dalton, Curtis is agreeable to your suggestion. So I’ll have the ad direct all interested females to send their correspondence here to the paper. You’ll be welcome to pick them up as they come in.”
“That is good news. Thanks. And please call me Zach. We’ll probably be seeing each other a few more times in the coming days.”
“Sure, Zach. And you can call me Lydia.”
He reached across the desk to shake her hand and Lydia complied by sliding her palm against his. The skin on his hand was tough and his grip said he didn’t do anything in half measures. No milksop, drugstore cowboy here, she thought.
He released her hand and settled back in the chair. “Okay, Lydia. Nice to meet you. Are you a native of Rust Creek Falls?”
“I am. All of my twenty-eight years have been spent right here. Except for the time I was at college in Butte, that is.”
“So I suppose you were here during the big flood?”
She plucked a pencil from a can and began to turn it end over end. But it soon dawned on her that her fidgeting might give him the idea he was making her nervous. She tossed down the pencil and tried to look as casual as possible.
“I was living here during the flood,” she told him. “It was a horrible time. And the damage was devastating for everyone in the area. But the town has rebuilt itself and that’s helped to smooth away the scars.”
“Yeah. The rebuilding has been good for everyone,” he agreed. “I only moved here in July. With Dad and my four brothers. Right now all six of us are living with Uncle Charles and Aunt Rita out on their ranch, the Circle D. Until we find a place of our own, that is. These past few months I’ve been getting reacquainted with all my relatives that live around Rust Creek Falls. And I’m learning new faces around town. See, I’ve met you today,” he added with a grin.
Normally at this time of the morning, the phone was ringing off its hook. Mostly from townsfolk reporting weird incidents that had happened overnight. Some even called to gripe about the prices in the grocery store ads, as if the newspaper decided what food items should cost. But since Zach Dalton had strolled into the office it had rung only twice. Wonder of wonders, she thought.
She tossed him a perky smile. “Most of us folks in Rust Creek Falls are the friendly sort. So what brought you to the area, Mr. Dalton? Your relatives told you about the Gal Rush that took place three or four years ago and you thought some of those ladies were still hanging around looking for a husband?”
A wide grin spread over his face and Lydia felt her heart do a little stutter step. His dark, rugged looks were the kind that women swooned over. And once the paper announced this man was searching for a bride, she figured there was going to be all kinds of swooning going on. Was the man clueless? Hadn’t he learned by now that a little crook of his finger was enough to get the women flocking to his side? He hardly needed a newspaper ad! But selling ads was a
