Above the Bridge Read Online Free Page A

able to make out the interior.  There were two rooms, one in front and a second directly behind it.  A small bathroom sat off to the right of the front room.  There was no kitchen, but she could see a narrow, wooden counter and small sink on the far left wall.  A cupboard hung above those, the door open to reveal empty shelves.
    The main room wasn’t large, but the sloping roof helped it feel more spacious.  In addition to the two windows in front, a side window faced west towards the Tetons, which meant there would be good afternoon light.  In the far corner was a small, rock fireplace, with a wide hearth and a few fireplace tools beside it in a metal bucket.  With each October night seeming colder than the one before, a warm fire wouldn’t be a bad way to end the day, Paige mused.
    The back room was identical to the front, though not quite as deep.  Paige approximated it to be about eight by fifteen feet.  It was dark, with just one small window centered high on the east wall.  There was ample room for a bed and a dresser, though not much more than that.  A throw rug could be tossed on the worn, wooden floors to add color and, Paige thought with amusement, a little warmth to go with her habit of staying barefoot most of the time.  There was no closet, but a few small hooks poked out from alongside the window, which would allow her to hang up a few articles of clothing.  Two shelves hung above the hooks, a perfect place for folded shirts and sweaters.
    Dan was outside the barn, sawing a slender piece of lodgepole pine into smaller pieces, when Paige walked back from the cabin.  Two sawhorses swayed slightly with each movement of his hand saw.  Not far away, the black lab had curled up in the shade of a cottonwood tree and was attentively supervising the work.
    “I’ll take it,” she heard herself say impulsively, knowing she was acting purely on instinct.
    Dan reached out with a quick handshake, immediately returning to finish sawing through the last inch of a three foot stretch of wood.
    “It’s a done deal,” he said.  “You can drop the first week’s payment off whenever you want, today, tomorrow, whatever works for you.  Oh – and there’s no key.  Don’t worry; you won’t need one out here.  There’s a latch on the inside of the door, though.”
    Paige looked around, summing up her new surroundings.  Adding one impulse to another, she tossed out a question for Dan, keeping her voice as casual as possible.
    “Do you happen to know where the old Manning ranch is?”
    “That’s an easy one,” Dan replied, turning to face the road.  “Head right up there a ways, past the fencepost at the end of the field and then around the curve to the left, just a little on down the road until you hit a right turn and then up the hill a bit, not too far but far enough.  After that, take a left and then a right.  You can’t miss it.”
    “Nice place, that ranch,” Dan added while lifting a log from a nearby stack to determine if it should be the next one to saw.  “Run down, though, was abandoned a long time.  Just recently bought up by a guy from Cody.  Supposedly his family lived in that area back in the prospecting days.  So they say.”
    Paige nodded a thank you, hoping she’d gotten enough of the country directions right to keep from getting lost.  She promised to be back with the first week’s rent and a few belongings the next day and set off in her car again, this time heading back in the direction of Kelly.  A golden field stretched out to her left, two large bison resting in the middle.  Wild thistle decorated the edge of the road, scattered about in tiny bursts of purple and brown.  A magpie sat high on a fencepost at the end of the field, as if to signal that she was following Dan’s directions so far.
    Paige passed the field and found herself alongside a narrow, winding stream set off the road twenty yards or so.  Tall reeds and muted, jewel-toned grasses grew along the