Learning to Ride Read Online Free Page A

too.”
    Okay, she was just being sensitive. She always had harbored an irrational fear of people somehow knowing when she had gotten lucky the night before. But then she noticed the stir around the office as, one after the other, heads popped up from behind cubicle walls like pageant-haired gophers.
    Oh, no.
    She walked as fast as she could the last ten feet to her office without giving the appearance of running. Or escaping. Which she was. Seriously, what did they know? She hadn’t seen anyone she recognized at the bar last night. And outside of the office, no one in this town knew her yet. Even the cowboy himself hadn’t known her name.
    She pushed the door to her office closed and leaned against it, working to control her rising apprehension. When she was able to breathe semi-normally again, she hurried to her chair, sinking into it much the way her heart was sinking in her chest.
    A brisk knock on the door made her groan out loud, but she couldn’t very well ignore it. “Come in,” she said, working to sound cool and collected.
    Her temporary assistant, Laurie Beth, rushed inside a millisecond later, her green eyes wide and sparkling. “Lord Almighty, girl, you must tell me everything.”
    Swallowing, Madeline busied herself at her desk. “I’m not sure I know what you’re referring to. Do you have the sales records I requested yesterday?”
    But her assistant wasn’t to be distracted. She plopped down onto the chair opposite the desk and leaned forward, eyebrows lifted. “No need to be coy, honey. You should be proud! Not a woman in this town has been able to tame Callen the Stallion, and in less than one week you managed to bring him to heel.”
    Callen the what? Madeline gaped at her, completely horrified. “What in the world are you talking about?”
    “Only the fact that you took Sunnybell’s most eligible bachelor home last night after a whole evening of just-this-side-of-dirty dancing.” She shook her head, sending her long highlighted curls swinging. “Every female in a thirty-mile radius has wondered what it’d be like to ride Tanner’s bronco. I hope you’re prepared to spill some beans.” She scooted forward to the edge of the chair, obviously expecting a play-by-play.
    “Tanner? I thought you just said Callen?”
    Laurie Beth exhaled an exasperated sigh. “Tanner Callen, rodeo star extraordinaire and all-around handsome-as-sin bachelor. Come on, Ms. Harper, I heard it from my own cousin’s lips, and Amber never peddles in fibs. Her gossip is as good as gold.”
    Madeline was going to be sick. “And…everyone out there knows I, um, spent some time with him?”
    Nodding earnestly, Laurie Beth said, “Of course! Nothing ever happens in this town, so when something like this goes down, it spreads faster than warm butter on hot bread.”
    Wonderful. Fantastic. Here Madeline was, doing her level best to be the professional representative from corporate that she was supposed to be, and she’d just managed to fall headfirst into Gossip Girl .
    “Laurie Beth?” she said, clinging to the tattered vestiges of her dignity.
    “Ma’am?”
    “Do you like working for me?” When her assistant nodded happily, Madeline looked her square in the eye. “Then let’s pretend that the subject never came up, and that the people of this town have no right to my personal life. Understood?”
    Laurie Beth’s mouth dropped open in a neat little O . After a moment, she leaned back and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. You’re the boss.” Her good-natured shrug proved she wasn’t upset by Madeline’s direct comment, but something about it made her suspect Laurie Beth believed it would be just that: pretend.
    The cat was officially out of the bag.
    The phone rang then, cutting through Madeline’s racing thoughts. “I’ll call you when I need you,” she said by way of dismissal before picking up the phone. She waited until her assistant closed the door before saying, “Madeline Harper.”
    “Well, good