Bachelor Number Five (The Bachelor Series, Volume 1) by Kenneth Rosenberg Read Free Book Online

true?  Was he still working there, even now?  The possibility that all she had to do was go get a hamburger and she might finally meet the man of her dreams made her lightheaded.  On The Bride he was referred to as an entrepreneur but there was no mention of that here.  Maybe he waited tables to supplement his income until his company took off?  She did a quick search for the restaurant, The Hamburger Hut.  It was located on Melrose, less than a mile away.  Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
    The clock on Amanda’s computer read 9:02 a.m.  She had just two hours to wait.  She’d go there for lunch and maybe even apply for a job while she was at it.  There was no better way to get to know Grant than that, working with him side by side.  Amanda felt a surging sense of confidence and well-being.  Everything was going to work out, she was sure of it.  As for right now, she’d have a quick bowl of cereal and then head down to Santa Monica.  She wanted to see first-hand where Bachelor Number Five went to the beach.  Who knew, maybe he’d even be down there catching some waves before work?  Amanda moved across the kitchen and pulled a box of cereal from her shelf.  Next she took out a fresh container of milk from the fridge.  When she’d poured the cereal in a bowl and added the milk, she could hardly get it down fast enough.  Today was the day, she told herself!  Deep in her bones, she could feel it.

Chapter Seven
     
    Amanda held the photo from the magazine up in one hand and compared the angle of the pier in the picture to the real one looming in front of her.  This was the spot.  Bachelor Number Five, Grant Hutchinson, had stood right here in the sand.  Now with summer long gone the crowds were sparse.  A few hearty families sat closer to the sea, their children frolicking knee-deep in the water on a late autumn morning.  Beyond them broke small waves, maybe two-feet high, but there were no surfers to be seen.  Amanda felt her first pang of disappointment for the day.  Of course, she told herself, seeing him here was too much to expect.
    Making her way across the beach to a set of wooden stairs, Amanda climbed up onto the pier itself.  Here things were a bit livelier as people wandered through a small amusement park, past carnival barkers manning games of chance and a few small rides.  Above her head wound the snaking tracks of a roller coaster.  At the far end the dainty carriages of a Ferris wheel looped up into the sky.  It was all a little bit like the county fair back home, only on a pier above the Pacific.  The crowd was different, too.  Back at home she’d see mostly rural farming folk mixed with a few small groups of immigrant laborers.  Here was a black family with two small kids buying cotton candy, an urban Hispanic couple checking out games in a small arcade and a group of Asian girls playing ski-ball.  Two white men stood along the pier’s rail taking in the action, with tattoo-covered arms showing from under white tank-top T-shirts.  Amanda hurried past, feeling their gazes fixed upon her.  When she reached the end of the pier she looked down into the swirling green sea and wondered if she could ever feel at home in this strange place.
    Maybe she was a fool for coming here to Los Angeles at all.  She didn’t really think she would meet the actual Bachelor Number Five, did she?  Amanda had moved because there seemed to be no future for her in Quincy, Iowa.  Here in L.A. at least there were men her age besides the same old mix she’d known since childhood.  There was the opportunity to make something of herself.  Perhaps she felt a little bit lonely right now, but she’d only just arrived.  Amanda needed to give it some time and everything would work out.  She’d get a job and meet a man and acclimate herself to this brand new life.  And if she did run into Bachelor Number Five along the way?  Well, that would just be a bonus, but there was nothing