"With any luck, I'll be able to charm one of them into helping me," she responded, trying to sound like she didn't care. Bella had long let negativity consume her life, and was not about to let Jamie MacFusty—the encyclopedic definition of a cynic—dissuade her. "Do my hair up pretty, giggle a bit, and bat my eyelashes," she muttered under her breath. It wasn't the most respectable way to earn a man's help, but one of the smartest...

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