Chief Cook and Bottle Washer (9 page)

"Emma would you relax. You aren't on trial
here. As a matter of fact, I think you're a very nice mother. I
couldn't help but overhear you reading to her last night. My mother
used to read to me. I really liked that."

"I read to her every night." Emma flipped a
sausage. "It seems to help her get to sleep."

He nodded. "At first, when I realized what
you were doing, I had to peek in. Been a long time since anyone
around here did much reading, except the cattleman's journal. But
one look on her little face, and I understood. She's enraptured by
your voice."

"Understood what?"

"That only a loving mother would read to a
child that couldn't understand for an hour and a half."

"You listened–that long?" Emma's mouth flew
open.

"No, not exactly." Deke shifted
uncomfortably. "I hope you don't think I was snooping but I went
out to check on a couple of things and when I came back you were
both still wrapped up in that rocker. She was asleep, like a little
angel, and you were smiling at her as you read the same story, must
have been three times."

"It was her favorite and she was teething. I
read to soothe her."

"Don't apologize. I thought it was kinda
sweet. Did your mother read to you when you were little?"

"I don't remember. I was too young. Oh but
you're wrong about not understanding. Doctors encourage reading
even before they are born. They might not understand all the words,
but it's the communications," Emma recited Kate's doctor's speech
nearly word for word. The endless trips to the doctor with Kate had
been a real eye opener for Emma. Little did she know how much she
would need the information for herself.

"I'd say you communicate very nicely, Emma.
There's something kinda nice about having a woman and a baby in the
house."

Their eyes met for only a moment then Deke
glanced away and cleared his throat. "Well, I'll have one of the
boys look out in the old shed and see if we can find something
better than this chair. We must have had some kind of contraption
for eating when we were kids."

"Oh please don't bother . . . ."

"It's no bother." His eyes met hers for a
long moment, then he cleared his throat again and looked away.
"Don't act like I'm doing you such a favor all the time. I needed a
cook. You needed a job. Your gratitude is not what I'm after."

Sausage sizzled in the big iron skillet on
the stove and Deke didn't waste any time in moving towards it,
flipping it with the spatula she had lain down.

"I thought I'd fix sausage and eggs this
morning, since you have an abundance of both and you told me last
night the boys always liked them." Emma tried to sound calm, when
every nerve in her body seemed to scream at her. God, he was being
nice. And she was completely overreacting. He was only her boss,
not a vampire about to scoop down upon her neck and bite her.
Although the very thought sent a wave of goose-bumps over her skin.
She had to quit reacting. She wasn't in the market, she reminded
herself, and Deke Travers certainly had no personal interest in
her.

"That's a good choice. Smells great. I didn't
expect you to be up so early, especially since you have a baby to
tend to." Deke watched her carefully.

"That's part of the reason I am up. Sammie Jo
goes to bed early but she also gets up early too. I didn't want her
waking everyone in the house. She's learning to talk and sometimes
it comes out rather high pitched."

Deke moved to get his hat off the back porch
table. "She's a cute little critter. Don't worry so much about
her." Deke glanced down at the tyke on the floor then at her.
"Look. I'm sorry if I snapped at you back on the road yesterday. I
guess it's my fault you're so jumpy about her, but not to worry, we
all like Sammie Jo and if you need a little extra time to take care
of her, we'll certainly understand. The baby just took me by
surprise is all. But we like kids, all of us, we just haven't had
any since Rusty was a baby. And it looks like you're going to work
out just fine. You certainly know your way around a kitchen. So
quit worrying. You aren't on trial here. You should have guessed
from the little barbecue last night, everyone here likes you. The
boys will appreciate a good breakfast before they start tackling
the herd this morning. And that coffee will have them running in
here any minute. I've been stuck with that job for the past week,
myself. And from the looks on their faces not doing too well,
either."

"I'm sorry I'm so uptight. It's just been
hard these past few months. And I should have told you about Sammie
Jo to begin with. In fact I need to tell you ..."

"It'll hold Emma, we'll talk later." He
winked.

He was reassuring her, and it took her by
surprise. She hadn't expected such understanding, considering she'd
practically lied to the man about being Sammie Jo's mother. Of
course he didn't know everything yet. And hopefully by the time he
did, it wouldn't matter. She'd be gone by then. Although why that
thought didn't make her feel better she wasn't sure. "It should be
ready soon." She tried to smile. "Do you want to eat now or
later?"

Lying didn't set well with Emma. She had the
urge to make him sit down and explain the whole thing to him.

If he fired her, what would she do? Where
would she go from here? No, for now she'd better just hold her
tongue and wait.

Sammie Jo gurgled and Deke winked down at
her. "Later. The boys will probably be here as soon as the smell
reaches the bunkhouse. Most of them are heavy coffee drinkers, up
at the crack of dawn. Comes from the long hours in the saddle I
guess."

"And your brothers?"

Deke frowned. "They'll drift in, but don't
you worry about them. If they aren't here with the rest of the men,
then don't cater to them and fix them a hot breakfast. Jake will be
here in a few minutes, but Rusty and Clint sleep in till the last
minute. Don't coddle 'em. You start that and you'll be doing it
from here on out."

"Oh I won't. I think I mentioned I had
brothers too. And I certainly never coddled them." Emma chuckled.
"As soon as my old man turned me loose with the spatula I told my
brothers if they weren't there when it was ready, they were too
late. And it worked."

"Sounds like you know what you're doing.
Well, I'll be back soon, I've got a sick cow to check on and then
I'll be in." Deke informed her, giving Sammie Jo another glance.
"If you need anything Dad's always around the place somewhere."

"What's wrong with her?" Emma glanced up from
the stove.

"Who?"

"The sick cow?" she asked not able to keep
her concern out of her voice.

"Colic I expect." Her question seemed to take
him by surprise. "Several ranchers in the area have complained with
the same thing. I think we got a bad load of grain last month. It
shouldn't happen again though, I've ordered my grain from a
different supplier. Ordinarily we'd have our own grain, but we've
had drought problems this year and there simply wasn't enough to go
around. If we'd a got that irrigation system in we'd be set, but
that's neither here nor there."

"Have you called the vet?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, he'll be out shortly, and I'll
probably be close to the house most of the day." He gave her a
slight smile, his eyes traveling lazily over her. The smile
suddenly faded to a slight frown. "Where'd you say you were
from?"

"Up around Greenville. My dad's got a small
spread. Nothing to compare to this."

"I can't imagine you leaving there. That's
real pretty country. Wasn't he willing to lend a hand with the
kid?"

Emma turned beet red. How could she explain
her father to anyone. She didn't understand him herself. "My father
doesn't like children, especially girls."

She wanted to slap her hand over her mouth as
soon as she'd said that, but it was too late, and Deke had heard
every word of it, from the looks of his frown. His gaze traveled
over her again and he nodded. "I see. Well, I'll just take a cup of
coffee with me out to the barn."

"All right, see you later, then." Emma
glanced down at herself and wondered what the frown was all about.
Perhaps he expected her to wear a dress. She hadn't given her
wardrobe a second thought.

But from the looks of things, Deke had. He
shot her a long glance over his shoulder again then headed out the
back door.

She had no time to wonder when Sammie Jo
spilled her orange juice, Emma quickly wiped it from the floor and
set her in the highchair once more, this time locking and
tightening the belt. Once she was satisfied, she tipped Sammie Jo's
chin upward and looked into her beautiful eyes. "Now you sit still
while I get breakfast ready young lady. I have lots of work to do
this morning, and we want to make a good impression here, don't
we?"

Sammie Jo grabbed her juice, and banged the
edge of it against the highchair, "Cack-cack."

"Oh, okay, maybe just one." Emma smiled and
handed her a cracker assured that it would keep her satisfied all
of two seconds. She was learning.

A couple of the men from the bunkhouse
wandered in from the back door and began helping themselves to the
coffee.

"Miss Emma, Sammie Jo," Sandy, the cow boss
acknowledged with a big smile on his face.

"We couldn't help ourselves Miss Emma, the
coffee smelled too good." Little Jim the camp cook declared.

"Help yourselves boys, breakfast is only a
few minutes away. Coffee will be ready every morning, just come on
in and wash up."

Their expressions reassured her that her
culinary skills hadn't failed her. Although why she worried she
didn't know. The one thing she knew she could handle was cooking,
she'd been doing it since she was big enough to reach the counter.
Her own father had been the hardest man in the state to please when
it came to coffee and Emma had spent a whole summer learning how to
perfect it to his pleasure. She'd succeeded but all she got for her
effort was a grunt, and an unthankful remark.

"Took you long enough to figure it out,
girl." Her father's words echoed in her head.

Emma didn't want to think about her father
right now. She was miles from home and he could no longer hurt her.
Besides, she had toughened under his roof. She was a survivor. He
had unknowingly taught her to survive on her own, and she had to
admit she was proud of herself.

One of the men sauntered over to Sammie Jo
and started playing with her. Sammie Jo giggled joyfully. She loved
company.

"Let me give you a hand, Emma." Cal Travers
wandered into the kitchen, and upon seeing the crowd rushed to help
set the long table extended almost to the back porch.

"Thanks, Mr. Travers." Emma wiped her floured
hands on her apron and took the biscuits from the oven. Every man
there stared at the biscuits as if they'd never seen anything like
it.

"Is something wrong?" Emma asked startled by
their stares as she placed the biscuits in the center of the
table.

"Wrong, hell no–I mean, heck no, ma'am. We
just ain't seen such fine lookin' food in a long time." Little Jim
remarked. "Why I ain't seen biscuits rise like that since my ma was
alive."

Emma blushed at the compliment, unsure of
what to do or say next, so she went back to her task. "Well sit
down and help yourselves boys, I've got sausage and eggs coming and
the gravy is on the way too," Emma said, happy that they
appreciated her efforts. It was strange what a lift a compliment
could be. Yes, she smiled to herself, her job was pretty secure
here if their expressions were any sign.

"You're gonna spoil 'em rotten, Emma." Cal
Travers sided up to her and whispered.

"They do a hard day's work, they deserve a
good meal. And it's a joy to cook for men that appreciate it," Emma
replied.

"You sound as though you've cooked for some
that didn't."

"At least one, yes," Emma answered going to
the gravy and pouring it into a big bowl.

She chanced a glance at Cal who seemed to
consider her remark a moment, then she took the gravy to the table,
thankful that he didn't pry any further. It would do no good to
rehash old problems, especially with her new bosses.

***

Deke smelled the biscuits baking all the way
out to the barn. His mouth watered. He nodded. He'd done right by
hiring Emma. He knew that much. The woman could cook. She was a
ranch woman too, and that was in her favor. He hadn't had to tell
her much of anything, she seemed to catch on right away to what he
expected without too many questions.

He liked her quiet, self-assured attitude. He
liked her.

He gulped down the coffee quickly then
cleaned out a stall. He didn't like what he set himself up to
doing, but he didn't have much choice, the way he saw it. His
brothers needed settling down. They needed a taste of
responsibility. With Emma they'd get more than a taste of it.

He moved Too Bit, one of his heartiest
heifers into the last stall in the barn and checked her over,
thoroughly. Rubbing her belly, he nodded.

"You'll be okay once the doc gets you
something for that belly, Too Bit. And I won't be doing that to you
again. I promise."

Dammit, if the crops hadn't burnt up in the
hot Texas sun, this wouldn't have happened, but Deke always managed
to roll with the punches. So had all the other ranchers around. At
least that's what his father kept telling him. Sometimes he
wondered.

If Clint hadn't run off last summer for the
rodeo, they might have gotten the irrigation system in for their
crops. Yeah, Clint and that good for nothing Steve. If only Clint
wouldn't listen to Steve so much. But Steve could be pretty
persausive with all the big money he was winning in the Rodeo. And
then there was Rusty. He hadn't been much good since he fell for
that Jennifer gal. At least that wasn't serious. Deke doubted
Jennifer could be faithful to her own shadow yet. She was in her
prime and knew it. Rusty would be better off with a gal like Emma,
steady, independent, a ranch woman. He'd start considering Rusty's
wife next.