Come and Get It
Authors: Beyond the Page Publishing
Tags: #romance, #texas, #family, #contemporary romance, #catering, #smalltown romance
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Come and Get It
Keira Cole
This is a revised edition of an
ebook originally published by Amira Press in 2009 under the name
India Masters.
Copyright © 2009 by India Masters, ©
2013 by Keira Cole.
Cover design by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart
Designs
Published by Beyond the Page Publishing at
Smashwords
Beyond the Page Books
are published by
Beyond the Page Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-937349-71-4
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
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Contents
Chapter One
Dixie Rose Bonifay hadn’t been born in
Texas. She was a Charleston girl by birth, but when her mamma
married her daddy, he promptly moved his new bride back to Texas
hill country as soon as she gave birth. In her mind, that made her
a native just as sure as if she’d been born on the little ranch
outside Junction, Texas.
She’d taken her first steps there,
learned to swim in the Llano River, raised her four siblings, and
met and buried her husband there. She had no desire to leave, no
need to see the wide world, and no use for the occasional real
estate developer trying to separate her from her property. No,
Dixie Rose had planted her roots deep in the Texas soil and nothing
short of Armageddon could make her leave.
All the Bonifay siblings felt the same
way. All five of them. Rebecca Lynn and husband Jess ran the diner
just off the exit ramp from Interstate 10. Daisy Jean and her
husband, Greg, ran the family campground on the Llano and helped
with the diner and organic vegetable patch. The other two—Tamara
and Bennett—ran the actual working part of the small ranch. Tamara
and Bennett were twins and eerily in tune with one another, a fact
that often amazed and irritated their siblings.
Out of all of them, Dixie was the only
one who had even an ounce of wanderlust, and that only translated
to her mobile catering business. Dixie liked to cook, and even
though she’d gotten an online degree in finance, she didn’t see any
reason she shouldn’t cook for a living if that’s what she wanted to
do. There was lots of development in the area, people settling in
Kerrville and Fredricksburg, and construction workers needed to
eat. So, she used some of the insurance money her late husband left
her, bought herself a catering trailer and a big old diesel truck
to pull it. A few well-placed flyers later and she was in
business.
* * *
Dixie pulled up at the job site half
an hour before the scheduled lunch break. She unbuckled the seat
belt, then hopped out onto the hard, dusty ground. Her first task
was to open up the trailer and get things reheating. Next, she
climbed into the bed of the truck and hauled out the portable
tables and chairs she provided for her customers. The way she saw
it, the men worked hard for their money, and if they were inclined
to give her a portion of it, the least she could do was see to
their relative comfort.
“
Hey, Dixie,” Allen Godfrey
called. Allen was one of the foremen on this job and usually came
out to help her set up.
“
Hey, Allen.” Dixie greeted
him with her usual smile. She’d known him most of her life and she
liked him, despite the fact that he’d spent most of his high school
career trying to get in her pants. But Dixie didn’t hold a grudge.
After all, he was just a man, and men were horny bastards by
nature.
By the time the first pot of coffee
finished brewing, the tables were in place, covered with red and
white checked tablecloths, napkins, and condiments. Dixie handed
Allen a cup of coffee and joined him at one of the
tables.
“
What’s cookin’ today? Sure
smells good.”
“
Spicy chicken gumbo with
rice and corn bread for the hot meal, then barbecue chicken and
Caribbean jerk ham sandwiches, turkey and corn salsa wraps, and
Tex-Mex bean and turkey burritos. You hungry?”
Allen laughed. “You bet your pretty
little ass I am. How about a dish of the gumbo and one of the
wraps?”
“
Comin’ up, sugar.” She
heard him sigh as she walked away and knew he was watching her.
They all did. Sometimes she put a little extra wiggle in her step
just to make them happy.
She climbed inside the trailer, ladled
up a good-sized portion of gumbo into a foam dish, and set it on
the counter, the corn bread muffin soaking up the sauce, just the
way Allen liked it. She put the wrap on a foam plate, the tinfoil
still covering it.
“
Come and get it!” she
said, flashing a grin. Come and Get It was the name of her catering
company, and all the guys loved to see her lean over the counter
and shout those words to them.
Allen stepped up to the counter and
grabbed his food. Behind him, the sounds of construction abruptly
stopped. “Well, here come the thundering herds, Dixie. I’d best get
a seat while the getting’s good.”
Dixie grinned and leaned over the
counter. “Come and get it!”
Business was brisk as usual. Dixie’s
talent as a cook and her naturally cheerful disposition combined to
make her little enterprise a success. She prepared healthy,
good-tasting food, served up generous portions, and did it all with
a smile and pleasant conversation.
“
Well, hey there, Hugh!
What can I get ya today, sugar?”
Hugh was a big man and he ate like
one. Before Dixie started serving food at the local construction
sites, Hugh was a heart attack waiting to happen. Now he was losing
weight, building muscle, and could outwork two men. “I’ll have some
of that gumbo, Dixie Rose. And one of those barbecue chicken
sandwiches.”
“
Comin’ right up,
darlin’.”
Dixie turned away to fill his order
but kept on chatting. “How’s that pretty little girl of yours,
Hugh? Daisy Jean saw the wife and her up to Doc Spencer’s last
Friday. Hope everything’s all right.”
“
Aw, she’s okay. Just a
case of the sniffles,” the big man assured her. He opened his
wallet and handed Dixie a twenty-dollar bill when she swiveled
around to hand him his food. He waved away her attempt to give him
back his change. “Keep it, honey.” He inhaled the delicious scent
of her gumbo and sighed happily. “Rita Mae says to tell you thanks
for the recipes you emailed her. She don’t cook this stuff near as
good as you, but she’s tryin’.”
“
Well, good for her,” Dixie
said, as the next man in line stepped up to the counter. “Hey,
Bubba, what’re you feelin’ like today, sugar?”
Bubba was a blusher and his face
turned bright red every time Dixie so much as looked at him. She
found it inexplicably charming. “Some of that gumbo’ll do me just
fine, Miss Dixie. And could I have an extra corn bread muffin with
some of your special honey butter?”
“
You sure can, honey.”
Dixie filled his order quickly, and took his money. The longer
Bubba stood there gaping at her, the more the fellows would tease
him, and she figured he took enough ribbing as it was. Thirty years
old and he still couldn’t control his pecker. Even now his dick was
probably harder than a steel pipe.
The rest of the crew ordered their
food, paid for it, and took their seats at the tables. Conversation
lagged as the men ate their dinner. Dixie circulated among them
filling up glasses with sweet tea, and pouring coffee, occasionally
stopping to swap tall tales with one of her customers.
One by one, the men pushed away from
the tables, disposing of their trash in the receptacle she provided
for them. They stood around talking about men things, mostly having
to do with work and trucks, and women. One might bend Dixie’s ear
for advice on how to handle a touchy situation with a girlfriend,
while another would discuss the merits of diesel versus gasoline.
Dixie could speak knowledgeably on a variety of subjects that
interested her customers.
“
Shit, here comes Nelson,”
Hugh grumbled, dumping his trash in the can.
“
Now, I thought you liked
ol’ Nelson,” Dixie said, hand on her hip.
“
I don’t mind Nelson none.
It’s that asshole that’s with him. No offense, Dixie
Rose.”
“
None taken, sugar.” Dixie
watched the two men walking toward them. She’d always considered
Nelson a big man, but he looked like one of Santa’s helpers
compared to the fellow next to him. And, whoa mamma, was he fine.
F-I-N-E fine, can I get an amen? “What’s his problem?” Dixie
whispered to Hugh.
“
He’s the architect. From
Los Angeles, California.” Hugh had done the perfect imitation of
former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Dixie couldn’t help it. She let out a
whooping laugh, prompting everyone to look at her, including hot
architect guy. Still laughing, she gave Hugh a hip bump and lowered
her voice. “I’ll be back,” she said, and laughed as sweet tea
sprayed from the big man’s mouth.