Mary Sullivan - Rodeo Rancher

Without a word, he opened the freezer door. Loaves of bread filled half of the space, with plenty of meat crowding the other.

“Living this far from town, I’m always prepared.”

“Hey!” she declared, reaching in as though she’d found a treasure. “Look at all of this spinach. Awesome! You said the kids didn’t eat greens.”

“For some weird reason, Mick likes the frozen stuff, so I keep plenty on hand.”

“May I use it?”

“Of course.”

They worked side by side for an eternity, or so it seemed to Michael. Every time he had to pass her to get into the fridge, or to retrieve a pot from a low cupboard, he held his breath.

She was almost as tall as him, maybe only a couple of inches shorter. He wasn’t used to that. Lillian had been a little bit of a thing.

The first time they brushed arms, he just about jumped out of his skin.

He wasn’t the skittish type, not usually. He might not be attracted to this woman, despite her beauty, but he also wasn’t used to having a woman in his kitchen. Other than Lillian’s friend Karen, that is, who came around more often than he liked under the guise of helping him with the children.

Things were getting complicated there. All Michael felt for Karen was a small level of affection. He’d known for a while now that she was expecting more from him than he wanted to give.

She’d been good to him, and he felt nothing other than gratitude. It made him feel ashamed...and guilty.

Samantha brushed past him again. He glanced her way sharply, but she wasn’t doing it on purpose. The working area of the kitchen was just too damn small for two people who didn’t know each other.

The harvest table took up pretty much all of the room, but at least there would be plenty of space to seat everyone at dinnertime.

Earlier, when she’d pulled her sweater up over her hair for Lily’s benefit, she’d revealed a trim waist and perfectly tanned tight flesh. His libido had performed a tap dance worthy of Gene Kelly.

It had been two and a half years since he’d been with a woman. Once Lillian had become too weak for intimacy, all he’d done was hold her.

Maybe sometime in the two years since her death he should have slept with a woman. But who? This was a small town. Everyone knew everyone else and all of their business.

He suspected the town might already think he and Karen were having relations, even though he’d been careful to set boundaries there.

Did his physical discomfort matter? In the space of a silly heartbeat, Samantha had won over his daughter. That had been clear when Lily had whispered, for his ears only after that trick with her hair, “I like her, Daddy.”

That was good enough for him, even if he did find her ditzy and too beautiful.

She puzzled him. Without a speck of self-consciousness, she’d messed up her own hair, just to break the ice with Lily.

In his experience, beautiful women cared too much about their appearances. His mother had. So had his baby sister.

Michael strengthened his defenses and set his confusion aside. The power could go out at any time and there was a lot to do.

Between the two of them, they managed to make the meat loaf and put together one pot of chicken soup and another of spaghetti sauce.

Samantha had made a small pot of barley soup for herself and had used the steak to make a larger one of beef and barley.

Michael had also boiled and mashed potatoes—more potatoes than he’d seen in one place since he was a child with his mom, dad and Angela around.

“Oh,” Samantha breathed, breaking into his thoughts of the past. Good thing. He didn’t want to go there.

“I just had a thought,” she said.

“What?”

“If the power goes out and we have to conserve diesel, how will we heat this up? How will we cook the pasta?”

“Camping equipment on the fireplace. I have a kerosene camp stove I can use on the back porch as well as a barbecue I can cook just about anything on.”

Samantha looked curious and engaged, as though the details truly interested her. “How about if I make things easier by boiling the spaghetti now and mixing it with the sauce? Then we can reheat in one pot.”

Opening the door of the refrigerator, she said, “I saw some Monterey Jack in here. I can add cheese to the pot to make it tasty.”

“Sure. Lily will like that. She loves that cheese.”

She stopped what she was doing and became pensive. Seemed out of character for the woman. “Oh. It’s Lily’s cheese. Okay, let’s leave it for her.”

She put it back into the fridge almost reverently.

“She won’t mind if you use it,” Michael insisted.

Her smile looked a little sad. “I’d like it to be hers.”

Weird. What was wrong with the woman? Lily wasn’t going to die if she couldn’t have a piece of cheese.

She seemed adamant, so Michael reached past her for the cheese, calling, “Lily, come here.”

Samantha’s perfume floated around him like a soft cloud. He held his breath, grabbed the cheese and backed away from her.

Lily ran into the kitchen, cheeks flushed.

“What, Daddy? Hurry. I have to play.”

“Your Monterey Jack cheese. You okay if we use it in some spaghetti sauce or should we leave it for you to eat?”

“S’ghetti sauce!” She turned and ran to the back of the house.

“You have permission. Use it,” he ordered, dropping it into Samantha’s hands.

“Okay.”

“You like children? Especially girls?”

Her lips twisted, her smile rueful. “Oh, I do. I really do. I wish I’d had one. Don’t get me wrong,” she rushed on. “I love my boys to heaven and back. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They are my heart. I do like little girls, though. I guess I just relate to them.”

What had that sadness been about with the cheese and Lily? Somehow he didn’t think she would have reacted in the same way had it been Mick’s cheese.

He didn’t want that kind of curiosity about her. The less he knew about the woman, the better.

Samantha started to chatter about everything and nothing and he wondered what the heck was going on. Something had made her nervous.

When she paused for a breath of air, he said, “You going to quit talking any time soon?”

She caught her breath and stared at him.

He hadn’t meant to sound harsh. It was meant to be a joke. He might not want her here, but he didn’t willingly hurt others. He was about to open his mouth to apologize when she burst out laughing.

“Travis says that exact same thing to me all the time. He says I’m long on air and short on content.”

Her smile, like sunshine bursting through heavy clouds, turned his guts to pudding.

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