Carolyne Aarsen - The Cowboy's Lady

Ted angled him an “Are you kidding” look as he limped toward the cook shack. “Woman’s got triplets and takes care of that Jasmine girl. As if she’d have time to come out and cook for us.”

“So who did you get? Please don’t tell me you listened to Jonathan and got Vivienne Clayton to come and cook.”

Ted said nothing. Instead he opened the door of the cook shack with a flourish. Cody stepped inside.

And stared in disbelief as the very person he had warned his uncle against now stood in his kitchen.

Vivienne wore a tall chef’s hat and a white smock and apron. She stood at the stove, her back to them, stirring something smelling, for lack of a better word, weird.

What kind of joke was Ted playing? He yanked his hat off and slapped it against his thigh. He didn’t have time for this kind of malarkey. Too many things on the go and hired hands who grew more grumbly with each grilled cheese sandwich they had to choke down.

Vivienne wiped her hands on a cloth lying beside the stove and gave Cody a quick smile, a dimple flashing in one cheek. “Thanks for giving me this opportunity,” she said, holding out her hand.

Under that goofy looking hat, her hair was pulled back in a shining ponytail, low on her neck. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright and her cheekbones as beautiful as ever.

She looked even more amazing than she had in high school.

He caught himself, frustrated with how easily she brought back feelings he thought he’d dealt with years ago.

You’re not some dumb, love-struck senior anymore. You’ve lost a wife and—

He stopped his thoughts there. He couldn’t go to that dark place. Not now. Not ever.

“What is going on here?” he said, giving her hand a perfunctory shake. He shot an angry glance at Ted, who lifted his shoulders in a vague shrug.

“I’d like to go over the menu with you, to see what you and your uncle think of my choices,” Vivienne said, gesturing toward the stove. She pulled off her hat and whipped off the smock to reveal a black dress with no sleeves and some kind of shiny brooch pinned to one shoulder. “I hoped to have everything ready for my presentation, but you came earlier than I had anticipated.”

He didn’t want to look at her. “Menu?”

“Yes. For my test meal?”

“Test meal?” He felt like slapping himself on the head. He sounded like some robotic moron.

“Pauley Clayton doesn’t carry much of what I needed in the grocery store, but the best chefs can and do improvise.” She gave a quick laugh, her eyes flicking from him to Ted.

“I thought we could start with a spinach salad with spiced walnuts and pears and a light vinaigrette followed by glazed pears and a filet mignon with red wine tarragon sauce. I’d like to serve the filet with a reduction made from the pears, but only if you agree.” Cody felt bombarded by words and terms he knew nothing about.

Which made him feel stupid.

Which, in turn, made him angry, mostly because it was Vivienne Clayton he felt stupid in front of.

“That sounds like something for a restaurant, not cowboys,” he said.

Vivienne lifted her shoulder in a vague shrug. “Cowboys can enjoy gourmet cooking, too.”

“Gourmet? Not likely.”

Ted grabbed him and gave him a half turn. “You’d sooner eat grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and supper?” he asked, turning, as well, so his back was to Vivienne and he was facing Cody.

“I’d sooner eat ordinary food.”

Ted yanked on his arm to pull him closer. “We could use some decent food here,” he muttered. “I think we should hire her.”

Before Cody could reply, Vivienne handed him and Ted each a plate with half a pear sitting on a leaf of lettuce, and the whole business was sprinkled with nuts.

“Why don’t you give this a taste and tell me what you think,” Vivienne was saying, “and I’ll get the steak ready.”

Cody looked from the pear all fancied up to Vivienne. Gold hoops hung from her ears, and her eyes had that smudgy look Bonnie was always trying to create with endless pots of makeup and tubes of mascara.

She looked exactly like she did in high school. Fancy. Unapproachable. The epitome of the same city girl Tabitha, his wife, had been. Someone who couldn’t live out here.

His heart hardened at the memory. He wasn’t going there again. Girls like Tabitha and Vivienne didn’t belong on a ranch. They couldn’t handle the isolation and the stress.

“Sorry you wasted your time coming, Miss Clayton,” Cody said, clenching the brim of his battered cowboy hat. “But we’re not hiring you.”

Then he spun around on one booted heel and left.

Not hiring her?

He hadn’t even given her a decent chance.

“Cody. Hold on,” Ted called out.

Vivienne pressed her hands together, trying to keep the panic at bay.

Cody stopped and slowly turned around, his mouth pressed into a thin line, his eyes narrowed. Vivienne stifled the tiny frisson of fear at his belligerent look as she took a long breath.

“We need a cook,” Ted said.

“I need someone who can do beans, beef and biscuits. Not … that. ” He waved a dismissive hand at the pears that, Vivienne thought, had turned out very well considering the number of ingredients she’d had to improvise on.

She wanted to be upset with Cody’s dismissive attitude, but she couldn’t.

Because after speaking with Ted, on a whim, she walked around town talking to the various businesses. No one was hiring. Not the flower shop. Not Hair Today, the only beauty salon in town. Not the post office or any of the schools. She had even, out of desperation, tried the feed supply store, but Gene Jones, the proprietor, wasn’t looking for help either.

The town of Clayton had been dying a slow death even when she lived there. Now, even with the reopening of the Lucky Lady Silver Mine, it was worse. This job was her only chance at making some money while she waited for the inheritance.

Which will only come through if Lucas shows up.

She smothered the errant thought. Lucas had been informed of what was at stake. He would show up.

Ted turned to her and set his hands on his hips. “This is real nice, but would you be willing to cook simpler food?”

Vivienne set the pear down, disappointment vying with practicality. “It’s not what I was trained to do.”

“But you can do that,” Ted insisted.

“I’m a professional chef …” As her words faded off, so did her anticipation at the thought of this job. Gourmet cooking was what she loved. What she was best at. “I suppose I could do what was required of me,” she continued.

Cody pulled on his chin with one hand as if this answer didn’t satisfy him either. “I’m still not sure—”

“She can go over the menus with us and make sure we think it’s okay,” Ted insisted.

Cody fiddled with his hat, his teeth working at one corner of his mouth. “I don’t think she’s the right person for the job.”

“We got no one else,” Ted insisted. “We kind of need her.”

That Ted had to argue Cody into hiring her raised Vivienne’s ire. Sure she wasn’t a beans-and-bacon cook, but she was, as she had pointed out to Ted, a professional cook. And the thought that someone didn’t want to hire her made her angry.

And, perversely, made her want the job even more.

“I’d like a chance,” she said quietly.

Vivienne watched Cody’s face, trying to get a read on where he was going. Then he looked at her, and as their gazes meshed Vivienne caught a glimpse of the young man who had asked her out all those years ago. Then his features tightened and any trace of that Cody Jameson disappeared, replaced by this hard-looking, uncompromising man.