Page 19 of Cowboy's Christmas Wife

Laura hummed to herself as she unpacked groceries. Lily was sitting in a high chair, drooling on a teething cracker that tasted like a whisper of a banana. The baby loved them, and they kept her busy for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.Enough time to get dinner started, she thought and felt warm affection fizzle through her. Daryl was in the back pasture, checking on the herd. He would be due in around six, and she wanted to have dinner nearly done by then. Despite Jeanette’s fears, the Rivers men didn’t expect Laura to do all the household chores—but they’d found a way to split the chores among themselves so that everyone did their share. For her part, Laura had taken over a lot of the cooking for Daryl and Kyle, and she had to admit, she loved cooking for them. Not only did they appreciate her efforts, but they cleaned up afterward.

As she was spatchcocking a chicken, Kyle came into the kitchen and sat at the table with his laptop. “Hey, Laura,” he said, and she could hear his mood in the gruffness of his voice. “You helped Daryl with a website, so that means that you understand computers, right?”

She looked up from the chicken. “Yeah,” she said. “What’s going on?”

Kyle grunted. “I’m trying to set up an automatic supply order with the company we get cow and horse feed from, and it’s just not working.”

“Give me a second,” she said and quickly rubbed the herb butter beneath the skin of the now flattened chicken. She popped it in the oven and gave her hands a quick wash before she joined him at the table.

Kyle pushed the laptop towards her, and she scrolled through what looked like a very long Excel spreadsheet. It made very little sense, and none of the columns lined up. “Is this something the company sent you, or did you do this yourself?”

He turned beet red. “I did that.”

Oh, God, help him, Laura thought and bit back a smile. He was already horribly embarrassed, she could tell, and she didn’t want to make him feel even more so. “If you want,” she said, “I could take over the online orders and organize the paperwork side of things for the ranch.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” he said, tripping over his words.

“I don’t mind at all!” She smiled wide. “I like being useful, and I’ve enjoyed helping Daryl streamline his orders for the leather shop. It wouldn’t take much to add the ranch to what I’ve already created.”

Kyle let out a breath. “You’re being serious?”

She patted his shoulder. “Of course,” she said. “Leave it to me, and I will have everything settled in a day or two.”

He let out a breath that she was sure he had been holding since the moment he walked into the room. “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

Laura stood and patted his shoulder again. “Anytime, Kyle.” She checked on Lily, who was still wrestling with her teething cracker, happy as anything. The chicken was roasting, and she started to wash some red potatoes to throw in for roasting.

“That smells good,” Kyle piped in after a moment. He was still fiddling on the laptop, though he didn’t look quite as flustered now.

“Roast chicken and potatoes,” she told him. “Possibly some corn on the cob or Brussel sprouts, too?”

Kyle considered it for a moment. “Corn,” he said definitively. She moved to fill a pot with water. “Georgina makes Brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving, and it’s just one of those things that we just never eat outside of that.”

What?Laura stared at him, even as she put the pot on the stove to get the water boiling. “What does that mean? Do you not like Brussels sprouts? If you told Georgina, I’m sure she’d make something else.”

Kyle snorted. “She absolutely wouldnot.She’d make twice as many and load my plate up with them, and then she’d give a whole big speech about how her kids need to learn to eat healthy foods whether they like them or not, and how that means that I have to choke it all down and set a good example. She’s theworst.” His tone was filled with such palpable fondness that he might as well have said that his sister was the best. “But no, I actually like them. I just think of them as a Thanksgiving thing. It would be weird to eat them some other time.”

“Would it?” She couldn’t really understand the concept. She supposed that when her parents were alive, they had traditions for holidays, but her grandfather hadn’t been the best at maintaining them. He usually would do whatever Laura wanted, which had its own charm to it, but traditions weren’t a thing for them and over time, she’d found it harder and harder to remember the special things they used to do as a family.

Kyle raised his eyebrow. “Like…we only eat ham on Easter? Or pumpkin pie in the winter?”

Laura laughed. “So, you just don’t eat the things you like the rest of the year?”

“You eat pumpkin pie in the summer?” Kyle countered, and they both laughed. “You’ll have to make a pumpkin pie on July 4thand see if anyone eats it.”

“Deal,” she said and found herself hoping that when July came around, this family would still let her come around even if her and Daryl weren’t married anymore.If?Laura stopped at that thought. Of course, she and Daryl would be divorced by July. That was the plan, right? Their marriage would end as soon as they could get him added to the trust to remove the money. They wouldn’t split up immediately after, of course. That would look too strange to everyone. But they’d wrap this up eventually—likely by the spring. It was what they’d agreed to. And yet, the thought of this all being over? It left a cold pit in the bottom of her stomach. “Do you have any favorite foods?” she asked. “I like cooking, and I’m always up for a challenge.”

Kyle thought about her question. He was always very careful with how he answered things, she noticed. Daryl’s younger brother physically resembled him, and they were both incredibly talented with working with their hands, but where Daryl was gregarious and impetuous, Kyle was quieter and more deliberate. He was a bit more like Laura, to be honest. Outside of their looks, they could have been siblings. “Have you ever made beef wellington?” he asked. “I had that at a restaurant once, and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

Beef wellington, she made a mental note. “Never made it,” she admitted, “but I’d be happy to try.”

Kyle’s face lit up. “Awesome.”

Laura made the younger man a silent promise to make him the most perfect beef wellington as soon as she possibly could. She would need to look up a good recipe and watch a couple of videos online, but she was determined to make him something special in the next few weeks. He worked too hard to make the ranch succeed to come home and be forgotten.

The door opened, and she knew without him saying a word that Daryl was coming in for the night. Even as she continued to talk to Kyle and make plans for the dinner she would make especially for him, her entire body become a live wire for the man who hadn’t even walked into the room yet. Ever since that kiss in front of the diner, she had been on high alert whenever he was around. He’d told her that if he made her uncomfortable or if he was too much, all she had to do was tell him. He made it all seem very easy, but nothing about how she was feeling was easy.

He walked into the kitchen with a smile on his face. “It smells good in here,” he told her and dropped a kiss on Lily’s head. The little girl looked at him and gave him a gummy smile, and Laura nearly melted into a puddle. “Will it be ready soon?”

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