Page 17 of A Rancher's Heart
“I know Rocky Mountain House is small, but I have a feeling Heart Falls is even smaller. We’ve got some things we still do with a nod and a handshake.”
“I kind of figured that when my total job interview and acceptance letter was something to the effect of you saying,Fine, show up on Tuesday.”
Caleb shrugged. “Didn’t see the need to discuss it. You wanted to be here, and the girls need a nanny.
“List of jobs?” she reminded him.
He rotated a finger in the air. “Keep this place from burning to the ground or being condemned. That’s all. Your to-do list is whatever that takes. When you cook, make enough for six, and if there’s leftovers we’ll eat them for lunch the next day if my brothers don’t show up at midnight to demolish them. They aren’t usually here. Walker and Luke both have spaces in the bunkhouse, and Dustin moved out there the instant he finished high school. They eat with the hands most of the time, and yes, we have a cook, but his name isn’t Cookie.”
“You crazy break with traditionalists. What is it?”
“Jalaj Patel, but he asked the crew to call him JP. He’s Indian. We’re the only ranch in the area that serves dahl as often as beans.”
Tamara grinned before glancing at her watch. “You ready for breakfast? Or do you want to wait and eat with the girls?”
He rose to his feet along with her, a little uncomfortable as she reached into the fridge and pulled out a container of eggs. “You don’t have to do that.”
She stopped, laying the food on the counter so her fists could settle on her hips. “Caleb Stone, you hired me to do a job, so let me do it. You want to eat now or later?”
He ignored the twitch of pleasure that struck to see her standing her ground. “I’ll wait.”
“What time will the girls be ready for breakfast, usually?”
“Seven fifteen. Bus picks them up at seven forty-five and drops them off at three thirty.”
She nodded decisively then basically shooed him from the kitchen. “Go do whatever. I’ll have breakfast at your usual time. If you can be here today, that will help ease us into the routine.”
He picked up his coffee cup and went to the pot to top it up. “I intended to eat with the girls. You being here doesn’t change that.”
He added a shot of cream to his coffee before lifting his mug in the air in a salute. No choice but to go and face his office and the paperwork he hated.
“Caleb,” she interrupted before he left the room. “How do you like it?”
Sheer willpower kept him from stumbling. “Excuse me?”
Tamara gestured toward his hand. “The coffee. Is it the way you like?”
Oh. Coffee, not sex. “I like it stronger.”
She nodded. “More kick in the pants. Got it, boss.” Then she turned to the fridge and started going through it, moving on with her day.
Caleb forced himself to move on with his, sliding down the hall to his office with that strange sense that more than just an additional person had entered the house.
There was a force of nature.
Tamara used the next forty-five minutes to finish exploring the kitchen, doing inventory on supplies and starting a shopping list. Cooking for the family wasn’t enough to scare her. She’d spent enough time during her university days taking turns on the chore with her roommates, and later making large batches of stuff to exchange with her friends. Not to mention cooking for the horde of her extended family when they got together.
She could make more than toast, although the menu would get a little repetitious after a while, but that wasn’t her biggest challenge.
She had half an hour each morning to figure out more about the little girls, then an entire day to go through before they were home. The empty hours loomed.
Luckily, she still had this morning to distract her. She went with what was simple. There was a plethora of cereal in the cupboard, plenty of bread and eggs. She set the table with a few choices including juice and cut fruit and the biscuits cooling on the counter.
Then she sat down with fresh cup of coffee from a new pot—Caleb was right, she’d made the first batch far too weak—and planned out her day, pretending having open spaces was a complete treat.
Ten minutes later she looked down at her chore list and laughed. What a bunch of baloney—she could hear her cousins cursing her shitty attitude.
Sowhatif she was going to be home all day instead of turning up for a shift at the hospital? She had a ton of work to keep the house running efficiently, and ignoring that fact was insulting to everyone who worked at home.
