Read Online Must Love Cowboys by Cheryl Brooks - Free Book Online Page B

something we wouldn’t.” Her expression sobered. “Listen, thanks for agreeing to stay on and help out. Everything’s gonna be kinda chaotic around here for a while.”
    â€œI’ll try to keep the guys under control.”
    â€œYeah, right,” she drawled. “I can really see that happening.”
    I laughed. “I only said I would try .”
    â€œI can’t ask for more than that. Guess I’d better get packing. If you need anything from town, Dad or Dusty can give you the money and one of the guys can go with you.”
    â€œMight take me a while to figure things out, but I’ll do my best. Right now, I just have to do some poking around in the cabinets to see what’s here.”
    â€œI certainly don’t envy you that job.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll call when I get to the hospital. What’s your cell number?”
    I gave her the number and she entered it into her phone. “Most cell phones don’t work out here, so I’ll probably call the bunkhouse phone—there’s an extension in your room—but it wouldn’t hurt for me to have it just in case. I’ll keep you all posted on Calvin, and if you can come up with anything regarding his next of kin, give me a call. Hopefully, he’ll wake up and they’ll let him come home soon.”
    She didn’t mention the other possibility, which was that Calvin wouldn’t wake up and wouldn’t ever come home. I hated to seem pessimistic, but after the way Calvin had looked when I found him, I wasn’t holding out much hope.
    I wished her a safe trip and got back to work. Having heard the “three chickens” thing, I figured I’d better start thawing out some stuff.
    As Angela had reported, the huge chest-type freezer and the pantry were full. I might run out of a few things, but meat and vegetables weren’t among them. Nor, I soon discovered, would we run out of flour or sugar anytime soon. I found a fifty-pound bag of each in the pantry. I couldn’t imagine going through such quantities before the ants got into them, but then, I’d never cooked for a bunkhouse full of cowboys.
    I found a few cookbooks to guide me on making meals for a crowd, picked out some recipes, and got started. I’d already made an apple pie and had the chickens marinating and a pot of green beans simmering on the stove by three thirty when Bull and Wyatt returned.
    â€œI thought you’d be gone by now,” Wyatt said, his tone carefully neutral. Perhaps he was regretting that comment about me being responsible for saving Calvin’s life.
    Heat of the moment and all.
    â€œI fixed breakfast for the men, and Joe asked me to stay on as cook until Calvin comes home. Angela seemed to like the idea.”
    Wyatt responded with a flick of his brow, clearly debating the pros and cons of having a female in charge of the bunkhouse kitchen.
    Bull was more direct. “Yes, but do we really need you? I can cook, and so can Wyatt.”
    â€œYeah, well, you two went off in the middle of the night and left the guys to fend for themselves, none of whom can even fry eggs. Dean nearly burned down the bunkhouse before I took over.”
    Wyatt still wasn’t saying anything. I didn’t know him well enough to know if that was out of character for him or not, although he’d been pretty outspoken so far. I waited while his gaze swept the kitchen.
    â€œBull,” he began, “when’s the last time we had apple pie?”
    â€œShit, I dunno,” Bull said, scratching his shaven head. “Christmas, maybe?”
    Wyatt nodded at the corner table where the pie sat on a cooling rack. “I think we oughta let Tina do the cooking. We’ll have enough to do being a man short, what with all the trouble we’ve been having with the fences.”
    Bull’s jaw dropped as he followed the direction of Wyatt’s gesture. “Damn!