Read Online Wish Upon a Cowboy by Maureen Child, Kathleen Kane - Free Book Online

meal. The scrambled eggs were fluffy, the flapjacks were lighter than air, the bread, though not fresh, had been warmed in the oven, and there was enough coffee to serve an army.
    Yet they were all so busy shoving it into their mouths, she was willing to bet they hadn't even tasted it.
    She could have served them mud pies and dirty water and as long as there was plenty of it, she told herself, they wouldn't have cared.
    Well, Hannah told herself firmly, no more.
    One of the men stood up and, completely oblivious to her presence, reached across her for the jar of molasses. The tight leash on her temper snapped. Gritting her teeth, Hannah snatched up a serving spoon and used it to give his arm a hard smack.
    "Hey!" the arm's owner shouted, and he gave her a look that said she was crazy for hitting him and if she wasn't a woman, he'd hit her right back.
    She stood her ground and met the man's glare with a steely one of her own, lifting her spoon higher, just for good measure.
    "What'd you do that for?" the cowboy demanded, cradling his arm as though she'd broken it.
    "If you want the molasses," she snapped, "ask someone to kindly pass it to you!"
    "Why in tarnation would I do that when I can reach it?" His bellow was clearly meant to intimidate her.
    He was disappointed.
    "Because it's polite!" she shouted, finally releasing the pent-up anger knotted in her chest.
    Silence fell over the room like a heavy blanket smothering flames. She felt the stares of a dozen pairs of eyes and she met them all each in turn.
    Riding the crest of her glorious fury, she went on. "I've never seen such a display in all my life! You ought to charge people admission just to watch you eat!"
    Instead of the shamefaced expressions she'd hoped to see, they actually had the nerve to look mightily offended. Even a bit angry.
    Exasperation flushed her face with color.
    One of the older men finally spoke up. "Now, missy," he said firmly, "you got no call to be shoutin' at us like that, and hittin' on Hank when he can't rightly hit you back don't seem fair at all."
    Amazing, she thought.
    "'at's right," Hank said, still clutching his arm as to prove to his friends just how badly he'd been aged. "A man's got a right to eat I reckon, without cook poundin' on him."
    Hannah blinked at him.
    "Sure enough," someone else piped up. "Don't recall no cook bein' so durn snippy."
    She couldn't believe it. Rather than being ashamed of their behavior, they were trying to correct hers.
    Hannah shook the spoon at her audience. "A man wouldn't be smacked," she told them shortly. "But wild animals invading a kitchen are lucky if they don't get shot on sight."
    "Shot?" the young one sputtered nervously.
    "See here, missy," Elias said in a low growl of disapproval, "it's a mite early in the day for talk of shootin', don't you think?"
    A dark muttering of agreement rose up from the seated men. Her gaze slid over every one of them. Blue eyes, brown, black, they all looked at her in hostile astonishment. When at last she looked to Jonas, she wasn't even surprised to see a flash of anger in his icy blue eyes.
    "What's this about?" he asked, tossing his knife onto his plate with a clatter that rang out overloud in the suddenly still room.
    One or two of the men gave her superior smiles that let her know they thought Jonas was going to tell her a thing or two. And that they were going to enjoy watching her taken down a peg.
    But Hannah was in no mood. She'd traveled days to reach this… outpost. She'd changed her life, left her family. Risked everything, was willing to marry a man she'd never met, and this was her reward?
    Anger still churning in the pit of her stomach, Hannah had a few things to say herself. Letting her temper fly, she waved her serving spoon in the air like a knight of old would wield his sword. "It's about you," she said, sparing the rest of the men a quick glance before locking her gaze with the Mackenzie's. "All of you."
    "Well, heckfire, what'd we do?" someone