Snowbound with the Rancher by Kit Hawthorne

Author:Kit Hawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-07-14T19:00:12+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHILE TAFFY PROWLED around her new temporary home, Dirk finished unloading the ATV. His ankle throbbed, but the pain was manageable, and he was getting used to the cane.

He took his duffel bag to the closet in Taffy’s room and put his toiletries bag in the hall bathroom. He stowed the bacon in Macy’s fridge, set the wine bottle on her counter and put Miss Ida’s cookie tin on the kitchen island. It looked festive there, he thought.

Everything in this house was clean and bright. The counters didn’t have a bunch of stuff on them, only things like ceramic soap dispensers and glass salt and pepper mills—functional, but pretty. You couldn’t just strew your belongings wherever in a place like this. This was a neatness that demanded respect.

He opened the pantry to store some cans of chili he’d brought from home and stood a moment staring. The space was filled with rows and rows of home-canned soups and vegetables. Hand-lettered labels clipped to the shelf edges told the jars’ contents—beef stew, chicken soup, vegetable soup, chicken stock, beef stock, carrots, green beans, fruit preserves. The few rows that did not contain home-canned goods held empty canning jars, ready to be filled the next time around. Above all this, resting at the pantry’s top just beneath the ceiling, loomed a big pressure canner, next to a gleaming stainless steel stock pot.

He squeezed his cans of chili next to some jars of seasoned ground beef and closed the door.

When he’d first come in, he’d set his cowboy hat on the big table in what Macy had called the work room. He picked it up now and took it to the small closet near the front door, where he’d seen Macy put her coat. As small as it was, the closet was pretty bare, holding only two heavy coats and one jacket, all on nice wooden hangers. Gunnar’s leash hung from a hook on the wall. A basket up on the shelf had a label tied on with a ribbon, with Hats and Gloves written by hand.

Dirk thought of all the junk crammed into his own closets at home. He set his hat on the top shelf.

Back in the living room, Taffy was giving a thorough sniffing to a big, low ottoman that looked to be the right size for Gunnar.

Dirk hobbled back over to the work room. He wasn’t sure what sort of work she did, but evidently she made or repaired stuff. Judging from the materials he could see in the clear plastic bins under the table, she might be a seamstress, though he didn’t see a sewing machine. Maybe she kept it in its own special cabinet somewhere. A small red air compressor in one corner roused his curiosity. Her tidy workspace and well-maintained tools would have made his grandfather weep with joy.

There were books here, as well as in the living room, resting on some sort of invisible shelf that made them look like they were floating against the wall.

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