The Texan Takes A Wife by Kristine Rolofson

Author:Kristine Rolofson [Kristine Rolofson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459278424
Publisher: Harlequin

THEY TRIED to avoid each other for more than a week. She cooked his eggs and burned his bacon, and Ben said thank you and then worked outside for the rest of the day. He ate his lunch outside and his supper in the dining room, while he read the paper and Mel puttered in the kitchen. She preferred to eat later, in the cooler hour after sunset. She told herself being around Ben wasn’t good for her digestion.

Mel took her day off and went to Rose River. She drank a vanilla milk shake in the Pastime Café, received a reassuring pat on the back from Dr. Connelly and saw her baby on the ultrasound equipment at the Rose River hospital. The technician even printed a picture, which Mel kept in her top dresser drawer. There was no decision as to whether the baby was a boy or a girl, though the technician offered to make a guess.

She even found a shop that specialized in maternity clothes and bought some nicer-looking underwear and a cotton nightdress that actually had room to spare. She still wasn’t that big, though the doctor assured her that some women just carried their babies differently. She was gaining the right amount of weight and doing fine.

She was doing fine until the following week, until she served roast beef again.

“Save the scraps,” Ben said.

“Okay.” She gave him an odd look. He’d never asked her to save scraps before. In fact, he hadn’t ever told her to save anything. “Why?”

“Hasn’t Lori shown you the puppies?”

“No.” Lori was the busiest teenager in the state of Texas. Last week she’d been to initiation at the university, and she was busy buying clothes, working her other jobs and sneaking off to see Jack Ritter whenever she could find the time.

“Come on, then,” Ben said, scraping his uneaten beef into a bowl. He took a knife and cut it up into small pieces. “They’re old enough for this now.”

Mel untied her apron and followed him outdoors. He’d been later than usual for supper. The sun was already setting, and there was a peaceful quiet that settled over the ranch in the evenings. She followed Ben along the wide path to the outer barns. Joyce, taking her laundry off the line, waved. Mel waved back, but Ben didn’t stop. He led her into the enormous old barn and whistled.

A shaggy brown-and-white spaniel peeked around one of the posts, then ran out to greet her master. She wagged her tail and whined when she smelled the meat.

“You’ve seen Ranger around, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Mel bent to pat the dog. “From a distance. We’ve never been officially introduced.” The dog wagged her tail, then turned her attention to the tall rancher.

“Come on. Ranger’s been busy. She hasn’t left the barn too often.” He led her down the wide center aisle of the barn to a back stall, smaller than the others they passed. Five brown-and-white puppies, the image of their mother, tumbled through the mounds of straw to greet their mother and see who could be the first to sniff Ben’s boots.

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