The Cowboy's Ranch Rescue by Lisa Childs

Author:Lisa Childs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-10-11T17:56:29+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BAKER HAD HAD no idea that he was going to show up for dinner. Not when he knew Mrs. Lancaster was going to be there. And he only knew that because of Taye. While his brothers had each called and asked him to dinner, none of them had been honest with him. Jake had used the excuse that he had to ask Baker about some ranch business. And Ben had claimed that he was so worried about Sadie that he wanted Baker to check her blood pressure. Dusty had also used the Sadie excuse, but when he’d used it, there had been some sincerity along with the slight twang in his voice.

Dusty was genuinely worried about her. So was Baker. But she wasn’t the reason he drove out to the ranch that afternoon. And despite how attracted he was to Taye, he wasn’t even here because of her. He was here because of what she’d said, though, about doing whatever she could to help the boys.

He wanted to do that, too. And he wasn’t so stubborn or vain to think that he was right and everyone else was wrong. He just had a feeling that he was probably going to prove that they were. But in case he was the one who was wrong, he had to do what he could. Anything he could to help them...even if he had to relive that crash again. What he hated more than that was making the boys relive it again.

Dread had wound a tight knot in his stomach, so tight that he had no desire to eat. Until he stepped inside the house. Even though he used the front door this time, he could smell the aroma of cinnamon and vanilla. There was probably an apple pie in the oven or maybe a cobbler. Under that fresher scent was the heavy richness of meat loaf and roasted vegetables. And the dread in his stomach uncurled as hunger growled, like Feisty when she was tugging on the leg of Jake’s jeans. She never tugged on Baker’s jeans like that, probably because he never tried to ignore her like Jake did. When the longhaired Chihuahua ran up to him now, he stooped and patted her little head and back. She wagged her tail in greeting and then pranced off down the hall toward the kitchen.

He’d heard before that the kitchen was the heart of the home, but the kitchen in this home had never really been like that. Grandma would have rather been out riding than cooking, so meals around the ranch had always been quick and simple, usually microwaved. It wasn’t until Taye had come to work here that everybody had started hanging out in the kitchen, where even the routine meals seemed like a party, with everyone sitting down and talking long after the food was eaten. Not that he’d attended many meals, besides the parties, at the main house in the weeks he’d spent here.

He’d been staying away because of her, because of them, but now he was drawn here for the same reasons.

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