Page 21 of Cowboy and the Convict

Or maybe she would've made it faster. She’d barely made a dent in the kitchen, and already felt real fucking good over how much better it looked. Not much she'd done in her life made her feel good about herself, but right now she was genuinely accomplishing something. And once the counters and cabinets were done, she stood back and looked it all over, a little smile curving her lips at the difference she'd made.

An unexpected sound put a little damper on her happiness, and had her spinning toward the side door, sucking in a surprised breath as it swung open. Three young girls tumbled into the kitchen, stopping short when they saw her standing there. For a few long seconds, everyone stared at each other in silence, equally shocked at seeing someone else in the kitchen.

Finally, the oldest of the girls stepped forward, brows pinching together as her blue eyes snapped from the newly scrubbed cabinets and counters to where Janie stood. "I'm not complaining, but who are you and why are you cleaning our kitchen?"

Janie shifted on her feet, not quite sure how to respond. "Did your dad not tell you I was coming today?" Devon told her the girls would be gone for the afternoon, assuring her she would have the house to herself, but she'd assumed he'd let his daughters know someone was coming to clean their house.

The older girl shook her head. "No. He told us he was going to do some cleaning before he went to work today." She propped both hands on her hips. "That jerk was going to pretend like he'd been the one cleaning the house."

Janie checked her watch—pleasantly surprised to discover she’d remembered to charge it the night before. Somehow she'd accidentally worked an hour longer than she'd intended. "That is actually kind of hilarious." She shrugged. "And a little brilliant, honestly." She'd intended to lecture Devon over the state of his home when she saw him, but might as well get warmed up now. "Because this place was ridiculous. You three girls are old enough to clean up after yourselves." She crossed both arms over her chest. "Do you just drop things wherever you’re at and then forget they exist forever and ever?"

She wasn't their parent, but for the love of God. The least they could do was pick up their own fucking tissues after they blew their noses. Devon worked hard. It seemed like he was always working. And on the few days he wasn’t, she'd seen him driving these girls all over town. The man did everything he could to make sure they were loved and taken care of. The least they could do was—

She nearly stumbled back.

Holy fuck. She was defending Devon.

The middle daughter lifted her brows, and for a second, Janie thought she was going to argue back. Finally the girl gave her a sheepish grin. "It is pretty bad, huh?"

Janie threw her hands up. "It's fucking awful." She motioned at the bags each girl carried. "Go put those where they belong and come back here. There's no way I can clean this place on my own." She probably shouldn't be bossing his kids around, but it seemed like Devon might need a little help with that too.

And she was hella good at bossing people around.

Janie made a shooing motion with her hands. "Go. I don't have all night."

The girls glanced at each other a second before filing down the main hall. They paused at the closet just inside the door, glancing back her way before opening it. A rush of items rolled forward, piling onto the floor at their feet.

Janie's jaw dropped, but her next reaction came completely out of the blue. She threw her head back and started to laugh, feeling lighter than she had in—ever.

Because Devon Peters—lecturer of lecturers—was just as big of a fucking mess as she was. Only in the literal sense.

The youngest of his daughters leaned closer to her older sister, eyes wide. "I think she's lost it."

Janie wiped at the corner of one eye, pulling in air as she tried to get herself back under control. "Honey, I don't think I ever had it."

She snapped off her rubber gloves and moved to where they stood, shaking her head at the stack of crap they'd been piling up pretending it would never form an avalanche. "I guess I know what you girls are going to be doing tonight." She turned back toward the kitchen. "I'll get you some trash bags."

Collecting a bag from the kitchen, she shook it out as she walked down the hall, intending to pass the task of organizing the closet off to Devon's daughters, but it became clear this wasn't the kind of project they'd tackled before. So she stayed beside them, helping sort through the mess, separating everything out into manageable piles before deciding what needed to stay, and what needed to go. By the time they were hanging winter coats and backpacks into place, someone's stomach growled. Loudly.

Checking her watch again, Janie was shocked to see it was well after seven o'clock. "Are you girls hungry?"

"Starving." The youngest turned to her older sisters. "Can we order pizza?"

"Nope." Janie answered for her. "I just spent three hours going through all the food in your kitchen, so I know there’s plenty here to eat."

The youngest pushed out her lower lip in a pout. "You sound like our dad."

Janie curled her lip. "That was mean." She pointed at the remaining items left to be dealt with. "Why don't you three finish up here, and I’ll make some dinner."

She was sort of taking over, but Devon knew what he was getting himself into when he asked her to come here. At least he should have. If he hadn't already guessed she was the kind of woman who made shit happen, then that was his own stupid fault.

Carrying the three garbage bags worth of trash they pulled from the closet out to the deck, she left them there for Devon to deal with when he got home. Going into the somewhat cleaned kitchen, Janie went through the cabinets, pulling out two packages of macaroni and cheese, two cans of tuna, and then went to the freezer, fingers crossed she would find the last item she was looking for.

Devon had plenty of food, but most of it was snack items or ingredients. She could have gone through all of it and come up with something a little fancier than what she had in mind, but there was way more to do than worry about impressing these girls with her culinary skills. She decided to whip up one of her childhood favorites, hoping these kids would enjoy it too. As luck would have it, there was a bag of frozen peas on the top shelf, so she added it to her pile, carrying everything to the stove where she started a pot of water boiling.

As it heated, she grabbed a broom and swept the floor, dumping the collected pile into the trash just as the water bubbled. After adding the noodles, she started on the mail in the center of the table, separating out the junk and dropping it into the trash before draining the noodles and mixing all her items together. As she was stirring, all three girls filtered in, expressions curious as they peeked into the pot.

The middle daughter leaned over her shoulder. "What's that?"

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