Page 21 of My Cowboy Freedom
“I don’t know what’s going on in the boss’s head lately. First all this business with Andi. And he’s hiring ex-cons now? Times are hard for honest folk. We don’t even know what this Brody did—”
“He said—” Too late, I realized what Sky told me would not help my case. “He’s done his time. I think we should let him settle in here before we make up our minds about him.”
At the sound of a truck pulling up behind the ranch house I looked out the window over the old farm sink.
“Boss is back.”
“Oh, mercy.” Elena hung the dishrag on its plastic suction hook and—in a move so quick and uncharacteristically feminine I believe I must have imagined it—she patted her sleek dark hair into place. “Is he alone?”
I eyed her. “Yes.”
She sighed. “Then I guess I’ll go watch television.”
“Wait.” I blocked the kitchen doorway so she couldn’t retreat to our rooms without looking at me. “Are you expecting someone else?”
“What?” She lifted her chin. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You are! You fussed with your hair.I saw you. Spilleverything. Who is it?”
“What is this, a Lifetime movie? That’s so nineteen-hundred-and-late.”Her face turned bright red.“You’re smoking locoweed,m’hijo.”
“So it’s true. You didn’t deny it, so it’s true!” I crowed at her. “You’d best have your young man come up to the house sometime so me and the boss can give him the third degree.”
“Who do I need to give the third degree?” Sterling Chandler came in through the back door. He hung his hat on a peg just inside and stood there, hands on his hips.
I said, “Elena has a—”
“Tell him and I’ll end you,” Elena hissed at me. “I mean it.”
“Elena’s got a beau.”
Elena’s mortification didn’t deter me one single bit. Sterling Chandler, whose big-as-Texas presence seemed to fill the whole kitchen, turned to her in mute surprise.
“Oh really?”
“Knock it off,” she warned. “It’s none of your beeswax.”
I grinned. “Not true. Me and the boss have to make sure he’s got honorable intentions. Don’t we?”
“We do, but after supper. I’m starving.” Chandler tried to take the too-hot plate from the oven without hot pads. Huffing a light curse, he backed away. “Goddamnit. I always forget you keep these plates in here to keep the food warm.”
“Language.” Elena’s brows crept into her hairline. Chandler rarely forgot himself in front of her. She opened the drawer next to the stove. “The hot pads are right here, where they’ve always been.”
He picked out a mitt and managed to carry the plate far enough to drop it on the table without spilling. Elena went to the icebox to get him a beer.
“How was the drive?” she asked.
“Have you heard anything from Andi?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Sorry.” Elena shook her head. “Not yet.”
Chandler accepted the news that his daughter hadn’t called with an unhappy grunt. Andrea hadn’t set foot in the house since she and her dad had their big set-to a couple of weeks before.
The boss’s feelings were hurt along with his pride. But his pride was what would win out. Unfortunately, Andi was an apple who’d fallen right under the tree, and she had a ton of pride too.
He took off his Stetson and rolled up his sleeves to wash.
“Andi’s just mad,” I said. “She’ll come back around after a while.”
