Have Honeymoon, Need Husband

скачать книгу бесплатно


Josie knew Consuela was waiting for an explanation. “I was exhausted. I’d lain awake most of the night before, wondering if I wasn’t about to make a terrible mistake.”

Surprise flickered across Consuela’s broad face as she set down the rolling pin. “You didn’t love this man you almost married.”

Josie liked the matter-of-fact way she spoke the words, with no condemnation or judgment. “No.”

The large woman cocked her head to the side, her brow furrowed. “So why were you going to marry him?”

Josie sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, cradling the coffee cup in her palms, and gazed at Consuela. Her face was open and kind, and Josie decided to answer honestly. “Good question.”

“Did you think you loved him?” the older woman asked gently.

“I wasn’t sure.” Josie curled her fingers around the warm mug and searched for the right words. “Robert works for my father, and he seemed to be everything a woman could want—smart, handsome, charming, on his way to becoming a big success. My three older sisters considered him a real prize, and my parents adored him. My family was so crazy about him that when I told them he’d proposed, they didn’t even ask me what my answer was. They just immediately began making wedding plans. Everyone seemed so certain it was the right thing for me to do that I just went along with it.”

“What were your feelings for him?”

Josie shrugged. “I liked him, I admired his intelligence, but beyond that…I didn’t know. How are people supposed to feel if they’re in love? Surely not everyone sees fireworks or rainbows.” The memory of how she’d felt last night with Luke flashed through her mind, but she quickly shoved the thought aside. That had been nothing more than a reaction to the champagne and an emotionally charged state, she reasoned. “The bottom line is I didn’t know if I loved Robert or not because I didn’t know what love was supposed to feel like.”

Consuela’s eyes were sympathetic and knowing. “If you were really in love, you wouldn’t have had any question. You would have just known.”

Josie lifted her coffee cup and took a sip. “Well, there’s one thing I know now—I’m awfully glad the wedding was called off. I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.”

“That’s a sure sign you made the right decision.” Consuela turned back to the biscuits. “You were fortunate. Luke wasn’t so lucky.”

“What do you mean?” Josie asked.

“He was engaged to the wrong person, too, but he went ahead and married her. He and Cheryl were married only two months before she left.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Five years.” Consuela arranged the biscuits on a baking sheet. “I keep telling that man he needs to get a wife.”

For some reason the thought of Luke with another woman made Josie’s stomach clench. “Does he have any prospects?”

Josie had tried to keep her voice casual, but Consuela’s bright, dark eyes seemed to see right through her. The woman gave a small, Mona Lisa smile. “No. I think he’s— what’s the phrase? Goon-shy.”

Josie smiled. “I think you mean gun-shy.”

Consuela grinned back. “Maybe both, no?”

Josie laughed and nodded, all the while wondering why the information should make her stomach flutter. Uneasy at the way the housekeeper was scrutinizing her, she set down her coffee cup and pushed off the counter, anxious to change the topic.

“Do you do all the cooking here yourself? Don’t you have any help?”

Consuela shook her head as she opened one of the double ovens and pulled out a tray of cinnamon rolls. She set them on a wire rack to cool, then slid the biscuits in to bake. “Ever since the last lodge manager left, we’ve had staffing trouble. Two girls are supposed to help in the kitchen in the mornings, but…” Consuela shrugged. “Sometimes they come late, sometimes they don’t come at all. The evening shift is better, but not much. And the ladies who clean the guest rooms—” Consuela rolled her eyes “—it’s a nightmare. Two quit last week. Mr. Luke has advertised for replacements, but for the time being, our hands are short.”

Suppressing a smile, Josie took off her jacket, draped it over a chair and pushed up her sleeves. “I’d love to help. What can I do?”

Consuela shook her head. “Oh, no. You’re a guest! You’re here to relax, not to work.”

“I’m not the type who enjoys sitting around and twiddling my thumbs,” Josie insisted. She moved to the large, stainless steel sink and began washing her hands. “Besides, I worked as an assistant to the chef when I was taking a hotel training program and I’m pretty handy in a kitchen. I’ve missed it.” Josie pointed to a bag of potatoes on the counter. “Let me guess. These need to be washed and peeled for hash browns.”

“Yes, but…”

Josie pulled a potato scrubber out of a ceramic jar of implements, located a large empty bowl on the counter and dove into the task before Consuela could mount a protest. “I got the impression last night that Luke isn’t too fond of the guest part of the guest ranch,” Josie said as a diversion.

Consuela nodded and scooped some softened butter into a bowl. “He didn’t want his father to build the lodge. They had a big argument, and Luke left the ranch. He only came back when his father was dying.” Consuela’s eyes grew sorrowful. “It was Mr. O’Dell’s corazon—his heart, God rest his soul.” She genuflected and gave a heavy sigh. “Now Luke has to run the lodge, and he hates it more than ever. He thinks his father worked himself to death over it. And it reminds him of the argument.”

“Why does he keep it open?”

“He has to, for the ends to make the meat.”

“I think you mean ‘for ends to meet.’”

“Si.” Consuela nodded as she added powdered sugar and vanilla to the butter. “Mr. O’Dell mortgaged the ranch to build the lodge. Now Luke has to operate it to make the payments.” She poured in heavy cream, then picked up a wooden spoon and stirred the ingredients together. “He’s hired professional managers, but none of them have lasted more than a couple of months.”

“Why not?”

“The first one was dishonest. The second one was—how do you say it?—incontinent.”

Josie grinned. “Incompetent?”

“Si. The last one said there was no chance for advancement, and he took another job. That was over a month ago, and we’re having a hard time finding a replacement.” Consuela drizzled the freshly made icing over the cinnamon buns. “In the meantime, Luke’s wearing both hats.”

Josie was about to ask another question when the door pushed open and there Luke stood, his frame filling the doorway, holding one of those hats in his hand. It was a brown Stetson, and it looked as worn as his faded jeans and denim jacket. The sight of him made the butterflies she’d felt earlier metamorphose into bat wings.

Luke froze in the doorway as his eyes met hers. A nerve worked in his jaw. “I thought you’d be on your way back to Tulsa by now to kiss and make up.”

Josie forced herself to continue calmly peeling the potato in her hand. “Why would you think a thing like that?”

“Because your fiancé called last night, and these little lovers’ tiffs have a way of working themselves out.”

“Wrong on three counts.” Josie dropped the peeled potato into the bowl and picked up another spud, trying hard to hide the fact her pulse was unaccountably racing. “Robert is my ex-fiancé. And it wasn’t a tiff.”

“That’s two. What’s the third?”

Josie felt the color rise in her cheeks as she attacked the potato. For the life of her, she didn’t want him to know how he rattled her. She tried to keep her voice cool, her tone offhanded. “We were never lovers, either.”

Luke had surmised as much from their conversation last night, but he took an unexplained pleasure in hearing her say it. Not that it mattered to him, Luke thought. It made no difference to him either way.

It bothered him, though, to see her act as if the whole thing were over and done with—as if she had no feelings for the guy at all. He’d seen this behavior before. From his experience, the more a woman insisted she didn’t care for a man, the more she actually did.

He tossed his hat on the seat of a ladder-back chair by the wall and shoved his hands in his pockets. “He must have meant something to you, if you were going to marry him.”

“Her family pushed her into the engagement,” Consuela chimed in. “She didn’t really love him.”

Startled, Luke jerked around to find Consuela on the opposite side of the kitchen, watching the exchange with undisguised interest. He’d been so focused on Josie he hadn’t even registered the fact the housekeeper was in the room.

True to form, Consuela had wasted no time getting the inside scoop, Luke thought wryly. Hard to believe she’d fallen for Josie’s I-never-loved-the-guy routine, though. She was usually so shrewd about these things.