A Cowboy in the Kitchen (4 page)

He thought about all those women coming by, in the first couple of months after Lorna died, with casseroles and offers to cook for him. There'd been innuendo and flat-out invitations. More than a few times he'd taken up those invitations, needing to forget, to be taken out of himself. And more than a few times he'd failed Lucy. One time he'd been in a woman's bed when he was supposed to pick up Lucy early from school for a dentist appointment, but the woman had made him forget himself so well he forgot his own daughter. Another time Lucy had been calling him over and over on the phone from Lorna's parents' house, where she was sleeping over, to tell him she lost a tooth, her first, but he'd shut the ringer so no one could interrupt him while a stranger with big breasts was naked beside him.

The next morning, the look of absolute disdain and disappointment on Raina Dunkin's face had said it all.
A father, especially a
widowed father
, needs to be reachable at all times, West
, she'd practically spit at him. But it was the look on Lucy's face, with one of her bottom front teeth gone, the
where were you, Daddy? I tried to call you like one million times
that had made him vow that was it. No more women. No more whiskey. No more hiding from his life. He'd focus on his daughter.

So beautiful women with long red hair and dark brown eyes, who made him want to rip off their loose jeans and white button-down shirts, women like Annabel Hurley, just couldn't go around casually touching his hand while slicing mushrooms.

“Daddy, I think Daisy ate my silver crayon,” Lucy called from the living room. “She's choking!”

West rushed into the living room, where Daisy was sputtering a bit, trying to get something out of her mouth and pushing on her teeth with her paw.

“Daddy, is Daisy okay?” Lucy asked, hazel eyes worried.

“Well, let's see if we can help her,” he said, kneeling beside Daisy and opening the beagle's mouth, where half a crayon was wedged in her back teeth. “Daisy, that couldn't possibly have tasted good,” he said, shaking his head and trying to pop up the flattened, bitten crayon. Finally out it came. As the smell of something burning wafted into the living room, Daisy stood up and spit out the other half of the crayon.

Damn it, the French toast!
It would be burned to a crisp by now.

The doorbell rang just as West was rushing back into the kitchen, so he quickly shut off the burner, then noticed he'd left the bag of bread too close to the burner; part of it started to cinder. He threw that in the sink and stood there for a moment, hands braced on the counter, wishing his headache away.

“Daddy, the doorbell rang again,” Lucy called out just as the smoke alarm started blaring.

“Lucy, it's Nana and Pop-Pop,” he heard Raina's shrill voice call out. “Come open the door, sweetheart.”

Oh, hell.

He quickly tried to fan the smoke from the alarm with a magazine, then hurried into the living room, where Raina and Landon glared at him.

“
What
is that burning smell?” Raina said, barreling in and heading for the kitchen. West could hear her shoving up the kitchen window, and in a few moments, the alarm stopped its beeping. Raina was back in the living room in seconds, holding the charred bag of bread. “Blackened bread is in a pan on the stove. This burned bag was in the sink, and the kitchen is all smoky, which can seriously hurt developing lungs. God, West.”

“We had a mergency with Daisy because she ate my crayon,” Lucy said, holding up the flattened sliver for her nana.

“Even the dog isn't safe in this house,” Landon said, shaking his silver-gray head at West as he took the crayon from Lucy. “I'll make sure this ends up in the garbage so there isn't another ‘mergency.'”

“I heard Lucy was at the doctor today,” Raina said as she went over to Lucy to examine her leg. She peeled back the bandage and added her own head shake at the nasty cut. He watched Raina's gaze take in Lucy's torn purple leggings, the scrape on her arm, the knot clumping together a cluster of ringlets on the left side of her head, the dirt smudge on her cheek.

“I fell out of the tree today,” Lucy said proudly, sticking out her injured leg.

“Oh, I can see that,” Raina said, shooting a death stare at West. “Lucy, can you go play in your room?” she added through gritted teeth. “Grandpa and I need to talk to your father.”

When Lucy left, Raina lowered her voice. “You leave me no choice, West. We've given you a year to get your act together. But you're unfit to parent Lucy alone. Landon and I will be filing for custody. This was the final straw.” She held up a hand. “Don't bother to defend yourself,” she said, and then they swept out.

West dropped down on the sofa, his head in his hands.
No one
was taking his daughter away from him. But how would he fight the Dunkins when a lot of circumstantial evidence said he wasn't exactly father of the year?

“Daddy, is the French toast ready? I'm starving,” Lucy said as she burst out of her room. “Hey, where's Nana and Pop-Pop?” she asked, looking around.

Keep it together for Lucy
, he ordered himself.
The Dunkins aren't taking your girl away. They can't.
He'd figure it out, he'd fight them, he'd...do whatever he had to do.

He sucked in a breath and let it out. “They had to get home. You know what, Lucy? Even Daisy wouldn't eat the burned French toast. How about dinner at Hurley's, just the two of us? Go wash your hands, sweetcakes.”

As Lucy grinned and ran to wash up, West felt a slow snake of cold fear slither up his spine. Could the Dunkins prove he was unfit? He was a better father now than he was in the terrible first month after Lorna's death, when Lucy didn't quite understand where her mother was, but had two sets of doting grandparents. He'd let them do what he should have done—been there for his daughter. Then his parents moved away...and he'd lost them too—permanently. Instead of focusing on being a good dad to Lucy, he'd drank too much and spent too many nights with women, trying to make himself forget who and what he was. A man very much alone who had no idea how to be a good father.

He would not lose his daughter. No matter what he had to do.

Chapter Three

A
ccording to Clementine, at 6:30 p.m., prime dinnertime, every table at Hurley's Homestyle Kitchen should be taken, a line of folks waiting on the porch, where waiters would circulate with complimentary sweet tea and Gram's beloved smoked and spiced nuts. Now, at that exact hour, she and Clementine glanced around the dining room, Annabel worrying her lower lip and Clementine furious.

“This is how everyone supports Gram after fifty years? By staying home because she's ill and not doing the cooking?” Clementine asked, shaking her head.

“Well, Gram is Gram,” Annabel said, watching through the back window as Olivia Piedmont and her husband craned their necks into the kitchen, saw Gram's assistant cook, Hattie, and her helper, Harold, and then pointed across the street to the Sau Lin's Chinese Noodle Shop. Not that Annabel wanted to take business away from Sau Lin's, which had been around a long time too, but Hattie had been cooking beside Gram for thirty years. And now here was Annabel, who'd learned to shred chicken and create a killer barbecue sauce by the time she was eight.

Five of the fifteen tables were taken. Five. And when Lindy, one of the waitresses, rolled out the dessert cart to tables two and four, only one person ordered a piece of the special chocolate fudge pie.

Every day that continued like this meant Hurley's Homestyle Kitchen would be in big trouble within two months. Tonight, after the cooking lesson, Annabel would spend some time coming up with an idea to bring in business. That was the constant talk at staff meetings at the three restaurants where Annabel had worked in Dallas—everything was about retaining patrons and bringing in new ones. But here in Blue Gulch, there wasn't exactly the same competition to study as there had been in Dallas. If people quit Hurley's because the best cook in the world was no longer doing the cooking, all the initiative in Texas wouldn't help.

Annabel would just have to up her game and try, try, try. A menu board listing the delectable specials outside. A Facebook page with photos that would have mouths watering. A new children's corner with games and toys and mats and maybe Annabel could hire a sitter for the section. She felt a little better already.

Except when Danielle Tolliver and her Tuesday night book club meeting got up to leave, Annabel overheard Danielle whisper to one of the women that the chicken-fried steak's gravy just wasn't the same.

Annabel had made that gravy. Maybe it had too much Dallas in it, not enough Blue Gulch. She had to remember she was home now, that people like old-fashioned, good food, not newfangled spices in thinner sauce. No one was counting fat grams at Hurley's.

Deep breath taken, Annabel was about to head back into the kitchen when she froze, her heart speeding up, unable to take her eyes off the man who'd just walked through the door of the restaurant. West Montgomery. He held his little girl's hand. Clementine walked over with a smile and led them to a table overlooking the hill out back with its wildflowers.

Annabel should go over and say hello and thank him—he must have gotten up early and silently gone to work on the Hurley's Homestyle Kitchen sign, because the sign was freshly painted and the loose cobblestones fixed. A man of his word. Instead she waved, then scurried into the kitchen, her reaction to the sight of West, the gorgeousness of him, scaring the bejesus out of her.

Hattie was on the grill, her assistant, elderly Harold, on sides and salads. Annabel was helping both of them and in charge of sauces and kitchen management, and was trying her best to become a better baker. When Clementine came with the Montgomery order—roast beef po'boy for West and a children's mac and cheese for Lucy—Hattie was so busy with a special-ordered fish that Annabel took care of West's and Lucy's orders.

She was making their dinner. Which felt very...domestic. A fantasy poked in her head about what it would be like to live with West and Lucy. A thought she forced out of her head. West had hurt her so bad seven years ago that she wasn't sure she'd ever let herself fall in love again. Granted, he'd been a grieving mess that night and she shouldn't blame him too harshly, but she couldn't help it. He'd put a halt to things with her, then had been doing the same things with Lorna Dunkin out in the open, not caring if she saw them or not.

That was who West was; she had to remember that. People always showed you who they were loud and clear, right? That was what Gram always said. So why did West not seem like a thoughtless jerk? She peered through the little window on the door to the dining room and caught West helping Lucy color on her children's place mat. That wasn't a sign of a jerk.

She thought of herself at eighteen, alone and lonely and out of her element in Dallas, trying so hard to fit in and eventually succeeding while feeling...empty. Now she was back home where she belonged and she wasn't about to let herself want West Montgomery again. No matter how many cobblestones he fixed or how many times he played thumb war with his daughter at Annabel's favorite table in Hurley's. No matter how much she wanted to join them.

The moment she peered out the window into the dining room, West happened to see her and waved her over. She was covered in gravy stains and had flour in her hair, but such was the life of a cook.

She weaved her way through the tables, smiling at the Henry family, catching one of the waiters' eyes to refill water on table three, and stopped in front of West and his daughter's table.

She kneeled down beside Lucy. “Hi, I'm Annabel Hurley. I'm one of the cooks here. I hope you liked your macaroni and cheese.” Considering there was only a scrape of cheese left in the bowl, she felt safe putting the girl on the spot.

“It was really good,” Lucy said. “We were going to have French toast, but it burned because Daisy ate my crayon.”

“Long story,” West said, ruffling his daughter's hair. “Want to split a piece of chocolate layer cake?” he asked Lucy. “That looks amazing,” he added, upping his chin at the delectable dessert heading over to another table.

“Yes!” Lucy said. “With whipped cream and a cherry on top.”

“She wants everything to be like a sundae,” West pointed out.

Annabel smiled at the adorable girl. “How would you like to come into the kitchen and help me make your sundae cake?”

The girl slid out of her chair. “Yes!”

Lucy slid her hand into hers, the sweet gesture poking at her heart. West glanced at their hands and smiled at Annabel, following them into the kitchen.

After introductions to Hattie and Harold, Annabel led Lucy to the dessert table, holding three chocolate layer cakes, four kinds of pie and a big plate of butter cookies. Annabel sliced a piece of cake, then brought Lucy over to the walk-in refrigerator, where the girl spun around with her mouth open.

“I'm in a refrigerator!” she exclaimed.

Annabel laughed and pointed out the tub of whipped cream, which she put in Lucy's outstretched hands, and then they headed back to the dessert table. Annabel handed her a scoop, and Lucy dug in and released a perfect mound of whipped cream on the cake. “Now for the cherry so it's a real cake sundae.” Annabel held out a basket of cherries.

Lucy grinned and grabbed one by the stem, then carefully, her little pink tongue sticking out in concentration, placed it just so in the center of the whipped cream.

“We'd better let Ms. Hurley get back to work,” West said, mouthing a thank-you to Annabel. “What do you say, sweetheart?”

“Thank you, Ms. Hurley,” Lucy said.

Annabel kneeled down and smiled at her. “You can call me Annabel. And you're very welcome. Enjoy your cake, but remember to save some for your dad.”

Tongue sticking out in concentration again, Lucy carefully carried the plate in two hands out of the kitchen to her table.

West looked at Annabel for a long moment, then seemed to realize he had an audience—Hattie and her assistant, Harold—and cleared his throat. “See you later at my place,” he said before disappearing through the door. He was back in a heartbeat. “For the cooking lesson,” he added, throwing a glance at Hattie and Harold.

Hattie could barely contain her big laugh while Harold smiled down at the potato chowder he was ladling into a bowl.

Annabel felt her cheeks warm but couldn't help the chuckle. Yet as she thought about being alone with West Montgomery in his house, in his kitchen, standing shoulder to shoulder at the counter, the chuckle was replaced by honest-to-goodness fear.

How did you stop yourself from falling for someone you'd never gotten over to begin with?

* * *

When the last table at Hurley's was cleared and the Open sign on the front door turned over, Annabel headed into the kitchen and cleaned up her station, the gloppy congealed lumps of white gravy that had fallen to the floor a particular pain in the neck. She was about to start on Hattie's grill section when Clementine took the heavy-duty sponge out of her hand.

“I know West Montgomery is waiting on you at his house, so go ahead. I'll take care of the cleanup.”

Annabel squeezed her sister's hand in thanks. “That's okay. You were on your feet all night, just like I was. I'll do it.”

“Go ahead,” Clementine said, glancing at the clock at the wall—it was just past 9:00 p.m. “I don't have a hunky guy waiting for private cooking lessons.” Clementine stared out the window for a long moment, her expression changing, and again, Annabel wondered what was up with her private younger sister.

“Clem, is everything okay? You can talk to me. You know that.”

“I'm okay, I promise. Just got some stuff on my mind that a good round of cleaning will help me work out. Go.” She pointed at the door. “Oh, wait. Maybe go after you wash the barbecue sauce out of your hair. And there's a small piece of fried chicken on your shoe.”

Annabel hugged her sister—tight. She loved Clementine to pieces, but getting her to open up was like yanking teeth.

“I tried Georgia again on my break earlier,” Clementine said, “but I got her voice mail, as usual. I know she left the message saying she couldn't come home just yet and was sorry, but what could be keeping her in Houston? What could be more important than Gram and Hurley's?”

“Something must be going on,” Annabel said. She and Clementine had spent the past two nights trying to think of what that could be, but they were at a loss. The past few months, Georgia, a vice president of some fancy company, had been keeping to herself, checking in now and then with either Gram, Annabel or Clementine by phone or text and saying very little about her life. But not to come home now? Georgia was smart and strong, so Annabel had assured Clementine and their grandmother that Georgia must have a good reason for staying away and they'd just have to trust in her that she was doing the right thing for herself, even if it didn't make sense to family back home.

Trying to shift her worried thoughts from her older sister to the lunch recipes Annabel had made copies of and put in a folder for tonight's cooking lesson, Annabel headed upstairs to the third floor where the huge attic had long ago been turned into a bedroom for the three orphaned granddaughters Gram had taken in. Back then Essie Hurley had had the sections of the room painted in their favorite colors: lavender for Annabel, lemon yellow for Georgia and periwinkle blue for Clementine. Annabel's pale purple area with its white accents and fluffy pink blanket was just as she'd left it at eighteen. She picked up the photo of her parents, her beautiful mother and handsome, tall father, then another of the six Hurleys, Gram included, and took a deep breath. She stared at sixteen-year-old Georgia with her long sunlit brown hair and green eyes and hoped she was okay, wherever she was, whatever she was doing. Then she realized she had only twenty minutes to get to West's house. She stripped off her kitchen clothes, pulled on her old terry robe and took a quick, hot shower, her mind going to being in West's house, alone with him.

* * *

Annabel drove the ten miles out to West's ranch, the long paved drive lined with trees. The house came into view, and Annabel was surprised at how different the place was now. Instead of the run-down small home with peeling gray shingles that she remembered, the sprawling house was gleaming white in perfect condition with glossy black shutters and a red door, a wrought-iron weather vane with a rooster on the roof. A herd of cattle grazed in a dark pasture and another bunch was lined up in corrals, eating hay. Two geese waddled around, not bothered in the slightest by a big orange barn cat chasing a leaf in the evening breeze. West's silver pickup was along the side of the house, and by the front door was a red bike with training wheels and a three-wheeled silver scooter. The porch light illuminated the well-kept front yard and Annabel could see the long circular loop West had smoothed out for his daughter to ride. A tire swing with purple and white polka dots was tied on a big old oak, and nearby was a child-sized table and chairs, two big stuffed animals on the chairs and a tea set on the table.

Annabel's heart squeezed. She wondered if she'd ever have a little girl of her own. Over the past seven years she'd had only two relationships and both had failed miserably. Neither man had felt like...home, felt comfortable. But she'd tried, dating one for a month before he'd told her if they weren't going to have sex he'd have to move on. He'd moved on. The next man, a fellow chef, had smooth-talked his way into Annabel finally losing her virginity, but it turned out he'd been working his way through the female staff at the restaurant they both worked at, and she'd been the one to move on, to a new workplace but not a new relationship. She'd decided to avoid relationships, hoping maybe one day the right guy would cross her path and she'd know it and not have to force it, not have to try so damned hard.

Four years. Four years since she'd been kissed. Touched. Held. Four years of thinking back to that night in the hayloft with West, no one ever coming close to making her feel the way she had that night. In love. And as though she were on fire. As though she were beautiful and sexy. As though everything that made Annabel Hurley who she was blossomed brighter. She'd felt more herself that night with West, that hour, than she ever had before or since. Getting over his betrayal, the heartbreak, throwing herself into two bad relationships with men who didn't really care about her...she was better off alone, spending her evenings perfecting Gram's recipes and thinking up business initiatives for Hurley's. She would not let herself be drawn in by West, no matter how much her mind, heart and soul wanted him. He'd broken her once. That wasn't going to happen again. Her grandmother needed her—depended on her, especially now that Georgia was God knew where.