The Cowboy's Lady. Carolyne Aarsen

waved off her comment.

      “Maybe, but I’m not getting into that fight with her,” he said. He had to save his ammunition for bigger battles. Like trying to find a way to spend quality time with his sister, getting his work done and keeping her away from the single cowboys on this ranch.

      Once again he wished his parents had sent his sister somewhere else. He didn’t have time to take care of her properly.

      “Did you have breakfast?” Vivienne asked.

      “Just got here in time to hear the men grumbling. Again. About the food you made.”

      Her smile dropped away into a frown and he felt like smacking himself on the head. That came out all wrong, but something about her tangled his thoughts, which plugged up his conversational filter.

      “What could the men possibly be groping about now?” she said. “I made a simple breakfast, like you told me. Bread pudding, of all things.” She balled her hands into fists and dropped them onto her hips. “Those ungrateful louses. I spent a lot of time on that breakfast.”

      “From the sounds of their grumbling, you might have been better off with porridge packs.”

      “Porridge packs? What are you talking about?”

      Cody shook his head, trying to comprehend the fact that this fancy, New York chef didn’t understand one of the staples of breakfast out on the trail. “You boil the water. You rip open the porridge packet. You put the two together in a bowl. Stir and eat.”

      Vivienne made a face as if he had suggested she use mud. “You can’t be serious. I actually know which ingredients go into the food I cook. None of that butylated hydroxytoluene added to packaging material to preserve freshness.”

      “What?”

      “Never mind.” Vivienne held up her hand. “Work joke.”

      “What I am serious about is you doing what I ask. You’ve cooked two meals for my guys, and both times they’ve bombed. Even old Stimpy Stevens didn’t have that bad a track record.”

      Vivienne pulled back as if he had hit her. “But … I …” She pressed her lips together and turned away.