A Cowgirl's Secret - By Laura Marie Altom Page 0,35
Get down and dirty. Muck a few stalls.” Luke put the car in gear and aimed it down the drive. “I’ve got a couple feed buckets with grain in them that need cleaning. They got wet during that rain we had the other night and I haven’t had time to scrub ’em. The feed most likely soured. Might have a few maggots in it.”
“I love maggots!” Kolt declared. “They sound way more fun than stupid church.”
“What do you think, Mom?” The way Luke referred to her made Daisy inordinately happy. Truthfully, she’d enjoy nothing more than a lazy Sunday morning spent watching her guys work. “Sounds like a great idea. You get out of being kissed and hugged and Luke gets chores done. It’s a win-win.”
Especially for her!
“Only what would you think, bud, if we leave your mom here. I don’t think she’ll be much good to us if we’re doing man work.”
“Yeah,” Kolt said as Luke backed up the Jeep. “Mom doesn’t do good dirty work.”
“If it’s all right with you,” Luke said to Daisy, “after we finish up, I’ll probably take Kolt over to my folks’ for Sunday lunch.”
“Um, sure,” Daisy said past the lump in her throat. Was Luke really so opposed to spending time with her even in a casual, family-oriented way? Opening her door when Luke pulled up to the porch stairs, she gave the guys as cheerful a wave as she could muster, considering she’d just been voted out of their club. “Have fun.”
“We will!” Kolt was already diving for the front seat as Luke drove away.
For the longest time Daisy stood there, watching them go, trying to convince herself she wasn’t feeling stuck in a pit of gloomy despair.
So what if her boys didn’t want to be with her? She was already dressed for church, so she’d tag along with her mother. Then they’d have a gloriously civilized lady’s lunch. And then, nice and full from far too many carbs, Daisy would fling herself across her bed and cry herself to sleep.
“LOOKS GOOD,” KOLT’S DAD SAID, nodding at the lawn the boy had just mowed, “but you’ve got some clumpy parts that need to be raked.”
“I’ve never raked in my life,” Kolt whined. “And it’s hot.”
“Yup.” While Kolt worked on the lawn, his dad got to have all the fun with the hose and maggots. “The rake’s hanging on the barn tool rack. Grab it when you put the mower back where it goes. That wheelbarrow alongside the front porch would be a good place for you to put the grass clippings. Then you can dump it all in the compost bin.”
“You’re making me into a slave.”
“You’ll survive. When I was your age, I had to mow a yard twice this size every week.”
When Kolt got back from the barn, it was like a million degrees hotter. He drank some of the ice water his dad had brought out, but it didn’t help much in cooling him off. “Did your dad help?”
“Nope,” Luke said. “The whole thing was my responsibility. It was tough, but when I finished, it felt good seeing it look so nice. Once you figure out how doing chores is actually important instead of boring, they won’t seem so hard.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” The rake was about eighteen cajillion feet taller than Kolt and he kept accidentally hitting himself in his leg. The spiky parts hurt.
“It means one of these days, when you have a family and house of your own, you’ll be glad you learned how to do all of this stuff.”
“Oh.” Kolt supposed that made sense. Not that he ever wanted to get married, because girls were just gross. “Luke?”
“Yeah?” his dad answered, using a second rake to work alongside him.
“Did you want a kid?”
“Very much. Ever since I grew up, I’ve wanted a son. That’s why I was sad that your mom kept you a secret.”
“I know.” Kolt rested his forehead on the rake’s handle. “I don’t get why she didn’t just tell me about you when I was a baby. And now she says I have to stay away from Henry and that Uncle Dallas kicked him off the ranch. But that doesn’t seem right. He was nice to me.”
“Maybe so.” His dad didn’t take a break. “But I’m pretty sure you need to follow her directions. People aren’t always as nice as they seem.”
“Okay.” Not wanting to look like a lazy little kid, Kolt had raked and raked until his arms felt