Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,52

and looked back into the kitchen. “I want that giveaway,” he said. “Her dad used to do them, and he gave out envelopes of money.”

Jess smiled, but deep down, she didn’t think Ginger would do that. Hope Eternal was thriving now, but not to the point where she could just give away everything.

Her attention wandered until the last five minutes, when both Nate and Ginger went into narration mode. Finally, the last second ticked away, and both Emma and Spence had put their plates on the front of the island. They hugged, both of them laughing, and went to stand beside their plate of food.

“Judges,” Ginger announced, putting the big bowl of folded papers between the plates. Jess had not been called to judge yet, but anyone could taste the food once the winner was declared. That was how she’d gotten half of that perfectly fried mashed potato cake. Her stomach rumbled for lunch, and she hoped she’d get called to judge now.

Ginger pulled out the first name. “Nick.”

He whooped and bolted to his feet. Jess already knew who he was going to vote for, and he hadn’t even tasted the food yet. She shook her head and dutifully clapped as Nick made his way to the front of the room as if he’d already won a huge prize.

“Missy,” Ginger called, and Jess saw the votes get tied up.

Spence started to protest, but Ginger silenced him with a look. She pulled the last name out of the bowl, and read, “Jess.”

Surprise and dread moved through her, and she stood up. Everyone watched her walk to the front and pick up a fork.

“What do you have?” Nate asked Emma.

“This is a turkey cordon bleu,” she said. “With a slightly sweet cranberry gravy sauce, twice-fried potato cubes, and a sweet potato glaze.”

Jess looked at the beautiful plate of food. The turkey had been rolled in dried stuffing crumbs, which was pretty ingenious in Jess’s opinion. She wasn’t sure about the cranberry gravy, but the moment she put a bite of the meat, cheese, ham, and sauce in her mouth, she was sold.

The potato cubes practically melted in her mouth, and they had a burst of cheese inside them too. The glaze on the outside of them was almost crispy, producing a soft and hard texture that Jess really liked.

Nick liked it too, she could tell.

“Spence?” Ginger asked.

“I’ve got a turkey pie,” he said. That was it. It was actually in a pie plate, with whipped mashed potatoes that looked like buttercream frosting. When he cut into it, Jess found he’d used the stuffing for the crust, and layered turkey over that. The whole thing was covered in gravy, cranberries, and then the potatoes.

It certainly wasn’t as inventive or as sophisticated as Emma’s. It did taste good, though.

Jess conferred with Missy and Nick, and they voted the way she expected them to. They both looked at her while Ginger said, “Judges?”

She stepped back in front of the crowd. Nick said, “Spencer,” and the crowd went wild.

“Emma,” Missy said, and more cheering met Jess’s ears.

Silence draped the kitchen then, and Jess rather liked the power she held in her hand. She looked at Emma, then Spencer, then Nick.

She couldn’t help herself, and she had to vote with her conscience. She opened her mouth and said, “Emma.”

The room erupted, both with happy cowboys and cowgirls, and unhappy ones. Jess shrugged at Nick and went to tell Spence his food was really good. He was good-natured about it, and others came up to sample the food too.

Jess slipped away after that, as she had a date she needed to get ready for. Dallas hadn’t said what time he’d come to get her, and her texts to ask him went unanswered. They’d gone to dinner right after work in the past. Sometimes later at six-thirty or seven.

Jess didn’t panic at five. Or six. By seven, when she’d been ready for over two hours and had a dozen unread texts out to Dallas, her annoyance with the man had grown wings and taken flight.

“Don’t text him again,” she told herself in the quiet stillness of her own room. “Don’t call him. He has eyes.”

At the same time, she worried that something bad had happened to him or the children. Perhaps they’d gotten in a car accident. Perhaps they’d been delayed due to traffic or a freeway closure.

Her mind went round and round, and she got up to match her body movement to the way her brain couldn’t settle.