Mail Order Meals - Kirsten Osbourne Page 0,9
see he’d kept a relatively clean house, and she was pleased. Yes, there would be a big spring cleaning in her future, but she wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time getting rid of the dust first.
“Fine. But I’m going to watch you cook. Soon.”
How the man had managed to make watching her cook sound like something sordid, she wasn’t sure, but he had. He was truly a man who loved food. There was no doubt about that in her mind.
Chapter 3
Doug hadn’t eaten two bites of his supper before he turned to Trudie. “Will you marry me and cook for me all of my days?” His hand was over his heart, and he looked extremely earnest.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about missing out on a marriage proposal by being a mail order bride, do I? I’ll probably get one three meals a day for the rest of my life.”
“You definitely will. These pancakes are fluffier than any I’ve ever eaten. How did you make them so perfect?”
“I could show you, but I’m not sure it would do a lot of good,” she said with a smile.
“Probably not,” he said through his fourth bite of pancakes. He picked up his bacon and studied it. “There’s not one black spot. How do you do it?”
“I’m careful with the temperature and how long I leave the bacon on the stove. It’s really not that hard not to burn things.”
“I used to think that,” he said. “I either undercook everything or burn it to a crisp. There’s no in-between in my world.” He popped the bacon into his mouth and moaned aloud. “This food is all I need for the rest of my life. Will you make this for every meal?”
She took a sip of her milk, studying him over the top. “Do you have a spot cleared for the kitchen garden?” He was being ridiculous, and she wasn’t going to discuss the pancakes any longer. The praise was nice, but his praise was so lavish, she knew it couldn’t be true.
He shook his head. “I’ll plow a spot in the morning before I head out on the range. My foreman can tell the men what to do.”
“How many men do you have working for you?” Trudie asked.
“A dozen or so. My foreman hires them and manages them. He and I meet once a week, and we discuss how things need to be. I have a bunk house for them across the ranch from here.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “Will I be meeting these men?”
He shook his head adamantly. “Never. If you were old and ugly like I’d expected, I’d have let you meet them all, but you’re not, so you’ll have to be sequestered away in my home where no one can see you.”
Trudie didn’t bother to respond to that. The man was insane. She wasn’t sure Elizabeth had done a good thing by having her marry him, and she would soon write her sister a letter and tell her just that.
He sipped at his milk, watching her for a moment. “You’re sleeping with me tonight.”
She wanted to groan aloud. “I barely know you. How can you expect me to sleep with you? It’s simply not the way things should go between us.”
“Well, I still want to sleep with you. I won’t make love with you for a week, but you have to sleep with me every night, and I’ll be touching you some.” He hoped she wouldn’t notice if he started making love with her, but she was pretty bright. It might not work the way he wanted it to.
“You may touch me above the neck,” she said magnanimously. “There’s no need for you to touch anywhere else if we’re not making love yet.”
Doug frowned at her. “How about if I touch you only above the waist, and only on top of your nightgown? Since I want to make love tonight, and you don’t, I think we should compromise.”
Trudie was a bit disbelieving about the first supper conversation she was having with her husband. Her mother would be mortified. “Tonight, only above the neck. We’ll negotiate for where you can touch tomorrow night when the time comes.”
“So, we’re going to have to discuss my marital rights at every supper for a week? You choose to have odd meal-time conversations, Trudie.”
She was surprised he remembered her name and didn’t call her Meals. “I guess I do.”
She had finished eating, so she stood up and cleared everything but his