The phone started to ring again, and Clayton groaned as he pressed kisses against her shoulder.
Lydia turned her head to look into Clayton’s half-lidded bedroom eyes. “Shouldn’t you get that? It must be important.”
She knew they needed to stop before things went much further. They had business to take care of and ranch hands that needed direction.
Clayton answered the phone, made a few monosyllabic responses, grunted once, and then hung up.
“Everything okay?”
“Gil had a question. What smells so good?”
As if on cue, the timer rang, and she replied, “That would be breakfast. Make yourselves a cup of coffee and I’ll serve it for you.” She smiled at Chance as he smooched her lips one more time. “I was wondering if it would be okay to make a snack or something for the ranch hands. I know I didn’t meet all of them last night. I thought it might be a nice way to say hello.”
“I’m sure they’d like that, Lydi. Around eight they usually take a quick break for a cup of coffee if you want to bring something then.”
“That’s perfect. My help arrives at nine so that will leave me plenty of time to be done and ready for her.”
Lydia served them both, taking a breath to steady her still rapidly pounding heart. Kissing two men just moments before had turned her into a quivering mass of need that was going to take a little time to settle.
“This is delicious, baby,” Chance said with an appreciative groan. Clayton agreed, and the men made quick work of breakfast, even having a second helping. It was nice to serve them and then be able to watch them enjoy her cooking instead of running around like a chicken with her head cut off at the café.
“Thank you. Can I ask a question?”
“Sure,” Chance replied.
“What will you tell the men about me? I guess what I’m asking is what my title is around here, as far as they are concerned.”
“They already know you’re here because we needed your skills in the kitchen. We told them that you were off-limits when one of them questioned it so we spelled it out for him.”
“Spelled it out?”
“We told the ranch hand you were ours. None of the others batted an eyelash when we said it. Remember I told you two of our ranch hands are involved in a foursome and are engaged now.”
“Oh. That’s right. So…what? You ‘claimed’ me?” she asked with a snicker.
Clayton seemed relieved by her words and replied, “Yeah. It was that or leave it open for them to draw their own conclusions. This way, it’s up front. No one should bother you.”
Chance added, “It also means word may make it into town faster.”
“Which translates into I need to call my nagging mother-hen brothers,” she said with a disgruntled tone. She rolled her eyes, imagining their reactions. Ace would blow a gasket, and Kemp would plan a painful accident. Poor Chance and Clayton. She really needed to make that call to the big oafs.
“You’ll do that?” Chance asked as he stroked her cheek.
“I will. I promise.”
They took their plates to the sink, and she shooed them away when they tried to clean up the breakfast mess. After refilling their coffee mugs they both kissed her again and went out the back door to start their morning.
Looking at the clock, she knew it was way too early to start her day with an interrogation from Ace, so she set about planning what she would make for the ranch hands as a morning snack. She mixed up yeast dough and set it on the back of the stove to rise.
She organized the tools that she and her new helper would need for that day’s work. After that was done, she prepared homemade kolaches for the men, figuring they would appreciate something hardy that needed nothing more than a napkin to eat it on.
One by one she pulled the hot, bread-dough-wrapped sausage rolls from the pan and heaped them in a dishcloth-lined basket and filled a thermos with fresh coffee for Chance and Clayton. Turning off the oven, she was positively eager to see the brothers again as she stepped lightly down the back porch stairs and followed the flagstone walkway back to the barn.
“Hello!” she called when she heard movement near the entry to the barn. One of the ranch hands came to the large entry and squinted at her. She ran through the list of names she’d memorized last night, based on where they sat at the table.
“Well, what can I do for you, darlin’?”
His suggestive tone took her a little by surprise, considering what Clayton had told her that morning. “Darlin’” seemed awfully familiar to be calling her, but she’d let him slide in case he wasn’t privy to their announcement about her status, whenever it had occurred.