“Besides cooking for the men?” she retorted. “That’s ambitious of you.”
“Jane’s willing to cook down at the canteen, and I’m just thinking about your knee. It was pretty bad last month, and I don’t want to make it worse.”
“It’s fine, now,” Peg interjected.
“Yeah, but still. Jane’s willing to cook for a day or two until I hire someone. I’ll show her the ropes, and pitch in where I can. But I was hoping you could watch the girls, and at the same time help me in the hiring process. You can see right through someone’s lies and garbage, and I need that. If you could stay here, watch the babies for Jane, and I could bring any possible hires by you...”
Peg softened, and she dried her hands then put them on Colt’s shoulders.
“I’ve said it for years, Colt, and I’ll say it again. You’re a good rancher. You’ve got good instincts.”
“A second opinion with a new hire never hurt,” Colt replied. “I might have good instincts, but you’ve got the experience. What do you say?”
“If Jane’s okay with it, I am,” Peg said.
Colt gave Peg a grin. “Thank you.” Then he turned back toward Jane. “I’ll bring you out there first thing in the morning. It’s an early start—four a.m.”
There was no apology in his voice for the early start.
“Sure.” Jane looked over at Peg. “The girls always sleep in until seven. Will that be okay with you?”
Peg shrugged. “I might not have had children of my own, but I’ll be fine. Give me your cell phone number in case I need you, but I don’t anticipate a problem.”
Jane would be pitching in. The last thing she wanted was to be remembered as the freeloader after she left. She’d help where she could, contribute where Colt asked, and when she did leave she could do so with her head held high. She wasn’t a charity case, no matter how tenuous her current situation. God was providing.
The day slipped by, the girls keeping Jane busy as she fed them, changed them, took them outside to play, gave them some supper then bathed them together in the bathtub.
Peg made dinner that night—dry meatloaf, mashed potatoes that had been smashed into a virtual soup—and when the girls had been bathed, Peg headed out to the store for more milk and some bread. Honestly, Jane thought that Peg was making a run for it in order to get a few minutes to herself, and Jane didn’t blame her a bit. Two toddlers were precious, but they overran everything.
“You look tired,” Jane said, shooting Colt a smile.
“I always look tired,” he replied with a low laugh. “But it’s been a busy day. I posted the ad for a cook, so I’m praying for a quick reply.”
“Is it always this hectic?” she asked. “I mean when something goes wrong.”
“Yeah. Well, it wouldn’t be if I had more manpower around here, but I don’t dare hire extra employees beyond what we’ve currently got until I’ve done the math. Beau was a lot of things, but he was also good with numbers.”
“That’s understandable,” she said. “But with Beau gone...isn’t that one less person working?”
“Beau had left most of the running of the place to me,” Colt replied with a shake of his head. “He took care of the finances, though, and this place is mortgaged up to the hilt. So I’m going to trust his choices for the time being.”
Micha dropped the Cheerios she’d been munching on and started to whimper, and Jane scooped her up. She rooted through the diaper bag and pulled out a couple of formula powder packets. It took only a few minutes with Micha on her hip for Jane to shake up two bottles. It was almost bedtime, and the girls would be just wiped after so much excitement today. As if on cue, Suzie started to whimper, too, so Jane headed in the direction of the living room and sank onto the faded old couch.
“Come on, Suzie,” she called.
Suzie stood in the kitchen, stubbornly refusing to come. Jane glanced around and realized she’d left the other bottle on the counter in the kitchen. She sighed—it had been a long day.
“Would you pass me the bottle?” she called to Colt in the kitchen. “Suzie is going to want it.”
“Oh...yeah...” Colt scooped up the bag, held it open and perused the contents, then pulled out the bottle. Suzie clutched at Colt’s leg and let out a wail. Micha started crying again—that little grizzle of tiredness—and Jane felt a wave of exhaustion of her own. Nothing was easy with twins, and a strange setting would only make this harder.
“Actually, could you just pick her up?” Jane asked hopefully.
Colt looked around himself, as if searching for an escape, then down at Suzie. Suzie fixed her big brown eyes on him, her lower tip trembling, and Colt bent down and lifted her up.
“Hello,” Colt said softly.
“Bubba,” Suzie whimpered.
“Her bottle,” Jane translated. “They’re both tired enough that they’ll knock out pretty quickly with a bottle and a snuggle.”
Colt handed Suzie her bottle, and she popped it into her mouth and leaned her head against Colt’s shoulder. Those dewy brown eyes had a way of melting pretty much any heart, and Jane smiled over at him.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“I guess not,” Colt replied, and he sank into the easy chair across from her, the toddler in his arms. He adjusted Suzie on his lap and she let out a soft sigh, sucking away on her bottle as her eyes drooped. It felt odd to see her daughter in a man’s arms. Jane had been on her own from the very beginning with her children, and yet she’d imagined what it would be like for Josh to hold them—to lend a hand when she was overwhelmed—countless times. A dad... Her girls didn’t know what they were missing out on, did they?
She didn’t, either, for that matter. Because as sweet as it would
