A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) by Suzie Quint Read Free Book Online Page B

point in you cooking for
just you and Zacharia. If you ain’t home when he gets there, he’ll know where
to look for you.”
    Georgia couldn’t help smiling. She’d never had any difficulty picturing Ruth at the
front of a smoky room saying, “I’m Ruth and I’m a food pusher.” Except Ruth
didn’t see that as a flaw, so there’d be no twelve-step program in her future.
    “Georgia, honey, you sit right here.”
    “But this is Sol’s—”
    “Sol’s name ain’t engraved on that chair,”
Ruth set a platter of biscuits in the middle of the table. “If he makes it in
time for supper, he’ll sit where I tell him.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” Georgia slid into the seat
next to Maddie.
    With thirteen children and only three who
didn’t live within a mile of their childhood home, the McKnights ate in shifts.
With the younger children—the ones still in school—already fed and sent off to
play or to do their evening chores, the adults sat down to enjoy a more
civilized meal. Everyone clasped their hands and bowed their heads as Sol’s
daddy, Jebediah, said grace.
    Ever since her first meal at the McKnights’
table, Georgia had defined a split second as the time between everyone’s echoed
“Amen” and the moment the reaching began: reaching for chicken fried steak and
fresh corn on the cob, reaching for mashed potatoes and corn muffins; reaching
for gravy for the steak and the potatoes; reaching for home-churned butter for
the corn and honey for the muffins. And it all tasted so wonderful, Georgia couldn’t figure out how Ruth ever managed to have leftovers. Especially the way
this family ate.
    But the best part was that Georgia hadn’t had to cook it herself.
    Jebediah asked about her folks as he
heaped mashed potatoes onto his plate. Georgia gave him the rundown.
    “Well, you let us know if you need
anything. We’ll be glad to help.”
    “I will,” Georgia promised, but she
couldn’t imagine what it would take for her to ask the McKnights. In spite of
everything Sol’s family did to make her feel welcome, she didn’t feel
comfortable asking for their help. Eden was family to them, but Georgia had given up the right to lean on them when she’d walked out on Sol.
    When the conversation moved on to a bull
they thought would do well on the rodeo circuit, Georgia leaned closer to
Maddie. In an undertone, she said, “You didn’t really think Ruth would let you
leave without eating, did you?”
    Maddie snorted softly. “Of course not. I
had her number before Zach and I even got married. But it makes her happy to
strong-arm people into sitting at her table, so I let her bully me into
staying.”
    Georgia chuckled. “Yeah, I see those bruises on your arm from where you were fighting
her off.”
    Maddie smiled, amusement lighting her
eyes. Then she sobered. “I thank God for her and the rest of the family every
day. With Zach gone mostly from sunup to sundown these days, I’d be a basket
case, trying to cope without their help.”
    Besides their own infant, Maddie and Zach
were raising Maddie’s orphan nephew, Jesse, who at eighteen months was
extremely mobile. The thought of having two babies in diapers at the same time
made Georgia shudder.
    Her own mama had made Georgia feel like an inadequate mother every time anyone else had changed Eden’s diaper. Maddie’s
situation was a hundred and eighty degrees different; she had the entire
McKnight clan begging to help with the first grandchild since Eden. They even
treated Jesse as if he belonged to them.
    Zach came in as dessert was being served:
blackberry cobbler, homemade vanilla ice cream optional, at least in theory. He
kissed Maddie on the cheek, squeezed a chair in between her and Gideon, and
loaded a plate, playing catch-up.
    They were finishing dessert when the
screen door behind Jebediah creaked open and the McKnight’s youngest boy came
in. The door fell shut behind him with a loud slap.
    “Tobias, how many times do I have to tell
you—”