Her Rancher Bodyguard by Brenda Minton Read Free Book Online Page B

We usually eat after we’ve fed the livestock.”
    â€œYou’ve already fed the livestock? What time is it?”
    He laughed. “Just after seven. And yes, we’ve fed, pulled a calf and gathered eggs.”
    â€œPulled a calf where?”
    He gave her a sideways glance and grinned. “Pulled meaning delivered. The calf wasn’t coming out on his own so we helped the mama with the delivery. There’s nothing like starting your morning with a new life. Which I guess is why I’m premed.”
    While they’d been talking he’d led her downstairs and through the house to the big country kitchen, where it seemed half the county had congregated for breakfast.
    Boone’s mom, Maria, was standing at the stove. Two young women who looked identical were setting the table. Another sister, a little older than them, was at the sink, auburn hair falling down to veil one side of her face. A toddler on pudgy legs, her curly blond hair in pigtails, was playing with bowls and wooden spoons.
    â€œWelcome to our zoo,” Jase Wilder said with a big smile that included everyone in the room. “The twinkies over there are Esmerelda and Alejandra. Better known to all as Essie and Allie, named after our grandmothers. They’re not as identical as they like to pretend. In the kitchen is Mama Maria, whom you met last night. Michaela and her daughter, Molly. And my lovely sister Janie.”
    Janie with the auburn hair shot him a look and said nothing. Jase smiled back and answered, “Yeah, I know, Lucas is your favorite.”
    â€œKayla, I hope we didn’t wake you.” Maria Wilder pointed at her twin daughters. “Those two can’t keep quiet for anything.”
    The sister Janie half smiled her direction. “They’re excited because you’re staying here. And you know all about fashion. They want to enter a twin pageant in San Antonio.”
    â€œDon’t let them push you around,” Michaela warned with a half tilt of her mouth. She appeared to be in her midtwenties and as she spoke she reached to pick up her little girl. “If you’re going to survive, you have to stand your ground and become great friends with the word no .”
    Kayla would have answered but the conversation was interrupted by the sound of the front door closing and voices raised in discussion, and then Boone along with a younger man in his late teens, and possibly their father, entered the kitchen.
    The older Wilder, gray haired and thin, pushed a walker. His steps were slow and steady. He glanced up at her and grinned. She saw the resemblance between him and his eldest son.
    â€œI’m sorry I wasn’t up to meet you last night,” Jesse Wilder said as he made his way to the table. “But it looks as if you’re surviving. It takes some backbone and sometimes selective hearing where this bunch is involved.”
    Boone, wearing dirt-stained jeans and a button-up shirt, winked as he headed for the kitchen sink. “If it takes backbone, I think she’ll survive Clan Wilder with no problems.”
    She’d been surviving for a long time. It just hadn’t always looked like it to the outside world.
    â€œThe mama cow didn’t make it.” Boone rinsed his hands, then splashed his face. Blindly he reached around, searching for a towel.
    Kayla found one and pushed it into his hands. He dried his face and draped the towel over a cabinet door.
    Jase’s smile had slipped away. “I thought we had her up?”
    â€œYeah, I thought she was okay. About thirty minutes ago she went down and we couldn’t get her back up.”
    â€œShe was our best cow,” Mr. Wilder said. He was pale, she noticed, and his hands trembled as reached for the cup of coffee Maria set down in front of him. He hooked his free arm around his wife.
    â€œWe’ll make do, Jesse. We always have.” She kissed the top of his head. “And I made a big