Love on the Range: A Looking Glass Lake Prequel by Rebecca Nightsong Read Free Book Online

inside of her cheek to prevent herself from groaning every time she had to move.
    “Nobody expects you to be good at this,” Crazy Hoss said.
    Marlee snorted. “I’m a professional chef,” she muttered. “Emphasis on professional.”
    “That might be true.” Crazy Hoss bent to pound a stake. Then he straightened and squinted at her. “But we don’t expect you to be a good chuck wagon cook. At least not out of the gate.”
    If Marlee wasn’t so tired, she’d have set him straight on that. It’s true she wasn’t good at a lot of things. She didn’t have the most avant-garde menus. But she consistently put out good food. Nobody had to worry she was going to be a bad chuck wagon cook.
    “That’s why I’m here, you know,” Crazy Hoss said. “Jett figured you might need a bit of help to get yer head on straight when it comes to this chuck wagon stuff…but don’t let me intimidate you.”
    This time, when he threw another canvas corner to her, she wasn’t ready, and she dropped it.
    Nobody expects you to be good at this.
    It stung because it sounded an awful lot like what Dad said all the time.
    We don’t expect you to be good at school, Marlee. But this chef nonsense isn’t practical. You need to study something you can use in real life.
    Marlee sighed. Dad had never said anything like that to her older sisters. He didn’t have to. One was a brain surgeon and one was a District Attorney. Marlee was the only family failure.
    Apparently, not even a grumpy cowboy like Jett expected much from her. He’d never even met her, and he’d already lined up Crazy Hoss to babysit her on this trip.
    How dare Jett make any assumptions about her! As if springing a cattle drive and a kitchen without running water on her wasn’t bad enough, now she had to report to a boss who had decided she’d fail before she even had a chance to get started.
    On this working interview Cassie was supposed to make the decision, not a cowboy. Warm, funny and excited-about-food Cassie.
    “You got any experience with outdoor cookin’?” Crazy Hoss interrupted her thoughts.
    Marlee watched him pound in the final tent peg. “Yes.” Technically, it was true. There was the grilling class in culinary school, and then she’d even helped a team put together a real pig Luau for her catering class.
    “I’ve had an awful lot of good Dutch oven meals in my day.” Crazy Hoss grinned and rocked back on his heels, patting his stomach.
    “Don’t let him give you a hard time, Marlee,” Fern said as she brushed by with an armload of firewood. “What he’s had is a lot of cowboy slop served with a side of dry cornbread. And none of it prepared by a professional chef.” She dumped the firewood and straightened up, eyes bright with expectation. “This is gonna be good.”
    Tense muscles eased in Marlee’s shoulders. Well, at least one person didn’t expect her to be a flop.
    The tent they’d just put up hooked to the back of the chuck wagon, and they’d set up a couple of folding tables and benches so it formed a kind of dining area.
    “Folks will only use this dining area if it rains or snows,” Crazy Hoss said. “They prefer to sit around the campfire. So it’s mostly all yours.”
    She ducked inside the tent and followed Crazy Hoss to the back of the chuck wagon, where cupboards and drawers were built in. Dried blueberries, beans, dried beef, and other staples like flour, coffee and sugar nestled against each other neatly in the drawers.
    With the table set up next to the food storage, her kitchen was a bit larger than she’d expected.
    “There ain’t much room for haulin’ food,” Crazy Hoss said. “So we usually have beans and cornbread every night. Pancakes in the mornin.’ The cowboys take a couple biscuits with ‘em for lunch when they hit the trail. Some of the young ones bring their own protein bars. They’ll all be hungry as springtime bears come supper time.”
    He plodded to the front of the tent and rolled canvas