Daisies in the Canyon(20)

“Steaks?” Bonnie asked Rusty.

“That’s what his text said.”

“I hope Abby didn’t scare him off or kill him. I could sure eat a big juicy steak,” Bonnie said.




“Sounds like they are here. We’ll see how your sisters like their steaks, and then I’ll start cookin’. I hope they didn’t invite cowboys home with them, because I only brought five.”

“I’m not sharing a single bite of my steak. If one of them brought home a gold-digging cowboy, then she gets to share hers,” Abby said.

A cold north wind pushed its way inside along with three adults and three dogs when the front door slung open. The dogs headed straight to the rug in front of the fireplace, even though only embers still burned there.

Cooper and Rusty had played on the same football team, had been in Future Farmers of America together, and had tied more than once for the grand champion steer at the county livestock show. Rusty had proven to be a damn fine quarterback for the Silverton Owls even as a sophomore for their six-man football team. He had an arm that could put a ball into the hands of a receiver every single time.

“I just need to know how y’all like your steaks and dinner will be on the table pretty quick,” Cooper said. “I’m talkin’ to Shiloh and Bonnie. I know that Rusty likes his medium rare.”

“Same,” Shiloh said.

“Me, too,” Bonnie said.

Rusty removed his coat and hung it on the back of a wooden rocking chair that had been drawn up to the fireplace. “While Cooper plays chef, there’s something we should discuss.”

Shiloh had been on her way to her room but she stopped, came back, and tossed her denim duster over the back of the sofa. Bonnie unzipped her leather jacket but kept it on. They sat down on opposite ends of the sofa and waited.

Abby rested her elbows on the back of the sofa between the other two women and snapped half a dozen pictures of them, Rusty, and Cooper, with her phone.

“What are you doing?” Bonnie asked.

“My best friend, Haley, wants to see pictures of y’all and of the canyon, so I took a few,” Abby answered. “Now what did you want to talk about, Rusty?”

“We are about out of leftovers. I promised Ezra to teach y’all the basics of ranchin’ so this place wouldn’t go to ruin if one of you did stay on and inherit the place. I did not promise to teach you to cook,” he said.

“You said we’d fend for ourselves,” Abby said.

“I did, and that’s fine when there’s a refrigerator full of leftovers, but now it’s time to amend the rule. We work all day starting tomorrow. There’s still some land I want to clear to plant alfalfa on this spring. I need extra hands and I don’t want all of y’all trying to fix food at the same time in a one-hour lunch break.”

“And?” Shiloh asked.

“And I’ve laid out a plan. After basic chores, which everyone helps with seven days a week, you three will do a rotation with cooking,” he said.

Shiloh raised her hand. “I’ll go first.”

“Fine, you on Monday, Bonnie on Tuesday, and Abby can have Wednesday and then it starts all over again. Figure out what you plan to cook on your days each week and Sunday afternoons I’ll make a trip to the grocery store. The day that you cook, you do basic chores, then you get to come to the house to fix lunch and catch up on laundry and cleaning. Whatever you see needs done, do it. After lunch you go to the fields with everyone else,” he said.

“Why aren’t you on the rotation?” Abby glanced into the kitchen. She’d rather be in there with Cooper than listening to talk about sharing cooking duties. “Or are you like Ezra and think that the kitchen is for a woman?”

“Hey, now,” Cooper protested loudly from the kitchen.

“Abby, if you don’t want to cook, you can take it up with your sisters, but we’re not wasting time or settling arguments in the kitchen every day,” Rusty said.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Abby saluted.

Rusty frowned.

Cooper chuckled. “Think you could get those other two to give you that kind of respect?”

“I wasn’t in the army and I’m not saluting anyone,” Shiloh said.

“Sundays?” Bonnie ignored the remark.

“No one has Sunday kitchen duty,” Rusty said. “Since we don’t work other than normal feeding chores on that day, I don’t give a shit if y’all kill each other in the kitchen. If you want to go into Amarillo or go sightseeing or out on a picnic with one of the cowboys you met in church, then it’s your day to do so,” he said.

“And after the work is done at night?” Shiloh asked.

“That’s your business, not mine,” Rusty said.

“Fair enough,” Shiloh said.

“What if one of them can’t cook anything but chili pies?” Cooper asked.

“Then I guess we’ll eat Frito chili pies every third day. No bitchin’ and moanin’ about the food, ladies. On a ranch we eat what’s put before us,” Rusty said.




Abby took a deep breath and straightened up, glad that Shiloh had offered to take the first day. Then Bonnie had Tuesday, which meant Abby would be cooking Wednesday and Saturday. She should serve chili pies both days.