The next hour passed in a comfortable blur of cooking and preparation. Josie enjoyed the chance to cook with her aunt, and the time passed quickly. She eyed the mountain of food on the platters and Rosa, catching her expression, laughed.
“Yep, only three men and then you and I and Alice. But remember, this isn’t just a nice meal out. This has to fuel them for hours and they can’t just run in and grab a snack. They’ll put a hurting on it.”
Almost on cue, Josie heard the low rumble of men’s voices and they entered the kitchen. Her gaze landed on Luke first. He just had on worn jeans and a flannel shirt over a T-shirt and the same hat as the night before, but her pulse gave a little skip. He gave her a polite nod. Before she could respond, two big guys stepped between them, and she looked up at them, startled. Her first thought was she’d never seen such good-looking siblings. All of them were tall and lean, with similar blue eyes, but their hair color wasn’t all the same. Luke’s was darker brown and these two were lighter. Still, they shared the same wide smile, similar to the one Alice had given her last night.
“Good morning,” the taller of the two said with a charming grin. “I’m Cade, and this is Jake. You must be Josie.”
“I am,” she said, shaking first Cade’s outstretched hand, then Jake’s. No little zings or fizzles of awareness. Which was good, of course, but why had it happened with Luke? Maybe she’d just been tired. “Nice to meet you guys.”
Behind them, Luke already had a plate, which he was heaping with food. Cade winked at her and said, “Looking forward to getting to know you better. Rosa’s said a lot about you.”
Ignoring the flirtatious first part of his comment, a little shiver of worry ran down her spine. Rosa didn’t gossip, but what had she said? Josie hadn’t talked a lot about her relationship with Russ, or the financial woes that had dogged them, but with his outsize personality and popular cooking show, he often made the gossip pages.
Rosa was beside her then, her hand light on Josie’s arm. “I talked up your cooking skills,” she said cheerfully. “As you’ve worked hard for them.”
Josie relaxed slightly. “Ah. Well, I’m not sure you guys want the kind of food I’ve been cooking for the past year or so. More for show than sustenance.” There may have been the slightest tinge of bitterness in her tone, so she smiled at both men to soften it. “So I’m looking forward to cooking real meals again.”
They exchanged a bit more good-natured chatter as Cade and Jake loaded up their plates and then left for the dining room, where she could hear the clink of silverware and the low rumble of voices.
“I didn’t say anything about your personal life,” Rosa said quietly as she carried a platter to the sink. “I just said you were between jobs at the moment and could fill in for me temporarily. I don’t know all that happened with you, honey, but I know it must have been bad to put those shadows in your eyes and to bring you all the way up here.”
The concern in her aunt’s voice made Josie want to cry. She blinked away the moisture. “I won’t lie. It’s been rough. But it’ll all work out.” She took a deep breath. “What can you tell me about those two?”
There was a slight pause, then apparently her aunt accepted the change in subject. “Cade is a flirt,” she said. “Harmless, but a flirt nonetheless. But he won’t push you or take it too far. He just loves women of all ages. Luke is the opposite. He won’t flirt at all. Jake is in the middle. They’re all good boys. Any one of them would be a wonderful catch.”
Josie bit back a sigh. While that was good to know, she wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship—long-term or temporary. Of all she’d been through personally, the worst had been realizing that engaged hadn’t meant the same thing to Russ as it did to her. Thank God she’d figured it all out well before the wedding.
She kept her tone noncommittal. “I think it’s wonderful that you think so highly of them, but that’s not why I’m here.” Then she added, “I’m famished. I haven’t eaten a breakfast like this in ages.” Sad but true. Yogurt and a piece of fruit usually made up her first meal of the day. Eaten in her car on the way to the restaurant. And that was because Russ had made so many comments about her tasting the food. Be careful. Too many bites will make you fat. She’d laughed it off at the time, but in retrospect, it made her slightly ill.
Rosa handed her a plate. “Of course, that’s not why you’re here. But you never know what might develop. If you close yourself off to possibilities, you might miss something special.”
Josie didn’t fully agree. She wasn’t concerned about missing something special. She intended to keep her heart under wraps for the foreseeable future.
* * *
Luke hadn’t bargained on the new cook.
Sure, Rosa had asked if her niece could take over while she spent some of her vacation time with her daughter, who was expecting a baby soon. Trusting the older woman completely, he’d said sure. He’d listened to Rosa explain with pride that Josie was a trained chef, and had owned her own restaurant in Los Angeles that people flocked to.
He hadn’t thought about her being a woman.
It had been so long since he’d looked—really looked—at a woman, that when she’d glared at him from her car with her blue eyes narrowed, the pepper spray can in her hand, he’d been shocked to feel the unwelcome rush of attraction. And she was a self-confessed city girl to boot, which was a huge no-no in his book. He’d married a city girl.
He was no longer married.
So to feel something for someone who wore three-inch spike heels to stomp across a muddy, wet road in the wilds of Montana wasn’t a good sign.
But damn, they’d looked good on her, even in the mud and rain.
“Don’t you think so, Luke?” Cade’s question broke into his thoughts.
Luke looked up from the sausage and gravy he’d been demolishing on his plate. “What was that?”
Cade stabbed the egg on his plate. “Josie. She’s a looker.”
Since she’d just been occupying his thoughts he shook his head, the denial as much for him as his brothers. “I wouldn’t know.”
Cade looked at Jake incredulously. “He’s blind.”
“Or stupid,” Jake suggested, but there was a glint of humor in his eyes.
“Or both.” Cade looked at him hard. “Luke. It’s okay to, you know, think a woman is hot.”
He shrugged. “She’s not my type.”
“Maybe she’s mine,” Cade said thoughtfully, and took a bite of toast.
Luke leveled a glare at him. “Don’t even. She’s our employee, not a plaything for you.”
A slow smile spread across Cade’s face and he pointed what was left of the toast in Luke’s direction. “You did notice.” He turned to Jake, who nodded as he chewed. “He sure as hell did. Well, well. That’s a first, isn’t it?”
He’d have to be dead not to notice Josie, but he wasn’t going to say that to either of his brothers. Ever. Before he could say anything, Jake held up his coffee.
“Leave him alone, Cade. He wants to ignore her, that’s his business and his loss. He’s hiding, remember?”
Luke bit back a groan. He’d stepped away from performing, from that life to avoid all sorts of entanglements. His brothers might accuse him of hiding, but he’d wanted to just focus on the ranch, to get it into the black and after years of his father running it on the edge of total ruin. To prove he was more than the kid who couldn’t wait to bust out of here with big dreams.
He kept his voice steady. “I’m not hiding. I’m retired.