“Honey, I could whip up a banquet with the proper food in that amount of time.” Stella smiled. “And for your information, you are not testing me. I’m testing you and the men that work for you. Point me to the bunkhouse, and we’ll see if y’all pass the tests after supper.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll walk with you,” Miles said, and led the way through the house and outside. He was surprised to see that her trailer was behind her truck and parked under a big elm tree. “You are pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” Stella answered, “but we’ll see if I have a vibe, as you kids call it, with the crew. If they are a surly bunch, I’ll get in my truck and go on down the road.”
She went into the bunkhouse with what seemed like eagle eyes, grabbed a bibbed apron from a hook and slipped it over her head, and then proceeded to check out the refrigerator, freezer,and the pantry. “Looks like it’s fairly well stocked with staples, but I’ll need to make a grocery store run if I stick around. Now get on out of here and let me work my magic. I’ll have a buffet-style dinner ready at noon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Miles said, and headed across the room.
He’d only taken a few steps when he met Elijah coming toward him. “What did you think of this one? And what is that trailer doing here?”
“It belongs to our new prospect,” Miles answered. “If she takes the job, she’ll live in it, and she’s bossy as hell. She’s in the bunkhouse making dinner, and if she likes the boys then she will make supper.”
“Halle-damn-lujah!” Elijah said. “Maybe we’ve found the right person. Now on to your other problem. Has Lula Ann got in touch with you?”
“Nope. I went to the house. Since she wasn’t home, I figured she was still with her mother. When I went back on Tuesday of that week, there was a FOR SALE sign in the front yard. I asked a neighbor who was outside mowing if he knew the new owner. He said that the older folks who lived there for fifty years had passed on and left the place to their granddaughter.”
“Lula Ann?” I asked him and he said no.
“I think her name is Debbie, or Diedre.” He answered. “I know it starts with a D. The redhead that was staying there last week was a friend of the granddaughter’s. She up and left in a hurry, and a Realtor came around and put the sign on the lawn this morning. It’s like she vanished off the face of the earth. I’ve called a couple of times and left messages, and texted a few times, but I was beginning to feel like a stalker, so I stopped.”
Elijah clamped a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. You can’t find her on social media, either?”
Miles nodded. “Evidently, she’s not into technology, which doesn’t surprise me. She liked spending time doing simple things like watching sunsets.”
“Sounds like you lost a good one,” Elijah said, and kept walking toward the bunkhouse.
“I wouldn’t go in there if I was you,” Miles warned. “She’s taken over the kitchen like a tyrant.”
“Ain’t no woman alive that’ll keep me out of my own bunkhouse.” Elijah chuckled. “I won’t get in her way, and she can damn well stay out of mine.”
“If I hear an explosion, I’ll call 9-1-1,” Miles said, and went inside the house and straight to his office.
At five minutes until noon, he looked up from a mountain of paperwork and was surprised to see that it was already dinnertime. He stood up, rolled his neck to get the kinks out, and headed outside. The morning had been fairly nice, but as he passed by four-wheelers and a couple of pickup trucks, sweat was rolling off his forehead and dripping off his jaw onto his shirt.
Elijah slid off another four-wheeler and wiped his forehead with a bandana he took from the hip pocket of his bibbed overalls. “I saw a lizard out there in the pasture. Poor critter was carrying a canteen on one hip and a tommy gun on the other. I didn’t ask him for a sip of his water for fear he would shoot me dead and leave me for the coyotes.”
Miles laughed even though he’d heard the story many times before. “I’ll trade places with you this afternoon. You can get the paperwork all straightened out in air-conditioned comfort, and I’ll work on replacing all those rotten fence posts with metal ones.”
“Hmph,” Elijah snorted. “If I had to do that for a whole afternoon, I’d just tell that lizard to put me out of my misery.”
“I heard that we might have something other than sandwiches, and something sure smells good,” Rex, one of the permanent hired hands, said. “Did you finally find us a cook?”
“I hope so,” Miles said. “She says if y’all are a surly bunch, she will be gone right after dinner, so mind your manners if you want her to stay.”
“I’ll pass the word around,” Rex said with a serious nod.
“Sweet Jesus and all the angels in heaven,” Miles said when he was inside the bunkhouse.
“I’ll take that as a good thing,” Stella said. “Plates are at the end of the buffet line. Sweet tea, lemonade, and water are all on the table. Ice is in the glasses set at each place. Y’all help yourselves, but first you go wash your hands. You don’t eat my food with sweaty, dirty hands even if they’ve been inside gloves all morning.”
Elijah was the first one to wash up in the kitchen sink, and then get in line. “Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, plus hot biscuits and corn on the cob. And is that chocolate cake for dessert? I think I’ve died and gone straight to heaven. I might drop down on one knee and propose to you if this food is as good as it looks.”
“If you did, I’d have to holler for the ranch hands to help you up,” Stella teased. “If you ever get a hankerin’ to do that, though, you better have a ring in your hand.”
“Just how big of a diamond do you want?” Elijah chuckled.
“That’s enough of that nonsense,” she said, and changed the subject. “I had to rush dinner, but there’s a ham in the oven for the evenin’ meal.”
