Help Wanted: WIFE (Santa Rita Series) Read Free Page A

bowl and brushed out Arabella’s thick fur. As the brush smoothed her silken coat, the cat stretched her full, impressive length, nose to end of tail all forty-eight inches of it, and waved a plumy tail around Cherilyn’s ankles.
    “Now, you’re all pretty again.” Cherilyn put the brush aside. “Pretty enough to impress our men, but I guess you’d better stay away from them till they learn to appreciate you. They’re good men, and they’re men you can count on, I think, but not much given to our girlish ways.” She bent over to scratch the tufted ears. “They’re about ready to go back to work, so I can stay away from the kitchen for a while. Let’s see if I can mend the damage your friend Reb did to my dress last night. You might sit in the living room with me till the boys come home.” Cherilyn ran a comb through her hair, buttoned a cool cotton housedress up the front, and picked up the frilly heap of pink and white from the bed. The mud stains had washed out with the soaking she’d given the dress, but she wasn’t sure how she could repair the perforations Reb’s toenails had made.
    Arabella found a suitable spot for bathing on the deep sill of the front window and applied her tongue to the tufts of fur between her toes. Cherilyn spread the dress over her knees and examined the pulled fabric. It wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. A little pink embroidery over the weakened threads, copying the rosebuds that trellised down the front, might save it.
    “It’s funny,” she said to the cat, who twitched one ear and appeared to be listening. “Cole can’t quite get the idea that the ‘ch’ in my name is pronounced like ‘sh’ in shoe, so when he says my name, it comes out ‘Cherry Lynn’ instead of ‘Sher-a-lyn.’ But somehow I’ve begun to like Cherry Lynn, or just Cherry. A new name for the new life ahead.” She looked again at the cat, who had lost interest and resumed grooming. “And you mind your manners, my girl, so we have a chance to make this venture work. Cole’s a handsome man, and though he’s a bit set in his ways—he and the rest of the men in the house—I believe he has a good heart and an agile mind. Men and women have begun with less than we have and made it work.” Brave words, Cherilyn knew, but they helped her look ahead with more conviction.
    Bent over her needlework in concentration, she didn’t hear Cole approach, a few minutes later, until he spoke. “The chicken was real good, Cherry. And your biscuits are as tasty cold as they were this morning when they were hot. You finding everything you need? I didn’t see Nate around. He helping you some?”
    “He’s been a big help. Right now he’s gone fishing. He said he knew just the place to catch them, and I thought fish would be good for dinner tonight.”
    “Your suggestion, or did he just ramble off? He’s got to do his part around here. No slacking, and you tell me if he does.”
    “Cole, I asked him to go. And he’s pulled his share of the load this morning.”
    “Well, if you say so.” She looked up from her work to see him staring at Arabella. “That’s the biggest damn cat I ever saw. You sure she’s not a wildcat out of the woods somewhere?”
    Never thought he might come in here and see her! Cherilyn put her mending aside and gathered the cat into her arms. “Maine Coon cats are huge, but they’re just big babies, sweet natured and placid. Well, they can be fierce if they feel threatened, I suppose. They’re pretty much a one-person cat and sometimes protective about the person they’re close to, but for the most part they’re mild-mannered creatures.” The big cat draped herself over Cherilyn’s shoulder as she stroked the thick red-orange fur.
    Cole reached out to touch the cat. “Maine Coon, huh? Got a pelt like a coon, too.” Arabella stuck out her pink tongue and swiped his finger. He drew back. “Think she’d bite?”
    “Not unless she thought you’d hurt her…or me. But when