Monroe, Marla - The Ranchers Take a Wife [Men of Space Station One #1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free Page A

she slept well here. She would need all her wits about her over the next few days.

    * * * *

    The next day proved disappointing when her men didn’t show up. Her men, she was already acting as if she’d claimed them. They must be busy in the fields. It felt like planting season here with the warm temperatures, and a bit of a bite at night. She’d been told it was spring when they arrived.
    She talked with several other pairs and liked most of them. A few just didn’t strike her as potential mates at all. She was intrigued by the twins but didn’t think they were for her. For one thing, they were barely six feet, and she really liked a tall man.
    The next day, they still didn’t show up, and she wondered if they were waiting on most of the women to have chosen. So far, no one had made a choice yet. Like her, they might be waiting on the ones they liked to show up, or they might want to meet all of the men first.
    At dinner that night, they all talked about who they had met and what they thought about them. Most everyone liked the men they had spent time with that day. Rachel, one of the younger women, seemed starry-eyed over the twins. She hoped she picked them. She would probably be perfect for them by the way she had spoken of her wants in a man. She was just over five feet, and tiny compared to a lot of the women there.
    She listened to the general discussions but didn’t join in. She wasn’t really interested in any of the men she’d met that day. Maybe her men would show up tomorrow. She sure hoped so. She felt lonely and left out of all the conversations without anything much to add.
    As if conjured up, the next morning, Phillip and Cam were waiting outside the cafeteria when she walked outside after having breakfast. Her heart sped up and butterflies attacked her stomach. Surely that alone meant she was attracted them in more than just a general way.
    “Hi, Lacy. How are you doing today?” Phillip asked.
    “I’m doing well, thanks for asking. How about the two of you?”
    “We’re doing fine. Glad to be here to see you again.” Phillip seemed to be pleased they’d found her.
    “You look really nice in that blouse. It brings out the blue of your pretty eyes,” Cam said.
    Lacy felt her face turn red. She hated her fair skin since she blushed so easily.
    “Thanks. What have you been doing the last two days?” She cringed inside. That sounded as if she were chastising them for not being there.
    “We had to finish up planting and set up the irrigation system. We sure hated not being here to talk to you some more,” Phillip answered.
    “Farming is hard work. I come from a farming family myself.”
    They seemed to brighten up at this. That was a positive sign, she decided.
    “So you know about what it takes to run one then,” Cam said.
    “Yes. It’s a lot of backbreaking work that is superbusy in the spring and around harvest times. Then it’s quieter in the middle where all you do is water and fertilize.”
    “Do you like to garden?” Cam asked.
    “I love to put up my own fruits and vegetables,” she told them. “Are there fruit trees here?”
    “We have apple, pear, and peach trees on the farm. We haven’t done anything with them, since we are so busy with the rest of the farm.”
    “That’s a shame. They would be great for preserves, jellies, and jams. Not to mention pies,” she informed them.
    “You’re making us hungry,” Phillip confessed.
    “Sorry. I’m a bit hungry myself for some fresh fruit.”
    “They’re not ready yet, of course, or we’d bring you some.” Cam smiled.
    “Thanks for the thought. Maybe I can have some this fall. I’ll make you a nice apple or peach pie.”
    They talked until lunch and ate together in the cafeteria. Several of the other women crowded around them asking questions and generally flirting with the two men. They fielded the questions well and flirted a little back, but they kept coming back to Lacy. She liked that. They were real