Texas Brides Collection Read Free

and dying. Although she treasured the love from Pa for his generous gift, it didn’t stop the ache in her heart for Chet.
    Serena finally found a few hours’ sleep before she woke to fix breakfast. Staring out the small window of her room, she saw a glaze of pink and gold ushering in the dawn. She quickly dressed, then remembered Chet was sleeping in the same room where she’d be cooking.
    She told herself she had nothing to be wary about. He had insulted her, not the other way around, and, besides, he didn’t know her feelings about him. Still, they were both bound to feel uncomfortable around each other, and Serena realized she needed to make things right.
    Stealing into the kitchen, Serena tied an apron twice around her waist. Someday she would pile enough weight on her bones to secure it in back like a normal woman. She studied Chet sleeping on the floor and struggled with wanting to kick him or allow him to rest peacefully.
    Pulling her gaze from the blanket-clad figure, she mentally calculated what she needed for breakfast. Due to the quickly rising temperatures, she welcomed the task of frying bacon, baking biscuits, and boiling coffee outside over an open fire. They might eat there, too, which would be a refreshing way to start the day. On second thought, Pa shared enough meals under an open sky. He’d prefer sitting around the table inside. After all, she’d promised him a good breakfast.
    The idea of eggs floating in a pool of bacon grease would be an added treat, and the chickens had been laying good. Ma told her she could use all of the eggs she wanted.
    Grinning with satisfaction, Serena collected matches, the coffeepot, and the empty water bucket before moving outside to gather dry wood. Not long afterwards, a fire crackled and spit. She loved the smell of wood burning and the sight of sunrise faintly splitting the darkness. A rooster perched on the well top and crowed. He peered about as if to make sure every living creature had heard him. Serena laughed as the birds seemed to sing a little louder in answer to the rooster’s call.
    A trip into the cabin produced a skillet filled with thick slices of bacon and peeled potatoes ready for her to slice into a second skillet. She’d already mixed up the biscuit dough and silently kneaded it before cutting the huge rounds.
    “Can I help you, Miss Serena?” Chet whispered from his position on the floor.
    “No, thank you, I’m fine,” she replied in the same soft tone and immediately felt her heart race with the low sound of his voice. “Sorry to wake you.”
    “I’ve been awake. Hard to sleep in when you’re used to rising before dawn.”
    She said nothing else but took the bacon-filled skillet outside, knowing she’d be back inside the cabin at least two more times to bring out the other skillet and biscuits. While at the fire, Serena checked the coffeepot and inhaled the aroma of freshly ground coffee.
    “Here, I brought these for you,” came a voice from behind her.
    Startled, she whirled around to see Chet carrying the other items she needed. “How nice of you,” she said and smoothed her apron before taking the skillet and the pan of biscuit dough.
    He stood barefooted with his suspenders resting haphazardly on his shoulders, and he’d buttoned his yellowed white shirt wrong with something bulging at his heart. His sun-colored hair lay every which way but flat against his head, more like a boy than a grown man. A second later, his dimpled smile gripped her senses.
    It ought to be a sin for a man to affect a woman so
.
    Embarrassed and grateful for the dim light, she pulled a paring knife from her apron pocket to slice the potatoes.
    “Sure I can’t help?”
    “You can eat later,” she said, “and maybe have a little coffee now.”
    Chet produced a tin mug from inside his shirt. “I hoped you had it ready. Can I sit and talk a spell?”
    “Of course.” While he settled down into the dew-covered grass and leaned back on his hands, she