Free Lydia's Twin Temptation by Heather Rainier

hope you like your hot sauce hot , because that is their family recipe, made fresh and it will light up your life.”
    Chance chuckled and stuck a finger in the hot sauce to taste it. “Hot as in jalapeño-pepper hot?”
    “No, hot like serrano- pepper hot. The owner’s mother makes the hot sauce from scratch. I’ve heard Guela buys the smallest, hottest peppers she can find. Just for kicks and giggles she sometimes throws in a little habañero pepper, too, just to keep people on their toes. It’s very good, but I wanted to warn you first. If you dump that whole thing on your carne guisada you may not feel your tongue for an hour.”
    “Oh, I better be careful then. I was hoping for another kiss later and I want to be able to feel that.” He chuckled when she playfully shoved his shoulder but then pulled her close and kissed the top of her head in an affectionate gesture that should not have choked her up the way it did. She’d received more affection from him in the last twelve hours than she had in the whole time since she left Austin.
    He carefully sprinkled a tiny bit of the hot sauce on his taco and they sat together in companionable silence, eating their breakfast. Her tacos were mouthwateringly good, and she ate quickly, realizing she was starving.
    Deciding she should take the bull by the horns, Lydia asked a question. “So you’d like me to cook for you at your ranch?”
    Chance turned his brilliant, blue gaze on her and nodded slowly. “That is part of it, yes.” He looked at his rough hands and seemed to be waiting for her to voice her questions so she forged on.
    “How many people would I be cooking for, on a regular basis?”
    “There would always be me and Clayton. If you come, we wouldn’t eat out as often.”
    “That would probably be healthier, too.”
    Chance nodded with a small chuckle. “But eating out was better than eating our own cooking. We have fifteen men who work for us. Ten of them live there full-time and more on a seasonal basis. They go back and forth to town for meals and subsist on their own. They have their own kitchen in their house, but none of them is much of a cook. Home-cooked meals would be a big perk for them. When they get wind of how well you cook, they will be asking to have meals there as well.”
    “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not do the bookkeeping with the ranch hands on that. I can provide the bills and receipts, but you and Clayton would have to work that out with them.” She didn’t want to be in charge of running a cafeteria.
    “Clayton already has it worked out, I think. All we need is to have the figures to work with.”
    “That I can do.”
    “You would have a great big kitchen of your own to rule. We’d let you hire any help you needed.” Totally in her comfort zone, imagining how it would work, Lydia found that she was more than just “professionally” excited about this challenge. She found it almost bizarrely comforting to think of cooking and caring for Chance and Clayton on such a basic level. She was capable of way more than just cooking for them.
    “What about the house?” She had serious home-management skills as well. That was something he probably didn’t know about her, but she figured she might as well ask for the whole enchilada.
    “The house?”
    “Yes. I can handle the house for you as well.”
    He looked at her quizzically and nodded. “It’s a big house.”
    Lydia loved a challenge. “I can handle it. I’d need one helper to start off with. I can train them, but they need to be a hard worker.”
    “We can take care of that for you.”
    “Okay. What do you like to eat?” They talked for a few minutes, and she realized that he seemed to have withdrawn slightly. He looked out over the view, and the warm wind ruffled the short hair at his nape peeking out from the back of his cowboy hat. “Chance, what’s wrong?”
    He turned his gaze to her and said, “Lydia, you know that I’m not just trying to hire a cook