Free A Cowboy in the Kitchen by Meg Maxwell

little friends heading inside with her parents, each holding a hand and swinging her up. Her dad leaned down for a kiss and then she raced ahead, but her mom called her back, smiling and pointing at her Olaf lunch box still in her hand. The girl came running back, took her lunch box and then off she went.
    At least five times over the past few months, West had gotten a call from the school office that Annabel had forgotten her lunch box and could he bring it down or should they bill him for a school lunch?
    Lucy needs a mother , he thought numbly. Someone who could fix her knotty ringlets and remember to hand over her lunch box and notice if her pants were raggedy or the wrong color.
    A mother.
    West bolted upright, the lightbulb over his head so bright he had to blink. Yes, that’s it.
    Lucy did need a mother. And West needed a way to keep the Dunkins from taking Lucy from him.
    Annabel Hurley was that way. The Dunkins liked Annabel. With Annabel as his wife, helping care for Lucy, they’d have no reason to sue for custody. Nor would they win as easily.
    Annabel desperately needed money to save Hurley’s. He desperately needed a wife to save his family. They could solve each other’s problems and when things settled down, they could go their separate ways. A business deal from beginning to end, and together they’d work out the details of the middle.
    He was due over to Hurley’s tonight for the lesson on appetizers. Somewhere, between rolling biscuit batter around little hot dogs, he’d ask her to marry him.
    He’d imagined that once before, a fleeting thought in the barn loft seven years ago, when he’d felt things he’d never felt before and never had with Lorna, even when he’d started to actually care for his reckless wife. But now it had nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with making sure the most important things in their lives weren’t wrenched away.
    He had no idea if Annabel would go for it. But he’d vowed to do anything he could to save his family and he was going for it.
    In fact, forget about waiting for class tonight. There was no time to waste. It was a three-minute walk from where he was parked now to Hurley’s Homestyle Kitchen. Which meant he had three minutes to figure out exactly how he was going to propose a business deal of a marriage to a woman who might not even be speaking to him anymore.

Chapter Four
    I n the restaurant kitchen, Annabel was mashing potatoes for garlic smashed potatoes—every smash a reminder to squash her feelings for West. Across the island, Hattie added onions and homemade bread crumbs to a big bowl of ground beef for meat loaf. Five loaves were already in the oven for the lunch rush, which began at eleven in a ranch town, and the smell, even at eight-thirty in the morning, was delectable. Annabel had grown up on cold meat loaf sandwiches in her brown-bagged lunch, packed by her mother and then her gram, and it would always be her favorite comfort food.
    Hattie glanced out the window and upped her chin. “Looks like someone’s moving into the old take-out place.”
    Annabel squinted against the morning sunshine and looked across the street to the formerly empty storefront between the Blue Gulch Bakery and Yoga For You. “Coming Soon! Clyde’s Burgertopia!” she read.
    Annabel’s stomach dropped. Everyone knew Clyde Heff made amazing burgers on his grill at his exclusive annual backyard Fourth of July parties. The key was apparently some kind of “secret ingredient” dating back five generations, and Annabel was pretty sure the secret ingredient was a mixture of bourbon and dill. But the man could make a mean burger, and now he’d be pulling lunch and dinner customers away from Hurley’s. Granted, that little storefront with the small back room couldn’t handle more than a counter and take-out business. But still. It was competition. Competition Hurley’s