Chapter 1

Chapter One

“ I don’t camp.”

Nathan did a lot of things. He cooked, he cleaned, he planned, and he created amazing meals.

He did not camp.

Ryder Chiara blinked at him, then grinned, and it seemed like a wry one. “I get that. And it’s not what you hired on to do, but we’re in a real bind for the next two weeks until Jordan’s replacement arrives.”

“And it’s not exactly camping.” Kase, who was his other boss at the ranch, chimed in. “There’s a shelter, a propane kitchen, beds. You’ll also have a grill. Two meals and sack lunches for a dozen guys—it’ll be a breeze.”

“What about my job here?” Nathan’s head was beginning to pound. “I have to put in orders, run food costs.”

“I know. And I’ll get you as much help as I can.” Ryder blew out a breath. “I didn’t expect my whole food team to quit all at once.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled softly and shook his head. That he understood, on a deep, personal level. “My job is still going to be here when I get back, right?”

Because he didn’t know if he could handle another blow.

“Hell, yes. In fact, I bet we expand your job and give you a damn raise before you even start good.”

“I can handle that.” He was a chef. He thrived on that kind of stress.

Losing everything he owned? Not so much.

“So do I need to order in supplies? Is there a list?” He wasn’t sure what the process was but he could do one hundred and fifty-six breakfasts, lunches, and suppers, plus snacks and the periodic desserts in his sleep, but he needed supplies to do that.

“Yes. I’ll show you the ordering program. Well, Kase will. And there’s lists of any food allergies and such.”

“All right. I’ll need your food—budget.” They weren’t selling the food, so he didn’t have a food cost, so to speak. He was going to have a discussion with the chuck wagon guy at the rodeo, though. His food costs were damn near forty-five percent.

That was highway robbery for such simple fare.

“Sure. I know we have it all in a database.” Ryder chuckled. “Kase can explain the rest of that to you, since he deals with it. One thing I do want to emphasize is the guys would live on Twinkies and beer if you let them. I would prefer more nutritious fare for them.”

“Nutritious I can accomplish.” He wasn’t a health food nut, but he was good at creating meals that nourished. He was in this business to feed people.

“Good deal.”

Kase grinned. “Okay, get out of the way, Ryder. We need to get to business.”

“So you’ll go up to camp?” Ryder asked, rising.

“This time to help, yes. I’ll have time to plan the Fourth of July party food, then.” It was his first big event here at the ranch, and it came right close to when he started his job in the kitchen full time.

Maybe in a year he’d be able to show his face in Austin again, hunt for a new investor.

“Yep.” Kase grinned. “That will be a job and a half. The whole ranch and rodeo company turn out, and half the town comes in addition to our people.”

“Well, we’ll have to figure the budget out for that too so I can work up a few menus.” That was way more up Nathan’s alley than camping without Wi-Fi.

“Sure. I can show you what we did last year, and then we’ll add on, because we have a guy who’s coming up to write a magazine article about it this year. So we’ll need a few luxury items for the VIP.” Kase wrinkled his nose.

“No problem. We can have some amazing apps and sweet bites that fill that need.” It kept food costs down, and it left an impression. All in all, it was a winning strategy.

“Cool deal.”

Ryder nodded as if that was that. “I’ll leave y’all to it. I need to talk to some of the road guys.” And he was off, leaving him with Kase.

“Thanks for agreeing to take the high reaches for a couple of weeks. I know you were supposed to do a soft landing, but that’s too often not how ranch life goes.”

“Yeah.” It wasn’t how Nathan’s life had gone lately, that was for sure. “I’m not the most outdoorsy person alive, but I know how to cook.”

“That’s what we need you for. And I’ll assign someone to you to help out with your gear and all. A good hand.” Kase opened up a database. “Here’s where the ordering stuff is. This should be the easiest job ever. It’ll be cool up in the high meadows, so oatmeal, eggs and biscuits, you know? Then sandwiches and such for bag lunches, and a hearty supper.”

He might have to make clangers. He loved the idea of two-thirds savory and a third sweet. Those could be a hoot to experiment with. And they would surprise the hell out of cowboys, he would bet.

That might make him smile while he was going without a shower for two weeks.

Ugh.

God, he prayed he’d have a cell signal at least. He had work to do.

Kase gave him a sideways glance. “Questions about anything before we start with this?”

“What do the facilities look like up there?”

“Pump water. There’s solar, and there’s also a generator just in case. There’s satellite internet because we need everyone to be connected.”

Oh, thank God.

“I might survive.” And he might not lose his mind. “What do I need to bring—work and personal?”

“Sturdy clothes. More than one pair of shoes, boots if you have them. Any cooking tools you need that aren’t part of a standard trail kitchen. The inventory is here.” Kase showed him a tab on the database. “Reading material. Days are long and the guys work as long as there’s daylight sometimes.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll nap a lot.” A lot.

He knew how to read, of course, and he’d bring some cookbooks, but really? He’d rest.

“I bet you could catch up on some sleep.”

He squinted at Kase, wondering what that meant. What did Kase know?

“Uh, yeah. I was working sixty to eighty hours a week at the restaurant, sometimes more.” Especially at the end of things—he had been lost and trying to put fires out.

“You said in your cover letter that you were looking for a more reasonable schedule.” Kase’s lips twisted. “And here we are, asking you to do a high camp your first month.”

“I can do it. I mean, there’s a camp shower, right?”

“Three.” Kase chuckled. “I love it up there, but I’m not great at roughing it anymore. Bad crash.”

“I’m sorry. That sucks. I hate to hear that.” Car accidents were the worst. He’d known more than one guy who had been broken up and then couldn’t work anymore.

“Yeah. It was a harsh thing. That bull stomped the living daylights out of me.” Kase shook his head. “But I’m way better than I was when I showed up here. This place has a way about it, if you get me.”

“A bull? Jesus Christ. Are you okay?” He had seen a couple of rodeos, but he didn’t actually know any real-life rodeo people.

“Well, I had a crushed pelvis and some other massive breaks.” Kase chuckled. “Took me months to get back on my feet, and then I ended up here because Ryder let me come. Rodeo is a young man’s game. Animals are unpredictable sparring partners.”

“Yeah. Yeah, but you still own a rodeo company? Still ?”

“Well, technically, Ryder owned it when we got married. But yeah. I can’t imagine not cowboying. And this way we can provide help for riders when they get hurt.” Kase’s fingers seemed a little gnarled already, even though he couldn’t be near old enough to have hands like that.

Then again, Nathan had chef’s hands. Cut and burned and bruised. He had scars that were bad enough they seemed like road maps.

Every job had its dangers.

But he’d never been kicked or stomped by a bull. Which made him wonder.

“So am I going to have to ride a horse up to the camp?”

“That would be the easiest way. Do you know how to ride?”

Motorcycles? Cars? Hang-gliders? Skidoos? Lovely men? Yes.

Horses? He was from Austin, for Chrissake. A city boy, for all he was from Texas.

“I guess I’ll learn.”

“We can get you a crash course. No pun intended. We’ve got some great gentle horses too.”

“Yay.” He chuckled. “I suppose it was too much to hope for a chuckwagon to ride on.”

Kase grimaced. “Trust me, that’s harder on the butt than the horse. And I’d let you take a side by side, but if it’s wet up there at all, it will just get bogged down.”

“Then lessons it is.” He’d known when he signed on at a ranch that he might be roughing it some. He’d thought it might be more like that famous rancher TV show, was all.

Kase smiled at him, the expression gentle. “You’re being a very good sport. The one thing I’ve learned about being at this ranch is that nothing is boring, and you have to be flexible. Animals and kids, right?”

“I’m trying, for sure.” And he had no choice. His ex had taken everything and flushed it down the toilet, including the restaurant he’d worked so hard to build, his reputation as a chef, and his freaking house. All of it gone because of a bad investment Dan had made.

Thank God they hadn’t been married.

As it was, he’d been humiliated, blackballed, and he’d had to leave the city and head to Nowhere, New Mexico to feed foster kids and cowboys.

At least he had control over what he was producing.

Kase studied him for a long moment. “Okay, man. Let’s get you up to speed on this stuff. I know you’re ready to get to work.”

“You’re absolutely right.” Losing himself in his work made everything else bearable. And it was time to get to it.