Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

N athan sat in the little office he’d been provided at the main house, which was a nice thing, because man, it was damn cold everywhere else.

He’d thought December was cold in Northern New Mexico.

January was downright frigid, and without all the new clothes Ames had gotten him for Christmas, he’d be losing his will to live. In fact, since the floor was Saltillo tile in the office, he was wearing his fuzzy-lined slippers instead of his boots.

The pups were allowed up in the big house now that they were potty-trained, too. That kept his feet super warm, since they fought to sleep under the desk.

He was working his way through ordering food for the whole ranch, which was his job now that Nanette was training a replacement housekeeper.

He kind of loved that, because provisioning that many people with that many moving parts was a real challenge. It made him think.

The pups both stood, tails wagging as they padded to the door, so Nathan glanced up to see who was visiting him.

“Hey, honey. You got a minute?” Ames bent down to rub long ears.

“Uh, sure. What’s wrong?”

Ames smiled, those blue eyes alight for him, the way they crinkled at the corners so amazing to see. “Nothing. But I need you to come to Kase’s office.”

“Sure, babe.” That he wasn’t worried about. He hadn’t done anything wrong. “Is he having another party?”

He grabbed his phone, his notebook, and his pen, then he stole a kiss because what fun was it having his man in the office if he couldn’t steal a kiss?

“Come on, you.” Ames patted his butt, and Nathan felt his lover vibrate against him.

Weird.

“Coming.”

They wandered deeper into the house, and Nathan couldn’t help his smile. He could hear kids doing their schooling along with someone singing and music playing.

It was one of the things he liked best about this house. There was always something going on.

They got to Kase’s office, and he was shocked to see Ryder sitting there. He didn’t deal with that cowboy much—not out of meanness or anything, because it seemed like he ended up being on Kase’s to-do list.

“Hey, y’all.” He waved and sat, surprised as all get-out when Ames came and sat with him.

“Hey, Nathan, how’s it going?” Kase asked.

Nathan nodded over, still wondering what Ames was up to. “I am the king of menu plan building and acing food cost for all of us. It should work out real well. I’ve got it set up to where we’ve got the regular meals, and y’all have five breakfasts, three lunches, and four suppers fresh made along with four bag-type lunches and three suppers a week that are stick in the oven and warm up, stick on top of the stove, that sort of thing. So that gives you both some flexibility, keeps me not completely swamped all the time, and gives everybody their weekends free.” It was damn good, his plan, and he knew it.

“How’s Sophie doing with her prerequisites for culinary school?”

Nathan glanced over at Ames. Where on earth had that come from?

“Uh, fine.” He switched gears. “She’s working with Wat on some of the math stuff. You know, food costs and inflation. He’s more patient there. And since I got the manual they sent, we’ve been working through lessons like champs.”

He actually liked it a lot. It reminded him of going to culinary school himself, and some of the little refreshers were kind of cool.

“Do you think that she could take over some of the planning work and things by next year?” Kase asked.

So that was what this was about. Promoting Sophie.

“I’m gonna be honest here.” Nathan took a deep breath. “Is she capable of it? Absolutely, and I think that it’s totally reasonable for her to spend some time doing that.” He held up one finger. “But I also think it’s important that she does kid things. Restaurants will always be around. Always. But this is an isolated situation, right?” Nathan shook his head, warming to his subject. “Just that being in the commercial kitchen, there’s no other kids doing it. She’s not working in a team like she would be in a restaurant. That’s a huge part of this whole thing. Of her learning how to work with other people, how to lead other people, how to run a kitchen, how to run front of house. There’s more to this entire thing than simply learning how to cook.”

Ames grabbed his fingers, squeezed and nodded, encouraging him, so he kept on.

“Which? You know, I’m loving, but she needs—If this is what she wants to do, she needs restaurant experience.”

Ryder grinned, one corner of his lips quirking up and it made the little roping scar that he had really noticeable. “So would you hire her?”

“What?”

“If you had a restaurant, would you hire her as a line cook?”

“You bet your sweet ass. In a second.” He thought she was brilliant. Easy to work with. Smart.

And that was just in restaurant work.

“But you think it’s important for her to be a teenager, right?” Ames prompted.

“Like I said, she’s still a kid.” He took a deep breath. “I grew up fast. Went to work early. I don’t regret it, and I didn’t have a choice, but Sophie does. She’s got a good situation here. She needs to let it come naturally.”

Ryder and Kase glanced at each other, and Nathan frowned, his eyebrows drawing down. “Okay, what the hell is going on? Is somebody trying to accuse me of overworking Sophie? Because I guarantee you, I’m not. I am following the rules of her homeschooling and of the child labor laws absolutely. She’s getting paid for some work, she’s not getting paid for the work that’s schoolwork, and both of those added up together does not go over what she’s allowed to do. And trust me, I’m getting enough shit from her about that. So I know that it’s right.”

And why wouldn’t Ames come to him and tell him if there was a problem instead of doing it this way? That seemed fucking mean. And Ames hadn’t been mean to him since that first week.

“Dude. Nathan. Chill.” Ryder shook his head. “There’s nothing like that. Nothing at all. You’re an amazing mentor to Sophie. Amazing. No one is accusing you of anything.”

“Well, good, because I haven’t done anything wrong.” And he didn’t like feeling like he had. It pissed him right the hell off.

“No. Okay, look, let’s lay our cards on the table.” Kase looked at Ames. “You want to talk first?”

“Yeah.” Ames took his hand. “So I was spit-balling with Kase the other day. About Sophie. About some of the kids who come through here. About you.”

He blinked. “What about me?”

Ames leaned forward. “You’re so good with Sophie, and with the kids who work the events. You know, kitchen help. Wait staff. And Kase came up with this wild idea.”

Nathan glanced at Kase, his eyebrows climbing. “You did?”

Kase chuckled. “Well, I’m the grant writer around here, oddly enough. So when it comes to the not-rodeo stuff, I have all the wild ideas.”

“I don’t understand.” He wasn’t a teacher. He wanted a restaurant. Not this year, maybe, but soon.

“Well, I was thinking.”

“Which is always dangerous,” Ryder put in.

“Right.” Kase grinned. “Anyway, I know you want to do a restaurant.”

He stared back and forth at the three other men.

“Well, I was thinking Ryder and I could invest in a destination-type restaurant. It would have to be something five-star to get folks to come, but we know a shit-ton of high rollers in the rodeo world at least, who would be happy to throw money at you.”

His mouth opened. Closed with no sound. Opened again. “What’s the catch?”

“You’d have to take on kids who need to learn a vocation who don’t have a chance of getting into culinary school without work experience. Or at all. They would learn on the job with you.”

“I couldn’t do this job and run a five-star restaurant. Not and give it what it needed.”

“Of course not, but we would ask that you help until we can hire people. We need to feed the cowboys.”

“Okay.” Okay, fine. He needed to think, and fast. This was everything—literally every single thing he wanted in the world. Ames. Sophie. The restaurant. Management. Freedom. The mountains.

He could work this in a way that might help more than one person and the kids. “I want at least two other trained adults there. I don’t want any possible accusations of impropriety. If you can give me three trained employees, I can cover the ranch and the restaurant.”

Please God. Please.

“Shit. We can give you an army if you need it. But we want the right people, so we can start with three. Make it a place folks want to come work.” Ryder beamed.

Nathan thought Ames might squeeze his hand right off.

“I have some phone calls to make, but I have some solid contacts—amazing people that I trust.” And all of them were hunting a solid place to land. He searched Ryder and Kase’s eyes. “This is real, right? This is a real thing?”

“It’s as real as it gets. Kase can get the contracts drawn up in less than a week and y’all can decide where to break ground.”

He was going to pass out. Just boom. Dead. “Ames?”

“It’s serious. It is. I need you to be happy. I want that to be here with me.”

“You did this?”

Ames shrugged, cheeks pink. “I asked about the possibilities. It was Kase who came up with the business proposal to put to you. I couldn’t even imagine it.”

“You—It’s not a guaranteed investment, guys.”

“Maybe not, but there are a lot of poor kids in New Mexico, and the state depends heavily on tourism. If they have training, they can lobby for better jobs in an industry that’s having to catch-up to competitive wages.” Kase had really thought about this.

“And he has opened up so many things for Sophie. He knows so many people in the industry. This could be something super special. I know it could.” Ames stared into him. “And I want you to stay. I need you to be happy.”

“I want that too.” He felt like he might pass out. “This is—You. Sophie. My own restaurant. The ranch. I could have it all.”

“You could.” Ames looked right into his eyes. “We have dogs and cats. I can’t let you move on.”

He shook his head. “Oh, Ames. You giant dork. That wasn’t ever going to be a thing. Restaurants come and go. You’re once in a lifetime.”

Ryder jerked his head at Kase, and they rose. “We’ll talk to you in a bit, Nathan. Feel free to not use the office for anything weird.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll go to my office for weirdness.”

“Nathan! Ew!”

Oh, Kase did an amazing Sophie impersonation.

They laughed, but when they were alone, Ames pulled him to his feet and into those strong arms. “You mean it? You’d stay no matter what?”

“What made you think I wouldn’t?”

“Sophie was so mad about you giving up your career for me, as she put it.”

He held Ames’s gaze. “I would have, at worst, started a restaurant in Santa Fe, but I’m in love with you. I’m your lover. I’m with you.”

“I love you too, honey. So much.” Ames kissed him hard. “And I thought I wasn’t gonna like you at all.”

“That’s because you hadn’t learned how good my chili is yet. You hadn’t figured out how much I love you and Sophie.” He hadn’t either.

“Nope. And you hadn’t gone camping or mopped up after puppies.” Ames chuckled. “And I hadn’t cooked for you.”

“Right? That’s when I knew you were a cowboy, down to the bone.” He cupped Ames’s jaw. “You got me a restaurant.”

“I helped you get one. You impressed an entire ranch of hard-core cowboys into investing in you.” Ames kissed his fingers.

“And you. You’re investing, right? Like for the long-term?”

“You know it. I can’t get better black and bleu burgers.” Ames gave him this shit-eating grin and wink. “Wanna go get weird?”

“Fuck yes. Let’s go home.” They could call it a long lunch hour. The bosses would understand.