Leftover Love Read Online Free PDF

thought, since I was a woman, you stood a chance of getting hired. What kind of experience have you had?”
    This was not the turn Layne had expected the conversation to take. It caught her flatfooted and slightly baffled. “Actually, none—” she began.
    “But you love animals and you can ride. Right?” Mattie Gray guessed with the confidence of someone who had heard the story many times before.
    “Well, yes—”
    “There’s a lot more to it than that, honey. It’s chapped skin, broken nails, and a cold that’ll freeze your boots off. You’re a lovely girl—beautiful in fact. This kind of work isn’t for you.”
    This time it was Layne’s turn to look her over, from the mud-and-manure-caked rubber of her high-buckled over–shoes to her work-stained gloves. “You do it, don’t you?” Layne countered in a kind of challenge.
    “Sure,” Mattie Gray conceded with a small shrug. “But that doesn’t cut any ice. Sorry you came all this way for nothing. You might as well come in the house, have a cup of coffee, and warm yourself up before you make that long jaunt back home.” She mounted the porch steps and walked past Layne to the front door.
    “Thanks.” Layne’s mind was working, wheels turning with an idea that had so unexpectedly presented itself to her.
    Rugs covered the hardwood floor just inside the front door. Mattie Gray stopped on one of them to unbuckle her muddy overshoes and leave them to sit on the newspapers. Although her own boots were clean, Layne was careful to wipe them thoroughly on one of the rugs before following Mattie, who padded silently across the floor in a pair of white woolen socks.
    It was an old house, all toasty warm and comfortable. Layne took off her knitted cap and shook her chestnut hair free of her coat collar. She had time for no more than a glimpse at the traditionally styled furniture in the front room, but the predominant colors seemed to be shades of gold and tan—earth tones.
    The kitchen was a cheerful yellow, with genuine solid oak cabinets and a wooden table covered with a plastic cloth in a multicolored daisy design. Mattie shrugged out of her overcoat and tossed it on the back of a chair. Underneath it, she wore a gray sweatshirt over a dark plaid shirt. Even though her figure had thickened at the waist and hips, she still had a nice, if rounded, shape to her.
    “Do you take anything in your coffee?” She offered no apology for the dirty dishes in the sink as she took down two clean cups from an overhead cabinet.
    “No thanks.” Layne removed her parka and draped it over the back of a chair, then sat down. A pumpkin-colored cat was curled on an old, faded pillow lying on the kitchen floor by the stove. It gave Layne an unblinking, green-eyed stare, then stretched lazily and ambled over to her chair to aloofly nose her. “Hello to you too,” Layne murmured, and the cat disdainfully swished its tail and walked away.
    “Fred only tolerates people.” Mattie set two steaming cups of black coffee on the table, then reached for a tissue from the decorative box on the counter. “Cold air always makes my nose run,” she said, then proceeded to noisily blow it.
    Layne marveled at the lack of pretension about this woman. She was completely natural, not trying to impress Layne one way or another. Layne either liked her the way she was or she didn’t. It didn’t seem to greatly concern Mattie one way or the other.
    Layne preferred it this way. By blood, they were mother and daughter, but that wasn’t a sufficient basis for a relationship. They could only learn to know each other as people. More than anything Layne wanted that to happen, without any awkwardness or tension between them because of the past.
    “I guess you must get requests from a lot of inexperienced people like myself to come to work on your ranch. You had all the answers before I even asked the questions,” Layne said, opening the conversation.
    “Yes, and they’re all young and eager to