Merry Cowboy Christmas Read online

  “So no babies before next year but we could go dancing. Last time I checked that didn’t produce a baby,” Jud flirted.

  “Can you guarantee that?” she asked.

  “For sure,” he said.

  “What are you two talking about?” Lizzy asked.

  “We are going dancing on Friday night,” Fiona said. “But it’s not a date. It’s just two people going out for a good time.” She tucked the final light in exactly the right place. “Now it’s time for Dora June and the rest of y’all to put the ornaments on. Jud and I have done our job.”

  “Oh, really? Was I fast or patient?” Jud’s eyebrows went up.

  “You finished well,” she said.

  “I always do,” he whispered.

  She started to say something else but noticed that Irene’s eyes had begun to dart around the room.

  Katy went right to her side and held her hand. “Are you okay, Mama?”

  “Where am I? I don’t know this place. Did we get new nurses?” Irene frowned.

  “We hired help to decorate the lobby. Are you ready to go to your room?” Katy asked.

  Irene nodded. “I am very tired.” She glanced out the window. “Maybe tomorrow we can build a snowman if it snows enough.”

  Deke had been helping Lizzy set snow globes on the higher places but he turned and headed toward the kitchen. “Let’s take Miz Irene home in my truck. I’ll feel better if I go with y’all and if the roads get slick, then my truck is heavier.”

  “Thank you,” Katy said.

  “No problem. See all y’all tomorrow, folks.”

  Fiona started across the room to hug her grandmother but Katy shook her head. Allie looped her arm through Fiona’s and Lizzy laid a hand on her shoulder.

  “She thinks we are hired help and those folks would not hug her,” Allie said softly.

  “We’ve learned how to handle it,” Lizzy said.

  “This is so hard.” Fiona swiped at a tear clinging to her long lashes.

  “Yes, but we’ll be thankful that we had her for a couple of hours. That’s a miracle,” Allie said.

  “Just one minute, Katy,” Blake said.

  Even though all the ornaments weren’t on the tree, he fixed the star to the top and held Audrey up for everyone to take pictures. “I don’t want you to miss seeing the real thing.” He grinned.

  Jud plugged the end of the cord into the outlet and the multicolored lights lit up beautifully.

  “Thanks.” Katy smiled as she helped Irene into her coat and hat. “Look at Audrey’s eyes. I’m so glad you did that for me, Blake. That’s a precious memory I will cherish forever.”

  Fiona inhaled deeply. Lizzy was right. They’d had Granny for a little while and that was a miracle. Audrey’s little eyes had lit up so bright when the lights came on that Fiona couldn’t even find words to describe the joy in her heart. She made a vow right then that she’d always come home the weekend after Thanksgiving and enjoy this tradition. It didn’t matter where she lived; she would never miss making memories like this again.

  “Carols!” Dora June clapped her hands. “We haven’t had a caroling in years. We’ve got enough folks in this room right here to have one. We can ride on the back of a flat-bed trailer and sing all the old carols. We’ll have to figure out an evening.”

  “Can you sing?” Jud asked Fiona.

  “No, she can’t,” Allie said. “But we don’t care because she can dance.”

  Lizzy nodded emphatically. “Yes, she can. If it hadn’t been for her, I’d have been a scared rabbit at my proms. She taught me all the newest dance moves and I was the queen of the prom.”

  “Well, if you can dance that well, I’m really looking forward to Friday night,” Jud said.

  “Friday night? What’s going on Friday night?” Allie asked.

  “We are going to visit Granny and then go to a country bar up near Wichita Falls for some dancing,” Fiona answered.

  “Oooooh.” Dora June’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Just as friends,” Fiona quickly clarified.

  The eyebrows settled back into place.

  “If you aren’t nice, I will sing, Jud, so remember that,” she said.

  “Is this your song?” He nodded toward the stereo.

  Fiona cocked her head to one side and listened to “The Angel and the Little Blue Bell” by Brenda Lee. She had not heard the song since she was a little girl. The lyrics were about a little blue bell that couldn’t ring and said that an angel appeared and told the little blue bell that she’d come to dry his tears. She changed him to gold, gave him the perfect tone, and on Christmas Day he could ring.

  “No, it’s not, because I don’t expect an angel to appear on Christmas Eve and give me a voice of gold,” she answered.

  “What if it’s symbolic of what the angel could bring you?” he asked.

  “The angels deserted me a long time ago.” She took a step away from him and went to the turntable. The angels had really turned their backs the day she was born. They had put wings on her shoulders instead of giving her something to hang on to so that she could find a place to light and call home.

  Jud followed her. “How did they desert you?”

  “All I ever wanted was a place to belong like Lizzy and Allie, but the angels turned their backs on me. I didn’t fit into the little town of Dry Creek or in the big city of Houston. Maybe I’m one of those souls who will wander for her whole life and never find a place to call her own.”

  “Maybe you need a good reason to put down roots,” Jud said.

  “Family should be a good reason, right?”

  “Maybe you need more,” he answered.

  She found a CD with several of the older country artists featured on it. Loretta Lynn started out with a fast song and Fiona’s shoulders wiggled to the music.

  “You’ve really got music in your soul whether you can sing or not,” Jud said.

  “Yes, she does,” Lizzy said. “And we’ve missed that around here.”

  “I missed all this,” Fiona said honestly.

  Jud grabbed her hand and twirled her several times before bringing her back to his chest. “Don’t look now, but Truman is peeking around the edge of the door. He’s itchin’ to come in here and join us but he’s too damn stubborn.”

  “Like I told him before, pride is a dangerous thing.” Fiona fell into step to a country waltz as Loretta sang about the chill on the air because Daddy wouldn’t be there.

  “I’ve got a cousin in Kuwait right now and he’s got two little kids. It puts a tear in my eye when I listen to this song. This was about Vietnam but I’m sure it’s the same feeling,” Jud said.

  “I’m sorry,” Fiona said.

  George Strait started singing “Christmas Cookies” and the mood of the whole room jacked up a notch. Allie put the baby in her carrier and grabbed Blake’s hand for a dance. Toby wrapped his arm around Lizzy and they joined the other two in a fast swing dance. The lyrics said that every time she put a batch in the oven there was fifteen minutes for kissing and hugging.

  Jud leaned back and laughed. “I got gypped.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Fiona made cookies yesterday, but I didn’t get in on the fifteen minutes of fun while they cooked,” he said honestly.

  Dora June shook a bright red and silver ornament in their direction. “As long as I’m in this house, there had better not be any of that fifteen-minute stuff. Miz Katy would fire me from my chaperone job and throw me out in the snow if that happened.”

  Jud bowed at the waist to kiss Fiona’s fingertips when the song ended. “Thank you for the dance, ma’am.”

  “You are very welcome,” Fiona said.

  Blake slid a more modern CD into the player. “I think it’s time for some Alabama.”

  “Hear, hear!” Toby agreed.

  Dora June swayed to “Christmas in Dixie” as her eyes shifted around the room. Her whole face shined with excitement when she stared at the nativity scene. A big sm
ile covered her face at the snowmen looking out from every corner of the room. And when she looked at the snow globes, she nodded so hard that all chins were set into motion.

  “This is wonderful,” she said. “There’s something about having all you kids around me that I can’t even explain.”

  Fiona could relate well after the lonely holiday she’d spent the year before.

  “We need presents under the tree. Fiona, will you take me shopping on Sunday after church?” Dora June asked. “We could go see Irene while we’re up there. I should be whipped for not going to see her more often. That’s saying if the weather will let us.”

  “Of course we can,” Fiona said. “Matter of fact, maybe we’ll make it a girls’ day out. What do you say, Lizzy and Allie?”

  Her sisters both shot bewildered looks across the room and she understood them. They’d put up with Dora June’s crazy meddling. Fiona had been ready to shoot her right between chin number two and three more than once, but if they were going to turn Dora June and Truman into allies rather than enemies…well, it had to start somewhere.

  She caught Truman’s frown as he peeked around the door frame again and that solidified her determination. “We’ll take Audrey with us.”

  “Oh, that would be wonderful.” Dora June grinned.

  Lizzy nodded. “I haven’t shopped for this sexy husband of mine and that would be a great time to do so.”

  Allie’s nod was slower. “I haven’t even started my shopping, so I guess I do need to go.”

  “Rule number one, Dora June. No bossing us or telling us how to run our lives,” Fiona said.

  “Rule number one, Fiona.” Dora June pointed a chubby finger at her. “You need bossing and I’m like your granny. I speak my mind.”

  “It should be an interesting day for y’all,” Jud muttered.

  It was past ten when everyone finally left, but the whole downstairs was decorated for the holidays. A lovely poinsettia and candle centerpiece graced the dining room table. Red candles with greenery around them were arranged on the foyer table and the kitchen curtains had been taken down and replaced with pretty red and green plaid ones.

  Fiona took one long, last look at each room before she turned out the lights in the kitchen. She carefully picked up two bottles of cold beer and carried them upstairs, along with a platter of leftovers from the supper buffet.

  A thin line of yellow light cut across the neutral-colored carpet of the hall but it grew to a wide band when Jud threw the door wide open. “I thought I heard you. Weatherman says we’re in for sleet off and on all day tomorrow and Thursday, but the sun will come out on Friday and melt most of it, so we should be good to go dancing. Want me to tell Deke we’ll go to Frankie’s with him?”

  “No! I’m not going to Frankie’s. I can’t believe that Lizzy went. That’s just a glorified brothel. I’ll go up to the Rusty Spur with you, though, as long as you let me pay my own way,” she said. “Hungry?”

  “Not right now, but I’ll take one of those beers,” he said. “How’d you get those anyway?”

  “Deke sneaked them in when Dora June’s back was turned. But we have to drink them tonight because she’ll find them tomorrow.”

  “Bless old Deke’s heart.” Jud twisted the top off and drank a fourth of the contents. “Icy cold, too. Come on in. I’ve been dying to tell you about what happened with Truman.”

  Setting the platter on the end table, she settled in on the bed with pillows behind her back. She removed the lid from her beer, then hurriedly sipped the froth when it threatened to overflow the bottle. “Don’t want to waste a single drop of this precious stuff. You do know that Throckmorton County is dry and we have to cross the county line to get anything to drink.”

  “That’s the first thing Blake moaned about last winter.” Jud settled into the recliner. “Do you realize that we’re like two old married folks? You have your spot and I have mine.”

  “We’re more like a couple of high school sophomores, sneaking beer and kisses behind the principal’s back,” she laughed.

  “And the principal is Miz Dora June O’Dell, right?”

  She raised her bottle and leaned forward. He did the same and touched his to it.

  “You could have knocked me over with a feather when you and Truman walked in the store together, so talk.” She bit into a chicken salad sandwich. “These are so good. I have to ask Dora June what spices she uses. But back to the Truman story.”

  “Well, I got to thinkin’ last night about how to knock some of that jackass attitude out of him, so I got up early and went down to breakfast.” Jud told the whole story between sips of beer and bites of three cookies.

  “Wow!” she said.

  “I’m having breakfast with him again every day for the whole time they’re here. He’s either going to shape up or else leave because he hates me so bad,” Jud said.

  “Why were you interested in that old well? We always thought it had water in it and maybe the folks who lived there had their house burn down and that was the reason the house was gone. Did you do your homework?” she asked.

  “About what?” He reached for a sandwich at the same time she did.

  The reaction when his hand touched hers didn’t surprise her anymore, but that didn’t mean she had to do anything about it. She could ignore it until it got bored and went away.

  “This whole area was filled with military forts because this is where they housed the Indians about the time Texas became a state. So there could have been houses all over the place, and that old well could have been the main source for water during that time,” she explained.

  “Well, according to Truman, that well never had water because they hit limestone, which he thought was a hoot. He figured he was delivering bad news to me, but it was really good news. I’m going to talk to Blake and Toby first, since this is a joint venture but…” He paused.

  “You think you are sitting on oil?”

  He nodded. “Or natural gas, but my nose says it’s oil.”

  She leaned forward and held out her nearly empty bottle to clink with his again. “That’s fantastic. Good luck with it. Are you going to use your old work connections to drill it for you?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m going to subcontract a rental agreement for the equipment and sink it myself. It will take every dime of what I’ve got saved and my inheritance from my grandparents, but if I hit oil, it will all come back to the Lucky Penny.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “Then I’ll be broke, but at least I won’t have cost the ranch anything,” he said. “It will take a few months to get it going, and Josie might even want to partner with me. She’s thinking about it.”

  “That’s a big risk.”

  Another nod. “Life is full of risks. We make a decision based on what we have to work with that day, not the day before because that bronc has already been ridden or the day after because that wild horse isn’t ready to ride, but today.”

  Fiona drained the last drop from her beer bottle. “I had no idea you were a philosopher.”

  His slightly lopsided grin warmed her heart. Why had she not noticed that his smile wasn’t perfect?

  “Me? I’m just a rough old cowboy with a pretty good nose for oil. That’s why I couldn’t get here before now. I had another year on my contract with a company based out in the panhandle. I’m not bragging, but if I said to drill in a certain place, they sunk a well.”

  “You ever wrong?” she asked.

  “One time, but I stopped the job before it started.”

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Josie thought it was a mistake and the more I listened to her, the more I realized she might be right. I went back over my notes, went back to the site, and I had doubts. So they didn’t drill. Usually Josie and I agreed, but that time she was right and I was wrong.”

  Fiona picked up an extra pillow and hugged it against her stomach. “Did it hurt to admit that to your sister?”

  “Hell,
yes, it did. And she rubbed it in for weeks,” he chuckled.

  There was something about Fiona’s fire that drew Jud to her like a gypsy to a bonfire. He looked forward to the evenings when they talked. He missed having breakfast with her. His heart skipped half a beat when he walked into the store and there she was either behind the counter or at that table in the back room with the laptop in front of her.

  It could simply be because they were thrown together, living in the same house, kin to the same people, working in a town with a population of less than five hundred people, so there weren’t many folks to talk to. But that argument wouldn’t hold water if he was honest. He was flat out attracted to her.

  She threw her legs off the bed. “I’ll take care of the beer bottles if you’ll take what’s left of those dirty dishes in the morning.”

  “What are you going to do with them?” he asked.

  “Hide them in my coat pockets and then toss them in the Dumpster out behind the store. It’s an old trick us girls perfected years ago.” She smiled.

  “You drank beer under your mama’s nose?”

  “When we could get it,” she said. “But never more than one or two at the most. Us Logan girls cannot hold our liquor worth a damn. Both Lizzy and Allie had their first drunk experience after your brothers came to the Lucky Penny. I won’t be following in their footsteps.”

  “Did Blake make them do his hangover cure?” Jud asked.

  “Oh, yes, and from what I hear it’s a miracle, but I hate, absolutely hate, bananas.”

  “Noted. No bananas for you.” Jud stood, handed her his beer bottle, and slung an arm around her shoulders. “Let me walk you to your room.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can make it on my own,” she laughed, and rolled her eyes. “But I appreciate the gesture.”

  “Aw, where’s the fun in that?”

  Jud wanted to kiss her again. No, he wanted to kiss her lots of times and then slowly lead her back to his room, tumble her onto his bed, and make slow, sweet love to her all night. Instead, he kissed her knuckles one at a time and then cupped her face in his big hands and lowered his mouth to hers for a long, lingering kiss.

  “Good night,” he whispered, and turned around to go back to his room.