Darn Good Cowboy Christmas Read online

  Her eyes were still half shut when she picked up her purse and keys from the kitchen table and stumbled out into the darkness. Hooter looked up from the corner of the porch with mournful eyes, and Blister ran to her empty food dish.

  “Well, shit! I can’t leave until I feed the livestock,” Liz grumbled as she went back inside the house.

  She filled the food dishes and made sure there was fresh water and headed toward her pickup truck again.

  “Good mornin’,” Raylen said cheerfully as he hopped over the fence in a swift movement.

  Liz glared at him. “It’s five thirty in the morning. What is good about that?”

  “Going to be a beautiful day. Sun will be rising in another hour. Thought I’d stop by and tell you good luck on your first day at work. I’m getting ready to plow that field right there.” He pointed toward the tractor sitting on the other side of the fence.

  Too damn bad Hooter and Blister won’t eat green stuff right off the land, she thought.

  “Thank you for the good luck,” she said.

  He hurried to the truck and opened the door for her. “Have a good day.”

  “How can you be so happy at this time of day?” she asked.

  “I’m an early riser. Love the morning when things are just waking up,” he answered.

  She brushed against him and the electricity between them woke her up so fast it made her head swim. So the fire in his kiss wasn’t a one-time episode.

  “See you later. Have a good day,” he said as he slammed her truck door shut.

  ***

  Liz drove out to the end of the lane and turned north. It was a good thing he hadn’t kissed her or she’d have been tempted to drag him back into the house for a romp in that big old soft bed. By the carnie Bible she was already sinning by getting up before the sun; she might as well go to hell for a big sin as a little one. She had a smile on her face when she opened the door to the café and found Jasmine in the kitchen.

  “Hey, come on back here and get a cup of coffee. It’ll be about ten or fifteen minutes before the crowd starts wandering in,” Jasmine yelled.

  Liz followed the aroma of coffee blended with bacon and sausage through the dining room and into the kitchen. Jasmine pointed at the coffee machine and the cups stacked up beside it. Liz helped herself.

  “Your breakfast and dinner comes with the job. So if you want a sausage biscuit, help yourself.” Jasmine pointed toward a plate with several already made up.

  Liz picked up one. “I hate to cook. I may be your waitress until my dying day.”

  A young woman, not as old as Liz, rushed through the door and into the dining room. She poured a cup of coffee, then added two heaping scoops of sugar and enough cream to turn it pale tan. Then she picked up a sausage biscuit and wolfed it down before grabbing another one.

  While she nibbled at the second one, she dug in her jeans pocket and handed Liz a piece of paper. “I’m sorry. I was hungry and thought I was late. I’m Amber. I made a list of the way I do things to help you out. Before I leave in the evenings, I put out the breakfast menus and make sure the table is ready for the next day. That’d be full salt and pepper shakers, ketchup bottle, and pepper sauce. I get the coffee pots all ready so all we have to do is turn them on. Breakfast rush is from about six to eight thirty, and then there’s a few drifters up to eleven when lunch starts. Then it’s a madhouse until two.”

  “Pleased to meet you, and thank you for the notes,” Liz said.

  “I hate to leave. I’ve loved working here, but Momma is ailin’ and I need to go home,” Amber said.

  “Whatever brought you to Texas anyway?” Liz asked.

  “Worthless sumbitch I met in a café up in Rogers, Arkansas. He was a truck driver and I was doin’ waitress work. I’d just got out of a bad marriage and got right back into one even worse than the first one. Momma told me, but I wouldn’t listen,” Amber said.

  “I’m sorry,” Liz said.

  “Me too. Could’ve saved myself a lot of pain and misery,” Amber said. “But that’s all behind me now and I got a grip on life. I won’t make the same mistake a third time, thanks to Lucy over at the Longhorn Inn. That woman is a saint, let me tell you. She gives talks at the shelters around here and finds jobs for those of us who need them. I’ve been livin’ in the motel and helpin’ her out some in the evenin’s to pay for my room for the last six months. A saint, I tell you, and Jasmine here ain’t far behind her.”

  “I don’t do nothin’. You worked for every dime you made here,” Jasmine said.

  Amber had thin lips, but when she smiled her whole face lit up. “Yep, I did, and I learned more than how to fill up salt shakers. What’s your story, Liz?”

  “My Uncle Haskell gave me his house and twenty acres if I want it,” she said.

  “Haskell Hanson? Love that old feller. Wondered why we hadn’t seen him in the café the last week. Is he sickly?” Amber asked.

  “No, but my grandpa is, so Uncle Haskell moved one of those prefab houses onto the property out in west Texas. He’s going to take care of Grandpa.”

  “That where you are from—out there in west Texas?” Amber asked.

  Liz sipped her coffee. “No, I’m from all over the state, the lower half of Oklahoma, and even some of Arkansas. My mother and aunt own a carnival, so I grew up traveling.”

  “Well, that sure sounds like fun.” She nodded toward the porch. “Looks like Slade Luckadeau and his grandma and aunt are our first customers today.”

  Liz looked up to see two elderly women and a handsome cowboy coming through the doors.

  “I’ll get it,” she said.

  “Okay, go get your feet wet, Miss Carnival.” Amber giggled.

  “Good morning, folks. What can I get you this morning?” Liz asked as she whipped the strings of a white apron around her waist and tied them in the front.

  “These two old grouchy women didn’t want to cook this morning, so we’re eating before we go to a farm auction down in Chico,” Slade said. He was a tall, blond, blue-eyed cowboy.

  “Don’t you be callin’ us grouchy,” one of the women said. “You’re the one who was bitchin’ about gettin’ up too damn early. I’m Ellen and this is my sister, Nellie, and that’s her grandson, Slade. We have to keep an eye on him or he’ll be buyin’ nothing but culls. He’s married to a woman who helps him buy good horse stock, but me and Nellie have to help him out with the cows.”

  “Don’t listen to them two. They’re just grumblin’ around,” Nellie said. “They’re both so happy to be goin’ somewhere today they could just dance a jig in a pig trough. I want the big breakfast, the one that comes on a platter with scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, and biscuits and gravy.” She was tall and slim, wore jeans and boots, and had gray hair cut in a short easy-to-take-care-of style.

  “Me too,” Ellen said. “Only I don’t give a shit about cholesterol so bring me two pieces of sausage.” She was shorter than her sister, had dyed hair swept up in a ratted hairdo popular in the seventies, and wore a sweeping, multicolored skirt with a bright orange ruffled top.

  “Make mine with bacon instead of sausage,” Slade said.

  Liz wrote everything down and carried the order to the kitchen. “That’s one sexy cowboy out there.”

  “Yep, if he wasn’t married I’d be on the other side of this business flirtin’ with him,” Jasmine said.

  Liz leaned against the doorjamb and kept an eye out for more customers.

  Jasmine went on. “I’m just teasing. I’m not getting involved with anyone for a while. I don’t have good sense when it comes to the opposite sex.”

  Amber nodded, her expression stone cold serious.

  Liz cocked her head to one side and frowned.

  Jasmine cracked eggs into a bowl. “But if I ever trust another man it’s goin’ to be someone like Slade. He’s so in love with his wife, Jane, that he don’t even see other women. I swear, Angelina Jolie could walk right up to him and whisper in his ear and it wouldn’t affe
ct him. Jane is his whole life. Well, Jane and those two little girls they have.”

  “Is there any more Luckadeaus?” Liz asked.

  “What would you be askin’ that for? Raylen acted like he was almighty interested at Sunday dinner,” Jasmine said.

  “No, he isn’t,” Liz argued.

  “Blush on your face says he is,” Jasmine said.

  “More customers. Today, you take the orders and I’ll deliver them and we’ll split the tips,” Amber said.

  “I’m in the learnin’ stage. You keep the tips for your trip,” Liz said.

  “You are a good woman. Jasmine, you keep her long as you can,” Amber said.

  Liz took orders from the first table and turned around to see another group who’d pulled up chairs around the table next to the door. She made a quick trip to the kitchen and hurried back out.

  “Just coffee for all of us,” a man said.

  “Except I’ll take a slice of whatever pie Jasmine has back there,” Becca said.

  “Well, hello again.” Liz’s tone was as flat as west Texas countryside.

  “Hello to you. Don’t matter what kind of pie it is. I had breakfast in the bunkhouse with the guys, but I’m wantin’ something sweet.” Becca dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

  Liz took the two orders to the back, filled four coffee cups and set them on a dark brown tray, picked up a slice of chocolate cream pie, and carried it out. Becca didn’t say a word, not even “thank you” when Liz set the pie in front of her.

  As she carried the tray back to the kitchen she met Amber coming out with an armload of orders.

  “Watch that woman over there with all those men. She’s downright mean. I don’t like her. She treats me like dirt,” Amber said out the side of her mouth and kept walking.

  “Why don’t Amber like Becca, and why would she treat her like dirt?” Liz asked Jasmine as she waited for customers to arrive.

  Jasmine cracked four eggs into a bowl and whipped them until they were frothy. “Becca comes from money. Her dad owns the biggest spread in the county over around Stoneburg. She’s got an ego bigger than Dallas and pretty much gets what she wants.”

  “I get the feeling she doesn’t know what she wants,” Liz said.

  “You’ve met her?”

  “At lunch yesterday. Raylen introduced her.”

  “I’ll expect to hear more of that story when we aren’t busy. She and Raylen are a strange pair, but they’ve been friends since they were babies. To my way of thinkin’, she’s got roundheelitis, but someday she expects to walk down the aisle with Raylen or Dewar. Her daddy don’t really care which one,” Jasmine said.

  “Roundheel-whatis?” Liz asked.

  “Man winks at her and her round heels get off balance and she falls back on the bed and takes the man with her. It’s a disease that antibiotics won’t cure.” Jasmine laughed.

  Liz laughed with her. “Sounds serious. Is it contagious?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t plan on getting close enough to her to find out, but she’d better think again if she’s going to hoodwink one of my friends into marriage,” Jasmine said.

  “Got a deadline as to when she’s going to do the hoodwinkin’?”

  “Her daddy is putting the pressure on her, but she likes the chase too well to be tied down, and rumor has it she has the hots for the new foreman out on her daddy’s ranch,” Jasmine said.

  Liz took a long, steady look at the cowboy sitting beside Becca. Dark hair that hung down on his shirt collar. Even though it had an unkempt look about it, Liz knew a high-dollar haircut and the result of hair product when she saw it. Blaze had the same look about him, and his hair was his crowning glory.

  The cowboy said something and Becca handed him her fork. He ate a few bites of her pie and pushed it back. She made a show out of licking the fork clean before she started eating with it. Her eyes were sparkling and her body language spelled love in all capital letters.

  “Where is your mind?” Jasmine asked.

  “Out in la-la land. More customers?”

  “No yet, but I heard someone coming up on the porch,” Jasmine said.

  “Hey Slade, what are you doin’ out this early with such good-lookin’ chicks? Does Jane know you’re out cheatin’ on her?” Ace yelled as he shut the door behind him.

  “Don’t you go tellin’ on me,” Slade said.

  Ellen, the shorter one, crooked a finger at Ace. “Come on over here and sit with us, darlin’. For that sweet lie, I’ll buy you breakfast. If you’ll let me drive that truck of yours, I’ll buy you dinner, too.”

  “Now Miz Ellen, I done heard how you drive too fast and drink too much. You are way too much of a party girl for me. Hey, Amber, bring me… you’re not Amber,” Ace said. His eyes did a slow scan from Liz’s toes to her hair.

  He was a pretty cowboy with his blond curls and blue eyes, almost as handsome as Slade, but his flirting eyes did nothing to heat up her insides like a glance from Raylen did.

  “I’m Liz. Amber is leaving tomorrow and I’m taking her place. What can I get you?” she asked.

  “Well, honey, how about dinner tomorrow night since Miz Ellen is too much woman for me to handle?” Ace said in a slow Texas drawl.

  But it didn’t make Liz’s underpants start crawling down toward her ankles like Raylen’s voice did.

  “Darlin’, you couldn’t handle me either. You want the big breakfast or just coffee?” Liz asked.

  “Girl after my heart.” Ellen giggled. “Reminds me of myself when I was young.”

  “Hell, Ellen, you never did have black hair unless it come out of a bottle.”

  “Now don’t go givin’ away the family secrets, Nellie.” Ellen giggled.

  Jasmine came out to the table. “All Ace wants is coffee. Those fellows out in his bunkhouse cook a mean breakfast for him every morning, but he can’t stay away from Chicken Fried because he likes to flirt.”

  “Mornin’, Jazzy. You want to go to dinner with me tomorrow night so my pride won’t be wounded? Miz Ellen here is too fast for me and your new waitress is just downright mean,” Ace teased.

  “Woman has to be mean around you. I saved you a slice of lemon pie. You want it now or later?” Jasmine asked.

  “Right now. If I don’t eat it in a hurry, Slade will talk you out of it,” Ace said.

  Liz went to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, and put the last piece of lemon pie on a saucer. The place was full of good-natured cowboys, both bad boys and good guys, but not a one of them appealed to her. However, all she had to do was conjure up a vision of Raylen and they all disappeared. Was there really such a thing as love at first sight or even lust at first sight?

  She carried the coffee and pie out to Ace and set it before him, deliberately brushing his shoulder. Not a single spark or ember fired up. Nothing. Nada!

  “I heard that Haskell gave you his place. You want to sell it?” Ace asked.

  “I do not! Why would you want it, anyway?” Liz asked.

  “Raylen would pay me triple what I gave you for it. He wants that land so damn bad he’d drop down on one knee and propose to you to get it.” Ace laughed.

  “Well, it’s not for sale. I’m going to live there forever,” Liz said.

  Her bubble popped with a loud cracking sound inside her head. While she’d been floating around in the land of passionate kisses, Raylen had been sweet-talking his way into buying her twenty acres. Well, it would take a hell of a lot more than one steamy hot kiss and a five o’clock good morning to get her land. Even if she had been in love with the man since she was a kid, he would squat and fall backwards before he worked that angle on her.

  All men have an angle. They either want your money, they want to get in your underpants, or they want both. Aunt Tressa’s words echoed in her head as she fell to earth with a hard thump.

  “Dammit!” she whispered as she followed Jasmine back to the kitchen.

  “So what’d you think of Ace?” Jasmine asked.

  “He�
�s a bad boy lookin’ for a woman with that disease Becca has got. I notice that she doesn’t even look at him but flirts with every other man in the house,” Liz said.

  Jasmine laughed out loud. “They dated some in high school. He went away to college, and the breakup was not a nice one.”

  “Do you know everything about everybody?” Liz asked.

  “Almost. I’ve been here since last February, and a small café is almost as good a gossip place as a beauty shop. What I don’t hear, Gemma does, and we trade off,” Jasmine said.

  Amber carried a pile of dirty dishes to the sink and started rinsing them before loading the dishwasher. “So what was it you did in the carnival?” she asked.

  “I told fortunes and did some belly dancin’,” Liz said.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. I’d have figured you for the one who tamed the lions,” Jasmine said.

  “It’s a carnival, Jasmine, not a circus.”

  Amber giggled. “Y’all talkin’ about this place? Well, it’s a circus right now. Slade’s aunt and granny are arguing as usual. Becca is flirting with the cowboy right next to her, and Raylen and Gemma are on their way in the door. It’s fixin’ to heat up out there.”

  Liz waited until they were seated before she went back out to the dining room. “Good mornin’. What can I get you two?” she asked.

  “Pancakes for me. Raylen didn’t cook this mornin’, and then I had to drag him off the tractor to get him to feed me. And it was his morning to cook,” Gemma said. “And coffee, black as sin and strong as hell.”

  “Same for me. Gemma is a big girl, and she didn’t want to get up early, so if I had cooked, it would have been cold so she can’t bitch,” Raylen said.

  “You two live together?” Liz asked.

  Gemma nodded. “Last year when I put in the shop the folks said I could live with them and I did for a couple of weeks. But then Raylen said I could use one of his spare bedrooms so I moved in with him. Momma is a better cook.”

  “But Momma is a hell of a lot nosier, ain’t she?” Raylen smiled.