Christmas with a Cowboy

by Brown, Carolyn

  He’d barely gotten the door closed when her phone rang. She fished it out of her tiny purse and said, “Hello, Sean.”

  “I sure wish you were home.” He sighed.

  “What’s happened?” She sat down in one of the two wingback chairs.

  “Kelly and I had a fight. She might not be the one after all,” Sean said.

  “Are you going to try to make up with her?” She kept an eye on Laela. The baby was peeking around the corners like she was looking for Dolly.

  “I’ve heard that make-up sex is good, but I don’t think so. She got really jealous over Sally O’Ryan and me playin’ darts at the pub,” Sean said. “And while we were fighting, she said that if we were going to ever move in together, then I had to cut off ties with you. I’m not so sure that I could ever live with a woman that jealous. So there goes the possibility of you renting her flat.”

  “Never mind about that,” Bridget said. “The flat isn’t as important as you not making a big mistake.”

  “That’s what I thought,” he said. “But I miss havin’ you at the bakery to talk things through with me.”

  “And I wish Maverick would talk things through with me,” she said.

  “It’s probably a Texas thing—cowboy tough and all that.” He chuckled. “I’ve got to go, luv. I’m at the pub, and if I win this next round of darts, I go home a little richer. Maybe I’ll use it to buy you a Christmas present”—he paused—“if you come home.”

  “If?” she asked.

  “Darlin’ girl, you have to like that cowboy a lot if you want him to talk to you.” Sean chuckled again. “Bye now.”

  The call ended, and Maverick brought in food. “You okay? You look like you could cry.”

  “Sean called. He and Kelly broke up, and hearing my native tongue makes me homesick,” she answered. “And to tell the truth, all these people and this place kind of intimidate me.”

  “I didn’t think anything could ever scare you,” he said. “I thought you could look a wild bull in the face and spit in his eye.”

  “I put on a good front,” she admitted.

  “Eat and then we’ll mingle for a few minutes, then we’ll leave,” he said. “It’s going to be past time for the baby’s afternoon nap anyway.”

  Bridget nodded and said, “Thank you. I guess I’m a little like Emily. I’m not cut out for all these big parties.”

  “Me, either,” he admitted. “I can fake my way through them, but I’d rather be home, spending my Sunday afternoon with you and the baby.” He grinned.

  “And your Saturday nights throwin’ back so many drinks that you can’t make it all the way to your bed?” she asked.

  “That may be the last time that happens,” he said. “I also figured out that I don’t like the aftereffects of a night like that, and besides, all I thought about the whole evening was you. Would you consider stayin’ just a little longer if you’re able to change the return date on your plane ticket?” he asked.

  She didn’t have a place to live when she did go back, so she and Laela would have to stay in a hotel until she could find a flat. She had no job to make money, and what Iris had agreed to pay her wouldn’t last forever. She thought about what he’d asked as she fed the baby several bites of potato salad and bread.

  “If Iris wants me to stay on until she can get wholly back on her feet, I would be willing to stay another month or two.” That would give her more money, and it would be springtime when she returned instead of winter. “How about you? Will you stay and help your grandmother longer?”

  “It’ll take until spring just to get things in decent order around the ranch. Shall we seal the deal with that kiss you still owe me?”

  “I’m not sealing anything until we see what Iris has to say,” she told him. “I think this lassie is full, and she needs a nap. Let’s go get the mingling over with and go home.”

  She caught herself right after she said the word, but this time it didn’t seem so bad. If Iris wanted her to stay on a while longer, it would be home for a few months.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The trip to the store to buy sugar and flour wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes, and that was there and back. Bridget didn’t need the diaper bag, and there were a couple of stuffed toys still in the truck, so she tucked a nappy and a bottle in her purse. She put her coat on, and then got the baby into hers, and since there was a cold wind rattling the tree limbs, she bundled a fleecy blanket around Laela.

  The baby whimpered when the blanket covered her head, but Bridget assured her that it would only be there for a little while. She turned the lock on the knob to lock the door and hurried out to the truck. She reached for her purse to get out the truck keys and it wasn’t hanging on her shoulder. She retraced her footsteps across the yard, but no purse, nor was it on the porch. She distinctly remembered locking the door from the inside and closing it, but she turned the knob and tried to open it anyway—it didn’t budge.

  “Bloody hell!” she swore under her breath as she reached into the hip pocket of her jeans for her phone, and it wasn’t there. “I put it in my purse,” she moaned. “We’ll just have to go around the house and come in the back door. Maverick never locks it when he leaves in the morning.”

  Carrying a squirming baby and walking fast did not work so well. Bridget was huffing when she got to the back door, only to find it locked that morning too. Sunlight reflected off the barn out there in the distance, but she didn’t see a truck parked out front.

  “It looks like we may be spending some time in the barn. I guess if it was good enough for the baby Jesus, we’ll manage until someone finds us. I’d trade a knight in shining armor on a white horse for a shepherd in a pickup truck this morning,” she muttered as she flipped the cover over Laela’s face. The baby promptly threw the cover off her head, but when the north wind whipped across her tender little face, she buried it in Bridget’s shoulder. “I’ll do the best I can.” Bridget huffed as she lengthened her stride. “What I wouldn’t give for your stroller right now can’t be measured in money.”

  The barn seemed to get farther away instead of closer. When she was about a third of the way there, she sat down on an old limb to catch her breath. Heavy air and gray skies held the promise of rain—or maybe even snow. She only rested for a moment and then trudged on. “We can’t get wet or we’ll freeze,” she told Laela. “And I will never lock a door again until I make sure I have my keys and phone.”

  They were almost to the barn when the first raindrops hit her in the face. She took a deep breath and started to jog. Seconds after she’d slipped inside the barn, the rain sounded like bullets hitting the tin roof. “We made it, lassie. We may be cold but we are not wet to the skin.”

  A light from the back corner dimly lit the way to the tack room. But when she turned the knob, she found that it was also locked. That’s when she remembered there was a heat lamp clamped to the stall where the baby calf had been. With her fingers crossed, she headed that way, and shouted, “Slán abhaile!” when she saw that it was still there.

  She plugged it in and sent up a silent prayer of thanks for the tarp that had been left on one side of the stall. It was still bitter cold when she opened the gate and sat down on the straw-covered floor, but she could already feel a little warmth from the light.

  “We’ll be fine until Maverick comes and finds us.” She wasn’t sure if she was talking to the baby or to herself, but the thought brought a little comfort.

  Ducky slipped under the gate and licked Bridget across the face. Then Dolly climbed the side of the stall and jumped down to join the party. Laela squirmed out from under the blanket and off Bridget’s lap. Dolly stretched out beside her and started to purr.

  “No shepherds or knights, but we have got animals. Dolly’s fur will keep your hands warm, baby girl,” Bridget said. Laela dug her little fist down into Dolly’s soft fur and talked baby gibberish to the cat and the dog.

  “I wonder if they can understand baby language.” Bridget s
miled.

  * * *

  Maverick’s shoulders ached from pounding fence posts in all morning. When the first raindrops fell, he finished stringing wire to the post he’d just replaced, threw his tools into the bed of his truck, and drove to the house. It was too early for dinner, but he couldn’t build fence in pouring-down rain.

  The storm had gotten serious by the time he parked close to the back porch. He held his hat to keep the wind from blowing it halfway to New Mexico. He dashed to the back door, grabbed the back doorknob, found the door locked. That was unusual, since no one locked doors unless they were leaving the house. He fished his keys from his pocket. The moment he was inside, he could feel that something wasn’t right. There were no baby noises and no good aromas from cooking food. Maybe Bridget had fallen asleep with the baby when she was putting her down for her morning nap.

  He kicked off his boots and hung up his coat and hat. Then he tiptoed to the foyer and down the hall to Bridget’s bedroom. The door hung wide open. The bed had been made, and the crib was empty. He went to the living room, and no one was there, not even Ducky sleeping on one end of the sofa and Dolly curled up next to his belly.

  “They must’ve gone into town.” His voice seemed to echo from the walls.

  He went to the window and saw Granny’s truck parked where Bridget had left it the last time she drove. He jerked his phone from his pocket and called Bridget’s number. When he realized that the tune “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” he was hearing was real, and not just in his head, his blood ran cold. That was her phone, and it was somewhere in the house. Following the sound, he found her purse sitting on a chair in the foyer.

  He rushed to the front door and found it locked. It only took a split second for him to realize that she’d locked herself out of the house, and out of the truck. There was only one place she would have gone, since she had no way of getting in touch with him—the barn.

  He was still stomping his foot down into his last boot when he stepped out onto the porch. The rain beat down on his head because he had forgotten his hat, but he ran to the truck, started the engine, and gave it so much gas that he slung mud all over the porch. When he got to the barn, he jumped out, swung open the big door, and pulled the vehicle inside. If she and Laela hadn’t gotten to the barn before the rain started, they were probably wet to the skin and freezing cold. He turned off the engine and noticed a light coming from the nearest stall.

  “Bridget,” he yelled as he started to run that way. “Are you in here?”

  Before he reached the stall he could hear Bridget singing the Irish version of “Silent Night” in her native tongue. He found her with Laela and Dolly in her lap and Ducky hugged up beside her.

  “Shhh…” She put a finger to her lips and whispered, “I just got her down for her morning nap. She missed her bottle, but she was a good little lassie.”

  Maverick opened the gate and eased down beside her. “We’ll hide a key outside as soon as we get home. This will never happen again.”

  Bridget nudged him with her shoulder. “I knew my knight in shining cowboy hat would come rescue us. I’m just glad we got here before the rain got serious.”

  Big, tough cowboys don’t cry, but he had to swallow hard more than once to get past the lump in his throat. Her red hair and green eyes looked ethereal in the light thrown from the little lamp clamped to the top of the stall.

  “Where is your hat? Your hair’s all wet and you’re shivering,” she said.

  “I was in such a hurry, I forgot to get it,” he answered. “How long have you been in here?”

  “An hour at the most,” she answered. “Ducky and Dolly entertained Laela until she got sleepy, and the lamp kept us fairly warm.”

  “Let’s get y’all back to the house,” he said. “Shift her over to me, and I’ll carry her to the truck. It’s parked inside the barn.” He reached for the baby.

  “But it’s still raining. What about Ducky and Dolly?” She tucked the blanket around Laela and handed her to him.

  “They live in the barn part of the time. Dolly hates to get wet, and neither of them ride well, so we’ll leave them here.” He stood up with the baby in his arms, unplugged the light, and slipped his free arm around Bridget’s shoulders. “I bet you were worn-out from carrying this little girl all the way out here.”

  “I offered to trade my knight in for a shepherd in a truck.” She smiled up at him.

  “So now I’m a shepherd?” he asked.

  “No, silly, you’re a cowboy. You raise cattle. Shepherds raise sheep. But when I was trudging out here I knew that you’d come find us eventually,” she said.

  * * *

  He got the baby into her car seat and then whipped off his coat to wrap around Bridget’s legs, then rushed around the truck to get inside and poke the buttons to turn on the seat warmers. “You’ve got to be chilled to the bone.”

  “Thank you. I didn’t realize how wet my pants legs got,” she said. “With all this rain, do you think we’ll be able to go see Iris this afternoon?”

  “Honey, we wouldn’t dare miss seeing her over a little rain. We might have to build a boat, but we will get there.” He chuckled. “Not even God wants to piss off Granny.” He started the truck engine and backed out of the barn, then got out and shut the doors, leaving them open just slightly so Ducky and Dolly could leave when they wanted.

  “Does the wind ever stop blowing in Texas?” she asked.

  “There’s not much to slow it down but barbed wire fences and a few dead trees,” he answered as he drove to the house and parked as close to the back door as possible. “I’ll get the baby inside and then come back and take you in.”

  She pushed herself out of the door and ran toward the porch. “I can get there on my own. We have wind off the ocean in Ireland, but it’s nothing like this.” She shivered as she hung up her coat. “I liked those seat warmers in the truck. Sean’s little car doesn’t do that. I’ll have to tell him about them next time we talk.”

  “Have he and Kelly gotten over their fight?” Maverick asked.

  “I have no idea. What I really miss is being able to talk to him every day about the little things in life. I couldn’t have made it past this last year if he hadn’t offered me a job in the bakery. He’s been my therapist, and he says I’ve been his.”

  “That’s friendship,” Maverick said.

  “Yes, it is.” She gave him a knowing look.

  * * *

  As if the rain was on Iris’s schedule, it stopped an hour before it was time to get ready to go to the rehab center. Together, Maverick and Bridget bundled the baby up and took her back out to the truck. Water stood in the ditches, and there were puddles in low spots on the road.

  “When you were a kid, did you ever stomp in the puddles on the way home from school?” Bridget asked.

  “I rode the bus home until I was sixteen and got my driver’s license,” Maverick said. “But I got in my fair share of stomping in them from the end of the lane to the house.” He snagged a parking place not far from the door. “Granny threw a fit if we came in all muddy. She used to tell us that someday we were going to have to do our own laundry, and she’d be willing to bet we didn’t get dirty just having a good time. Did you and Deidre run through the puddles together over in Ireland?”

  She slung open the truck door. “We did, and it was so much fun. She was the smart and pretty one. I’m the friend who listens to problems and tries to fix things. It’s kind of like that with Sean too. As you saw by his picture, he’s a pretty boy.”

  Maverick stopped what he was doing and laid his hands on her shoulders. “You are smart. You are pretty, and you definitely have a sense of humor. Don’t ever let anyone, not even your friends, tell you otherwise.”

  “Thank you for that,” she said. “But—”

  He put his forefinger over her lips. “There are no buts, just facts. Now let’s get inside and go see Granny.” He carried Laela into the lobby, where Iris was waiting. She immediately got up from
the sofa and motioned for them to follow her down the hall to her room.

  “Close the door,” she said. “We need to talk.”

  Maverick did what she asked, and Iris sat down in her lift chair and picked up the remote. When she was comfortable, she reached out for the baby. “I need to get some lovin’ off this precious child first.”

  “You’re scaring me,” Bridget said. “Are you sick like Nana was?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not dyin’.” Iris hugged Laela and kissed her on the forehead. “She’s had enough of this. Put her on the floor now, and let her play.”

  “What are we going to talk about?” Maverick sat down in one of the two folding chairs.

  Bridget took the other chair. “Do you need for me to leave?”

  “Hell, no!” Iris raised her voice. “I’ll just spit it out. Buster ain’t comin’ back. He called me and said that he was in town getting his things together. Then he came by this morning to say goodbye. We both cried, but it’s for the best. He’s seventy-five years old, and he’s needed to retire for ten years.”

  “I’ll be glad to stay on as long as you need me,” Maverick said. “It’s been good to be home. I didn’t know how much I missed it until I got back.”

  “I was hopin’ you’d say that.” Iris looked straight at Bridget.

  “I will extend my stay if you want me to,” Bridget said.

  “Good.” Iris nodded. “I need you both on the ranch.”

  “How long?” Bridget asked.

  “We’ll talk about that later. I just needed to hear that things would be taken care of for right now. Now let’s talk about the big ranch party. Did you meet Emily? She’s a sweetheart, isn’t she? She came to see me last night after the party was over and brought me a plate of barbecue, and that pretty poinsettia over there.” She pointed to a huge red plant on the dresser. “It spruces things up in here.”

  “You want me to get a little Christmas tree for your room?” Bridget asked.

  “I thought about that, but I’ll only be in here until Christmas Eve. Then, me and Wanda are springing this joint. I’ve invited her to the ranch for the day, since she don’t have family. I’ve been shopping online. Boxes will begin to arrive in the next few days. Just put them in the spare bedroom. I’ll be there in time to wrap them for Christmas morning,” she said. “There’s a huge box of leftover Christmas paper in the closet in that room. If y’all need to use it for your presents, that’s fine.”