Joshua looked intently at her, as if he was waiting for her to say something more.
“The books say you aren’t supposed to laugh out loud for another month. You be working on that for my Christmas present. I want to hear a big baby belly laugh on Christmas morning,” she said.
He cooed and waved one chubby hand in the air.
“Aha, you’re going to be a bronc buster, are you? One hand on the rope and one in the air.”
“Who’s going to be a bronc rider? I told Lucas that he’s a rancher, not one of them rodeo cowboys.” Henry hung his coat and hat on the rack beside the back door and slipped his boots off, leaving them on the rug. “Snowin’ still, but it won’t last long. Big flakes like that are just for show. It’s them little ones that don’t swirl around that you got to be fearful of. It’ll be sunny and thawin’ out come morning.”
“You heard the weather, did you?” Natalie stirred up the filling for the pecan pie, filled the shell, and put it in the oven.
Henry warmed his hands with the escaping heat. “No, I can tell by looking at the sky. And I’m gettin’ Jack’s gun from the safe in his room and shootin’ any horse that steals that pie away from me.”
Natalie shut the oven and went to work layering the peach cobbler. “We missed you at breakfast.”
“Went up to the doughnut shop and had coffee with the guys this morning. Sonia, Lucas’s old girlfriend, came in. She’s goin’ to come to the party. Just thought I’d tell you about that before she gets here.” Henry blew on his hands to finish the job. “Got to get them warm. Can’t touch Josh’s cheeks if they’re cold.”
Natalie finished the cobbler and shoved it in the oven with the pie.
“Why do you call him that? His name is Joshua,” she said.
“Cowboys all have nicknames. Joshua sounds like a preacher, not a cowboy. Now Josh, that sounds like a bull ridin’, calf ropin’, ranchin’ man with a swagger in his walk. Even Lucas had a nickname, darlin’.”
“What was it?” she asked.
“Hoss. Boy could ride that stick horse a million miles a day before he put him in the barn at night. And I mean in the barn. He’d take the horse out there and put him in a stable before suppertime, put a few oats in a bag that Hazel made special, and right after breakfast, he’d go get the horse out again.” Henry chuckled.
Natalie bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud.
“So?” Henry asked.
“What?” Natalie asked.
“I just told you that Lucas’s old girlfriend was at the doughnut shop, and you didn’t even flinch. I thought maybe you liked him enough to get a little jealous.” Henry grinned.
Natalie poured a cup of coffee and handed it to him. “We all have a past, Henry. I have a son and no husband or boyfriend either one. I’m not innocent, so I can’t be throwing stones.”
He wrapped his hands around the mug. “You are a good woman, Natalie Clark.”
She leaned in and whispered, “He told me about her today, and I have to admit I was a little jealous.”
He set the coffee on the table and reached out to touch the baby’s cheek. He got a grin for his efforts and the snort quickly turned to a chuckle.
“And now maybe I’d better tell you about your neighbor’s goats and how they’ve destroyed the hot-air decorations. But Mr. Crankston said that he’d replace them by the party time on Saturday night, so don’t worry. But I expect Grady better find one more piece of that bunting for around the house because one crawled up on the ladder and ate it,” she said.
Henry threw back his head and roared. Joshua cooed and giggled at him rather than crying at the sudden noise. “God, I wish I’d have been here to see that. Old Crankston hates them goats, but his wife makes fancy yarn out of the wool and his grandson names every one of them.”
***
On Thursday morning, just like Henry predicted, the sun came out bright and shiny. By midmorning the crackle of melting ice filled the countryside. Natalie bundled Joshua up and took him out for a walk so he could hear the noises.
“This is your first ice storm. You won’t remember it, but I want you to hear what the sun can do to the ice. See how warm it is on your face. It’s that warmth that melts the ice.”
Lucas rounded the corner of the house and said, “He’s pretty young for a science lesson. You can tell that you are a teacher.”
“A child is never too young to talk to. If you don’t start early, then how do you expect them to understand your tones and voice?”
Lucas stopped so close to her that she got a whiff of his aftershave. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll make him sick bringing him outside in the weather?”
She shook her head slightly. “It’s good for him.”
Two raging fires burned within her. Newly acquired motherhood complete with all the mood swings took first place. But the second blaze belonged to Lucas, and the idea of him putting it out was both exhilarating and scary.
Sunlight created deep blue highlights in his jet-black hair, and his jeans stacked up over his old rough work boots. His jacket was unzipped and hanging open. Her fingers longed to unbutton his shirt like Sonia had done and run her hands up the toned and rippled chest underneath.
She’d never been so physically attracted to anyone in her entire life. And there was every possibility that he was still in love with Sonia—immature or not. The heart wanted what it wanted. It didn’t matter if her heart wanted Lucas. If his heart wanted Sonia, then they could never be happy together. Lord, what a tangled mess life could get to be.
“How do you know so much about babies?” he asked.
“I had three younger brothers.”
“Walk with me out to the barn. I want to show you and Josh the new calf that was born this morning.”
His legs were long but her stride matched his well enough that they could walk beside each other without one slowing down or the other speeding up. A breeze had picked up and coming off all the ice, it was cool in spite of the sun’s warmth.
“Has he seen a new baby calf yet?” Lucas asked.
“No. Calves are born in the spring, not December.”
“You got that right, but a couple of our prize heifers went visiting the bull pen at the wrong season. We had no idea they were in heat until it was too late to do anything about it. We aren’t even sure which bull bred them.”
“Which means this one goes with the calf crop to the sale next fall, right?” she asked.
He chuckled.
“What in the hell is so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing. I just never knew a woman who knew so much about ranchin’. I thought you were a basketball coach.”
“Well, I was a rancher before I was a coach. I can grow cotton or pull a calf just as well as I can take a basketball team to state play-offs. And I can do it with a baby on my hip,” she smarted off.
“Kind of like Gretchen Wilson’s ‘Redneck Woman’?”
“That’s right. Oh, Joshua, would you look at that pretty baby? He’s beautiful, Lucas. Which bulls were in the pen? Can’t you tell by lookin’ at him who his daddy is?” she asked.
Lucas shrugged. “They were both Angus. One is my best bull and the other one is a good bull but not prize stock. I use him for sale calves.”
He looked like a cowboy out of an old Western movie with a shoulder propped against the doorjamb. She could picture him costarring in something about rustlers or maybe range wars with Tom Selleck or Sam Elliott.
The calf came over to the stall door, and she squatted so that Joshua could see it better. He cooed and the new baby stuck out his tongue and licked Joshua on the hand.
She shook her head to erase the vision and said, “I want to buy that calf from you, Lucas.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the first baby calf
Joshua has seen and he needs to own him. Instead of a paycheck for this month’s work, I want that calf. By the time I leave he’ll be old enough that I can finish raising him with a bucket.”
“Okay, but that’s pretty cheap work for a whole month,” Lucas said.
“Depends on how you look at it. Could be that his bloodline is good and he’ll throw some of the best calves we’ve seen out in Silverton. Now it’s time to get back in the house. Henry asked for cinnamon rolls for dinner and the dough is probably ready to roll out.”
Lucas reached out and wrapped his fingers around her arm. He ran a gloved hand down the length of her jawbone and she could feel the heat building from deep inside her through the leather of his gloves. Instinctively, she looked up and their eyes locked over the top of the baby in the sling between them. He bent his broad chest around Joshua and kissed her gently, then deepened it into more and more. His tongue rimmed her upper lip and eased its way inside her mouth to do a slow, easy country waltz with hers.
Joshua squirmed and whimpered when Lucas’s arms drew her closer.
“Oops. Sorry about that, feller. I got carried away. Did I squish you too badly?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll see you at dinner.” Natalie blushed.
She spun around and hurried across the yard.
She expected Drew to spout off something in her conscience and was disappointed when he didn’t say a single word.
“Shit!” she said when she was in the kitchen. “Don’t you repeat that word when you get older, Joshua.”
Chapter 7
“Good grief, Lucas has been my ‘dear diary,’ and I didn’t even realize it,” she told Joshua as she changed him from pajamas into clothes for the day.
The baby kicked his legs and waved his arms about, cooing the whole time at his mother’s voice. As fast as he was growing, it wouldn’t be long until he could control those arms and legs and his cooing would become real words. She wondered what his first word would be.
“You are a boy, so you won’t ever have a little pink diary to write all your secrets in. Boys don’t do that. But I did until I was about thirteen and then I just told Drew everything and forgot about my diary. When he was gone, I shifted my diary mode over to Lucas. I wonder if you can even buy them anymore. I’ll need one to start the year off if we are back in Silverton.”
Joshua looked up at her and drew his eyes down in a frown.
“Okay, enough talk about the future. But let’s get something straight about tonight. There’ll be strangers in and out all day and a big party tonight. Don’t you get too friendly with them, and other than Henry, Jack, and Grady, you aren’t to smile at them. Those are my smiles, and I’m not sharing your precious smiles with anyone.”
Natalie kissed him between the eyes. “Yes, you can smile at Lucas, but that’s the whole list.”
She carried him to the kitchen, settled him into the swing, and was busy winding it up before she realized that the smell of coffee filled the kitchen. She quickly looked around and there was Henry, pouring two cups full.
“Good mornin’,” he said brightly.
“What are you doing up and about so early?” Natalie asked.
“It’s party weekend. Ella Jo, that would be my wife and the other half of my heart, loved Christmas and her spirit comes back the month of December every year to visit with me. Folks probably think I’m crazy, but I can hear her voice in my head and she talks to me,” he said.
“I don’t think you are a bit crazy.”
Henry flashed his brightest smile. “I don’t want to miss a minute of time with her.” He handed Natalie a mug. “If I get here early today and tomorrow, I get to look at the tree a little while with her before all the noise starts. She tells me if I need to change an ornament, and we visit about the old days when we first settled on this ranch. Is that an old man losing his mind?”
Natalie shook her head. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“She said I was an old hopeless romantic. When we first bought this ranch back in the forties we started off in a one-room cabin. I promised her a decent house and a yard full of kids. She lived to see the house, but she only got Jack before she died. I miss her even after fifty years. I told her about Josh this morning and I could feel her smiling.”
Natalie swallowed twice before she got the lump out of her throat. “What did Ella Jo make for breakfast on party day?”
Henry smiled. “Sausage gravy and biscuits. She only got to have one party in the house before she died. I remember our first Christmas together though in the little cabin. We went out in the woods and I chopped down a cedar tree. We strung cranberries and popcorn in the evenings to put on that tree, and the ornaments were made out of paper and what few I could carve out of scrap wood. They looked more like Easter eggs than ornaments, but we thought they were beautiful. I made a star for the top out of an old pie pan that had a hole in the bottom.”
Natalie crumbled sausage into a skillet. When that finished browning, she pulled a bowl down from the cabinet and sifted flour into it.
“It sounds beautiful,” she said.
“It was. I thought she was going to throw me out in the barn for cutting up that tin pan though. She said that if she made the crust thick enough that the hole didn’t matter.” Henry chuckled. “Look! Josh likes that story. He’s smiling. Let me tell you, feller, a man can know everything in the world about ranchin’ and cattle, but that don’t mean jack squat when it comes to understandin’ a woman. When I put that star up on the tree, Ella Jo just stood there and cried. And I never did hear another word about cuttin’ up her pie pan.”
“Where is the topper now?” Natalie asked.
Henry cleared his throat and blushed. “When she died, I planted a cedar at the foot of her grave and every year I decorate it and put that pie pan on the top. It’s gettin’ rusty, but so am I.”
“Bullshit!” Lucas said from the doorway. “You could work circles around any of the young hired hands on the ranch. Ain’t nothing rusty about you.”
“That’s because I get up and around in the mornin’. I don’t sleep until noon,” Henry said.
Lucas brushed against Natalie’s thigh as he crossed the kitchen floor. “Noon! The sun isn’t even up and the rooster hasn’t started crowing.”
“You might check the back porch. He might be waitin’ to do his crowin’ in the house.” Henry chuckled.
Natalie inhaled sharply.
Lucas was damn sure more than a “dear diary” because she’d had a little pink diary as a child. It even had a lock on it, and she wrote all kinds of things about her brothers and her friends. Not one time had that diary made her want to throw her dough-covered hands around it and kiss it with so much passion that it would melt all the snow in north Texas.
***
Lucas held the mug of coffee tightly in his hands to steady them. Just touching her hip had stirred him into semi-arousal. A man would have to be stone-cold dead not to be affected by Natalie Clark. She was more than just a tall, beautiful woman. So much sexual energy surrounded her when she walked into a room that even Sonia, who had always been the prettiest girl in Savoy, was relegated to the backseat.
It wasn’t right to compare the two women, but he couldn’t help it. Sonia had been the love of his life for so many years that she was the yardstick to measure all women. Short, vivacious, always ready for a good time, every man’s dream of a trophy wife, and Natalie was none of those things. She was beautiful, could talk basketball and cows in the same evening, run a house with a baby on her hip, and killed coyotes with her own pink pistol.
“What’s got your mind wrapped up in barbed wire this morning? Thoughts of seeing all your old buddies?” Henry asked.
Lucas heard his grandfather’s voice, but it didn’t register until Henry yelled, “Lucas, are you awake?”
&
nbsp; He nodded. “Barely. I’m sorry. What did you ask me?”
“I asked you what had your brain all wrapped up in barbed wire. It’s plain as day that you was way off thinkin’ about something that put a frown on your face. That stuff over there still on your mind at times?”
Lucas carried a cup of coffee to the table. “It was a big cultural shock when I got to Kuwait, but Drew helped me settle in. He’d been there two times already, so he knew the ropes.”
“Talk to me about it,” Henry said.
Lucas shrugged. “Drew had the upper bunk and I had the bottom one in the tent where we were assigned. He taught me how to hang sheets over the sides and my wet towels over the end for some privacy. He showed me where the phone room was so I could call y’all and talk when we didn’t use the computer. Twenty-five men in one tent. Bathroom outside in a portable toilet. Showers in another building. Everything is a luxury here and sometimes I think about the guys still over there. Or those on their way.” He paused.
Henry waited.
“Just being home doesn’t knock the place out of your head. You wake up in a cold sweat not knowing where you are and the dead silence is scary. It feels like the middle of a tornado. Like a vacuum that will disappear any minute and be replaced by chaos,” Natalie said.
Henry looked away from Joshua at her.
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “How did you know that?”
She went on as she put a pan of biscuits in the oven. “Then you realize you are home and you worry about those you left over there. The friendships you make in those times are even deeper than the ones you’ve made your whole life at home. That’s because you are so dependent on each other for your lives.”
“You been over there, Natalie?” Henry asked.
“No, but Drew told me about it. We’d be watching a movie in the living room at my folks’ place and he’d drift off only to wake up with a jerk and a crazy look in his eyes. I’d make him talk about it, so I know what you are saying, Lucas,” she answered. “I can’t imagine the shock of that place. Just the physical heat and sand in everything would drive me insane. Then you come home in the middle of winter with snow falling and utter quiet at night with none of the noise of twenty-five other men in the same tent with you. It’s got to be tough.”
The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby Page 10
