The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby

by Carolyn Brown

  “Josh would rather stay here and play with us as get back in that car seat anyway,” Grady said.

  “That’s right,” Henry said. “Baby’s been passed around enough for one day.”

  “That don’t mean you get to hold him the whole time they’re gone,” Jack said.

  “His little bones will get sore if too many people hold him,” Henry said. “Besides, we need to talk some more about Angus cattle, don’t we, Joshua?”

  “Wise men?” Natalie mumbled.

  “Or not so wise,” Lucas whispered.

  “Go on. Get out of here. Take your time,” Henry said.

  Lucas helped Natalie into her coat. “Can’t fight ’em.”

  “He has a bottle in an hour. We’ll be back by then,” she said.

  “We can read directions and we’ll figure out how to make him another one if he gets hungry,” Jack said.

  “His diaper bag is stocked with everything,” she said.

  “Go. Shoo! Get on out of here. We’ll take care of this baby and enjoy every minute we get with him,” Henry said.

  The sleet had stopped and now big beautiful snowflakes floated from the sky in a lazy fashion. The wind had completely died, so they drifted straight down from heaven and landed on a solid layer of sleet and ice coating the ground.

  Grass blades, covered with a thin layer of ice, reached up to grab the flakes and hold on to them like a mother protecting her child. Natalie shook the snow from her hair when she got into Lucas’s truck.

  “It’s still a couple of weeks from now, but if it doesn’t warm up, Josh’s first Christmas could be a white one.” Lucas backed the truck up and then started down a path that was nothing but two ruts leading around the yard fence and toward the back side of the ranch.

  “We’ll have to take pictures no matter what kind of Christmas it is. Momma is having a hard time with us being gone as it is. She’d never forgive me if I didn’t have pictures to show her,” she said.

  “What’s on your mind? Josh will be fine with them. Only thing that they might do is spoil him so much that you have to hold him all the time,” Lucas said.

  “What makes you think something is on my mind?”

  “I have known you for almost a year and I recognize that expression. You are worried about something. Are you sorry about last night?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “It’s those three wise men back there. They’re getting awfully attached to Joshua. It’ll break their hearts when I take him back to Silverton.”

  He reached across the bench seat and laid a hand on her thigh. “Confession time,” he said.

  “I’m not a priest and this truck doesn’t look like a confessional,” she said.

  “You might not be, but I need to tell you all the same. I really did talk about you a lot and I showed them pictures of you and they know chances are slim to none that I can ever have a child.” He paused.

  “And they thought we were getting serious before I ever came to Savoy, right?” she finished for him.

  “Oh, yeah! And Dad was worried that you’d want kids and I couldn’t produce them and…” Another pause.

  “Joshua is like icing on the cupcake for them, and I’m all right with that rumor that Sonia got started with her smart-ass remarks.”

  The truck tires crunched on the icy lawn as he stopped in front of a cabin. Two big cedar trees on either side of the porch were covered in twinkling lights and dusted with newly fallen snowflakes. The cabin had been built of hewn logs and the roof was corrugated sheet metal that had years and years of rust peeking through the light layer of snow settling in the valleys. A fully decorated Christmas tree shining in the window sent an array of colors out to settle on the white ground.

  “He sure did it up good this year. He’ll make sure Josh sees it sometime during the season.” Lucas got out of the truck and hurried around to open the door for Natalie.

  “But it’s so far away from everything that no one sees it,” Natalie said.

  “Granny does. Gramps is convinced that her spirit comes to the ranch every December and lingers through until New Year’s. She loved the holidays and he does all this just for her. That’s the reason the place is named Cedar Hill Ranch. Gramps would have named it Christmas Tree Hill, but Granny said that didn’t sound like a ranch. They went out to get their first tree and found it on a little rise, so she named it Cedar Hill. It reminded them both of Christmas trees.” Lucas threw an arm around Natalie’s shoulders.

  The inside was warm and cozy with the heat from gas logs blazing brightly. One big room contained an iron bed that had been painted white against the wall away from the fire. A kitchen had been set up against the other wall that consisted of a long cabinet, a tiny stove with only two burners, and a small refrigerator. A crocheted doily topped a table that had been painted bright yellow. A poinsettia sat in the middle of the doilies and the two chairs beside the table were pulled out as if someone had just left. Two rockers in front of the fireplace were painted the same color.

  Natalie took in the whole cabin in one glance. “Isn’t he afraid to leave an open fire burning?”

  “He says Granny would tell him if it caught on fire and he’d come put it out.” Lucas removed his coat, hung it over the back of a chair, and then helped Natalie remove hers. He motioned toward the table. “Have a seat. I’ll make us a cup of coffee. Gramps says that this is the same furniture that they started out with. It was four years before he could scrape up enough money to build her a real house. And even after they’d moved into it, she’d sneak off down here on Sundays. Gramps called it her playhouse.”

  Natalie sat down in a chair and watched Lucas put together a pot of coffee.

  “So how many girls did you bring here?” she asked.

  He slapped a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt that you’d even think such a thing. Granny wouldn’t abide me bringing women in here with no supervision.”

  “I’m here,” Natalie said.

  “But…”

  Natalie had never seen a grown man blush like that before. Something way more than just bringing a girl to the cabin was going on.

  “And?” she said.

  “Gramps would have my hide if I ever brought a girl to the cabin or to the church with intentions of making out with them. But it’s okay if you are here because I told them that I thought you were the one and that this month would tell the tale.”

  “And it all blew to hell when you saw Joshua, right?”

  His dark eyebrows drew down so far that they became one line. “Dammit, Natalie! If the situation were reversed, what would you have thought? And didn’t you think that I might be the one? Why else would you have come all the way across the state to meet me?”

  She was busted and speechless both.

  Lucas raked his fingers through his hair. “Well?”

  “You didn’t tell me about the tests that you and Sonia had done,” she whispered.

  “That’s a little different than a flesh-and-blood baby.”

  “Aunt Leah said this Internet friendship and dating thing was why so many people are disillusioned about relationships.”

  Lucas poured coffee in two mugs and set them on the table before he sat down. “I never believed in them either. Some of the guys around here were meeting women on there, and I told them they were crazy.”

  “Why?” Natalie asked.

  “Because to really know someone, you’ve got to live close enough to her to know her family, her way of life, and what kind of snow cone she likes,” he said.

  “And yet, here I am.”

  “You are a rancher. You come from a long line of ranchers and you like white coconut snow cones. Ours is an unusual circumstance,” he argued.

  She sipped the coffee. Black and strong enough to open a woman’s eyes. That’s wha
t she’d told him when he asked how she liked her coffee. He’d remembered the little details like Drew always did.

  Was Lucas the one for her?

  Lucas’s warm hand covered hers. “We’ve still got some time. We don’t have to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s tonight.”

  The touch of his hand hushed the argument going on in her head.

  He gently squeezed and abruptly changed the subject. “I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet. After supper tomorrow night, I thought we might go to Sherman and work on that. Santa Claus is usually at the mall all month. We could get Joshua’s picture taken with him and maybe have ice cream at Braum’s afterward.”

  “I know where I stand now. What about Joshua?” she asked.

  “He might be my best friend someday.” Lucas smiled.

  She could live with that for the time being.

  “Let’s take our coffee to the rocking chairs. Have you ever sat in a tall woman’s chair?”

  He led her to the other side of the room but didn’t let go of her hand.

  “I didn’t know they made them in tall or short.”

  Using his boot, he pushed the chairs close enough together that he didn’t have to let go of her hand.

  She eased down and sighed.

  “Pretty neat, isn’t it? Granny was as tall as Gramps, which would make her about your height. She said that she felt like she was biting her knees in most chairs, so Gramps made this set of chairs for her wedding gift. The seat and legs are both longer than normal,” Lucas explained.

  “I could rock Joshua all night in this. But why didn’t she take them to the big house when they moved?”

  “She did but when she died, Gramps brought them back down here. He said her spirit never left this house and that he wanted her to have her special things when she came back to visit.”

  A single tear found its way down her cheek. She couldn’t let go of the coffee cup or his hand, so she did her damnedest to ignore it.

  “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s what I want, Lucas. A relationship like they had,” she said hoarsely.

  “Me too,” he whispered.

  He set his cup on the floor and reached for hers. Without a word she handed it to him and didn’t protest when he pulled on her hand. She shifted from her chair into his lap and curled up like a child in his arms. Lucas Allen had a good strong heart, one that he’d only give away one time in his life, and she wanted it for Christmas.

  She looked up into his eyes just in time to see them flutter shut. She barely had time to moisten her lips when his mouth covered hers in a hard, hungry kiss. Her hands snaked up around his neck and she snuggled in closer to his body.

  “Ever had sex in a rocking chair?” he asked.

  “Bite your tongue, Lucas! Your granny might be in this room right now,” she whispered.

  “If she was, she’d have already upset the chair. I think she likes you.”

  She studied his face again. She’d always been a sucker for brown-eyed cowboys, but not a one had ever affected her like Lucas Allen did. The tree lights flickered in his eyes, creating a soft, dreamy effect. Then they closed and his lips found hers in another blistering hot kiss.

  One minute they were rocking, the next he was carrying her across the room toward the bed. She felt tiny in his arms, a first for her because at almost six feet, not many men had the strength to pick her up like a bag of feathers and carry her like a bride. He laid her on top of a gorgeous wedding ring quilt and stretched out beside her.

  “Oh, my!” she gasped.

  “What?” he asked.

  She propped up on an elbow and ran a finger down his cheekbone. “What if your granny comes home and finds us in her bed?”

  “Granny is gone, Natalie. Gramps just keeps her memory alive this way.”

  “I don’t believe it. If Henry says that she comes home for the holidays, I believe him.”

  Lucas kissed her on the forehead.

  She traced Lucas’s lip line with the tip of her finger.

  “That is making me so damn hot.” He slipped his hand under her shirt and rested it on her ribs. “Your skin feels like satin sheets. I could spend the whole day here and do nothing but touch you.”

  She moved closer to him and changed the subject before things went a step further. “Did you go to the doctor’s office with Sonia when she got the results from that test?”

  He forgot the bra, grabbed her hand, and kissed each finger. “No. One time at that place was enough for me. Why are we talking about this? I’d rather tell you how beautiful you are and talk about us.”

  “Did you see the papers with the results printed on them?” she asked.

  He frowned and dropped her hand. “Where are you going with this, Natalie?”

  “Did you?”

  “No, I did not. She told me what they were. We had a hellacious fight because she acted happy about it and I was heartbroken. We broke up and I left two weeks later for Kuwait and didn’t see her again until last week,” he said.

  She pushed away from him and sat on the edge of the bed. “We might be in big trouble, Lucas. We had unprotected sex last night.”

  “Remember what the doctor said. A miracle. One chance in ten million. I’d say we got a lot of chances left before ten million.”

  “Maybe not,” she said.

  His jumped up from the bed. “Did Sonia lie to me about those tests?”

  “She says that she did. Who knows with that woman? I suppose she thought the cat was out of the bag since we have Joshua, so she might as well ’fess up. She doesn’t carry that gene for whatever her brother has either. You were both given a good bill of genetic health according to what she told me at the church today,” Natalie said.

  “I’d better go for another test, right?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Or anytime we have sex, we’ll have to use protection. Are there any babies that might pop up from your Kuwait tour?”

  “Hell, no! I could strangle Sonia! For the lie and for the fact that I don’t carry protection in my hip pocket anymore.”

  “Want to borrow my pink pistol? It’s loaded.”

  “Don’t tempt me.” He swore under his breath.

  “Kind of changes everything, doesn’t it?” she said.

  “Gramps says never say never. Guess I’ll call the doctor tomorrow and see which time she was lying. Dammit! I thought I knew that woman.”

  She patted the bed. “Sit down. If the test says that she was lying to you from the first, then it changes more than just us having sex, Lucas. The old guys can have their own blood kin babies to play with.”

  He plopped down so hard that the old metal springs squeaked in protest. “They already love Joshua. More would just be another layer of icing on the cake.”

  Another tear hung on Natalie’s thick lashes. Saying it didn’t make it so. Blood was always thicker than water. She slipped her hand under his and he laced his fingers with hers. Together they faced their demons for several minutes before either of them spoke.

  “We’d best be going,” he said finally. “You’ve got to see the church before we go home. Please don’t tell them about this until I call the doctor tomorrow.”

  She shook her head. “I won’t tell them anything. That’s your job, Lucas. And we saw the church this morning, so we can just go on home, can’t we?”

  Home!

  Where did that come from? Home wasn’t on Cedar Hill. Home was in Silverton. Or was it?

  “That’s not the church I’m talking about. When Gramps and Granny bought this place, they also bought the little country church on the land with it. It hasn’t been used as a church for years, even though Gramps is an ordained minister. He preaches sometimes when the minister of our church is gone. But every so often there
’s a wedding in the little church,” Lucas explained.

  Words lightened the heavy fog hanging over their heads.

  “That’s where Granny and Gramps got married, so that makes it a very special place,” Lucas went on.

  She stood up and put her coat on without his help. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  She’d be willing to look at the snow falling outside or the grass growing to keep from talking about what might have happened in the passion of the night before.

  The church was tiny, with eight pews on each side of a center aisle and an old oak pulpit in the front. In the days that it was built, the whole congregation sang together and there was no choir. They didn’t need a baptismal because, come spring, all new converts could be baptized in the creek or a pond.

  It was cold inside but Natalie noticed an old potbellied stove in the corner. “So is that thing operational?”

  “Gramps fires it up if there’s going to be a winter wedding,” Lucas answered.

  “Doesn’t the water freeze up?”

  Lucas laughed. “No water in here. Bathrooms were out back in the days when services were held here all the time. They did have two. The half-moon on the door was for the men and the star was for the ladies.”

  Natalie sat down on the front pew. “It would never pass code for a gathering today, but it sure is peaceful.”

  Lucas sat down beside her and took her hand in his. “Gramps says if you sit here real quiet during Christmas that you can hear the ghosts of all the folks who used to attend services here singing Christmas carols.”

  “Shhh.” She shut her eyes.

  Lucas began to hum “Silent Night.”

  And she could imagine the church filled with people a hundred years before, all singing that song. Little children’s innocent voices blended with old folks’ quivering voices. She opened her eyes just as Lucas stopped humming. “If these walls could talk, they’d tell us some interesting stories, I bet.”

  He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Oh, yes, they could. You ready for the rest of the tour?”

  They drove past Henry’s place, a small white house with a wide front porch. Rocking chairs set back in the shadows and pansies shot little purple flowers up through the snow in the flower beds beside the walkway.