The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby

by Carolyn Brown

  Debra laughed. “Always were a bit softhearted like your father.”

  “And you,” Natalie said. “What if I were to stay here, Momma? Are you going to throw a fit and cry?”

  “Hell, yeah! But then I’ll make you promise to come see me every other month, and I’ll come see you the ones when you don’t come here. My grandson isn’t going to grow up without knowing his grandparents. Got to go. Your dad’s calling the house phone. Talk to you later. Send more pictures. Joshua will be drivin’ a tractor before I see him again.”

  “In a month? He’ll hardly be big enough to drive a tractor in just a month.”

  She laid the phone to the side when she realized her mother had hung up and drew her knees up in the rocking chair, wrapped her arms around them, and watched Joshua sleep. Her eyes grew heavy and she had almost nodded off when she heard a soft rap on the bedroom door.

  Lucas poked his head inside. “The guys have all gone home. Could we talk?”

  She motioned him inside.

  He sat down on the edge of the bed. “I talked to Noah. He says that he loves her, but that they’d both be miserable living together. He’s wise enough to see that they want very different things in life. He has no intentions of leaving the ranch. She’d rather live in a big city. He wants kids. She hates them.”

  “Maybe they’ll compromise and they’ll be happy.”

  “Sometimes it’s too late to do what you should have been doing all along, Natalie. Sometimes you run out of time.”

  Natalie set the rocking chair into motion. “Have they known each other long?”

  Lucas blushed. “Since grade school. We all grew up together. Noah is a year younger than she is and she’s a year younger than I am.”

  He kicked his boots off and stretched out on her bed. “She always thought she could talk me off this ranch. And she probably thought the same thing about Noah. Dad says she reminds him of my mother, who, by the way, called a couple of days ago and told me very quickly that she and her husband were going to Paris this year, so she wouldn’t be coming to Texas.”

  “Tell me about your mother.”

  “You want the long version or the short one?”

  “I’ve got all afternoon.” Natalie left the rocking chair and joined him on the bed. His arm went around her and she laid her head on his chest.

  “I overhead Hazel and Dad talking when I was a kid or I wouldn’t even know the story. Seemed that Mother hated the ranch and wanted Dad to leave it. That wasn’t happening, so she threatened to divorce him every week for months and take me with her if he didn’t agree to sell it or at least move away from it. Gramps insisted on a prenup before they were married, so she couldn’t have half the ranch, but finally Dad offered her a settlement big enough that she signed the papers and left me behind,” he said.

  Natalie shivered. She couldn’t imagine selling Joshua for any amount of money. “Didn’t she have visitation rights?”

  “Oh, yes. Dad was very generous. She could see me any time she wanted but not alone. Grady or Hazel would take me to wherever she was and stay with me, but she never asked, not one time.”

  “How did that affect you?” Natalie asked.

  “I never thought about it. I had Hazel, and you see the way the guys dote on Joshua. It was the same with me. I never really knew her, so I didn’t miss her. She came at Christmas and brought me a present. I had lunch with her in town, mostly with Hazel or Grady right there beside me until I got my driver’s license.”

  He massaged her neck as he talked. “Dad was so nervous the first time I went by myself that Grady said he walked the floor the whole time I was gone. He never talked about her to me. Never said bad things about her or anything. It’s like she just left me on the porch and disappeared out of his life. And he worried about me and Sonia winding up the same way. He was right even though I didn’t see it until I went to Kuwait.”

  Natalie kissed him on the cheek. “Jack is a good man.”

  “You didn’t ask for all my baggage,” he said.

  “Did you ask for mine?”

  “You are handling mine better than I did yours.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her. The first one was sweet, the second one searching, the third, devouring.

  Joshua whimpered a few times and then howled when no one picked him up.

  “Best birth control there is,” Natalie said.

  Lucas chuckled and rolled off the bed. He picked the baby up and laid him between them on the bed. “The guys have spoiled him. He’s dry and he’s not chewing on his fingers, so he’s not hungry. He just wants to be entertained.”

  “Spoiled so bad the coyotes wouldn’t even nibble on those precious little toes,” she crooned to him.

  Joshua cooed and grinned.

  “I see what you mean about not missing your mother. I bet they fought over who got to watch you sleep,” she said.

  “Grady says they did. I’ve had wonderful father role models. Triple count. And you’ve had wonderful maternal role models in your mother and aunt. We ought to make real good parents.”

  Natalie was struck speechless. Was he offering to be a father to Joshua or making a general statement?

  “Would you have married Drew if he’d come home?” Lucas asked.

  “No,” Natalie said quickly.

  Lucas leaned across the baby and brushed a kiss across her lips. “But he’s Josh’s father and…”

  She put a finger over his lips. “And we were best friends who got drunk one night. I didn’t love Drew like that. I loved him like a friend. We wouldn’t be good together in a marriage.”

  As if Joshua knew that the attention wasn’t on him, he kicked his legs and whimpered.

  “You really are spoiled.” Natalie grabbed his foot and removed his sock. “This little piggy went to market, this little piggy…”

  “Angus, sweet cheeks, Angus. Josh is a ranchin’ boy,” Lucas reminded her.

  She started all over again. “This little Angus went to market, this little Angus stayed home…”

  Joshua laughed for the first time. It wasn’t a belly laugh like Natalie had ordered for Christmas, but there was no denying that it was a giggle and not a coo or even a goo noise.

  “Did you hear that?” Natalie stopped before she got to the pinky toe.

  “He laughed,” Lucas said. “First time, right? You look like you are about to cry. Laughing is a good thing, right?” He reached across the baby and wiped the first tear away from Natalie’s cheek with his hand.

  “He won’t be a baby forever, Lucas,” she answered.

  “No, he won’t, but you can’t cry every time he does something new. Be happy that he’s healthy and happy. Henry is going to be so disappointed that he didn’t hear the first laughter. He’s been doing all kinds of stupid things all week so he could brag that he got to hear it first.” Lucas said.

  “You’d think he was really Joshua’s great-grandpa,” Natalie said.

  “He thinks he is.”

  “And what happens when you have children of your own bloodline?” she asked.

  “Won’t make a bit of difference to Gramps.”

  “How do you know?”

  He picked up Joshua’s smallest toe and said, “And this little Angus calf… and this little Angus calf… and this little Angus calf cried moo-moo-moo all the way home.”

  Joshua’s eyes lit up and he chuckled again.

  “How do you know?” Natalie repeated the question.

  “Because it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me. Lying here with you with Josh between us, I realize that we’ve become a family. He’s not the son of my blood, but he’s the son of my heart, much like the real baby Jesus was to Joseph,” Lucas said softly.

  Natalie swallowed hard three times before the basketball-sized lump left her thr
oat. All she could do was nod and wonder where the future went from there.

  Chapter 19

  Lucas heard a gunshot and sat straight up in bed. Surely, he’d been dreaming again. He looked at the other side of the bed and Natalie was gone.

  Another shot and he bailed out of bed, grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms, and was trying to get his legs in them as he ran down the hall. When he reached the kitchen, she was taking her coat off in the utility room.

  “There’s a rattlesnake about the size of my arm between the porch and chicken coop. Damn thing zigzagged on me and I wasted a bullet. Don’t tell Momma.”

  Lucas melted into a kitchen chair. “Shit, Natalie! You scared me.”

  “I guess I did. Your britches are on wrong side out and backward. Is the baby still asleep?”

  Lucas shrugged. “I forgot to pick up the monitor, but I don’t hear him. He’s developed quite a set of lungs, so I reckon we would have heard him if he was awake.”

  “I hate snakes.” She set the basket of eggs on the cabinet.

  “Bad as skunks?”

  “Almost. Why would one be out at this time of year? They don’t come out of hibernation until spring.”

  “Well, I didn’t take Joshua to see the animals this morning yet.” He smiled.

  “From now on, you get that boy out every morning. I’m tired of this shit,” she said.

  “It’ll all stop after Christmas.” He chuckled.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Granny Ella Jo will leave. We’ll…” He stopped before he said be married.

  “We’ll what?” she asked.

  “We’ll be over this stormy weather. Hazel will be home and everything will be back to normal, including crazy animal behavior,” he told her.

  “Let’s go into Sherman after breakfast this morning. The guys can watch the baby for us and we’ll have lunch out. We can bring carryout back to them.”

  “Why would we do that?”

  “Because I love you.”

  And because I want to think about that marriage word with just you and not the whole family, and I want to think about it before Hazel gets home with her meddling, he thought.

  “And because you shot a big old mean snake and you deserve a morning out away from the ranch, sweet cheeks,” he said.

  She laughed and he knew that he’d won her over.

  ***

  She insisted that the shopping that day would be in the grocery store stocking up for Christmas baking, and it was noon before they finished buying everything on her list. The whole backseat of the truck was full when they started loading the two carts full of food.

  “Just looking at all this makes me hungry. Are you ready to eat yet?” Lucas asked.

  “I’m starving,” she said.

  “Then let’s go down to the Catfish King and get some dinner. It’s not fancy but the food is good,” he said.

  “Good as when you catch it and fry it at home?” Natalie asked.

  “Ain’t nothing can compare with that.” He buckled the car seat into position while Natalie got settled in the passenger’s seat of his truck. “You fish?”

  “Oh, yeah! Love to fish and I’ve got my own secret recipe for the breading,” she said.

  It amazed her that they could go from sex to grocery shopping, from arguing to making love, to talking about fishing with such ease. Did that mean that they were a family? Or maybe that they could be one in the next few months?

  He started the engine, adjusted the heat, and leaned across the seat before he fastened his seat belt. “I didn’t realize how much I do love you until this minute. Too bad Drew isn’t around so I could shake his hand for introducing us.”

  The kiss started slow and soft, but before it ended she had both hands tangled in his hair and could hardly catch her breath.

  ***

  The next morning, eight days before Christmas, Jack drove to the airport and brought Hazel home. They arrived at noon, just as Natalie was setting the dinner on the table. Grady, Jack, and Lucas rushed to the door when they heard the truck door slam and hurried out to help her. Natalie stood back and waited as they carried her suitcase and fussed at her to use her cane rather than hanging it on her arm like a handbag.

  “Dammit, Jack!” she swore as she entered the house. “I’m not an invalid. I can still walk and if Willa hadn’t thrown a damn hissy, I wouldn’t even have that damned cane. Now leave me alone. Where the hell is that baby?”

  Natalie pointed to the swing.

  “Come over here and give me a hug, lady. I deserve it after that airplane ride and then comin’ home at a snail’s pace because Jack was afraid to drive fast on the ice. I swear to God that I could have gotten here faster with a sleigh pulled by a couple of them Chihuahua dogs.” She opened her arms and Natalie bent to hug her.

  “That’s better,” she said. “Now let’s look at the baby. Oh, my goodness! He’s grown a foot and would you look at that grin. Has he laughed out loud yet?”

  “Sunday afternoon.” Lucas smiled.

  “You didn’t tell me. I missed it,” Henry moaned.

  “He’ll laugh again. I smell lasagna and hot bread. Willa don’t cook nothing that ain’t good for a body, and I’m starved plumb to death for decent food, so let’s set up to the table and eat,” Hazel said. “And after that, me and Natalie is going into town shopping. Henry, you can keep Josh for us so he don’t get drug around from store to store. I ain’t got a bit of my Christmas bought, and it’s goin’ to get crazy in the stores.”

  “I’ll let Josh babysit me any old time. He and I get along just fine. But Natalie done laid in enough supplies to last through till next Christmas,” Henry said.

  “You think maybe you ought to ask Natalie rather than bossin’ her around.” Lucas looked right at Hazel.

  “Hell, no! My job is to boss until… never you mind how long it’s going to be my job. But rest assured, Lucas, I will tell you when I pass my bossin’ crown to someone else. You won’t have to ask. And I’m not going for groceries. I’m going for presents.”

  Natalie smiled. “I’d love to take you to town, Hazel.”

  “I still have a few things to buy, so…” Lucas started.

  Hazel held up a hand. “So, you ain’t going with us! You can go in your own truck and do your own shopping. This is a ladies’ only party. I’m buying for you and you ain’t taggin’ along with us.”

  After lunch Natalie changed Josh, fixed his afternoon bottle, and handed him over to Henry’s care. Leaving him, even in such capable hands, still wasn’t easy, but Hazel was right. It would wear him out to be dragged from store to store. She helped Hazel get her coat on, picked up the cane and handed it to her, and got a dirty look.

  “What?” Natalie asked.

  “I hate that stupid thing,” she said.

  “Well, you need it. It’s still slick out there and I sure don’t want you to break a hip,” Natalie told her.

  Lucas chuckled.

  Hazel pointed a finger at him. “That’s enough.”

  “You sure you got that bossin’ crown on tight? Looks like Natalie might be takin’ it away from you,” he said.

  “It’s mine until I give it away,” Hazel declared. “Now let’s get out of here before I take this cane to that boy’s hard head.”

  Hazel hopped up into the passenger seat of Natalie’s pickup so spryly that Natalie wondered if she’d even hurt her hip. It could have been a big setup to keep her on the ranch when Hazel found out about Joshua.

  “Truth,” Natalie said as she started the engine.

  “About what?” Hazel drew her dark brows down over her equally dark eyes. She tucked her salt-and-pepper chin-length hair back behind her ears and straightened her back. Standing, she barely came up to Natalie’s shoulder. Sitting, she was eve
n shorter.

  “Just how bad is that hip?”

  “Busted!” Hazel laughed.

  “Was it even hurt?”

  “You are a smart cookie, Natalie Clark.” Hazel continued to giggle like a schoolgirl.

  “How did you…” she asked.

  “It was bruised, so that helped.”

  “Did your daughter figure it out?”

  “Hell, no! She wants me to move to that godforsaken city and give up my house. That’ll happen three days after hell freezes plumb over. I’m leaving the ranch feet first in a body bag and with a smile on my face.”

  “I want to grow up to be just like you.” Natalie made all the right turns to get them to the highway into Savoy.

  “You got a good start, darlin’,” Hazel said. “We’ll go to the Western-wear store first. All the boys need new white shirts for church. Then we’re going to the bookstore. Jack reads James Lee Burke novels and Grady likes Randy Wayne White.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Natalie said.

  “After that we’ll have to hit the Walmart store for stocking stuffers. They all have a particular brand of candy that they like, and I always get them funny presents for their stockings.”

  “Such as?” Natalie asked.

  “Oh, them fancy boxer shorts with Christmas stuff on them and a toy of some kind. Movies are always good. I’m buying Henry The Bucket List. I saw it when I was at Willa’s place. It’s a good movie.”

  “It’s been out quite a while,” Natalie said.

  “But he ain’t seen it because he would’ve talked about it if he did,” Hazel said.

  “What do you want for Christmas?” Natalie asked as she pulled out onto the highway leading into Sherman.

  “I got what I want. There’s going to be a baby in the house and Lucas is happy,” Hazel said.

  “What if he’s just happy with the idea of being happy and in a year he wakes up wishing there wasn’t a baby in the house? What if that happens?”