“For real?” Jud asked.
“The rich and shameless get backstage passes at concerts,” she said. “But before you ask, I’m not interested in being that high on the corporate ladder again. I would like to be a couple of steps up from the convenience store, though.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I’m still working on that, but right now I want to dance some more.”
Folks formed a line to dance to “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Sharlene fell in beside Fiona but she’d had so many shots with the melancholy boy that she had trouble keeping up with the moves.
“Lord, I’d better go sit out a few and just drink Coke until this gets through my system. Hey, where’s my sad boy?”
“His woman came in and took him home,” Fiona said.
“Well, good for her.”
“Deke?”
“Cooling off outside.”
Sharlene’s eyes widened and she giggled. “He’d better be careful if he left with the woman that’s been glued to his zipper all night. See y’all when we shut down the place.”
“The wagon train leaves at twelve sharp,” Jud said. “I’ve got to work tomorrow.”
“Party pooper.” Sharlene staggered off.
When midnight rolled around, Fiona still wanted one more dance with Jud, to feel his arms around her for a few more hours and to spend a little while longer looking into his fascinating brown eyes.
When they stepped out into the cold night air, there was no big lovers’ moon hanging in the sky. Not even one little bright star could find a hole in the gray skies to push its brightness through. Other than the streetlamps on the four corners of the parking lot and a few headlights as folks headed home, it was a dreary night.
Fiona welcomed the fresh, icy air when she sucked it into her lungs. Jud laced his fingers in hers and hunched his shoulders against the bitter wind blowing from the north.
“I don’t see any of them,” she said.
“We’ll call Deke from the truck.”
Snowflakes had begun to fall from the sky when they were inside his truck. “White Christmas may be a reality if this keeps up all month,” he said.
Her phone vibrated in her hip pocket. Deke had sent a text. Scooter would take Sharlene and Mary Jo home after breakfast. Deke had found his own way back to Dry Creek. They’d all see them in church on Sunday if not before.
“Guess we’re on our own.”
“They’ve all got plans, right?” he asked.
“Looks that way,” she answered.
“Hungry?” He backed out of the parking lot and made a right-hand turn onto the highway.
“More tired than hungry, but we could get a burger to go at that McDonald’s at the next exit,” she said.
“So you know this area well enough to know that?”
“No, I saw a sign that said the golden arches were at the next exit when we were driving up here. This place has grown so much in seven years that I hardly know it at all.”
“We’ll get used to it together, then. We did our partying down around Dallas or else west of Gainesville if we didn’t want to drive all the way into the big city, but this is all new territory to me.” The lights were still on and the sign said the drive-through window was open twenty-four/seven, so he eased the truck up to the order place.
“Name your poison,” he said.
She unfastened her seat belt and leaned toward him so she could see the menu. Remnants of shaving lotion, smoke clinging to his shirt, beer on his breath, tousled blond hair all worked together to send her hormones into a whining state.
“Burger with mustard and no onions, fries, and coffee,” she said, but her mind damn sure wasn’t on food right then.
The lady repeated it back. “Anything else?”
“Double that and add a chocolate shake to the order.”
“Large?”
“That’s fine,” Jud answered, and handed her a bill.
Fiona opened her mouth to argue but he laid a finger over her lips. “I’ve had a wonderful time tonight. Just let me buy you a burger without a fight.”
She straightened up. “Thank you. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.”
Fiona’s phone buzzed in her pocket. When she checked it, there was a text message from Allie.
“Audrey needs diapers. We need to go to the store on our way home,” she said.
The lady reached out and tapped on the truck window to get their attention. Jud hit the button and rolled down the window. She handed him the order and he drove forward to let the car behind him move up.
“So drive and eat or park and eat?” he asked.
“You might enjoy it more if we parked,” she said.
He nosed the truck into a parking spot but left the engine running. She settled the coffee into the two cup holders at the end of the console and removed everything from the bag. She flattened the paper bag onto the console and made it into a mini picnic table. The two containers of fries became one big order when she poured them all out in a pile.
“Looks like you’ve done this before,” he said.
“On payday, I treated myself to a burger. I went to the park not far from where I worked, parked the truck, and put the console down just like this. Then I pretended Lizzy or Allie was in the passenger seat and I talked to them,” she whispered.
Jud folded the paper back from his burger and bit into it. “You were really lonely, weren’t you?”
“At times.” She shot ketchup from two small packages onto one of the empty French fry sacks. “These are addictive, you know. They have a special salt they shake on them and it makes you keep coming back for more.”
Like you, she wanted to say, but she crammed fries into her mouth to keep from talking.
“I like Allie’s fried potatoes better. She makes them like my mama does, in a cast-iron skillet with onions. It’s snowing harder. I thought the Lucky Penny was far enough south that we’d only see snow a couple of times a decade,” he said.
“It’s crazy weather all right. Maybe you Dawsons brought it with you from northern Texas. We might have had a white Christmas one time when I was growing up and we never had a white Thanksgiving. I remember an ice storm once when I was about ten.” She removed the lid from her coffee and took a sip. “It snowed, but it never stuck around for more than a day and seldom ever covered the ground.”
“So it’s our fault?” Jud chuckled.
“Must be. You’re the only thing that’s changed.”
“I believe two things changed. You came home, too,” he argued.
“I came from the south. We don’t get bad weather in Houston,” she protested.
“Want to talk to me about those floods?”
“That’s not snow and sleet.”
“But it’s bad weather all the same. Slide off the road with ice and snow. Get washed off with rising water. Either way, you’re still off the road.”
“Well, Mr. Smartass, you’d better finish your burger because the way this stuff is falling, we might find ourselves sitting in a ditch like Toby and Lizzy did last spring.” She put the lid back on her coffee and wondered what it would be like to cuddle up next to Jud all night with nothing but a single blanket to keep them warm.
They were only two miles from the store and it stayed open twenty-four/seven. The parking lot was full, even though it was well past midnight, but they did snag a spot about halfway out from the front door.
“What’s going on? Is this a Black Friday sale a week or two late?” she asked as she made her way gingerly toward the doors on the slick concrete.
“Not that I know of. I guess lots of people don’t have anything better to do at nearly one o’clock in the morning other than go shopping,” Jud answered.
“Oh. My. God.” She gasped. “Look at that. My eyes may never be the same. I thought those pictures on the Internet were doctored.”
The man rolling his cart out had a beard, tattoos up both arms, and a bald head. Y
et, bald wasn’t the right word. The whole top of his head was hairless but the rim around the edge had been let go until it was long enough to make a ponytail in the back. He wore camouflage leggings with a hot pink western shirt with pearl snaps and cowboy boots. But the crazy thing was the makeup job on his face. It looked like it had been applied by a six-year-old who’d spent the day with her grandparents getting sugared up on candy and soda pop. And right there in the cart was another person—a woman with hot pink hair, wearing a red prom dress that was two sizes too big and a plastic tiara. She waved at everyone they passed like she was riding on the top of a brand-new Caddy in a homecoming parade.
“Well, it is after midnight,” Jud chuckled.
“But it’s not Halloween,” she said softly.
“Don’t burst their bubble,” he teased.
They were met by warm air when they walked through the automatic doors. Fiona brushed the snow from her shoulders and snagged a shopping cart. Jud walked along beside her all the way to the back of the store where the diapers were shelved in the baby section.
“What size?” he asked.
“She didn’t say,” Fiona answered.
Jud picked up a package and read the print on the outside. “This one says up to twelve pounds. Does Audrey weigh that much?”
“I have no idea. She was seven pounds and some ounces at birth.”
“She wears that number two,” Deke said right behind them. “I had to get some a few days ago when I was up here.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Buying beer.” He pointed at his cart. “Date didn’t work out too good. She wanted to go to her place, but when we got there, I found them bride magazines strewed all over the coffee table. That’s my cue to run faster than the wind.”
“Were you…did you use…oh, hell, tell me you used protection when you were out in the car with her.” Fiona spit out the words but couldn’t keep the blush from dotting her cheeks.
“Geez, Fiona! Of course I did!” He grinned. “Y’all might want to pick up some beer while you are here and maybe a cooler to keep in your room. Dora June wouldn’t find it and y’all could have one when you want. Not that I mind sneaking a couple over to you, but it would sure make things easier. Besides, both of those old folks will be in bed when you get home, so it will be easy to sneak it inside.”
“Smart idea.” Jud tossed two packages of diapers into the cart.
“I’ll see y’all tomorrow sometime,” Deke said. “Be careful on the way home. Roads are getting slicker by the minute.”
He disappeared into the food section and Jud took over the cart. “That idea of his was smart. I’m going to buy a cooler and a case of beer.”
“I’m going to buy a bottle of strawberry Boone’s Farm and see if it tastes as good as it did in high school,” she said.
“I’ll share my beer if you share your Boone’s.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Well, look who’s out late?” Lucy said as they turned the cart around. “Y’all out making a diaper run for Allie?”
“Yes, ma’am, we are but we were already here. We went dancing,” Fiona answered.
Lucy winked at Fiona. “I remember going dancing with Herman many years ago. In those days we sure didn’t let anyone know what we’d been up to. But things change. We didn’t have throwaway diapers then, either.”
“Probably couldn’t have afforded them if they were on the market,” Fiona said.
“You got that right, honey. Did y’all see that woman in the cart? They’re in the store somewhere. I wonder what they’ve been smokin’?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know but I don’t want any of it,” Fiona laughed.
“Oh, I don’t know. It might be something wonderful to try.” Lucy winked again. “I got to drag Herman out of the hardware stuff and take him home. We was up here at the hospital for our great-granddaughter. She was born tonight. Mama and baby are doing fine. They named her Dakota. Ain’t that the craziest name for a little baby girl that you ever heard. See y’all later.” She waved and hurried off toward another part of the store.
“Aren’t you glad we didn’t have the beer in the cart?” Jud whispered, his warm breath sending deliciously warm shivers down Fiona’s back.
“Yes, I am. She would have told on us for sure.”
“Then we would have had to share with Dora June,” Jud said seriously.
Fiona slapped at his arm, getting another quiver down her spine when her hand brushed against his bare neck. “You are evil.”
“And you are running with me,” he teased.
Brightly colored Christmas lights lit the way back to Dry Creek. Farmhouses that she’d never noticed before and those tucked back down lanes had lights shining out through the huge snowflakes. Decorations had been strung up in the small towns of Holliday, Dundee, and Mabelle. Fiona didn’t realize she was humming “Jingle Bells” until Jud started singing the lyrics.
“All these lights put me in the holiday mood,” she admitted.
“Me too.”
“Take the next left onto that farm road. It’s a shortcut and we’ll get home faster. Oh my! Look at that. Those folks strung lights across the top of their barbed wire fence. I’m glad Mama didn’t see it or she’d be shipping more twinkling lights home from Florida or telling me to buy enough to put around all twenty acres of Audrey’s Place.”
“Have y’all ever considered selling Audrey’s Place?” Jud slowed down and followed her instructions.
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“Just wondering. It’s got the Lucky Penny on three sides of it and the townsfolk…well, some of them don’t have a kind word to say about the ranch.”
“Audrey’s won’t ever be for sale, not in my lifetime. Make a right at the next corner.” For the first time in her life, Fiona felt a stab of guilt about leaving Dry Creek. In the beginning, there were two sisters still in the house. She had no problem with either or both of them inheriting the land and the house because she damn sure did not want it. Now they each had their own place and her mother wanted to retire. That left no one to hold Audrey’s down until the next generation came along to claim it…except Fiona.
And I don’t want it, she thought as Jud parked his truck beside Deke’s in the front yard. I don’t want anyone else to have it but I’ve never wanted to live here, so I’m not taking this guilt trip.
“You’ve got that look on your face again. Like you are fighting with demons,” he said.
“Leaving town in one hand.” She held up a palm. “Dry Creek in the other. Some days one is full of hope and the other one is lacking. Other times it reverses. I think about leaving and I think about staying. Most of the time leaving is the one that is most appealing.”
“And tonight?” he asked.
“Tonight Dry Creek is winning. Tomorrow is another day, though.”
When they pulled up to the Lucky Penny, the house was dark. Jud grabbed the big bag of diapers from the backseat and eased in the front door to leave them in the entryway before quietly locking up and returning to the car.
“I swear, it’s colder here than it was in Wichita Falls, and that ground is so slippery that you could ski to work if we lived on a mountain.”
Fiona giggled.
“What’s so funny about that?” he asked.
“I’m imagining you in a cowboy hat and boots on skis.”
He shut his eyes before he put the truck in gear and smiled. “Well, I’m imagining you in a hot pink bikini on skis.”
“Silly cowboy.” She swatted at his biceps. “Redheads don’t wear hot pink.”
“Oh, honey, in my mind you do and it looks almighty fine.” He wiggled his head but did not open his eyes. “There you go down the mountain slope. Swoosh, swoosh. And the ice and snow is melting behind you because you are so damned hot in that pink bikini. Your hair is blowing in the wind and oh, there’s a cameraman taking pictures for me.”
“Did you get too close to that lady in t
he cart and breathe in some of whatever she’d been smoking?” Fiona asked.
His eyes snapped open and he backed the truck out, turned it around, and started down the lane. “Dammit! Why did you have to replace my beautiful picture with that one?”
“It’s late and we’ve both got to get up early,” she said.
“We still need to put those snow tires on Katy’s car. We can pull it over into one of the barns on the Lucky Penny on Sunday and take care of it. You’ll drive real careful until then, right?”
“I don’t need you to tell me how to drive, Jud Dawson.”
“Says the woman who ran through our barbed wire fence into a tree.” Jud chuckled, taking the sting out of his words.
“Hey now!”
“Aw, c’mon, I’m just teasing you. You’re even more gorgeous when you start to get all indignant.”
“Are we flirting?” she asked bluntly. “It’s been so long since I did any of that I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have to drag out the Flirting for Dummies book to refresh my memories.”
“Darlin’, you don’t need a book. All you have to do is flutter those pretty eyelashes and smile. Here we are. Want to make out in the truck or is it past your curfew?”
She opened the truck door. “No to both. Let’s get inside and go to bed.”
“Oh, I do like that idea much better,” Jud said with a wicked grin.
“Rephrase. We should go inside and get some sleep.”
She stepped out into the snow and her feet almost slipped out from under her. So much for slick-soled boots. Very carefully, she made her way from truck to porch and held on to the railing as she went up the three steps. She used her key to open the door, slipped inside, and flipped on the foyer light, then turned around to shut the door and ran right into Jud’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her, held her steady until she could get her bearings, and then tipped her chin up with his thumb.
Every fiber in her body wanted the kiss. Every bit of her brain said that she should take two steps back. She listened to the loudest inner voice and moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.
Lord have mercy! Sometime during the fourth long, lingering kiss—or was it the fifth or sixth?—she managed to shuck out of her coat and throw it on the foyer floor.
Merry Cowboy Christmas Page 15
