Darn Good Cowboy Christmas

by Carolyn Brown

  Ace poked her on the arm. “I’m going to work up an appetite.”

  Jasmine gave him a half smile. “I figured you’d say that so I’m prepared. We’ll all go to the café and grill some burgers and make some fries after everything is done. I’ve got half a chocolate cake and two pecan pies left over from yesterday.”

  “For pecan pie I will string lights from here to the North Pole,” Ace said.

  Liz led the way to the tack room. The ladies each picked up one box and the guys stacked up two each. Dewar and Ace crawled up on ladders and worked together, clipping the strands of lights to the tree as Raylen fed the wires up to them. Jasmine started at the bottom of the tree, Liz began her strands a foot up from Jasmine, and Gemma started about two feet up from the bottom.

  When they’d finished that job, Dewar said, “While we are up here we might as well put the garland on. Raylen, you can keep it coming just like you did the lights.”

  “And they accused me of being too organized,” Raylen said.

  “You got a girlfriend now. That erases all the sane thoughts from your head so me and Dewar get to wear the crown for organization,” Ace said.

  Jasmine started around the bottom of the tree with wide gold garland. “I’m damn sure glad dating doesn’t affect women like that.”

  “Hey, now,” Raylen said.

  “I still can’t believe you two are an item,” Gemma said. “Are you sure y’all ain’t just putting on a show to tease us?”

  “I told Becca,” Raylen said.

  “Well, it damn sure ain’t a joke then,” Ace said.

  “And?” Jasmine asked.

  “She thinks I’m crazy,” Raylen answered honestly.

  “I can believe that’s what she’d think. She was saving you for the last hurrah, Raylen. When she got ready to buy that wedding dress, she was going to land in your arms,” Gemma said.

  “Now she’ll have to land in Dewar’s or Ace’s,” Raylen said.

  “Hey, what’d we do to piss you off?” Ace asked.

  “Not me. Brandon can have her,” Dewar said.

  Gemma blushed. “Brandon?”

  “That’s who Raylen said she was with last night,” Ace said.

  Gemma clamped her jaw tightly shut and kept looping gold tinsel over the cedar limbs, but a blind man could tell she was about to explode.

  “Okay, Gemma, what’s this about Brandon?” Liz asked.

  “Nothing!” Gemma snapped.

  Jasmine shook her head at Liz.

  “Nope, I’m not going to ignore it. Gemma, what’s wrong?” Liz asked.

  “I’m mad as hell. I could tear this tree down and beat the hell out of Becca with it. She’s known for years that I had a thing for Brandon and that we’d been out a few times in the last month. I thought she was my friend as well as Raylen’s. I guess not.”

  Liz finished her garland and went back for another length. “You ever think that maybe he asked her out and she’s showing you that he’s not the one for you? Maybe she is your friend.”

  Raylen’s ears were hearing things! Surely Liz hadn’t just taken up for Becca. Lord, if she could have heard the fit Becca threw when he called her that morning before Gemma spit out the news in church, she would be all for stringing the woman up by the thumbs. She damn sure wouldn’t be giving her the benefit of a doubt.

  “If it wasn’t her going out with him then it could be someone else. I didn’t see a cowboy from this area in your cards when I read them so Brandon ain’t the one, honey,” Liz said.

  Gemma eyes softened. “Sorry sumbitch. I hope she winds up with him. It would serve him right. I’m not high maintenance like her.”

  “The hell you ain’t,” Dewar said.

  She pointed up. “You hush or I’ll rattle your sorry old ass off that ladder. Now tell me again what you saw in my cards while I get some more garland out of the box.”

  “I saw a blond cowboy. Tall, blond, and sexy. And he adored you.” She didn’t tell Gemma that the cowboy could very well be Ace because she couldn’t see his face at all in her vision and the cards hadn’t given her an exact description.

  Gemma laughed out loud. “I think that card reading is a bunch of horseshit but I need something to hang on to. By next Christmas, right?”

  “In my vision, I definitely saw a Christmas tree,” Liz said.

  “Well, then go to hell, Brandon, noel, noel, noel!” Gemma sang.

  “Deck the halls with lots of bullshit,” Jasmine chimed in.

  “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree and it ain’t with you,” Liz singsonged.

  They all three cracked up in giggles and looped their arms together to go back to the tack room to bring out the ornaments.

  “You understand any of that?” Raylen whispered.

  “Hell no!” Ace said.

  “Don’t look at me. Women aren’t meant to be understood,” Dewar said.

  When they set the boxes down, Gemma shook her finger at Raylen. “Don’t be scratchin’ your heads and measuring things. Shove a whole box up to Dewar and Ace. They can balance it on the ladder tops and get the top part done. You can help us work on the part we can’t reach.”

  In thirty minutes, the tree was covered with ornaments, and Liz brought out the angel for the top. It reminded her of what her mother had said about not letting anyone cut off her wings. She decided to use it on the barn tree to show her mother that she could have wings and roots both.

  Dewar and Ace got down off the ladders and motioned for Liz. She carried the porcelain piece carefully and settled her down on the branches, being sure she was secured before climbing back down the ladder into Raylen’s waiting arms. He held her a minute longer than necessary, not wanting to let go but knowing better than to kiss her because there was no way he could stop with one.

  A flicker of her dancing in front of the Christmas tree surfaced. Even though it took every ounce of willpower he had, he kept it at bay. One minute of entertaining that sight and he’d be in big trouble… again.

  “And now for the finishing touch.” Liz handed everyone a full box of silver icicles. “Come on, Raylen. We’ll do the top and give Ace and Dewar a break.”

  “Oh, no! You are not going up on that ladder again,” Ace said. “If you fell, Raylen would come gunnin’ for us because we didn’t talk you out of it.”

  When the tree was all aglitter with silver icicles, Raylen plugged in the lights and Liz sucked air. It was more beautiful than any tree she’d ever seen in the windows of real houses or even in the malls she’d visited on her travels from one place to the other.

  “Like it?” Raylen asked.

  “Love it. I hope the one in the house is half as pretty,” she said.

  Jasmine clapped her hands three times. “Okay, one down. One to go. Load up the rest of the boxes and let’s go to the house.”

  Ace poked her on the arm. “You sure are bossy.”

  Jasmine laid a hand on his shoulder. “Think pecan pie.”

  The tree in the house didn’t take nearly as long because it was prelit. They strung garland, with Dewar doing the top without a ladder, hung bulbs and icicles, and then Ace plugged it in. Raylen had his arm around Liz and hoped that she wasn’t disappointed after the big tree in the barn.

  “Oh!” she gasped. “It’s just as fantastic as the other one, but in a different way. I love it and I’m glad you were with me or I’d have bought the ten-foot one.” She brushed a kiss across Raylen’s lips and blushed at the thoughts it provoked.

  Jasmine pointed at the empty tree box. “Ace, you take that to the spare room so she can store her tree in it after the holidays. Raylen, you and Dewar take all these empty boxes and follow him. We’re going to wrap up presents now and you three are off to the rooftops, ho, ho, ho!”

  “Noel, noel, noel,” Gemma said.

  Raylen hugged Liz tightly. The day had been so near perfect that it scared the devil out of him. The other shoe would drop, and he was afraid that it would be in the form of Liz fluffing out her
wings like the tree topper once the excitement of Christmas was over. For the first time he fully understood the way Rye must have felt every time Austin drove out of Terral on her way back to Tulsa.

  ***

  Liz twisted her head from one side to the other and then turned around to look out the back window as Raylen drove down the lane. Jasmine and Ace were right ahead of them and Gemma and Dewar in the truck in front of them. If Liz had had her way, she would have put Gemma in the truck with Ace, and Jasmine in with Dewar, but it hadn’t worked out that way.

  “It’s beautiful.” She bounced around in the cab of the truck like a sugared up six-year-old on her way to see Santa Claus. The reindeer pulled Santa’s sleigh into the night up on top of her house, and Rudolph even had a blinking red nose. It was even more beautiful than she’d pictured, but the picture that flashed through her mind as they turned north on the highway didn’t have anything to do with blinking lights but with a deer blind and a sleeping bag.

  “Just be glad that Haskell put in lots of high-powered wiring to provide the juice to run all that stuff. I bet the electricity meter is going so fast that it looks like a blur,” Raylen said.

  “I don’t care how much it costs. It’s worth every dime. I cannot believe we got it all done.”

  Raylen put his arm around her and drove with one hand. “You can thank Jasmine for that. Gemma told her what we were doing and she rounded up the posse.”

  She slid over closer to him and laid a hand on his thigh.

  “Your touch is fire,” he said.

  “Well, darlin’, yours damn sure ain’t ice cold. Are we going to burn the house down and then be finished with the relationship?” she asked.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “Our relationship. It’s so hot right now we can’t get enough of each other. Is it going to burn down the house? On the other side of the ashes are we going to figure out we don’t even like each other?” she asked.

  “Nope. We’re going to feed the fire for a long time with them hot kisses and then when we’re old and gray we’re going to sit back in the ashes and remember the good times,” he answered.

  Jasmine had already unlocked the café and turned on the lights when he parked and turned off the engine.

  “I keep thinking about that deer blind,” Raylen whispered before he covered Liz’s mouth with his.

  Gemma knocked on the window and pointed toward the café.

  “Maybe we should’ve kept our relationship a secret a lot longer,” Liz said.

  “Didn’t have a choice. We got caught,” Raylen said. His heart swelled when she said “our relationship.” It sounded so much better than simple dating.

  Liz hugged him one more time and slid across the seat. “Got to admit, I am hungry. I’ve used up every bit of the energy from those peanut butter sandwiches we had for lunch.”

  He hurried around the truck to open her door. “Honey, we used up that energy in the deer blind before we ever ate lunch.”

  “Want to go back there? We could dash away, dash away, dash away all. I betcha they’d never find us up there,” she suggested wistfully.

  “Yes, I do want to go back, but I’m starving. So food first?” He gave her a quick kiss and tucked her hand into his.

  The fire lit under the grill and deep fryer when they reached the kitchen. Jasmine organized everyone and everything. Ace chopped a head of lettuce while Gemma sliced tomatoes. Dewar peeled potatoes and motioned to Raylen to pick up the other knife. Jasmine did not allow frozen potatoes in her kitchen; that was a well-known fact.

  “What can I do?” Liz asked.

  “You can make up a dozen hamburger patties. Meat is in the fridge.”

  Ace stopped chopping. “Only a dozen. God, woman, I almost fell off that roof. I think I’m due more than two burgers.”

  “Eighteen?” Liz asked.

  “Okay, but if you don’t eat them all, I’ll shove them down your throat. I’m not wasting good food,” Jasmine said.

  Ace started chopping again. “Not to worry. I’d take them home to the guys before I wasted a single piece of the best burgers in the state of Texas.”

  When the burgers and fries were done, the guys pulled chairs in from the dining room and they all crowded around the dining room table. Liz filled six disposable cups with ice and took drink orders before everyone began to build their own burgers. Jasmine dumped the hot fries right out of the basket onto a brown paper bag in the middle of the table and set a ketchup bottle on each end.

  “Like I said, best burgers in Texas. What do you do that’s different?” Ace piled lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions and squirted mustard on the top bun before he smashed it down on the burger.

  “I never buy the frozen patties or frozen potatoes. Use fresh meat and real potatoes. You can tell the difference once you’ve had the real thing. I went to a place down in Florida called Five Guys several years ago. It was the best burger I’d ever eaten and they use fresh meat and potatoes. The walls in their restaurant are lined with hundred-pound bags of potatoes and they use them as they need ʼem. That’s where I got the idea,” Jasmine said.

  Ace held up his iced tea glass. “Well, here’s to Florida and Five Guys.”

  Jasmine dipped a hot fry in a pile of ketchup and remembered what Liz said that day when she asked her if it was Raylen or Dewar.

  It’s always been Raylen.

  Everyone went silent as they ate.

  Jasmine continued to think about how cute Liz was when she looked at Raylen. Gemma fought back a jealous streak because she wanted a cowboy of her own so badly. Dewar had been attracted to Liz that first day but his brother was in love with the woman. Ace bit back a chuckle. No way was he ever falling that hard for a woman.

  Liz looked up to see everyone staring at her with different expressions on their faces. “What’s going on? Do I have ketchup on my face?”

  Gemma giggled. “No, you don’t. Why’d you ask?”

  “Everyone was staring,” Liz said.

  “Darlin’ they know beautiful when they see it,” Raylen whispered and suddenly everyone started talking at once.

  Chapter 16

  The dining room had thinned out to only one table of elderly men who were deep into a heated discussion concerning politics. That brought up the idea of imports and exports and whether they’d have to bring in hay from another place that fall or if they’d have to buy any in the winter or if they had plenty of small bales in the barns and big round bales in the pasture to last.

  Liz had long since removed their dinner plates, dessert plates, and kept their coffee cups filled as they solved the problems of the country. They were discussing gun control again with each of them telling how many guns were in their arsenal when she made one more pass with the coffee pot.

  “Hey, Liz,” Gemma called out from the door with Colleen right behind her.

  Liz looked up, forced a smile, and bit back a groan. “Hi, y’all. Hungry?”

  “Starving,” Colleen said. “Got any of the special left?”

  “We do. How about you, Gemma?”

  “I’m not in the mood for turkey and dressin’. I’m saving that for Thanksgiving. Bring me a bacon cheeseburger basket,” she answered.

  Liz turned the order into Jasmine and waited in the kitchen.

  “I’ll holler when it’s ready,” Jasmine said.

  “I’m procrastinating. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do to decorate this place for Christmas. I’ve got lots of decorations left at my house. Let’s put a big old stuffed Santa in a rocking chair out on the porch and hang ornaments in different lengths from the ceiling on ribbon… no, on jute twine because I saw some I want to buy at the Walmart store that were horses, steer horns, and horseshoes. We can make this a countrified Christmas in here. I saw one of those rough wood signs that we can hang above Santa on the porch that says, ‘countrified and satisfied.’ We can figure out who made it and commission them to make us one that says, ‘countrified and sati
sfied’ and right under it put ‘have a Chicken Fried Christmas.’”

  “Whoa, girl. I like all those ideas, and we can do them right after Thanksgiving. I’d planned to put up a little garland and a few lights the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but if you are offering your decorations, why not make it gaudy as hell. Who knows? We might get all kinds of traffic down this way for your light drive, and if they see everything lit up here, they’ll drop by and give me some business. Now why are you procrastinating?”

  “Colleen knows. I can see disapproval in her face.”

  Jasmine patted Liz on the back. “She was the same way with Austin. She loves her brothers, and I guess it’s working with gamblers all the time that makes her not as trusting as Gemma. Besides, you’ve had it too good. You need some speed bumps.”

  “Speed bumps?” Liz asked.

  “Life is like a highway. Got to have a few curves and speed bumps, or else you start to take things for granted.”

  “I’ll remind you of that when your road is too straight and perfect,” Liz said.

  Jasmine flipped a burger and added a slice of cheese to the top of the cooked side. “I bet you do!”

  “Let’s talk Christmas decorations some more,” Liz said.

  Jasmine pointed toward the dining room.

  The elderly men had evidently finished their executive committee meeting, because they were leaving when Liz went back out. She glanced at the table and almost went in that direction. She could clean it, pocket the tip, and make the job last until Gemma and Colleen’s food was ready to serve. But if she didn’t clean it right then, it would be waiting as an excuse if the speed bumps got too dangerous.

  She decided on the latter and sat down at the table with the O’Donnell sisters. “So what brings you to town on a Tuesday, Colleen?”

  “My hair. It was too long and needed some layers. Gemma just finished cutting it,” Colleen said.

  “Looks good. Anyone ever ask you to model for their hair products?” Liz asked. Colleen hadn’t whipped out a six-shooter and pointed it at her so maybe Gemma hadn’t had time to spread the news.

  “Not yet. Raylen told me that y’all are dating,” Colleen said.