Cowboy Christmas Jubilee

by Dylann Crush

  “There wasn’t significant accumulation.” Her face appeared again. “Don’t worry. I’ll clean it up before you get back.”

  “Hell, I’m not worried.”

  “Daddy owes the curse jar!” Kenzie’s face smooshed next to Jinx’s. “When do you come home, Daddy?”

  “Friday, Tadpole. I’ll be home in time for dinner. How about I take you two girls out to eat when I get back?”

  “I’ve got a shift at the Rose that night. I figured you’d be back in time.”

  “Of course. Kenzie and I can drop you off for work and stay for dinner.” He’d told Charlie he wouldn’t be in this weekend. After spending most of a week away from Kenzie, he wanted them to have the whole weekend together.

  “Okay, Daddy. I love you.” Her lips puckered and made contact with the camera. Where would he be without his little girl? She’d been his light, his purpose, his whole heart for the past seven years.

  “Love you too. You be good for Jinx, you hear?”

  She disappeared from the screen. “Can we have a snowball fight, Jinx?”

  The dog yipped. Sounded like they had quite the party going on at home.

  “Hold up a minute. Let me say goodbye to your dad, okay?” Jinx faced him head-on.

  “Things going okay?” With his folks up in Tulsa and Charlie ready to pop any day, he hadn’t wanted to ask Darby and Waylon to watch Kenzie. His brother Presley was never an option, and Statler wasn’t around enough. Hopefully, he hadn’t tossed Jinx in over her head.

  “Yeah, she’s a handful, but we’re having fun.”

  Her smile made his heart twinge. Hell, he wanted to be covered in powdered sugar, having a snow day with his girls, not five hours away. “I miss you.” His admission surprised him. Not because it wasn’t true, but because he hadn’t planned on blurting it out.

  She raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

  “Yeah.” He swallowed. His throat had gone dry, as he thought about the various ways he could get that powdered sugar off her cheek if he were there.

  “What part of me do you miss the most, huh, cowboy?” Teasing, she licked her lips.

  “Why don’t you call me back later and I’ll let you know?” He gripped the phone tighter. Phone sex had never been one of his hot buttons, but he could see himself going there with Jinx.

  “Why don’t you just show me when I see you on Friday?” She winked.

  A burn started low in his gut. Friday wouldn’t come soon enough.

  “Let’s go, Jinx. You said you’d help me make cookies.” Kenzie wrapped her arms around Jinx’s shoulders. Her face appeared on-screen again.

  “No more mixing in my kitchen,” Cash warned.

  “Don’t worry. They’re slice and bake. I know my limits and won’t commit to homemade.”

  “Bye, Daddy!”

  “Bye, sweetie. Talk to you later on tonight, Jinx?”

  “I think I’ll be vacuuming the kitchen all night. We’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

  She blew him a discreet kiss, then disconnected.

  He took in a deep breath, letting visions of him and a sugarcoated Jinx play across his mind. How sweet it would be if he could live in his head for the rest of the night. Before he could pull up the number for the pizza place across the street, his phone pinged with an incoming text. He scrolled through the message, his mind already moving on from Kenzie and Jinx.

  One of the guys from the DEA wanted to grab a bite and talk about a case he was working. Might as well. It would do him good to get out of this hotel room for a bit. He responded that he’d be down in the lobby in fifteen minutes. That would give him enough time to grab a quick shower. Hopefully, whatever the guy needed help with wouldn’t be coming too close to home.

  * * *

  Cash nursed his beer while Dan, the agent from Hidalgo, a tiny town on the Texas-Mexico border, signaled the waitress for another round. They’d been sitting at a table in the crowded bar area for fifteen minutes, making small talk. Cash was ready for the guy to get to the point.

  “Thanks for coming out tonight. I know it’s been a long day.” The agent traded his empty glass for a full one.

  The waitress signaled to Cash’s beer. “Did you want another one?”

  “No. I’m good. But I will take a burger with fries.”

  “Make that two.” Dan held up two fingers as if the poor waitress couldn’t count. He waited for her to turn back toward the kitchen before he spoke. “I wanted to talk to you about a case I’ve been working on.”

  “You’re talking about something down in Hidalgo, right?” Cash couldn’t see what that had to do with his sleepy, little county in the Hill Country. Over three hundred miles separated them. And Conroe County wasn’t known for being a hot spot for drug smuggling. Most of that action took place along the border.

  “Yes and no. We’ve got information that connects one of the cartels we’ve been watching with some contacts from your area.”

  “Who?” Beyond some small players in neighboring towns, Cash wasn’t aware of anyone who might warrant watching.

  “Does the name Wade Boyd ring a bell?” Dan asked.

  Cash shook his head.

  Dan pulled up a mug shot on his phone and tilted it toward Cash. “Guy is from Louisiana and lives out in LA now but has a brother in your area. One of our informants said there’s word that a large shipment might be moving through soon. Straight up 281 then over to Conroe County, where they’re going to sit on it for a few weeks before moving it west.”

  “Why?”

  Dan leaned back on his stool. “Who knows why these motherfuckers do half the crap they do, right? My guess is that his little brother finally wants a piece of the action. Wade’s got active warrants out on him in Texas and Louisiana. Maybe he convinced someone else to do the dirty work so he didn’t have to come so close to home.”

  Cash drummed his fingers on the table. “You have any more details?”

  “I’ll send over a copy of my files. Best I can tell, it’ll go down sometime between now and the end of the year. Just keep an eye out for us, will you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Oh, and he likes to use gift cards to pay off his runners. If you hear of anyone flashing some high-dollar cash cards around town, I’d appreciate a heads-up.”

  Cash’s mouth went dry. He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded at Dan as two burger platters clattered to the table. His thoughts immediately went to Jinx. She’d had a handful of gift cards on her the night they’d met. He’d always thought it was a little strange. But he’d reasoned with himself that it wasn’t exactly illegal to carry around a gift card. And she’d done nothing else in the time she’d been with him to warrant any suspicions. Yeah, he’d keep his eyes out but Jinx couldn’t be involved in anything. He’d know it if she was.

  He decided to order that second beer after all. He’d need something to help him sleep. Between missing Jinx and Kenzie and trying to make sense of why a shipment wouldn’t take the typical route up the California coast, he’d probably be awake for hours.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jinx rolled over. Her arm bumped into something hard. She cracked an eye open to see a dark shape under the sheets next to her. Her heart pounded into her throat, and she reached for the first thing she could grab from Cash’s nightstand. She scrambled from the bed, clutched whatever she’d snagged in her hand, and flipped on the lamp.

  Cash winced at the onslaught of bright light. Jinx lowered the haunted house made out of Popsicle sticks she’d been clutching like a weapon.

  “Hell of a welcome home.” Cash covered his arm with his eyes. “Can you turn off the light, please?”

  “I almost killed you. You can’t just crawl into bed with someone without any warning.”

  He peered up at her, a doubtful slant to his brow. “You were going to attack me w
ith Kenzie’s Halloween craft?”

  Jinx set the house back on the nightstand. “No. I don’t know. Whatever. But you can’t surprise me like that.”

  She turned off the lamp, her heart still thumping erratically in her chest.

  “Come here.” His hand patted the sheets where she’d been nestled in beside him just moments before.

  Jinx slid back under the covers and took his hand in hers. “I’m not joking. You scared the crap out of me.”

  He scooted closer to put his hand on her chest. “Wow. Your heart’s really racing.”

  “Tell me about it.” She let him snuggle around her. Usually, she needed her own space in bed, couldn’t stand to be smothered by another body in her personal bubble. But with Cash, the comforting feel of him curled around her calmed her. He surrounded her like a protective shell. “What are you doing home anyway? We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow night.”

  “Mmm.” He snuggled his cheek against the back of her neck. “Got done early. I ran by Statler’s house to get even with him for my Thanksgiving pie prank. Then I came home. Missed my girls.”

  His girls. It wasn’t the first time he’d said it, but it was the first time she truly felt like it fit. She’d been fighting the connection, fighting the long-buried desire to belong somewhere, to someone. The more time she spent with Cash and Kenzie, the more she felt like it would be possible for her to fit in. She’d spent so much time feeling like she must be the embodiment of her mother’s nickname. There had to be something wrong with her. That was the only explanation for why she jinxed everyone and everything she touched. Cash made her realize she wasn’t to blame for everything that had ever gone bad in her mom’s life. He gave her hope.

  “What prank did you play in the middle of the night?” Charlie had told her all about the back-and-forth pranks the brothers liked to pull on each other. Some of them sounded downright dangerous.

  “Dumped pink glitter into the defrost vent in his truck. When he turns it on tomorrow morning, he’ll get a face full of sparkles.”

  “You’re vicious.” Jinx snuggled closer. “Are you sure you’re responsible for upholding the law?”

  “He deserves it. It’s his fault we were interrupted that first night I brought you home.”

  She smiled into his chest. “That’s right. I never did find out what happened.”

  “Presley locked him in the cab of a combine over at the Deere dealership with a lady friend, then tossed the keys into a runoff pond. Took us over an hour before we dredged them out of the muck.”

  “Boys will be boys, I guess.”

  “Some boys will be boys. Others grow up to be men.” He twined his fingers with hers.

  “Whatever.” She squeezed his hand. “You know I can’t be here when Kenzie wakes up. She can’t see us in bed together.” Kenzie needed stability. Jinx knew what it was like to see her mom waking up next to someone new every couple of months. She wouldn’t do that to Cash’s daughter.

  His breath tickled her ear, sent goose bumps down her side. “I know. I set my alarm for five. I’ll move out to the couch then.”

  “Okay, good.” Sleep tugged at her eyelids. “I’m glad you’re back.”

  He nestled closer. “Me too.”

  She was exhausted. Hanging out with a seven-year-old for four days would do that to a gal. But she couldn’t turn off her brain long enough to fall asleep. By the end of the weekend, she’d have enough money to pay off Dwight. That meant, within two weeks, she could be on her way east. Jamie had been texting to check in. The job was still hers if she wanted it, but they needed to know before the end of the year. For some reason, she’d hesitated sending back an immediate confirmation. What was that all about?

  Did she want to stay in Holiday? She tried to picture working at a bar in the heart of the French Quarter—the tourists, Mardi Gras partygoers, and people on vacation. Instead, all she could see was a vision of Cash and Kenzie, holding hands, playing with Hendrix, making snow-sugar angels on the kitchen floor.

  She’d almost fallen asleep when the soft pitter-patter of tiny footsteps came from down the hall.

  “Jinx?” Kenzie’s whisper startled her to a seated position. Already sound asleep again, Cash didn’t move.

  “I’m right here, honey. What’s wrong?” She moved toward the direction of the whisper before Kenzie crawled into bed and found out her daddy had come home early.

  “I had a bad dream.”

  Jinx’s arm closed around Kenzie’s shoulder. “Hey, let’s get you back up in bed. I’ll sit with you until you fall asleep again, okay?”

  “Okay.” Kenzie let her lead the way back upstairs to her bedroom. Why couldn’t she be so compliant when fully awake?

  After she got her snuggled under the covers, Jinx lay down next to her. “Want to tell me about your dream?”

  “I dreamed Santa couldn’t find my house. He had my presents, but he got lost.”

  Jinx smoothed the hair back from her forehead. “You don’t have to worry about that. Santa has supersmart GPS on his sleigh. He doesn’t get lost.” Oh, to have the troubles of a kid again. Jinx wanted to smile at the simplicity of Kenzie’s concerns. “Plus, he has Rudolph, right?”

  “I guess so.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Can Santa bring whatever you ask for?”

  How would Cash answer a question like that? Santa had stopped visiting her house when her dad passed away. She’d known better than to believe in the magic of Christmas long before other kids in her class stopped believing. “Sure. As long as his elves can make it in their workshop.”

  “What if it’s something they can’t make?” Kenzie battled a yawn but lost.

  “Then he’ll order it online, I guess.” That was a plausible explanation, right? Even Santa had access to the internet.

  “Okay.” Kenzie curled her little body into Jinx. “Will you sing me a song, Jinx?”

  “Sure.” She’d left the guitar in Kenzie’s room last night, so she reached for it. As her fingers strummed the strings, her memory took over, and she managed a halfway decent version of “Silent Night.” Kenzie’s eyes hadn’t closed yet, so she half assed it through “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” “Close your eyes, Kenz.”

  “One more?”

  “Okay.” She tried a few chords in an effort to remember how to start the fingering for the song her dad had always played for the holidays. He’d been an over-the-road truck driver before he’d had the accident that took his life. With tears welling in the corners of her eyes, Jinx sang along to the one song she knew by heart. “I’ll be home for Christmas…”

  Kenzie’s eyelids drifted shut. “Good night, Jinx.”

  Jinx finished the song, letting the last note fade before she leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good night, sweetie.” An unfamiliar feeling bloomed in her chest. She wanted to protect Kenzie from the sad truth of the world. The poor girl already had to make it without a mom. Life was so unfair. But at least she had Cash. There was no doubt he was a devoted dad. Kenzie deserved his full attention. Jinx wouldn’t get in the way of that.

  She waited until Kenzie’s breathing evened out, then tiptoed out of her room. She’d never been involved with someone with a kid before. It threw a whole new complication into the mix. But the more time she spent around Cash and his precocious little girl, the more she wanted that kind of complication. She’d never pictured herself with kids. Hell, she’d never pictured herself sticking around the same place for longer than six months at a time. For some reason, her typical urge to flee was slowly being replaced by a sense of belonging.

  A calm, peaceful quiet had settled over the house, the kind she’d never experienced anywhere else but here, at Cash’s place. Finally, sure of what she wanted to do about the job in New Orleans, Jinx shot off a text to Jamie. She’d have to find someo
ne else to take the bartending job. Jinx was staying put.

  * * *

  “Let’s play hooky today.” Cash wrapped his arms around Jinx while she stood at the kitchen counter.

  “Don’t you have to go to work?” She held a butter knife in one hand and a jar of jelly in the other. Somehow, seeing her making lunch for his daughter made him all warm and tingly inside.

  He nudged into her backside. “My calendar is clear. I thought I’d still be up in Dallas today. Whaddaya say?”

  “What’s hooky?” Kenzie dropped her cereal bowl in the sink.

  “Hooky is when you skip out on work or school and do something fun instead.” Cash moved away from Jinx to pull his daughter into his side.

  “Can I come?” Kenzie wrapped her arms around his thigh. “Please, Daddy? I wanna play hooky too.”

  Jinx pursed her lips and leveled him with a scathing eye roll. “Hooky, really? Next you’ll be teaching her to do keg stands and roll her own fatties.”

  “Fatty isn’t a nice word.” Kenzie waggled a finger at Jinx.

  Cash almost laughed out loud. “You’re absolutely right, Tadpole. I think Jinx ought to add a dollar to the curse jar for that.”

  Kenzie’s nod brushed his hip.

  “Fine.” Jinx dug in her backpack for a dollar bill, then stuffed it into the overflowing jar. “What do you do when it’s all filled up like this?”

  Kenzie beamed up at him. In unison, they both shouted, “Diner Day!”

  “What in the he—I mean, what in the world does that mean?” Jinx popped a hand onto her hip.

  “You tell her, Tadpole.”

  “It means we get to go out to breakfast at the place with the giant sprinkle pancakes.” Kenzie let go of his leg to hop up and down.

  “You mean at the Rose?” Jinx asked.

  Cash shook his head, in sync with his daughter. “The diner downtown. They only serve the sprinkle pancakes for breakfast.”

  “Well, that explains why I’ve never seen them on the menu.” Jinx turned her attention back to the half-made sandwich on the counter. “I’m never out the door early enough to make it anywhere for breakfast.”