The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (3 page)

Lucas had filled the boots Drew left behind. Lucas had been the one whom she told
about her basketball team winning the regional tournament. He’d been the one that
she whined to that spring after the first track meet, and he’d laughed at her sunburn
around Hollywood-type sunglasses. Lucas had been there for her when the school did
not renew her contract late in the summer. He’d listened to her talk about weariness
after long hours of supervising the cotton crew that fall. He’d been out on a weeklong
mission when she had Joshua and she meant to tell him about the baby, but down deep
she must’ve known that he would react just the way he did. She’d wanted to see him
in person so badly, then Hazel called and swore that he’d be fine with the baby.

Now it was all gone.

Her contract to coach and teach science at the high school in Silverton had not been
renewed. They’d said it was because they were combining the girls and boys coaching
duties and hiring a full-time science teacher for the junior high and high school.
That was just to cover their asses. They weren’t hiring her because she was pregnant
with Drew Camp’s baby, but they damn sure didn’t want a lawsuit brought against them
if they admitted it. Drew Camp had gotten the title of resident bad boy after they’d
gotten to high school. That was the year that her parents did everything including
telling her that she couldn’t hang out with him anymore, but the bond between them
was so strong that it hadn’t worked. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. But
at least she had Lucas to keep her from going crazy and now he was gone, too.

For the first time in her life, she was totally alone and it hurt so bad that she
thought she’d die.

“What would Drew tell me to do?” she whispered.

He
would
tell
you
that
you’d whined enough. Get up and wash your face and quit that carrying on. He’d tell
you that come light of day, things just might look a helluva lot different
, the inner voice reminded her softly.

She threw the pillow against the far wall and wiped her eyes dry with the tail of
her shirt. She was a strong woman. She’d lived through the vicious gossip in Silverton
when folks figured out she was pregnant. She’d held her head up when she told her
folks and her three younger brothers that the baby belonged to Drew and she was keeping
it. She’d settled down on the back of the cotton farm in her single-wide trailer house
and worked for her father, taking only minimum wage like the rest of the hired hands.
Two weeks after Joshua was born she helped bring in the cotton crop with him settled
into a sling like a little Indian papoose.

She could endure Lucas’s rejection even if it did hurt like hell. But it would take
a miracle to change things come daybreak. Some things couldn’t be changed and Lucas
would never accept Joshua, which meant that she wouldn’t accept Lucas.

Joshua made sucking noises in his sleep. She gently touched his chubby cheeks with
her fingertips. There was no denying that those dark brown eyes and thick lashes had
come from the Camp side of the family. She wanted to pick him up and hug him close
to her chest, but if he woke up, it would take a band of angels to get him back to
sleep.

Jack popped the handle on the side of the recliner and leaned back. His salt-and-pepper-colored
hair was too long again, but he only went to the barber once a month no matter how
shaggy it got. His eyes were brown but not as dark as Lucas’s. He was built on the
same frame as Lucas, only a couple of inches shorter: tall, broad-shouldered, big
muscles, and an angular face that was beginning to show signs of rough and rugged
work.

Grady followed his lead and claimed the recliner next to his. “Get comfortable, Lucas.
You are home.”

“Spit it out, son. There’s something gnawin’ at you,” Jack said.

Lucas paced from one end of the oversized den to the other. Four recliners—two on
each end of a long brown leather sofa—a sturdy wooden coffee table, entertainment
system with a large plasma screen television, and end tables scattered among the recliners,
and still the room looked half-empty.

Back when Gramps built the place, there was supposed to be a dozen boys romping through
the house, so he’d oversized the living room, kitchen, dining room, and den to accommodate
them and their friends. But Jack was the only child that Henry and Ella Jo could ever
have, and the house was lonely until they brought Grady to live with them too, after
his mother and dad died.

Lucas settled into the recliner again, but he couldn’t find the words to spit out
anything. He was glad to be home, but he wished he was back in Kuwait so he didn’t
have to face all the crazy emotions wound up inside him like a string of last year’s
Christmas lights.

He had just finished the last of his supper when Jack barreled into the house telling
all about the weather and Hazel in one breath. He’d stopped in his tracks and quit
talking when he saw Lucas sitting at the table.

“Well, I’ll be damned. You made it home early. It’s a good thing Hazel is laid up
in the hospital. She’s been planning your homecoming for a month. It’s all she’s talked
about. What she was going to make for you to eat, the banner she’d ordered to string
out on the porch, whether this storm would keep your plane from landing—I could go
on and on.” He’d crossed the floor and hugged his son.

Now they were lined up like three tired old cowboys in the recliners they’d used for
years. Grady’s and Lucas’s on one end of the sofa, Jack’s and Henry’s on the other
end.

“He’s all upset because Natalie didn’t tell him about Joshua,” Grady said.

Jack looked down the length of the sofa. “That so?”

Lucas nodded.

“Even with your problem? I’d think it would be a good thing. But that’s your call.
You’re the one who’s been doin’ that Internet dating shit with her for almost a year.
But hey, you don’t have to like her or the baby. It’s up to you, but I promised Hazel
I’d do anything in my power to keep her here on the ranch until Christmas, so that’s
what I’m going to do. You got a problem with that?” Jack asked.

Lucas nodded again. “Yes, I do, but I’m not going to fight with Hazel when she’s sick.
Why would Hazel want her to stay?”

“You caused it. You told her all about how that you’d found a woman who could cook
for the harvest crew, take a tractor engine down to bare bones and put it back together,
and who loved basketball as much as you do. It’s come back to bite you square on the
ass, son. Hazel thinks she’s just the woman for this ranch and if she hadn’t fallen
and hurt her hip, she’d be matchmaking.”

Grady picked up the remote and then laid it back down. “Hazel is way past eighty,
Lucas. She’s been telling me and your dad all year that as soon as she got you home
she was going to go live with her daughter in Memphis. Don’t none of us believe it.
She’s just fussing and fuming about wanting you to get married to the right woman.”

Lucas slapped a hand over his eyes. It was too much for one night. First Natalie and
a baby, for God’s sake, and now Hazel talking about leaving Cedar Hill. It damn sure
wasn’t the homecoming that he’d thought he’d have.

Hazel had been there when his dad was born. She was older than Henry and was the very
fiber of the ranch. She could not leave. He’d hire someone else to do the work, but
the ranch needed Hazel. He’d wait on her hand and foot until her hip healed if he
had to.

“Humor her,” Grady said. “It’s just until Christmas. Hell, you could live with any
woman in the world that long and it’ll make the transition from here to Memphis easier
on her if she stays. I’d bet hundred-dollar bills to wooden nickels that she’s bitchin’
to come home in less than a week. But just in case she doesn’t, she’ll think she had
a little bit to do with her replacement.”

“No one could ever replace Hazel. She’s been like a mother,” Lucas said.

Jack set his mouth in a firm line and his head bobbed up and down as much as possible
from a reclining position. “We all know that and it’s not like she’s leaving forever.
She’ll probably get tired of that Memphis shit and come back to the ranch. I give
her six weeks at the most. Soon as she gets done with therapy on that hip, she’ll
see that she needs somebody to boss bad as we need bossin’.”

“How’s she gettin’ to Memphis?” Lucas asked.

“Willa Ruth has a friend who has a little charter plane. He’s flying into Denison
to get them soon as they are released. Doctor said he’d let her go tomorrow since
Willa Ruth is a retired nurse and knows how to take care of her mother,” Jack said.

Lucas loved Willa Ruth. She visited Cedar Hill twice a year, at Easter and at Christmas.
When her children were young she brought them with her. Two girls just a little older
than Lucas, but they were always up for a four-wheeler ride or playing games with
him. He looked forward to seeing them every year until they both grew up and got married.
Nowadays, they came to see Hazel at least once a year and brought their own kids.

Grady touched a button on the remote and the weather channel popped up on the television.
A cute little woman in a short skirt waved her hands around telling them what to expect
as the winter storm really hit north central Texas. Sleet and ice could cause power
failures. Roads would be slick and travel was discouraged.

“And it’s stalling out right over Grayson and Fannin counties, so don’t look for any
changes for at least a week. More sleet, intermittent freezing rain, and up to four
inches of snow. It’s too early to tell at this time, but we could be in for a white
Christmas, folks,” she said.

“I’m going to the hospital tomorrow. I don’t care how slick the roads are,” Lucas
said.

“Pickup has four-wheel drive, and we got chains in the barn if it gets too deep,”
Jack said.

Lucas uncovered his eyes. “I can’t let her leave without seeing her.”

“I’m not going to fight with you,” Jack said. “She’d never stop bitchin’ if she didn’t
get to see you before she leaves, anyway.”

The house phone rang beside him and he jumped. Because Hazel said it wasn’t healthy
to walk around with a phone stuck to the ear, they’d kept the old rotary phone in
the living room just for her. And when her hearing got bad, they’d turned up the volume.
When it rang, it could rival a storm siren.

Lucas reached for it. “Hello.”

“Is that you, Lucas? Did you talk Natalie into staying? Don’t you be paying her no
minimum wage. You give her what it’s worth to have a woman in the house to do your
cookin’ and wash your clothes,” Hazel said. “There is gingerbread in the big tin can
out in the pantry. I didn’t tell Grady and Jack I made it or they’d eat every damn
bit of it up from you.”

“Thank you.”

“What’s the matter with you? You sound like hell. Don’t tell me that you are still
mad over Natalie not telling you about the baby.”

“Yes, ma’am, I am and it’s going to be a long time before I’m over it. Aren’t you
supposed to be in pain and getting doped up real good?” he asked.

“Don’t be trying to change the subject. I’m in pain and Willa Ruth went to tell them
to bring me another pain pill, but I got to take care of you before that shit knocks
me on my ass.”

Lucas tried to chuckle but it came out a cough. “You don’t worry about me. You take
care of you.”

Hazel moaned. “If you don’t convince her to stay, I’m not going anywhere, and the
doctor says if I don’t stay off this hip for a month, it’ll mean surgery and they
don’t want to do it at my age. If you don’t talk her into staying, then I’ll die and
it’ll be your fault.”

“Dammit, Hazel!”

“I’m an old woman layin’ here on what could be her deathbed with only two wishes.
One is that I see you before I die and the only other one is that you talk Natalie
into staying at Cedar Hill. I’ve taken care of your dad and you all your lives. You
can’t even give me my last dying wish? Come on, Lucas, I’d move hell into heaven to
give you your last wish. Oh, shit, the pain is coming back. I’m not sure I’ll make
it through the night.” Hazel groaned again.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” he said.

Her voice was instantly stronger. “Don’t you dare. It’s sleeting and you could wreck.
You wait until morning.”

“What if she doesn’t want to stay?”

“Convince her.”

Lucas covered his eyes again. God Almighty, what in the hell had he come home to face?

“Promise me you will,” Hazel whined.

“Okay, okay. Y’all all win.” His tone was filled to the brim with exasperation.

Willa Ruth’s voice came through the line. “Lucas! Welcome home. I had to fight this
tough old broad for the phone so they could give her a pain shot.”

“Tell me the truth. How bad is it?”

“It’s not broken but it’s bruised all the way to the bone. She won’t be able to walk
on it for a few weeks and they suggest therapy. I’m just glad she didn’t break it.
It would have been tough on her to endure that kind of surgery at her age. She needs
to slow down, Lucas,” Willa Ruth said.

“You try to slow her down if you think you are big enough,” Lucas said.

He could hear Hazel in the background. “I’m not old, dammit, and if either one of
you think you can tell me what to do, you’ve both got cow shit for brains.”

Lucas chuckled.

“Guess you heard that,” Willa Ruth said.

“Oh, yeah, and it’s music to my ears. You take care of her for a few weeks and then
we’ll see what she wants to do.”

“Momma says she won’t get in the airplane until she’s got your word that Natalie can
stay on at Cedar Hill.”

“I have offered her a job for a month. If she refuses, it won’t be my fault.”

“Fair enough.” Willa Ruth lowered her voice to a whisper. “And if she doesn’t, don’t
tell Momma, okay?”

“You got it, darlin’.”

***

Men folks in Natalie’s part of the world liked a big breakfast served before the sun
came up. She’d slept poorly the night before and dreaded facing Lucas the next morning.
Even worse, she hated the idea of the drive to Conway in bad weather with a baby in
the truck. And right up top on the dread list was the next few weeks of withdrawal.
She’d talked to Drew every day of her life, or at least since she could remember,
right up until he died, and then Lucas had been there. Like an alcoholic, she was
drawn to the computer every night at ten o’clock. In Lucas’s world it was six in the
morning and he was just getting out of bed. It was going to be a long, long time before
she broke the habit of saying good night to someone.

Joshua had awakened at two and she’d made him a bottle with him cradled in her arms
to keep him from waking up the whole house with his hungry squalls. From then on,
she’d flipped and flopped from one side of the four-poster bed to the other. She’d
balled her pillow up, fluffed it out, and wadded it up again a dozen times from then
until five o’clock. Finally, she crawled out of bed, picked up the baby monitor, and
carried it to the kitchen.

She got the iron skillets out of the cabinets and set them on the stovetop, turned
on the oven for biscuits, and started breakfast. Cooking always calmed her. In that
respect she was more like her Aunt Leah than her mother. The few times Debra had to
cook, it looked like the kitchen had been hit by a tornado and her mother had been
in a horrible mood for a week.

Hazel had set up the kitchen pretty close to the way the cook at the Clark ranch kept
hers. Skillets and cooking pots were under the cabinets to the right of the stove.
Spices and cookbooks were in the upper cabinets on that side. Cups and mugs of every
description and size were above the coffeepot. Silverware was in the drawer to the
left of the sink with the dishwasher on the right.

Sausage was sizzling for gravy and she was cutting biscuits with a glass that had
been dipped in flour when Jack reached the kitchen. Without a word he went straight
for the coffee, poured a cup, and carried it to the table on the other side of the
bar.

A full three minutes passed and the biscuits were in the oven before he said, “Good
mornin’, Miz Natalie.”

She glanced at him and kept working. “Good mornin’, Jack.”

Grady did exactly the same thing. He poured a mug of coffee, carried it to the table,
and drank a fourth of it before he spoke. “Smells good in here. Hazel don’t have nothin’
to worry about, does she, Jack?”

“Morning, everyone,” Lucas said from the doorway.

His expression said that he’d just as soon not wish her a good anything, but the gentleman
in him had to include her in the mix. He couldn’t feel the wiggling sensation like
a bunch of fishing worms in a tin can in his stomach like she did in hers.

Natalie looked up from the other side of the bar and inhaled deeply. She hoped that
no one heard her sudden intake of breath or if they did, hopefully they thought she
was sniffing the sausage.

Why did he have to be so damn sexy? His tight jeans were faded, but they bunched up
perfectly over the tops of his boots. Muscles stretched the fabric of a light brown
and black plaid flannel shirt. His boots were scuffed and well worn, proof that he
was more cowboy than soldier.