The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (8 page)

“Hey, you come on back here, Lucas. Your job is right here. You’re the tallest one
of us and you can do this without getting a ladder. We’ll go on out and get the rest
of the boxes. You can put this thing together,” Jack said.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Lucas returned and saluted sharply.

Henry slapped him on the arm. “That’s enough of that shit. You ain’t in the army no
more.”

“You’d never know that he’s an ordained preacher the way he talks, would you, Natalie?”
Lucas said.

“Don’t you be tattlin’ on me while I’m gone,” Henry said.

Natalie picked up Joshua from the swing. “I’ll take him back to the bedroom and change
him. It’s time for his morning bottle. Shall we sit on the sofa and watch or what
is my job in all this?”

Lucas opened the box and picked up the base. “Your job is to make those old farts
happy, and it don’t matter what you do, if Josh smiles at them, they are happy. So
I guess your biggest job is to make sure they can see the baby and talk to him. Never
knew three old dogs to get so excited over a new pup.”

***

Lucas was glad she was staying, but it could never work between them, not with a baby
involved—no matter how much the family liked having a child in the house.

Natalie hadn’t been honest with him, but then he hadn’t been up-front with her, either.
Still, it seemed like her secret was bigger than his… or was it?

“Okay, this box says lights and garland. Jack is bringing the one that says ornaments,
and we’re letting Henry carry the one that says skirt and tree topper. He’s pitchin’
a shit fit, so don’t tease him about not being able to carry anything heavier,” Grady
whispered to Lucas as Henry appeared in the living room.

Natalie was back by the time Henry set down his box and was about to sit down in a
rocking chair when Henry reached for the baby.

“I’ll feed the baby while you young people decorate the tree. Me and him are already
good friends. Been a while since I burped a baby, though. Is it still two ounces and
then throw ’im over the shoulder?”

She draped a burp towel over Henry’s shoulder and handed him the baby and the bottle.
“It’s like riding a bicycle. It all comes right back. I think he does like you.”

He put the bottle nipple into the baby’s mouth and eased down into his favorite rocker/recliner.
“Babies always like me. Jack liked me better than his momma and that used to just
bug the shit out of her. Now Mr. Josh, we are going to get real comfortable and you
can take a little nap after you get your belly filled up. Don’t you worry none, son.
I’ll wake you up when they plug in the lights. You won’t miss the good part, I promise.”

“And you, missy, are going to help Lucas put the lights and the garland on the tree
while I watch and make sure it’s all on there just right,” Henry told Natalie.

“You mean while you boss us all around like hired hands,” Lucas said.

“It’s a tough job, but I’m up for it,” Henry teased.

Lucas carefully slipped the cardboard center out of the first strand of lights and
looped them over his arms. Natalie didn’t have to be told what to do next. She’d seen
her mother and father do this dance her whole life. Her father slowly walked around
the tree and her mother placed the lights in the right spots. When she was a little
kid it took forever. She and her brothers bounced around the room impatiently waiting
for their turn to put ornaments on the low branches.

She could visualize Lucas as a little boy doing the same thing while Jack and Hazel
draped the lights and the garland. Until that moment, she’d never thought of him as
a child. He’d come into her shattered world as a full-grown adult. Had he been a quiet,
brooding child or a busy, loud boy that kept Hazel on her toes?

“Starting at the bottom,” she said.

Lucas held out his arms. “Is that a question or a demand?”

“It’s a statement,” she shot back.

“Don’t be too rough on him. This is his first year to do this job. Usually Jack and
Hazel put the lights on the tree, and he’s the impatient one waiting to hang the ornaments,”
Henry said.

So he hadn’t been a dark introvert but a normal kid like her and her brothers.

Grady pointed at Lucas. “And you don’t antagonize her.”

“Hey, don’t take up for her. She’s already sassy enough,” Lucas said.

“And don’t you forget it.” She picked up the end of the string of lights and squatted
to clip the first one on a bottom branch. When they’d finished that strand and started
on the second, she realized why it took so long and why her mother and father giggled
so much while they walked around and around the tree.

Every time she and Lucas moved they brushed against each other. His arm against her
breast. His hip against her belly. Her bare hands on his forearms as she unwound another
length. His eyes so close that she could count the gold flecks in them. It might be
humorous to a couple of married people who’d been in love for nearly thirty years,
but it wasn’t a bit funny to her that morning.

Her whole body hummed like a bumblebee when they clipped the final light at the top
of the tree. She should write a self-help book about relationships, and the first
test would be decorating a Christmas tree. If the two parties involved didn’t want
to fall into the nearest bed after they’d put the lights on a tree and tear each other’s
clothing off, then they should shake hands and walk away.

“And now the garland,” Henry said.

“Joshua ain’t asleep and he didn’t put up a fuss when you held him, so it’s my turn.”
Jack took the baby from Henry before he could protest.

It was normal for elderly women to rush around after church to get their hands on
babies or young teenage girls to hurry over to her side to be the first to hold Joshua.
But most normally, old men looked from afar at babies and kept a good safe distance
from them. Yet there was Jack and Henry fighting over him and Grady keeping a close
watch to swoop in for a turn at holding Joshua.

Natalie squatted again to begin placing the gold tinsel ropes.

It was her first tree ever to decorate without Drew. Damn the army. Damn the war.
Damn the IED that blew him up. Damn all of them. Why did he have to go to the army
anyway?

He should have gone to college. He should have been born to parents who were young
enough to keep up with him instead of a couple who already had grandchildren and were
too tired to care where he was or what he was doing. Maybe then he wouldn’t have been
in such a big hurry to get the hell out of west Texas.

His father and mother had both passed during his first tour of duty. He came home
for each of the funerals but only for a couple of days. When he died, his sisters
came to the funeral and one of them tried to comfort her by saying that Natalie had
been more like his sister and they were like his aunts. It hadn’t helped much.

“That loop is too droopy,” Lucas said.

His deep drawl jerked her back into reality. She readjusted it and glanced over at
the three men. Jack and Grady were on opposite ends of a long leather sofa and Henry
was still in the rocker/recliner. Drew would have liked all of the Allen men, but
he’d have really liked Henry with his twinkling eyes and sense of humor.

“See that, baby boy? Folks are going to think it’s the prettiest tree in the whole
state come Saturday night, aren’t they?” Henry said.

Natalie stood back a ways and looked at the tree. “This thing is huge. It might take
until Saturday night to get it decorated.”

Grady chuckled. “Honey, you’re doin’ just fine. Y’all will have this done by dinnertime
and then we’ll eat that chocolate cake and start the rest of the decorations. The
tree ain’t even half of what we got to do.”

“Oh my Lord! The cake!” She dropped the garland and dashed off toward the kitchen
in a long-legged blur.

***

She ran with the grace of a gazelle, all legs and no wasted motions. Lucas wondered
what it would be like to have those legs wrapped around him. The room was already
ninety degrees hotter than hell from all the accidental touches and bumps, and thinking
of her in bed, in a hayloft, or even in the cab of his truck jacked it up another
ten degrees.

Her voice floated back to the living room. “It’s burned black. I’m opening a window
to air out this kitchen. Then I’m going to whip up another one. It only takes thirty
minutes and y’all can eat it warm with ice cream on top.”

“I thought I saw a pecan pie on the counter. We’ll make do with that,” Jack said.

“Henry likes chocolate. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Lucas carefully laid the garland on the floor. His mouth was parched worse than it
had been during a Kuwaiti sandstorm. “Y’all want a glass of tea?” he asked. “I’m going
to get one. This is some tough business.”

“I want cake and she’s making one just for me. I’m special,” Henry said.

“Evidently, but I’m having pecan pie,” Jack told him.

“I’m glad the first one burned because I like chocolate cake when it’s still warm
and the icing is all gooey,” Henry said.

“You old rascal. I bet you knew it was burnin’, didn’t you?” Grady said.

Henry smiled and tilted his chin up. “Me and Josh don’t tell everything we know.”

“You want tea or not?” Lucas asked.

“Yes, thank you. One for each of us,” Grady said.

Natalie was already putting ice in five glasses when he reached the kitchen. The aroma
of burned cake mixed with simmering soup filled the kitchen, but the smell of coconut
shampoo and some kind of floral perfume caused him to shove his hands in his pockets
to keep from circling her waist from behind and sinking his face into her hair.

He’d been determined that first night not to like her, but the heart wanted what it
wanted and his had wanted Natalie since the first time her bright blue eyes popped
up on Drew Camp’s laptop screen.

She looked up at him. “I heard you ask. Henry must be hungry. I’ll put some cookies
on a plate for them too.”

“You’re spoiling the whole bunch of them. This tree trimming business is hard work
no matter which side you are on. Decoratin’ or watchin’, either one,” he said.

“But it’s so much fun. I love Christmas. I love the decorating, the cooking, the shopping,
the presents, all of it. It’s my favorite holiday of the whole year,” she said.

“Gramps says that Granny did too. He says that her spirit comes home to roost every
year during the month of December.” Lucas filled the glasses with tea. The ice cracked
but the sparks between him and Natalie were making more noise than frozen cubes splitting
apart as they melted. He wanted to kiss her again to see if every kiss would come
close to dropping him to his knees like the first one had.

As if she could read his mind, her cold hands snaked up around his neck and she rolled
up just slightly on her toes. Her blue eyes closed and their lips locked together
in a flaming kiss that shot desire through him like an IV dripping hundred-proof moonshine.

She took a step backward. “I promised you a kiss when you got home. My promise is
now paid in full.”

“Oh, no! You promised a kiss on the first day I got home, within minutes of getting
home. The interest has accumulated on that debt and that little old kiss isn’t going
to do the job. I will have another one to take care of the vig.”

“That sounded like loan shark talk,” she said.

“Interest is building even as we speak. It might take two or more to cover your promise,”
he teased.

“I thought we didn’t have to like each other,” she said.

“We don’t have to like each other to like kissing each other, do we?”

“Don’t know about you, but I don’t go around kissing men that I don’t like,” she said.

“I can truthfully say that I’ve never kissed a man I didn’t like.” He chuckled.

A loud slurping noise made them both turn at the same time. A big black horse had
stretched his head through the open window and was busy eating her pecan pie. Half
of it was already gone.

She squealed and fanned a towel toward the horse, but he grabbed the rest of the pie
in one big bite, tossed his head back, and chewed.

“What the hell is going on out here? It’s just a burned cake, for goodness… oh, my
God! Where did that horse come from? We don’t own a black one!” Henry said.

He had Joshua in his arms. The horse stopped chewing, letting pieces of the sticky
pie filling fall on the floor.

Natalie expected to see three puppies come wiggling through the window at any minute
and gobble up the leftovers from the floor.

“Did I hear a horse?” Grady asked.

“That’s old man William’s horse. How’d it get on our ranch? That man lives two miles
up the main road. I’d better call him and tell him to come get the animal,” Jack said.

“We could take it home,” Henry said.

“Hell, no! We’re decoratin’ our tree today,” Jack said. “He let the horse out. He
can come get it.”

The horse neighed and stretched his neck out farther.

“You are a bad horse. You could have eaten the burned cake,” Natalie grumbled.

Joshua kicked and squirmed in Henry’s arms.

Henry took a step forward, and it was as if Joshua had control of his hands and movements.
He reached out and touched the horse between the ears and the old boy lowered his
head.

“It’s not Natalie that is the animal whisperer, it’s Josh.” Lucas laughed.

Jack said a few words into the phone, put it away, and said, “Tommy Williams said
that he’d be here in about three minutes. He was transporting the horse from his place
to his daughter’s, and the critter kicked his way out of the trailer when he stopped
at a stop sign about a quarter of a mile up the road.”

Tommy drove up in the backyard, and the horse let him lead him right out to the truck.
“Don’t know what got into him. Must’ve been a mouse in the trailer. I swear he’s scared
of mice worse he is of snakes. Hope he didn’t ruin anything.”

“Everything is fine,” Henry called out. “He had himself a pecan pie, so if he goes
to bloatin’, that’s the reason.”

Tommy chuckled. “I’ll bring one to the party to replace it.”

“You got a deal,” Henry yelled and then turned to whisper to his son, “Shut this window,
Jack. That damned animal comes up here and eats my cake, Tommy will have a dead horse
on his hands. Come on, Josh, we’ve got a tree to decorate.”

“We’ll bring tea and then I’ll get the second cake in the oven. The smell is pretty
well cleared out,” Natalie said.

Her Aunt Leah wasn’t going to believe all the stories she had to tell next time they
talked.

“You stir cake and I’ll take tea to the guys. Want me to make a glass for you and
take it out there too?” Lucas asked.

“Just leave mine on the counter, and thank you,” she said.

He put four glasses on a tray and was glad that he hadn’t tucked his flannel shirt
in that morning. Even after the horse incident, the ice tea would probably be put
to better use if he poured it in his lap rather than down his throat.

***

Natalie had argued with her friends that things like weak knees, light-headedness,
and trembling hands were all just propaganda generated by the romance book business.
Women read that stuff and were disappointed when real life wasn’t just like it. Sure,
she enjoyed romance books and she could fall into the world of happy-ever-after quite
happily. But she was wise enough to know that it didn’t happen in reality.

At least until that morning. Both times that they’d kissed, her knees had gone weak
and butterflies invaded her stomach. There was something between them that rocked
the world right off the axis. His eyes said that he felt it too. But there was also
a dark cloud hovering above them shouting that it would never work.

Lucas picked up the tray like a restaurant waiter and carried it to the guys in the
living room. Natalie checked her reflection in the microwave door. Her lips didn’t
look too bee-stung and her face wasn’t totally scarlet. She balanced a plate of cookies
on top of her tea glass and carried it to the living room. It seemed like they’d been
in the kitchen half an hour but the clock on the wall above Henry’s head testified
that it had only been a few minutes since she’d remembered that there was a cake in
the oven.

“Is it one of them flat cakes with icing as thick as the cake?” Henry asked.

She set the plate of cookies on the table beside Henry’s recliner and her tea on the
coffee table.

“Yes, it is. Momma’s sister gave me the recipe. And your job is to watch the clock
and tell me when thirty minutes is up.” Natalie’s voice was surprisingly calm. She
figured it would sound like she’d sucked all the air from a helium balloon. Her insides
surely felt all jittery like she had.

“I can do that, but why is it your aunt’s recipe? Don’t your momma cook?” Henry cocked
his head to one side.

“Aunt Leah is the cook. Remember I told you about her,” Natalie said.