Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(2)

She was glad that he’d been close by when that damn tire blew out. But sitting with him in the truck, traveling at a snail’s pace? The air in the black crew-cab truck was way too thin. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly and was glad it was only half a mile to her home because his coat around her shoulders suddenly made her hotter than blue blazes.

That he didn’t seem to be in a hurry was fine with her. She needed a few minutes to get a grip on her nerves and her racing heart before she arrived. It couldn’t be Jud Dawson with the sexy eyes and dreamy body causing her to sweat in the middle of a damn blizzard. It was the fact that she was back in Dry Creek, starting all over from scratch. But when she no longer had money for groceries and rent, she realized she had two choices: either go home or go homeless. And the former, even though she’d have to eat her pride, was better than living in a cardboard box and eating from Dumpsters.

Jud parked beside another big fancy truck and she sat there, staring at the house. She wanted to go in and surprise her family, so why couldn’t she make herself open the damn door? Lights shining out through the windows threw rays of yellow onto the snow-covered yard and beckoned her to come on inside where there was comfort and unconditional love. First, she needed something, anything, to calm her shaky nerves. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap and waited.

“You going to get out or sit here and watch it snow all day?” Jud asked.

She frowned, a smartass remark on her lips. But that little voice inside her head reminded her that Jud had been kind enough to help her out.

“Thank you for helping me but don’t rush me.” She swung the truck door open, stepped out into the blowing snow, and grabbed the suitcase from the backseat. With the driving force of a north wind behind it, the snowflakes felt more like hard sleet pellets when they hit her face, so she walked a little faster, the suitcase thumping along like a miniature snowplow all the way to the porch, where she tugged it up the three steps with both hands. She opened the storm door and hesitated.

“Go on inside and I’ll bring the suitcase and the box,” Jud said.

He was right behind her, box in hand, with two cans of milk sitting on the top.

She’d vowed she’d never come back to Dry Creek for anything more than a visit. Why would she have to? She’d gotten a fantastic job with a law firm in Houston when she graduated college. Married the son of the firm’s senior partner a year later. Her family had no idea he’d divorced her last year and made sure her name was ruined when it came to getting another job. She’d worked at a coffee shop until a week ago when the whole business closed down. Now she was back home. A failure.

“You’ll freeze if you don’t go inside,” Jud said. “Besides, this damn box is heavy and this milk is going to freeze.”

She looked over her shoulder. His warm smile melted a few snowflakes but didn’t do jack shit when it came to easing her nerves. She took a deep breath, wiped away a tear she hoped he didn’t see, and slung open the door.

“Fiona!! Oh. My. God! Allie! Mama! Fiona is home.” Lizzy squealed and turned into a bright red blur as she ran from the kitchen. Fiona’s eyes barely had time to focus before she was engulfed in a hug that came close to knocking her square on her butt right there in the foyer. Before she could move, her mother and Allie were both there and it became a big group hug that kept them all steady and on their feet.

“Surprise,” she said weakly.

Jud stood inside the door, that wickedly sexy smile on his face as if he were Santa Claus and had just shimmied down the chimney with a big bag of toys. She frowned at him but he didn’t budge.

“Jud, where’s the milk?” A tall dark-haired cowboy carrying a pink bundle stepped from the kitchen out into the foyer.

“Right here along with the store keys.” He headed to the kitchen with both in his hand.

Sweet Jesus!

He’d told her that he lived at Audrey’s and that he was Jud Dawson, but it didn’t sink in for Fiona until that moment that she would be sharing a house with him.





Chapter Two



When everyone was seated around the table, Katy bowed her head and gave thanks. Fiona’s hands got clammy and she felt so faint that she popped her eyes wide open to keep from falling off her chair. The food was going to be stone cold if Katy didn’t stop thanking God for everything under the sun pretty soon, so Fiona swiped a hot roll from the bowl right in front of her, hid it in her lap, and ate two bites. She felt the touch of a hand sneaking across her thigh and pinching a corner of her bread and glanced toward Deke, the lifelong friend of the Logan family who had eaten Thanksgiving dinner with them for years. He popped a chunk of her hot roll into his mouth without even opening his eyes.

Then a hand brushed her thigh from the other side and suddenly half the roll disappeared. When she looked up into Jud’s brown eyes, he’d already stuffed it into his mouth. Sparks danced around the room like embers from an open fire but Fiona chalked them up to being so damned hungry. Nothing had ever tasted as good to her as that hot bread fresh from her mother’s oven. Maybe she’d been a fool to ever leave Dry Creek in the first place.

Finally, Katy finished the grace and handed the carving knife to Deke. Fiona had forgotten just how tall he was until he stood up. He looked down at her and one of his pretty hazel eyes slid shut in a wicked wink. Like she remembered, his sandy brown hair needed to be cut and his upper arms were almost as big as her waist. Deke was a couple of years younger than Fiona and had grown up right down the road. He was in and out of their house all the time. Nowadays he was Allie’s right-hand man.