Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(22)

Dora June beamed. “Let me get you a couple of them plastic bags to put them in. Don’t want crumbs in your pockets drawin’ ants. You want to take along one or two, Fiona? There’s plenty.”

“I’d rather have two biscuits stuffed with leftover eggs and bacon. That would make a great lunch,” Fiona answered.

“I’ll get the bags and, honey, around here it’s dinner and supper.”

Fiona nodded and pasted on a smile.



Katy parked beside a line of five pickup trucks with their engines still running and old ranchers huddled down over the steering wheel like a buzzard over roadkill.

“Mercy, the old guys are here early today,” Fiona said.

“They’re always waitin’ for me to open up on Monday so they can talk about the whole weekend. Men gossip every bit as much as women,” Katy laughed.

Doors slammed as the guys crawled out of their trucks and followed Katy and Fiona into the store. They’d barely gotten inside when the pastry man arrived bringing in the usual order of pastries. Katy flipped on the lights and adjusted the thermostat while the fellows headed for the table in the back corner. Before Fiona could get the coffee made, Herman Hudson yelled at her to bring a dozen doughnuts to the table.

“I know Miz Lucy made you a good breakfast,” Fiona said.

“That was two hours ago, darlin’. Man my size has to eat more often than three times a day. Besides, these old codgers here are going to help me out with the doughnuts,” Herman chuckled.

Herman lived in bibbed overalls and always had a smile for anyone he met. He and his wife, Lucy, had been friends with Fiona’s grandmother, Irene, since long before Fiona was born. He’d always felt more like a surrogate grandfather than a customer and he’d fallen right back into that place that cold November morning.

“Old! Who you callin’ old?” one of the other men said. “And where in the hell is Truman this mornin’? I wanted to talk to him about that fire.”

“Lickin’ his wounds, I imagine,” Herman said. “Katy took him and Dora June in over at Audrey’s Place. He didn’t want to go, but Dora June…well, let’s just say she stood up to him and he don’t mess with her when she takes a stand. She’ll put up with a lot of shit but when she sets her mind, he’d better go on and do what she says.”

“I’ll be damned,” another old guy said.

“He’ll get over his snit, I expect, and we’ll see him right here tomorrow mornin’,” Herman said.

“Hey, I heard that them boys has got half the land cleared at the Lucky Penny. I swear they’re going to make that ranch something to sit up and notice for sure. They ain’t afraid of hard work or long hours neither one.”

While her mother took a couple of doughnuts up the street to Lizzy’s feed store, Fiona refilled the coffee cups and went back to dusting shelves. Besides, she could hear what those old codgers were saying a lot better from that vantage point than she could back behind the counter.



A blast of warm air greeted Jud when he pushed his way into the feed store that morning. Lizzy looked up from the counter and licked the chocolate frosting from the second doughnut from her fingers. It was the eyebrows and the shape of the faces that proved the Logan ladies were sisters. And maybe the attitude and that hip-swaying walk that made men take a second look and drool.

“Gettin’ colder. Feels like snow out there,” he said.

Lizzy laid a catalog to one side. “Weatherman says we’re in for another cold blast. I can’t believe we’re getting hit two years in a row. How’s things with Truman in the house?”

“Haven’t seen him. He was gone at breakfast. According to Dora June, he leaves earlier than we do. I feel sorry for them. It can’t be easy losing everything like that, but Dora has accepted it.”

Lizzy poured a mug full of coffee and handed it to him. “She surprised me last night. I thought he always ran the show but it sounds to me like whenever she digs in her heels, he’d better obey.”

Jud sipped the coffee. “They’ve been married a long time. I guess she picks her battles. This is so good after being out in the cold all morning.”

Lizzy motioned the last chocolate doughnut. “Help yourself if you want.”

“No, I just ate two big muffins that Miz Dora gave me this morning.”

“What are you in town for?” Lizzy hopped up on the counter and crossed one leg over the other.

“About ten bags of cattle feed,” he answered.

“I heard that Lucy Hudson is going to talk to Fiona about doing bookkeeping for their ranch. We should get her to take care of the Lucky Penny.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing all morning. We all hate to do the paperwork and there’s lots of it with a ranch.”

“I worry about her, Jud. She thinks she won’t be happy here.”

“Do I hear a but in there?” Jud asked.

Lizzy nodded. “But I’m not sure what it is. We’ve always wanted her to come back, but it has to be her decision or she will never be content.”

“Why did she leave?” Jud asked.

“All I know is that she wasn’t happy here.”

“Here’s my credit card. I’ll go load up the feed and run back through here to sign the bill. And, Lizzy, you and your older sister are wise to love her enough to give her wings to fly and not try to hold her down.”