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

She held up her plate for a thick slice of turkey and glanced across the table at her sister, Allie. Pretty Alora Raine, with her long dark hair and those dark eyes, had learned the carpentry business from their father. She’d married young the first time, and Fiona could have told her it wouldn’t work. But in those days she was just the sixteen-year-old younger sister, so what did she know?

Allie sent the mashed potatoes around the table. “I still can’t believe you are home, Fiona. Having you here makes it special.”

“Yes, it does.” Allie’s husband, Blake, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. He’d stolen Allie’s heart almost a year ago, and seeing them together, there was no doubt that Allie had gotten the right man this time around.

“You might not think it’s so special when you have to fix your fence,” Fiona said. “I had a blowout and plowed right through the barbed wire.”

“But”—Jud handed off the bowl of green beans to Katy—“no one was hurt and there are no cattle in that pasture, so we don’t have to rush out there and fix it right now.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? Did you walk the rest of the way? Why didn’t you call us to come help you?” Lizzy spit out questions faster than bullets coming from an assault rifle.

Fiona held up a finger and finished chewing a bite of turkey.

Lizzy, the middle gorgeous sister with the height, the curves, the temper, and the fire, had been the apple of their grandfather’s eye and had inherited the family feed store business right out of high school.

“I’m fine. I did not walk. Jud was driving right behind me and he brought me home. Are you going to hoard that giblet gravy forever, Deke?” Fiona asked.

“He’s like that with good food. He’s even worse with dessert.” Irene giggled at the opposite end of the table from Katy.

Fiona’s heart went out to her grandmother. Before the family had sat down, Katy had whispered to Fiona that today was a good day for her grandmother.

Irene’s dementia had gotten worse in the past year and now she lived in a facility for people with Alzheimer’s in Wichita Falls. Today, though, she was home for the holiday and she was at least semi-lucid.

Lipstick ran into the wrinkles around her mouth and her jet-black eyebrows penciled in a lopsided arch did not match her short, kinky gray hair. But her smile was bright and there was life in her eyes and Fiona thought she was beautiful.

Deke handed the gravy boat to Fiona. “Go easy on that now. I like leftover sandwiches with a little of that poured between the turkey and dressing.”

Fiona nudged him with an elbow. “I bet you had a big breakfast. All I had was a stale cheese cracker. Besides, you are not my boss, right, Granny?”

“No, but I am. And cheese crackers are not a decent breakfast.” Irene pointed a long skinny finger at Fiona. “You might as well eat sawdust. I taught you better than that. I bet you ain’t been eatin’ right since you left. You’re too skinny, isn’t she, Jud?”

Fiona raised an eyebrow at the sexy cowboy beside her.

“Man, I wouldn’t touch that question with a ten-foot pole,” Toby chuckled.

Lizzy put a piping hot yeast roll on her plate and sent the last item around the table. “Me neither. Darlin’, you’d better have two rolls right to start with.” She set a couple of rolls on the edge of his plate. “We might need to get you some sideboards.”

“Maybe,” Toby said.

Slightly taller than his brother, Blake, Toby looked at his wife sitting beside him, his blue eyes twinkling. Yes, they were every bit as in love as Blake and Allie. Brothers had married sisters. That made any of their children double cousins to Allie’s new baby, Audrey, who had inherited Fiona’s red hair.

“Back to the ten-foot pole,” Fiona said.

“She is too skinny, isn’t she, Jud?” Irene shot a look down the table at the newest Dawson cowboy, who’d come to the Lucky Penny a few weeks ago.

“I believe that Miz Fiona looks real pretty today and so do you, Miz Irene. That blue shirt brings out your eyes. Would you like some more cranberry sauce, darlin’?” Jud asked.

“You be careful around that one, Fiona. He’s a slick talker for sure,” Irene said, and went back to eating.

Deke poked her on the arm. “Was it snowing in Houston?”

She smiled. “It never snows in Houston.”

“That’s why she left Dry Creek. She wanted to live where they never had a good hard winter,” Irene said. “I bet the roaches and flies are big as buzzards in that place without a good freeze to kill them off.”

“Granny! I don’t want to hear about bugs at the dinner table.” Fiona smiled, despite her words. She’d forgotten how much she’d missed her family and their crazy ways. A peace settled over—a sense of belonging—that was every bit as important to her soul as the food was to her body.

Irene smiled. “There’s my fiery girl.”

“Just how long are you staying?” Lizzy asked.

Before Fiona could answer, Allie chimed in with another question. “Can you stay all weekend?”

“Or a week?” Lizzy piped up.

“She’s here for good,” Katy said. “She brought a cardboard box. That means she’s moving back home and it’s about damn time.”