Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(35)

“Carols!” Dora June clapped her hands. “We haven’t had a caroling in years. We’ve got enough folks in this room right here to have one. We can ride on the back of a flat-bed trailer and sing all the old carols. We’ll have to figure out an evening.”

“Can you sing?” Jud asked Fiona.

“No, she can’t,” Allie said. “But we don’t care because she can dance.”

Lizzy nodded emphatically. “Yes, she can. If it hadn’t been for her, I’d have been a scared rabbit at my proms. She taught me all the newest dance moves and I was the queen of the prom.”

“Well, if you can dance that well, I’m really looking forward to Friday night,” Jud said.

“Friday night? What’s going on Friday night?” Allie asked.

“We are going to visit Granny and then go to a country bar up near Wichita Falls for some dancing,” Fiona answered.

“Oooooh.” Dora June’s eyebrows shot up.

“Just as friends,” Fiona quickly clarified.

The eyebrows settled back into place.

“If you aren’t nice, I will sing, Jud, so remember that,” she said.

“Is this your song?” He nodded toward the stereo.

Fiona cocked her head to one side and listened to “The Angel and the Little Blue Bell” by Brenda Lee. She had not heard the song since she was a little girl. The lyrics were about a little blue bell that couldn’t ring and said that an angel appeared and told the little blue bell that she’d come to dry his tears. She changed him to gold, gave him the perfect tone, and on Christmas Day he could ring.

“No, it’s not, because I don’t expect an angel to appear on Christmas Eve and give me a voice of gold,” she answered.

“What if it’s symbolic of what the angel could bring you?” he asked.

“The angels deserted me a long time ago.” She took a step away from him and went to the turntable. The angels had really turned their backs the day she was born. They had put wings on her shoulders instead of giving her something to hang on to so that she could find a place to light and call home.

Jud followed her. “How did they desert you?”

“All I ever wanted was a place to belong like Lizzy and Allie, but the angels turned their backs on me. I didn’t fit into the little town of Dry Creek or in the big city of Houston. Maybe I’m one of those souls who will wander for her whole life and never find a place to call her own.”

“Maybe you need a good reason to put down roots,” Jud said.

“Family should be a good reason, right?”

“Maybe you need more,” he answered.

She found a CD with several of the older country artists featured on it. Loretta Lynn started out with a fast song and Fiona’s shoulders wiggled to the music.

“You’ve really got music in your soul whether you can sing or not,” Jud said.

“Yes, she does,” Lizzy said. “And we’ve missed that around here.”

“I missed all this,” Fiona said honestly.

Jud grabbed her hand and twirled her several times before bringing her back to his chest. “Don’t look now, but Truman is peeking around the edge of the door. He’s itchin’ to come in here and join us but he’s too damn stubborn.”

“Like I told him before, pride is a dangerous thing.” Fiona fell into step to a country waltz as Loretta sang about the chill on the air because Daddy wouldn’t be there.

“I’ve got a cousin in Kuwait right now and he’s got two little kids. It puts a tear in my eye when I listen to this song. This was about Vietnam but I’m sure it’s the same feeling,” Jud said.

“I’m sorry,” Fiona said.

George Strait started singing “Christmas Cookies” and the mood of the whole room jacked up a notch. Allie put the baby in her carrier and grabbed Blake’s hand for a dance. Toby wrapped his arm around Lizzy and they joined the other two in a fast swing dance. The lyrics said that every time she put a batch in the oven there was fifteen minutes for kissing and hugging.

Jud leaned back and laughed. “I got gypped.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Fiona made cookies yesterday, but I didn’t get in on the fifteen minutes of fun while they cooked,” he said honestly.

Dora June shook a bright red and silver ornament in their direction. “As long as I’m in this house, there had better not be any of that fifteen-minute stuff. Miz Katy would fire me from my chaperone job and throw me out in the snow if that happened.”

Jud bowed at the waist to kiss Fiona’s fingertips when the song ended. “Thank you for the dance, ma’am.”

“You are very welcome,” Fiona said.

Blake slid a more modern CD into the player. “I think it’s time for some Alabama.”

“Hear, hear!” Toby agreed.

Dora June swayed to “Christmas in Dixie” as her eyes shifted around the room. Her whole face shined with excitement when she stared at the nativity scene. A big smile covered her face at the snowmen looking out from every corner of the room. And when she looked at the snow globes, she nodded so hard that all chins were set into motion.

“This is wonderful,” she said. “There’s something about having all you kids around me that I can’t even explain.”