Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(36)

Fiona could relate well after the lonely holiday she’d spent the year before.

“We need presents under the tree. Fiona, will you take me shopping on Sunday after church?” Dora June asked. “We could go see Irene while we’re up there. I should be whipped for not going to see her more often. That’s saying if the weather will let us.”

“Of course we can,” Fiona said. “Matter of fact, maybe we’ll make it a girls’ day out. What do you say, Lizzy and Allie?”

Her sisters both shot bewildered looks across the room and she understood them. They’d put up with Dora June’s crazy meddling. Fiona had been ready to shoot her right between chin number two and three more than once, but if they were going to turn Dora June and Truman into allies rather than enemies…well, it had to start somewhere.

She caught Truman’s frown as he peeked around the door frame again and that solidified her determination. “We’ll take Audrey with us.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful.” Dora June grinned.

Lizzy nodded. “I haven’t shopped for this sexy husband of mine and that would be a great time to do so.”

Allie’s nod was slower. “I haven’t even started my shopping, so I guess I do need to go.”

“Rule number one, Dora June. No bossing us or telling us how to run our lives,” Fiona said.

“Rule number one, Fiona.” Dora June pointed a chubby finger at her. “You need bossing and I’m like your granny. I speak my mind.”

“It should be an interesting day for y’all,” Jud muttered.

It was past ten when everyone finally left, but the whole downstairs was decorated for the holidays. A lovely poinsettia and candle centerpiece graced the dining room table. Red candles with greenery around them were arranged on the foyer table and the kitchen curtains had been taken down and replaced with pretty red and green plaid ones.

Fiona took one long, last look at each room before she turned out the lights in the kitchen. She carefully picked up two bottles of cold beer and carried them upstairs, along with a platter of leftovers from the supper buffet.

A thin line of yellow light cut across the neutral-colored carpet of the hall but it grew to a wide band when Jud threw the door wide open. “I thought I heard you. Weatherman says we’re in for sleet off and on all day tomorrow and Thursday, but the sun will come out on Friday and melt most of it, so we should be good to go dancing. Want me to tell Deke we’ll go to Frankie’s with him?”

“No! I’m not going to Frankie’s. I can’t believe that Lizzy went. That’s just a glorified brothel. I’ll go up to the Rusty Spur with you, though, as long as you let me pay my own way,” she said. “Hungry?”

“Not right now, but I’ll take one of those beers,” he said. “How’d you get those anyway?”

“Deke sneaked them in when Dora June’s back was turned. But we have to drink them tonight because she’ll find them tomorrow.”

“Bless old Deke’s heart.” Jud twisted the top off and drank a fourth of the contents. “Icy cold, too. Come on in. I’ve been dying to tell you about what happened with Truman.”

Setting the platter on the end table, she settled in on the bed with pillows behind her back. She removed the lid from her beer, then hurriedly sipped the froth when it threatened to overflow the bottle. “Don’t want to waste a single drop of this precious stuff. You do know that Throckmorton County is dry and we have to cross the county line to get anything to drink.”

“That’s the first thing Blake moaned about last winter.” Jud settled into the recliner. “Do you realize that we’re like two old married folks? You have your spot and I have mine.”

“We’re more like a couple of high school sophomores, sneaking beer and kisses behind the principal’s back,” she laughed.

“And the principal is Miz Dora June O’Dell, right?”

She raised her bottle and leaned forward. He did the same and touched his to it.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather when you and Truman walked in the store together, so talk.” She bit into a chicken salad sandwich. “These are so good. I have to ask Dora June what spices she uses. But back to the Truman story.”

“Well, I got to thinkin’ last night about how to knock some of that jackass attitude out of him, so I got up early and went down to breakfast.” Jud told the whole story between sips of beer and bites of three cookies.

“Wow!” she said.

“I’m having breakfast with him again every day for the whole time they’re here. He’s either going to shape up or else leave because he hates me so bad,” Jud said.

“Why were you interested in that old well? We always thought it had water in it and maybe the folks who lived there had their house burn down and that was the reason the house was gone. Did you do your homework?” she asked.

“About what?” He reached for a sandwich at the same time she did.

The reaction when his hand touched hers didn’t surprise her anymore, but that didn’t mean she had to do anything about it. She could ignore it until it got bored and went away.

“This whole area was filled with military forts because this is where they housed the Indians about the time Texas became a state. So there could have been houses all over the place, and that old well could have been the main source for water during that time,” she explained.