Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(4)

Fiona’s sense of peace fled as she took a drink of sweet tea and swallowed another huge chunk of her pride. She wouldn’t tell them the part about being so hungry she was dizzy or how little money was in her billfold. If she did that, her mother might drop with a heart attack right there on the dining room floor.

She straightened her back, put her hands in her lap, and began. “There’s something I need to tell you all.” She took a deep breath. “A little more than a year ago, Kyle and I divorced. There was a prenup, of course, so all I got was ten thousand dollars, which went fast while I looked for a job. It didn’t take long to figure out that I’d been blackballed in my line of work.”

Time stood still.

Fiona was sure if she’d been outside, snowflakes would hang suspended in the air and the wind would cease to blow.

“Fiona Deann!” Katy finally gasped. “What have you been living on? And why would Kyle make trouble for you?”

One shoulder rose in a half shrug. “I guess it upset him when I punched his girlfriend and tried to yank out all her hair.”

“He cheated on you?” Lizzy asked indignantly.

“Don’t know if he cheated, but she came with him when he told me he was divorcing me. Idiot.”

Admitting all that felt so good! Now she could eat dinner without a single worry.

“What did you do?” Allie asked.

“I used the last of my divorce settlement to buy that old truck after my car was repossessed. I put all my fancy clothes in a consignment shop, and some weeks I made enough for groceries from those sales but that ran out after six months. They closed the coffee shop where I worked and I couldn’t find anything else and my money ran out. So here I am. Broke and needing a job. You need help at the feed store, Lizzy?”

That was about as short a version as she could make it, but it did the trick. The moment was pregnant with sheer awkwardness. Allie stared at her like she had an extra eye right in the middle of her forehead, but then Fiona remembered a time when she’d looked at her sister the same way when she moved back home after a divorce.

Katy shook her head. “I get first dibs on you. You are the answer to my prayer. I’m run ragged trying to take care of the convenience store by myself. So you, young lady, will go to work with me starting in the morning.”

“Mama, I’m happy to help at the store in exchange for room and board here, but I’m also going to need a job that pays me.”

“Bullshit!” Irene said loudly. “Living here is your right as family. The job at the store will give you minimum wage just like it would pay anyone else. Right, Katy?”

“Right,” Katy said. “How about it, Fiona? There aren’t many jobs in Dry Creek. You could probably waitress at Nadine’s new café, but I need you worse than she does.”

“That’s settled,” Irene said.

Fiona wasn’t sure that it was, but she wasn’t going to argue at the Thanksgiving table. Later, when everyone had left, she and her mama would have a long talk and that’s when Fiona would tell her that she was not planning to live in Dry Creek forever.

“Sounds like we all have a lot to be grateful for this year. I’m thankful that Toby and I finally found a sofa we could agree on and now our living room has one piece of decent furniture,” Lizzy said.

“I’d forgotten about our tradition,” Deke said. “I’m thankful for the Logan family and all the good times I’ve had in this house.”

Fiona hadn’t forgotten, not on the way home, not in the awkward silence, not even with having to live with Jud Dawson in the house. After the prayer and while they were eating, everyone around the table shared something they were grateful for. She searched for a single thing that she could say because they’d be here until eternity dawned if she shared everything she was thankful for that cold winter day.

“I’m thankful beyond words that Fiona is home,” Katy said.

Allie nodded. “I’m grateful for my amazing husband and my daughter.”

“I’m thankful that this beautiful woman is both my best friend and my wife and that we have a gorgeous daughter,” Blake said.

“Hey, she can be your wife, but she’s my best friend,” Deke argued. “Fiona, you are going to have to be my best friend since Allie has deserted me.”

“I’m thankful to be home and that Deke is my new best friend,” Fiona said with a smile.

“For the Lucky Penny and my wife.” Toby grinned at Lizzy.

“I’m thankful for Walter,” Irene giggled.

“Who?” Lizzy, Allie, and Fiona said in unison.

Katy sighed. “She’s taking a trip into the past.”

“Hell, if I am,” Irene said. “I’m not going anywhere. I am thankful for Walter. He lived over on the Lucky Penny when Katy was getting married. I guess your grandpa got to feeling old since his daughter was old enough to get married, so he found himself a younger woman.”

“No!” Lizzy slapped a hand over her mouth.

Well, that damn sure had to hurt, Fiona thought. Lizzy had always had the idea that Grandpa could walk on water.

“Oh, yes,” Irene said. “So I started flirting with Walter to get back at him.”

“Granny!” Allie said.

Why is Allie so surprised? Fiona held her breath and hoped that Granny kept explaining because they’d all wanted to hear the story of Walter ever since Blake moved in next door. Granny’s dementia was getting out of hand and she kept thinking that Blake was Walter.