Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(50)

“Geez, Fiona! Of course I did!” He grinned. “Y’all might want to pick up some beer while you are here and maybe a cooler to keep in your room. Dora June wouldn’t find it and y’all could have one when you want. Not that I mind sneaking a couple over to you, but it would sure make things easier. Besides, both of those old folks will be in bed when you get home, so it will be easy to sneak it inside.”

“Smart idea.” Jud tossed two packages of diapers into the cart.

“I’ll see y’all tomorrow sometime,” Deke said. “Be careful on the way home. Roads are getting slicker by the minute.”

He disappeared into the food section and Jud took over the cart. “That idea of his was smart. I’m going to buy a cooler and a case of beer.”

“I’m going to buy a bottle of strawberry Boone’s Farm and see if it tastes as good as it did in high school,” she said.

“I’ll share my beer if you share your Boone’s.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Well, look who’s out late?” Lucy said as they turned the cart around. “Y’all out making a diaper run for Allie?”

“Yes, ma’am, we are but we were already here. We went dancing,” Fiona answered.

Lucy winked at Fiona. “I remember going dancing with Herman many years ago. In those days we sure didn’t let anyone know what we’d been up to. But things change. We didn’t have throwaway diapers then, either.”

“Probably couldn’t have afforded them if they were on the market,” Fiona said.

“You got that right, honey. Did y’all see that woman in the cart? They’re in the store somewhere. I wonder what they’ve been smokin’?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t know but I don’t want any of it,” Fiona laughed.

“Oh, I don’t know. It might be something wonderful to try.” Lucy winked again. “I got to drag Herman out of the hardware stuff and take him home. We was up here at the hospital for our great-granddaughter. She was born tonight. Mama and baby are doing fine. They named her Dakota. Ain’t that the craziest name for a little baby girl that you ever heard. See y’all later.” She waved and hurried off toward another part of the store.

“Aren’t you glad we didn’t have the beer in the cart?” Jud whispered, his warm breath sending deliciously warm shivers down Fiona’s back.

“Yes, I am. She would have told on us for sure.”

“Then we would have had to share with Dora June,” Jud said seriously.

Fiona slapped at his arm, getting another quiver down her spine when her hand brushed against his bare neck. “You are evil.”

“And you are running with me,” he teased.



Brightly colored Christmas lights lit the way back to Dry Creek. Farmhouses that she’d never noticed before and those tucked back down lanes had lights shining out through the huge snowflakes. Decorations had been strung up in the small towns of Holliday, Dundee, and Mabelle. Fiona didn’t realize she was humming “Jingle Bells” until Jud started singing the lyrics.

“All these lights put me in the holiday mood,” she admitted.

“Me too.”

“Take the next left onto that farm road. It’s a shortcut and we’ll get home faster. Oh my! Look at that. Those folks strung lights across the top of their barbed wire fence. I’m glad Mama didn’t see it or she’d be shipping more twinkling lights home from Florida or telling me to buy enough to put around all twenty acres of Audrey’s Place.”

“Have y’all ever considered selling Audrey’s Place?” Jud slowed down and followed her instructions.

“Why would you ask such a thing?”

“Just wondering. It’s got the Lucky Penny on three sides of it and the townsfolk…well, some of them don’t have a kind word to say about the ranch.”

“Audrey’s won’t ever be for sale, not in my lifetime. Make a right at the next corner.” For the first time in her life, Fiona felt a stab of guilt about leaving Dry Creek. In the beginning, there were two sisters still in the house. She had no problem with either or both of them inheriting the land and the house because she damn sure did not want it. Now they each had their own place and her mother wanted to retire. That left no one to hold Audrey’s down until the next generation came along to claim it…except Fiona.

And I don’t want it, she thought as Jud parked his truck beside Deke’s in the front yard. I don’t want anyone else to have it but I’ve never wanted to live here, so I’m not taking this guilt trip.

“You’ve got that look on your face again. Like you are fighting with demons,” he said.

“Leaving town in one hand.” She held up a palm. “Dry Creek in the other. Some days one is full of hope and the other one is lacking. Other times it reverses. I think about leaving and I think about staying. Most of the time leaving is the one that is most appealing.”

“And tonight?” he asked.

“Tonight Dry Creek is winning. Tomorrow is another day, though.”

When they pulled up to the Lucky Penny, the house was dark. Jud grabbed the big bag of diapers from the backseat and eased in the front door to leave them in the entryway before quietly locking up and returning to the car.