Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(71)

“What kind of job are you talking about?” Maybe this was Fiona’s answer. She’d have never thought she’d find it out there in the flattest part of Texas but stranger things had happened.

“I need a waitress. You just looked kind of lost, so I thought I’d offer.”

Fiona looked up at her name tag. “Thank you, Macy. I am lost, but I think I’m about to find the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“If you change your mind, write down the numbers on the bulletin board in the foyer,” Macy said. “Here comes my early morning coffee drinkers with a fresh crop of bullshit to spread this Sunday morning.”

Fiona laughed with her as she hurried off to get four old men seated by the window. When she’d finished her breakfast, Macy brought a to-go cup full of coffee and the bill to her table. Fiona handed her a ten-dollar bill and told her to keep the change. She walked right past the bulletin board, out into the cold winter air, and headed home.

She was driving through Floydada when a song on the radio made her pull off the side of the road and listen to it more intently. The song had been popular when she was in high school, but it made more sense to her that morning than it ever had.

Strange, that Sara Evan’s song “Suds in the Bucket” had put her on this trip and now it was Sara’s song “Three Chords and the Truth” that put her mind and heart in perfect harmony. She kept time to the music with her thumbs on the steering wheel. The song was about a woman who thought she was over a man but a song on the radio had changed her mind with three chords and the truth. Fiona missed Dry Creek and she didn’t want to leave in six months.

“I’m ready to go home,” she whispered as she pulled back out onto the road.





Chapter Nineteen



Fiona slid into the last spot on the pew that Sunday morning, right next to Jud, who kept his eyes straight ahead and didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Lizzy leaned forward and shot her a dirty look. Now wasn’t this just the cherries on the top of a triple fudge brownie sundae?

“Where have you been?” Lizzy mouthed.

“Later,” Fiona said.

“Good morning,” the preacher’s loud booming voice cut through the low buzz of whispers.

Fiona wondered how much of the conversation was about her that morning. If Sharlene had already found out that she’d been out all night, then the whole town knew. Suddenly, she could feel the whole congregation plus the preacher staring at her. It didn’t matter. She didn’t give a damn what they thought, what they imagined, or what was truth or rumor. She’d found peace and that was worth every hour she’d spent driving half the night.

She nudged Jud. “We need to talk.”

He nodded but didn’t glance her way.

She’d recharged her phone while she’d taken the quickest shower in her life, then changed from her jeans and sweatshirt into a nice straight denim skirt and a pretty red and green plaid sweater. She had kicked off her work boots and put on a pair of red leather ones that she hadn’t worn in years, but they felt comfortable.

“I’m going to read from Luke about the birth of Jesus,” the preacher said.

She tried to listen, but the vibration in her purse that sat between her and Jud let her know someone had sent her a text message. She looked over at Jud, but his hands were crossed over his chest. Leaning forward, she could see that Lizzy and Allie both had phones tucked inside their Bibles and their thumbs were flying.

It’s a good thing Dora June couldn’t see them or she’d be tapping them on the shoulder and giving them one of her meanest come-to-Jesus looks. Fiona eased the phone from her purse, opened a hymnal, and laid it inside. Instantly, a message from each of her sisters popped up, asking the same thing: Where in the hell have you been?

She typed in: I was driving alone all night, except for a few hours when I fell asleep at the bottom of the Palo Duro Canyon. It was worth every hour because I found what I was looking for. She sent it to both of them with the flick of a fingertip.

“And that was?” Jud whispered.

“You were reading over my shoulder.”

He nodded.

“That’s not nice.”

He tilted his head to the side. “I was worried.”

She turned her phone off, returned it to her purse, and sat up straight, determined to hear the story of baby Jesus again. Her sisters would have questions. Jud would have questions. Even Dora June would grill her, but right then Fiona didn’t want to answer any of them. She wanted to enjoy her decision because it seemed right. Every other plan she’d made felt as if she had to work at it. She’d decided this morning that there was no plan. She would enjoy life wherever she was, take what it offered and make the best of it and hope that Madam Fate or Lady Destiny would lead her in the right path.

If Jud Dawson was part of that future, then so be it. If he wasn’t, well, it had been an interesting two weeks and she’d always be grateful to him for what they’d had, no matter what it had been. It was the unrest that he’d brought into her life that had caused her to find harmony in her soul.

“Now I’ll ask Truman O’Dell for the benediction,” the preacher said.

Fiona jumped back to the present and wondered where the thirty minutes had gone. She hadn’t heard anything the preacher said. Maybe he’d talk more about the birth of Jesus next week and she vowed she’d pay more attention.