Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(81)

“Me neither. Hey”—Toby lowered his voice—“we should give Dora June and Truman a bottle of champagne for Christmas. We could tuck it into their new RV with a card so they’ll find it on their first night.”

“I’ll take care of buying it if Fiona will hide it,” Jud said.

“I’ll get a card,” Lizzy offered. “But right now, we’re going home, too. The rental company said they would be here at three o’clock tomorrow to clean all this up.”

“If the church thing isn’t finished, y’all can stay and I’ll come home to let them in,” Fiona offered.

“Then good night to everyone.” Allie yawned.

Fiona slid down the back of the door, kicked her shoes off, and stretched out her legs as soon as everyone had left. Jud removed his jacket and hung it on the newel post, pulled off his boots, and sat down beside her.

“That went well, except for Lacy’s dress.”

“I’d say that went well, too,” Fiona said.

Jud took her hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss each knuckle. “You were the most beautiful woman at the party tonight, darlin’.”

She pulled her hand free from his and with a single fluid motion she was sitting in his lap. She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“Tired?” he asked.

“Worn out and we still have the church thing. Oh no! We were supposed to have our first date tomorrow,” she groaned.

“How about we watch a movie in my room tomorrow evening? We can take leftovers and cookies up there and have a picnic,” he said.

“Will you hold my hand?” she asked.

“And I won’t laugh if you snore if you don’t laugh at me for the same thing.”

“Then it’s a date.” She yawned.

“Come on, Sleeping Beauty. It’s past your bedtime and we both have to be up early.”

“Jud, I liked being your girlfriend tonight, too. But what I liked most was the look in your eyes when you watched me walk down the stairs. I felt special.”

“You, my darlin’, are very special.”

They went up the stairs hand in hand.

Fiona stopped in front of her door. “My room is a total mess. I’m going to grab a nightgown and sleep in Mama’s bed tonight.”

Jud’s eyes fluttered shut and his lips came closer and closer. She rolled up on her toes to meet him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss was the perfect ending for the whole evening but it created a deep desire for more.

“Sleep tight, darlin’,” he said, and disappeared across the landing.





Chapter Twenty-Three



Fiona overslept on Sunday morning and grabbed a biscuit stuffed with bacon on the way out the back door. Dora June and Truman had left more than an hour before because she had Sunday school class. If Jud hadn’t knocked on Fiona’s bedroom door as he was leaving, she’d still be asleep.

She’d dashed across the hall to her still messy room, found a bright green skirt that had a matching sweater, and gotten dressed in record time. She’d gone to bed with her hair still swept to one side and it looked like an upside down string mop that had been set out in the sun to dry. She pulled it up into a bun on the back of her head, letting a few curls escape to frame her face. Forget makeup, she didn’t have time for that.

Everyone was singing when she slipped in the back door of the church and tiptoed up the aisle to sit at the end of the Logan pew beside Jud. He shared the hymnal with her, but they were on the very last line of the final verse.

The preacher took the pulpit and covered a yawn with the back of his hand. “Y’all excuse me. If you didn’t go to the ranch party at the Lucky Penny last night, you missed a good time. I’ll make the sermon short this morning. If you will open your Bibles to the twenty-third Psalms, I’m going to talk about the present. The previous two Psalms talk about the future and the past, but this one tells us what we can expect from the present and that’s what’s important because it’s what we have today.”

Work all week, church on Sunday, go see Granny when possible. Fiona asked herself if this was what she wanted out of life as she tuned the preacher out and thought about her own past, present, and future.

Jud laid a hand on the back of the pew and let it fall over her shoulder. A smile tilted the corners of her mouth upward. The past hadn’t been so great. A job was a job if it was in a fancy office with a view or if it was in the back room of a little convenience store. The future was as uncertain as Texas weather. This was the present and for right now, she liked her place in it.

“A reminder”—the preacher was winding down when she started to listen again—“we are having our annual Christmas dinner in the fellowship hall today. After we eat, I understand Santa Claus will be ready for pictures and will give out candy and fruit to all the children here today. I’ll say our ending prayer and the blessing for today’s food at the same time so that y’all can go on and eat as soon you get there.”

Everyone’s head bowed and the preacher said a very short prayer, which led Fiona to believe that he hadn’t had time for a proper breakfast, either. Immediately afterward, there was a mass exodus as the women hurried off to the kitchen, leaving the men folks behind to find their own way in their own time.