Merry Cowboy Christmas (Lucky Penny Ranch #3)(82)

“So why aren’t you hurrying off to get our donation to the church dinner?” Jud asked.

“Dora June brought our contribution this morning. We had leftover brisket and dozens of cookies from the party last night. Besides, there’s enough cooks in the kitchen right now,” she answered.

Truth of the matter was, she didn’t want to answer a million questions. She’d shared Jud’s hymnal, even if only for a few seconds, and he’d put his arm around her. In small-town Texas, those two gestures carried weight and lots of it. Hopefully, everyone would still be talking about Truman, but if they saw her, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that poor old Truman would take a backseat.

“You look pretty serious.” Jud propped a hip on the arm of the first pew and waited for the line to go from the sanctuary through a narrow hallway to the fellowship hall to thin out. “What were you thinking about?”

“Truman deserves the place of honor,” she said.

“And that means?” Jud raised an eyebrow.

“What does it mean in your part of Texas if a cowboy shares his hymnbook with a woman and then puts his arm around her in church?” she asked.

“What’s that got to do with Truman?” Jud asked.

“Everyone is probably talking about him, but when they see us, he’ll go to second place and they’re going to bombard me with questions,” she answered honestly.

“We could always sneak out the front door, go have Sunday dinner in Seymour and go to a movie after all. We could use the excuse that you needed to see your granny.” He took both her hands in his.

“I promised to be there for the rental company. Besides, if we aren’t at the potluck, the rumors will get even worse. We might as well go on and take our medicine.”

“Then I say let’s give them something to talk about.”

Eyebrows shot up when they entered the room holding hands, but everyone was so busy either getting food ready or dishing it up that no one approached Fiona right away. It wasn’t until she and Jud sat down at a table with Allie and Blake that anyone said a word. Then it was her oldest sister.

“So it’s happening, isn’t it?” Allie asked.

“Yes, it is. I’m guilty. I’m having all these carbs when I know they’ll go straight to my butt,” Fiona answered.

Lizzy leaned around her sister. “You can’t run from the truth any more than you could run from your heart.”

“What? That my jeans will be too tight after dinner today?” Fiona asked.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Lizzy frowned.

“So?” Fiona asked.

“Be careful,” Allie whispered.

“I told you the same thing,” Fiona reminded her. “I don’t believe either of you listened to me. Where is Audrey?”

“You can’t change the subject like that, but Dora June is rocking her while I eat and then I’ll take over.” Allie nodded toward the oversized chairs they’d brought in for Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.

“How serious?” Allie whispered.

“It was just a hymnbook and we were so damn close together that his arm was pinched,” Fiona said.

“And the hand-holding?”

Fiona giggled. “We thought we’d give everyone something to talk about. Looks like it’s working.”

“Well, dammit!” Lizzy said. “I should have known you’d stir up trouble.”

“Me! If you two hadn’t already created gossip with your escapades, then no one would even think of throwing me and Jud together.”

“Did I hear my name?” Jud asked.

“Of course you did,” Fiona said. “I said that you liked sweet potato casserole.”

“Yes, I do.” He grinned.

After the meal, Santa Claus appeared and everyone was so involved with him that only a few folks noticed when Jud and Fiona left by a side door. The snow had completely stopped and the sun was shining but the north wind bit through her coat and flipped her skirt tail up more than once on the way to her car.

Jud followed her in his truck. Déjà vu all over again so much that she kept her eyes on the road and her hands on the wheel. She did not intend for her mother to come home and find that Fiona had driven her car through a barbed wire fence.

She parked in the front yard of Audrey’s Place at the same time the rental company truck backed in beside her, and Jud pulled up on the other side. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. She shut off the engine and had reached for the door handle when Jud opened it for her.

“How about that for getting here at the right minute?” he asked.

She unfastened her seat belt and put her feet out on the ground. “Pretty good, I’d say. I’ll get the door open for them and then I’m going up to my room to change and straighten things up enough so I can stand to be in there. I’m the neat freak in the family. My sisters, especially Lizzy, never put anything away.”

“While you are doing that, I will set up our theater,” he said.

“What are we watching?” She opened the door and motioned for the three rental guys to come on inside.

“You have a choice. It’s one of those six screen things so you can pick which one you want.” He held the door while they brought in their dollies to help get things out easier.