Holidays on the Ranch (Burnt Boot, Texas #1)(63)

It was Finn’s turn to blush, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about the heat filling his neck and face. But he didn’t have to suffer alone. He cupped his hand over Callie’s ear and said, “I liked waking up to a buck-naked woman in my arms this morning.”

***

Instant fire turned Callie crimson from her hair roots to her fingertips. The visual his comment put in her mind, his breath on her neck; holy hell, neither of those things belonged in church.

She smoothed her denim skirt down over her thighs and immediately thought of his hands on her body and the blush deepened to a deeper scarlet. Thank God the preacher finally took the pulpit and announced that they would sing a hymn, or her pretty red Christmas sweater might have started to smoke.

Even then, she had to keep focused on the words in the hymnal because her eyes kept straying to the hands holding it and thinking unholy thoughts about what she’d like them to be doing.

When the song ended, the preacher said, “This morning’s special program is our version of the Hanging of the Green. I’m turning the program over to Quaid Brennan, who serves as the Sunday school teacher for our teenage group.”

A small group filed from the back of the church, singing “Mary, Did You Know?” She looked down the line of four little kids and tried to imagine Martin, Adam, and Ricky with changing voices and scruff on their faces. There they sat—two little dark-haired boys and one blond who would change drastically in the next three years.

Then there was Olivia, looking pretty in her little denim skirt and braids. Thank goodness Verdie had decided to French braid her hair that morning. It tamed that wily mop of blond hair and made Olivia feel pretty at the same time.

Quaid stood behind the pulpit as the group took their places in the choir section behind him. He talked about the wreath that one of the kids came forward to hang on the front of the pulpit. It was round, signifying the unending love of God in sending his son to earth. Love, Callie thought. Just thinking the word twisted her heart up until it looked like Olivia’s braid. Love for Martin; that was one thing. But love as in falling in was a whole different matter. To have a crush, to be half a consenting adult couple with a secret passage between bedrooms, that was something different than love. Love meant trusting with the whole heart. Callie didn’t know if she or Finn could ever do that with their past history.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Finn whispered. “Are you sick?”

“No, just letting my mind go where it has no business visiting,” she said.

During the last ten minutes of the service, Callie crossed and uncrossed her legs, tried not to think of that last cup of coffee she had that morning, and for damn sure didn’t let her mind wander to running water. If Quaid didn’t end the program soon, she would have to do the pee-pee dance all the way down the aisle with Betsy Gallagher staring at her. She’d already gotten so many drop-dead looks that it was a wonder her bladder hadn’t dried up like a prune.

The second the old guy delivering the benediction on the back row said “Amen,” she dashed off to the ladies’ room, leaving Finn to fend for himself. Maybe Verdie and the kids could protect him from the feuding bitches until she returned.

She had finished and was washing her hands when Honey and Betsy pushed open the door.

“Well, well, well.” Betsy leaned against the door, holding it secure with her back. “Here’s the hired hand who likes to do kinky things with women. She’s into biting the same sex.”

“I understand church is neutral ground,” Callie said.

Honey leaned in to the mirror and fiddled with her eyebrows. “Neutral in that the Gallaghers and the Brennans can’t fight each other. Nothing in the rule book says we can’t fight outsiders.”

“You sure you’re up to that?” Callie smiled into her part of the mirror and filled the palm of her hand with soap at the same time. “Did Betsy tell you that I haven’t had my rabies shots this year?”

“I don’t talk to Betsy. I got my information from another source. I don’t need a damned Gallagher tellin’ me anything.” Honey drew her hand back to deliver an open-handed slap right to Callie’s face.

Callie flicked soap in Honey’s face and stepped to one side as Honey crumbled in a heap in the floor, clawing at her eyes and squealing like a piglet between a rock and a hard place.

Betsy opened the door for Callie. “I don’t like you and never will, but that was damned beautiful. See you later, Honey.”

***

“I liked church this morning,” Olivia said on the way home.

“Can we start going to Sunday school?” Adam asked. “I want to be a part of that program when I’m old enough. I liked the story about the wreath.”

“I liked the part where they all took an ornament and put it on the tree, and when the preacher plugged in the lights and it all lit up. It reminded me of our big tree at home,” Ricky said.

Home. Kids adapted so much quicker than adults.

The pickup was cramped and full that morning with the four kids in the back seat and Callie between Finn and Verdie in the front. When they got to the ranch, it looked like the truck exploded, spitting kids and adults out of all four doors.

Martin’s stomach growled loudly at the aroma of roast beef when he slung open the back door. “That smells like heaven,” he said.