Merry Cowboy Christmas

Read Merry Cowboy Christmas for Free Online

Book: Read Merry Cowboy Christmas for Free Online
Authors: Carolyn Brown
Audrey’s first Christmas,” Fiona said from the rocking chair in the corner where she was humming to Audrey.
    “If you’d told me a week ago that Fiona would be home to stay indefinitely, I would have thought you were crazy,” Lizzy said.
    “Times change,” Katy said.
    Those last two words played through Fiona’s mind that evening when everyone had left. Times did change. Sometimes a person had to walk through fire to get to the nice cool lake water. Even though she wasn’t sure she would stay in Dry Creek for the rest of her life, it was home and it was good to be there.
    Her apartment in Houston had been so tiny that she’d felt cooped up most of the time, so she’d spent a lot of time out on the balcony. It was barely big enough for a white plastic lawn chair but at least she had fresh air, could hear the constant motion of traffic, and could watch the lights of the airplanes coming in and going out. It beat feeling like the walls of the apartment were closing in on her.
    That evening, she had a bout of the same claustrophobic feeling in her bedroom. She swung the drapes back and looked out at the stars in the sky, patches of white still dotting the landscape. There was no traffic noise, not a single plane in the sky; the only thing she could hear was the faint howling of a hungry coyote somewhere over on the Lucky Penny.
    She opened her closet door and removed a quilt from the top shelf and carried it down the stairs. Fresh air! Just a breath of it, no matter how cold, would help. Her therapist would tell her that it was too much, too fast and she needed to step back from the forest for a little while.
    A cold breeze rattled the bare mesquite tree limbs and shivers shook her from shoulders to toes, even though she’d remembered to put on a winter coat from her closet. Her breath created little puffs of smoky fog in front of her as she headed for the swing in the shadows of the porch.
    “You feelin’ a little cramped tonight, too?” Jud asked.
    How in the hell did he do that? She always knew when someone was approaching her or when they were looking at her even from across a room. “You scared me. What are you doing out here in the cold?”
    “Same thing you are, I expect. Getting some fresh air even if it would freeze the spikes off the devil’s little red tail. I’ll share the swing if you’ll share that quilt. It’s colder out here than I thought it would be,” Jud answered.
    Fiona sat down on the other end of the swing and spread the quilt out over both of their legs, pulling the corner of hers up to her chin. “I’ve lived simply for more than a year. This is all overwhelming. Most days I worked, went home to read a book from the library, and didn’t talk to anyone unless Lizzy or Allie called.”
    “Groundhog?” Jud said.
    She nodded, remembering the old movie, Groundhog Day , where every single day was the exact same as the one before it. “Pretty much. I still saw the same customers almost every day, talked to the same coworkers about important world-changing things like whether we should restock the small cups or the large ones before we closed up every evening. But when I went home, I was alone.”
    “Family rallies around when you need them.” Jud tugged his share of the quilt up to his neck. “What did you expect when you came home?”
    She shrugged.
    “Well, you are here now and it looks like you’re going to do all right, darlin’.”
    “Don’t call me that,” she protested.
    “Then how about honey pie, sugar, or sweet cheeks?” he teased.
    “None of the above. Do you call your sister darlin’?”
    “Sometimes, when I’m not mad at her.” He grinned. “And, Fiona, we might have joint kin folks, but we are not related at all.”
    “Thank God!” she spit out. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
    He chuckled. “Sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone who isn’t related, who isn’t even your friend, isn’t it? Got something on your mind, Fi-o-na?” He

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