Christmas at Home

by Carolyn Brown

  “Times is different,” Ada said.

  “Must be. Wonder what her momma is going to say about it.”

  “Her momma won’t be the problem. It’s Lawton that’ll throw a shit fit.”

  “He needs to. Why, if she got to dancing her boobs would fall out of the thing. That thing that Sage has got on is too tight and it’s wintertime and there’s a durn blizzard out there so it’s got to be cold. It’s above her knee and ain’t got the first sign of a sleeve in it. She’ll catch a cold and that cowboy you was crazy enough to trust will have to take care of her. He’ll be going in her room with a hot toddy and her laying up in her bed in nothing but a nightgown.”

  Ada studied the picture. “You think so?”

  “I swear it ain’t got enough material in it to sag a clothesline, Sister.”

  “A person can always hope, can’t they?”

  Essie slapped her on the shoulder. “Ada Presley!”

  “Or we could pray.”

  Essie giggled. “God would be so shocked if He heard you praying for anything that He’d faint dead away.”

  “I go to church every Sunday except when I’ve got hay to haul.”

  “Going to church and praying are two different things.”

  “And I suppose you know all about the fine arts of praying?”

  Essie sighed. “If you’d had to put up with what I have you’d learn the fine arts.”

  Ada pushed her chair back. “I’m going to Chambersburg to the Walmart store. You want to go with me? We could have dinner at the Cracker Barrel and go to the Hobby Lobby store to buy a Christmas tree.”

  “I told you, I ain’t put up a tree in twenty years.”

  “And I’m tellin’ you, Essie, we will have a Christmas tree and we’re makin’ a big Christmas dinner for all your family this year.”

  She exhaled loudly. “Sounds like you’re going to a lot of trouble for nothing.”

  Ada started toward the door. “I’ll warm up the truck. You get your walkin’ shoes on and your coat. I’m leavin’ in five minutes.”

  Essie was sitting in the passenger’s seat with her big black plastic purse in her lap in exactly three minutes.

  * * *

  Creed could hardly believe his eyes when April appeared in the living room in her party dress. He had equated the Christmas party with the sale party held at his folks’ ranch every fall. The girls all showed up in their tight-fitting jeans, fancy shirts, and best boots. A few came in a skirt, but it was usually something all decorated up Western style. April looked like she was headed to a party in a Dallas bar or for a walk down a model’s runway, not in a sale barn.

  “Just exactly where is this party going to be?” he asked.

  April did a couple of runway spins for him. “At the Canyon Rose.”

  “In the barn?”

  “No, silly, in our house. We’d all freeze in the barn.”

  Creed wanted to say, “You definitely would,” but he held his tongue. “How many people will be there?”

  “A bunch. You are supposed to tell me I’m beautiful in this dress, not ask a dozen questions,” April said.

  “Sorry, ma’am. You stunned me when you appeared in your dress and it is a lovely dress.”

  She turned one more time and headed back to the bedroom. “Thank you.”

  He looked up at Sage.

  She shrugged. “The end.”

  “Does yours show your belly button?” he whispered.

  She put a hand on each of his shoulders, leaned forward, and said, “I’ve ordered a brand-new belly button ring.”

  She giggled when his eyes bulged. “Honey, there is too much woman in me to wear a dress like that.”

  “I rather like how much woman there is in you, ma’am.”

  “Sage, help me, please!” A plaintive cry came from the bedroom.

  The rocking chair was set in motion when she pushed away from his shoulders and hurried back to her bedroom to help April get out of the revealing dress.

  Creed imagined Sage in a dress like that. If it was for his eyes only, it would be fantastic. He could flip a breast out with nothing but his thumb. But if it was to be worn in front of a whole passel of other cowboys, well, now that was a different matter altogether. That set him to pondering the idea of going to a party where every cowboy in the canyon would know Sage and be angling for a dance.

  Jealousy had reared its head right high by the time April breezed out of the bedroom with the dress box under her arm.

  “See y’all tomorrow night,” she said.

  Sage followed in her wake and sat down on the floor to pet the puppies. “So now what did you really think? You sidestepped the compliment very well, but you did not say that you liked the dress.”

  “Is Lawton going to like it?” he asked.

  “He won’t even see it until she makes her grand entrance down the staircase into the ballroom.”

  “And what will happen?”

  “What do you think will happen?” Sage asked.

  “I don’t know Lawton. I’ve never met him but I know what I’d do if she was my daughter. I wouldn’t care if she was fifteen or twenty. She wouldn’t be wearing that thing in public.”

  “It didn’t look that low in the picture on the Internet. I swear it didn’t or I would have talked her out of buying it.”

  The big yellow cat left her squirming babies and made a bed in Sage’s lap.

  “And the lion shall lay down with the lamb,” Sage said.

  “What’s that got to do with a floozy dress?”

  “Nothing,” Sage answered. “But cats and dogs, especially those with babies, don’t usually trust each other, do they?”

  “I still think they were raised together and then dumped out together. And if I was Lawton, I’d send her back to put something decent on her body.”

  “Lawton will most likely take her back and put it on her himself. And then the fight will be on because she inherited her mother’s flaming temper.”

  “She needs a mother,” Creed said.

  Sage put Blue back into the bed and picked up Elvis. “She has a mother.”

  “My daughter wouldn’t wear something that revealing,” Creed said.

  Sage shot a mean look his way. “And you have how many daughters?”

  Creed should drop the subject or change it abruptly. She was playing with cats and dogs and she’d tried to change it when she said that about lambs and lions lying down together. He wanted to, he really did, but he couldn’t.

  “Riley men don’t often throw girl babies, but when and if I ever did, she wouldn’t be wearing something like that to a party where a bunch of rowdy cowboys would be.”

  “Well, my daughter can wear whatever she wants when she’s twenty years old.”

  Creed clamped his mouth shut.

  Sage glared at him.

  The silence created a tension so thick that a chain saw couldn’t cut through it.

  Finally, she laid Elvis close to Noel and went to the kitchen. The way she was banging things around left no doubt that she was still mad and that she wasn’t going to talk about it. Well, that cleared up things for Creed. He wasn’t going to entertain another moment of sharing his whole life with Sage. No, sir! A woman who couldn’t rationally discuss important issues without clamming up wasn’t worth wasting his time on and she sure wasn’t worth giving up a ranch for.

  He brought the chair to a standstill, stood up, and headed to the back door. She didn’t even turn around when he put on his heavy coat and boots and went outside.

  * * *

  Sage attacked the butter and sugar instead of creaming them together for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Creed was a pompous, egotistical male who should never have a daughter. He’d keep her wings clipped so close that she’d never be able to fly.

&nbs
p; You are just mad because you pictured him with a daughter that wasn’t yours, the voice inside her head said. It sounded so much like Grand that she whined out loud.

  “I’m not fighting with you. Matter-of-fact, I’ll prove my point.”

  She left the well-creamed butter and sugar and dialed Grand’s cell phone number. When her grandmother answered she asked, “Did you get the picture?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Where are you? It sounds like you are driving.”

  “I am but I’ve got it on speakerphone so don’t say a word you don’t want Essie to hear. And don’t get her started about April’s dress.”

  Essie’s voice came through loud and clear. “That ain’t no dress; that’s two Band-Aids holding up a hanky. Her daddy should whip her fanny for even thinking about going out in public in such a thing.”

  “She’s a little old to be getting a whipping,” Sage said.

  “Okay,” Grand said. “If I’d been there I would have told her to hang that dress back for some other affair and wear one of her other party dresses. Change up the jewelry and the shoes and no one would even realize she’d worn it before. There will be a scene if she comes down the stairs in that thing. Lawton will have a fit.”

  “Creed and I just had a big argument about that. He said that his daughter wouldn’t wear a dress like that.”

  “You are pregnant?” Grand asked bluntly.

  “No, I am not,” Sage sputtered.

  Essie’s voice was so loud that it hurt Sage’s ears. “Well, I’d hope not. You’ve only known that cowboy for two weeks. For God’s sake, Ada! Why’d you ask a dumb fool question like that anyway? Sage has enough sense not to go to bed with a man she’s only known two weeks.”

  “Well, shit!” Grand said. “Then why’d you fight? You haven’t even got the possibility of a daughter, and April is Lawton’s problem. Y’all ain’t got no say-so in what she wears. And the fight will be between them and none of your business.”

  Sage couldn’t think of an answer so she changed the subject. “Where are you going?”

  “To Walmart, dinner at the Cracker Barrel, and then to Hobby Lobby,” Essie said.

  “You got all that in Shade Gap? I always thought it was just a little place.”

  “It is,” Grand’s voice came through again. “We’re going over to Chambersburg to shop.”

  “What for?”

  “Just stuff at Walmart, but a flier came with the newspaper today and Hobby Lobby has Christmas trees already on sale so I’m going to buy one. That ugly white thing that Essie had the last ten years is in the attic and I bet the rats have built nests in it so long that you’d never get the smell out.”

  “I don’t have rats in my attic, I’ll have you know,” Essie fussed.

  “Well, I’m not putting up a damned old white tree. I’m buying one that will last until we’re both dead and gone and it’s going to be green. Our reception is about to go, Sage. These mountains are hell on phone reception. Tell everyone at the party tomorrow night hello for me and I’ll send you a picture of our tree when we get it all decorated. When are you and Creed putting up one?”

  “We already did,” Sage said around the lump in her throat.

  “It’s getting crackly. I’m hanging up now,” Grand said.

  The last two words faded out and the phone went dead. She held it until the tinny recorded sound of an operator said if she wanted to make a call to hang up and try again.

  She crammed her feet down into her work boots, didn’t bother with a coat, and ran to the barn, the cold wind almost freezing the dripping tears into icicles as they fell off her jaw.

  Creed was busy splitting a log when she burst into the barn. He laid down the ax just in time to catch her when she threw herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably against his chest.

  “It’s okay. Your daughter can wear whatever she wants,” he whispered.

  “She’s not going to wear a dress like that, not if she’s forty, and that’s not why I’m crying. I just talked to Grand.”

  “Is she dying? Is that why she’s selling the ranch?”

  “Nooo,” she wailed. “She’s putting up a Christmas tree.”

  * * *

  Creed patted her on the back and let her weep.

  Why would a Christmas tree bring on tears? She hadn’t cried when they’d put up their tree. She’d actually been quite giddy about it.

  She swallowed a couple of times and said, “And she said that she was buying a green one that would last them until they were both dead.”

  “Is that the problem? Are you worrying about your Grand dying? Honey, she’s as full of spit and vinegar as a twenty-year-old. She’ll still be putting up that tree when she’s a hundred.”

  That brought on another batch of tears and weeping so hard that it came nigh unto breaking Creed’s heart.

  “That’s just it. If she’s buying a Christmas tree out there, then she’s serious and I won’t ever be able to talk her into staying on the Rockin’ C when you buy it. Creed, it’s going to happen. She’s not coming home to stay.”

  He picked her up and carried her back to the house. He took her all the way to her bedroom where he laid her on her bed. He stripped out of his coat, reached up to remove his hat, and realized he’d left it beside the ax, kicked off his boots, and stretched out beside her.

  She instantly rolled toward him, cuddled against his side, and used his arm for a pillow. Creed held her close and let her cry it out. Finally, the weeping stopped and after a long sigh, she slept.

  Half an hour later her eyes slowly slid open. “You still here?”

  “Yes, I’m still here.”

  “Most men run from crying women.”

  “I told you in the beginning, I’m not going anywhere.”

  Chapter 15

  Creed had shaved for the second time that day, combed his hair straight back, and dressed in his best Sunday outfit. Black starched and creased jeans, white shirt, black leather bolo tie with a silver and turquoise slide, and eel boots so shiny he could see his reflection in them. He hadn’t brought his best Western-cut jacket so he’d have to wear a leather bomber, but with the party held in a house, jackets wouldn’t stay on the cowboys long anyway.

  He could hear Sage in her bedroom. Closet doors opened and closed. Mumblings went on. The whole time he had a visual of April in that skimpy dress and hoped that Sage didn’t come out in something that revealing.

  Finally, the door opened and there she was in classic elegance. His mouth went dry at Sage all dressed up. She’d been cute in her coveralls, hot in her tight-fitting jeans, and words didn’t describe her without clothes. But when she stopped in the middle of the living room and turned around, his mouth went as dry as if he’d just drunk watered-down alum.

  Her perfume reached his nose and he inhaled deeply. It was so exotic, as if it had been formulated especially for Sage, especially for that very night. His hands itched to touch her bare arms, to run his fingertips up her long legs going from simple high heel shoes all the way to the hemline of the snug-fitting shiny dress.

  His heart skipped a beat and then lurched ahead so loudly that he could hear it pounding in his ears.

  “Ready?” she finally asked.

  “No.”

  “Well, get your coat. I don’t want to miss any part of the party.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Dammit! Don’t tell me you aren’t going.”

  “I intended to until you walked out of your bedroom.”

  “Then what is the matter? This dress isn’t like April’s. I don’t often even wear a dress, but when I do I don’t want to have to worry about my boobs falling out or that the hem will ride up to my butt.”

  He couldn’t wipe the shit-eating grin from his face. “Sage, you are so beautiful, so elegant all dressed up that my feet
are glued tight to the floor and I’m tongue-tied. I don’t want your friends to think you brought a stuttering idiot with you to the biggest party in the canyon.”

  * * *

  Creed had seen big houses in his life. He lived in one that wasn’t too shabby, but when they drove up to the Canyon Rose house, there was a hitch in his breath. It stood against the dark sky like a child’s rendering of a house. A line across the middle of the page with grass on the bottom, sky on the top, and a house that sat on the line. Only this house wasn’t two straight lines with two angles to make a roof. Massive white pillars held up a sun porch with white banisters around the top. The house itself was gray stone, and light flowed from an enormous room attached to the end that extended all the way to the second story. It was almost totally glass with a little bit of weathered gray wood holding the huge panes in place.

  “Quite a place,” Creed said.

  “It is, isn’t it, but I wouldn’t want to have to clean the place,” Sage whispered.

  “I reckon they don’t have to worry about their Christmas tree touching the ceiling.” He nodded toward a huge tree with twinkling lights, and lots of brightly colored decorations sat against the window in the ballroom.

  “I guess not.”

  “This reminds me of that house in that old James Dean movie,” he said.

  “Giant?”

  “That’s the one.”

  Sage laughed. “I always thought so too. I watched it when I was a teenager just to see what the big thing was about James Dean. And after that I told Grand that Canyon Rose reminded me of it. It is more intimidating at night all decorated than it is in the daylight. Is your house in Ringgold like this?”

  “No, ma’am. It’s big enough to house seven boys but it’s a ranch house. One floor and a big front porch that wraps around the sides.”

  * * *

  Sage did not think she had a stuttering idiot with her when she walked into the party. The buzz of conversation stopped for a few seconds as the women took in the cowboy beside Sage, and the men stared at the woman beside the cowboy.