The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby

by Carolyn Brown

  “What if the world is hit by a shit storm tomorrow and the gover’ment banned the production of toilet paper?” Hazel snapped. “I ain’t never seen Lucas this happy. It’s written all over his face. Now tell me what happened when Sonia found Noah?”

  “Noah told Lucas that it was over. And Jack said he heard that she was moving to Dallas, that she got the offer of some kind of job down there in an oil firm,” Natalie said and went on to tell her what happened after that.

  “Well, halle-damn-lujah! Good riddance. I really didn’t want her living on the ranch, not even in the hinder parts of it,” Hazel said. “There’s a parking spot right close to the front of the store. Snag it before anyone else can get it. Oh, and tonight you and Josh are coming to my house to help me put up my tree. We got a tradition here. First we go to Lucas’s house and have Christmas presents and breakfast. Then we go to Jack’s and unwrap what he’s bought for us, then to Henry’s and then to the bunkhouse where Grady lives. And then we finish up at my house for Christmas dinner and my presents.”

  So that’s why the only presents under the tree were the ones that she and Lucas had bought. She’d wondered if the guys waited until the very last minute to do their shopping. Now she understood.

  “It’s a round-robin thing. Henry usually gets his turn in the middle of the morning, and I make sure there’s a platter of Ella’s favorite cookies to nibble on while we are there.”

  “How on earth do you have time to make Christmas dinner if you are running around all over the ranch?” Natalie asked.

  “Organization.” Hazel laughed. “Now let’s go buy some white shirts.”

  “And boots,” Natalie said. “I haven’t bought Lucas’s present, and he eyed a pair last time we were in here.”

  “That’s about as romantic as a brick,” Hazel grumbled.

  “What would you suggest?”

  “Something a lot sexier and more private than boots,” she said.

  ***

  Lucas sat in the parking lot at the mall for ten minutes. Surely a storefront would jump out and grab his attention if he pondered long enough. He didn’t have a single present for Josh or for Natalie under the tree and it was only six days until Christmas morning. Josh was less than three months old and the guys had already outfitted him with a pony, a saddle, and enough toys to keep him busy until he was kindergarten age. And they all had presents for Natalie under their trees.

  He wanted to do something special for the baby and for Natalie, especially the first Christmas they were all together.

  He should talk to Hazel before he bought anything. She’d have some ideas. She always did.

  He scanned the stores again and saw Hazel and Natalie coming out of the bookstore. Did he buy a book for her? What did she like to read?

  “Big, fat, thick romance books set in castle days,” he said aloud as he remembered a conversation they’d had when he was still in Kuwait.

  He waited until they’d gone into another store and then opened the truck door. A blast of winter wind hit him square in the face. They were in for more bad weather for sure with a cold north wind like that whipping through the state. He turned up the collar of his work coat and accidentally hooked his little finger in his dog tags.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said with a broad grin.

  He held onto his Stetson until he got inside the bookstore and then removed it. The lady behind the counter looked up and asked, “Mystery?”

  He picked up a basket. “No, ma’am, point me in the direction of the romance section.”

  “Next aisle to your right,” she said.

  Lucas didn’t have any idea which authors were Natalie’s favorites, so he chose by cover and title. When You Give a Duke a Diamond caught his eye, so he put it in the basket along with A Gentleman Says “I Do.” A display of coupons caught his eye and he stopped to look at a booklet filled with kissing coupons. He flipped through it and his grin got bigger with every coupon. One said that with this coupon, you get a nonstop body kiss from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Another said that the coupon was good for a long and wonderful kiss under the stars. It was a perfect present, but he wasn’t sure who’d benefit more from it—Natalie or him.

  From there he went to the children’s books and picked up three for Josh that had bright colors and few words. And he intended to tell Josh all about them. If Henry wanted to read something new to the boy, then he could buy his own books.

  The music section of the store caught his eye next and he bought a silly CD with all the children’s songs on it that he remembered from childhood. Then he went to the country music section and picked out two different CDs for Natalie. One was an instrumental of an assortment of slow love songs that made him think of long, lazy nights of slow lovemaking.

  “With candles,” he said aloud.

  He paid for his purchases, bemoaned the fact that they did not offer gift wrapping, and put the bag in the truck before he went to the store specializing in all kinds of lotions, candles, and bath items. He smelled dozens of candles before he settled on the one that smelled sexy to him. He bought bubble bath, lotion, and bath powder all in the same fragrance.

  From there he meandered through a clothing store and bought funny socks with toes in them and fuzzy slippers in black and white zebra stripes to keep her feet warm when she had to get up at night with Joshua. When he found out that they wrapped for a small fee, he added a soft blue scarf the color of her eyes and a sweater to match it.

  “And now to find those fancy little gold-wrapped chocolates and some miniature Snicker bars for her stocking. After that I’ll go get her big present, or is it my big present? I guess it depends on what she says when I give it to her.” He loaded two more bags in the truck and drove south toward Walmart.

  The toy aisle was so much fun that he bought a mobile with cute farm animals on it that played “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” when it was wound up. Josh would love that above his crib.

  “Crib.” Lucas slapped his thigh.

  He steered his cart toward the baby section and couldn’t find a thing that suited him. Then he got the bright idea that he’d take his old crib out of the storage barn and refinish it. Grady and the guys would have to help, but they’d be willing. And they could take all the furniture out of the spare bedroom and make a real nursery for Josh. Lucas’s rocking horse was still out there and the chair that Hazel had rocked him to sleep in until he was in kindergarten. Plus the stick horse that Henry had carved special for him when he outgrew the rocking horse.

  It wouldn’t be easy to pull it all off, but with help from the guys, they could make Josh his own room by Christmas morning. He noticed a complete bed in a bag set for a crib that had the same barnyard animals on it as the mobile. He tossed it into the cart, paid out, and made one more stop on his way home for Natalie’s big present.

  When he got to the ranch, he kept driving down the back lane to the bunkhouse where he unloaded the baby presents. Grady was snoozing in his recliner in the living room and jumped when Lucas called his name.

  “Got some shopping done, I see,” he said.

  Lucas nodded. “I need help. Lots of it. You and the hired hands up for some hard work?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Grady asked.

  The more Lucas talked, the bigger Grady’s grin got. “I’d say that you mean to keep Natalie and Josh on the ranch if you’re willin’ to let him sleep in your bed. That was supposed to be given to your first son. Henry slept in it when he was a baby, then Jack, and then you.”

  Lucas nodded. “It was and it is and he is. Y’all think you can strip all that white paint off it that Hazel put on it when I was little and refinish it in brown like it was when Dad had it?”

  “I reckon we could do that as well as putting a fresh coat of varnish on the rocking chair and hobbyhorse. You just worry about a way to
get Natalie and Josh out of the house for a few hours the day before Christmas and we’ll do the rest. Fine present for a boy, Lucas. You done good,” Grady said.

  “Thank you,” Lucas threw over his shoulder as he disappeared out the door and headed back to the house. He wanted to get the presents wrapped and under the tree before Natalie got home. All but one, and that one he carried in his pocket.

  “Hey, you beat them women back home,” Henry whispered.

  “Josh sleeping?” Lucas asked.

  Henry pointed to the port-a-crib beside his recliner. “We both were until you and all them rattling sacks that you hauled in here woke me up.”

  “Sorry, Gramps. Let me tell you what I’ve got in mind for him while he’s asleep and can’t hear.” He set the bags down and hauled the wrapping paper from Natalie’s room into the living room. He sat down on the floor and talked as he wrapped and cussed the paper and tape all at the same time.

  “Sounds like a mighty fine idea to me. I’ve got something special for Natalie and for you, but you can refuse them and I won’t be hurt a bit. Ella Jo thought I should offer, and I never could tell her no.” Henry’s old eyes grew misty.

  “What’s that, Gramps?” Lucas asked.

  “You know your grandma was a tall woman like Natalie and about the same size. Well, since you’re accepting this boy, I think it’s time to turn loose of these.” He opened his clenched hand to reveal two gold wedding bands.

  “Gramps, I couldn’t.”

  “Wouldn’t offer them if I didn’t think you’d made the right choice, son. Ella Jo told me it was the right thing to do right here at Christmas and all. Said it would make her happy if you’d wear them and that she really likes Natalie but she loves Josh.”

  Lucas held out his hand.

  Henry dropped the rings into his palm. “Love her as much as I did your grandma and don’t never let no one get in the way of that love.”

  “I don’t even know what to say,” Lucas said.

  “Don’t say nothin’, son. I’m glad to pass them on to you and Natalie. Y’all kind of remind me of me and Ella Jo. Only she didn’t have a baby. You’re luckier than me in that respect. Put ’em in your pocket and get to wrappin’. Them women won’t stay out past suppertime.”

  Chapter 20

  Four days before Christmas, Natalie awoke to the sound of pots and pans rattling in the kitchen. She sat up on the side of the bed, grabbed her pajama bottoms and underpants, and jerked them on.

  “Where are you going?” Lucas rubbed his eyes.

  “Hazel is here early.”

  “She won’t ground us.” Lucas chuckled.

  “No, but I’d be so embarrassed that I’d go up in flames and die if she caught me in your bed,” Natalie whispered. She pulled a tank top on and kissed him on the cheek on her way out of his bedroom.

  Josh was waking up for his six o’clock bottle by the time she reached her room. When she picked him up, he was so wet that his pajamas were dripping and there was a ring on the sheet in his port-a-crib. The smell gagged her, but she swallowed hard. Strange that it would bother her that day since messy diapers, wet ones, or even curdled spit-up had never turned her stomach before.

  In case she was coming down with a flu bug, she didn’t smother his face in kisses. Instead she talked to him and reminded him that it was only a few days until Christmas and then a week after that they were going home to Silverton to the New Year’s party at the ranch. “Your grandma isn’t any too happy with me right now. I probably should go on home for Christmas, but I just can’t break the guys’ hearts. I said I loved him, Josh, and he said you were the son of his heart, but he hasn’t said a word since then. Maybe he’s got second thoughts about us. After Christmas we’ll have a long talk with him and see where this relationship is going.”

  She picked him up and carried him down the hallway. Jack was already at the kitchen table and he held out his arms. She handed Josh off to him and got a big whiff of the coffee at the same time. Her stomach did a couple of flip-flops before it settled down.

  Dammit all to hell on a platter! It wasn’t a bit fair to get sick right at Christmas. Hopefully it was just a twenty-four-hour thing that would be over by tomorrow morning.

  Oh my God! Is it, could it be morning sickness? I never had it with Josh, so I don’t have any idea what it feels like, she thought.

  She wasn’t due to start her period until… oops! She should have started three days before, but still, that was way too soon for her body to feel nauseated, wasn’t it? Besides, the doctor said sometimes after giving birth it took a while to get the time clock reset, and she’d never been real regular anyway. She could not be pregnant. She just couldn’t! She’d made a mental note to look up the symptoms and time frame on her laptop as soon as breakfast was over.

  “Good mornin’. I hope I’m not steppin’ on your toes. I just need to get back in the groove or else I’ll get old and die,” Hazel said.

  “Not a bit, but what’s my job now that you are home?”

  “You help Lucas run this ranch, and I might let you do some of the housework. Cooking will belong to me until I die, unless I’m off at a church function and then you can step in and do whatever you want,” Hazel said.

  “But I like to cook,” she said.

  “I might let you take a couple of nights a week.” Hazel winked.

  The aroma of sausage and eggs combined with the strong coffee scent should have made her stomach growl, but instead it rolled in protest. She made an excuse and hurried down the hall to the bathroom where she hugged the toilet and tried to bring up her toenails.

  “God, if this is morning sickness, please let it be over in one day. I can’t take care of Josh and do this every morning,” she prayed.

  After she washed her face with cold water and brushed her teeth, she waited another few minutes to be sure she was done. When she slung open the bathroom door Lucas was standing in front of her with a hand on each side of the jamb.

  “You look a little pale. That business with Hazel still got you spooked?” he asked.

  She did her best to smile. “Yes, it does. Breakfast is almost ready, and I’ve gotten my orders. I’m supposed to help you on the ranch and do a little bit of housekeeping.”

  Lucas chuckled. “Want me to talk to her?”

  “Hell, no! We’ve always had a cook and housekeeper, so I’m used to the arrangement. And I wouldn’t hurt her feelings for all the dirt in Texas,” Natalie said.

  Lucas threw his arm around her shoulder and they walked in perfect step all the way to the kitchen. One whiff of the food and her stomach did another roll. She looked at Lucas in time to see him grab his mouth with his free hand.

  His boots sounded like canon blasts as he ran up the hallway and there was no doubt what was going on in the bathroom. Natalie wanted to dance a jig right there in the kitchen. She and Lucas both had a stomach bug, and she was not pregnant. She could handle a weak tummy for a couple of days. Three months of it might turn her into a really mean bitchy woman that Lucas would kick off the ranch.

  “Well, hell, I didn’t know my cookin’ would make a problem,” Hazel said.

  “It’s not your cookin’. I just did the same thing. We must have gotten a bug. I hope you don’t get it, Hazel,” Natalie said.

  “She’s too mean to get anything,” Jack said. “You and Lucas go on in the living room and settle back in the recliners. I’ll bring you some dry toast and hot tea. That’ll keep your strength up without upsetting your stomach even more.”

  “Thank you,” Natalie said weakly.

  “I’ll take care of Josh today in the den. We don’t want him to get sick and spoil his first Christmas,” Henry said.

  Natalie nodded.

  Grady followed her into the living room, pointed to a recliner, and covered her with a soft throw when
she laid back. He looked up at Lucas when he came from the bathroom and pointed to the chair beside Natalie’s. “That one belongs to you. We’ll take care of chores this morning. Got to get y’all well for Christmas.”

  ***

  The next morning, rattling pots and pans and the aroma of coffee and bacon woke Natalie again. When she opened her eyes Lucas was propped on an elbow staring down at her.

  “Feeling better?” he asked.

  “I’m starving,” she answered.

  “Me too.”

  “Must’ve been a twenty-four-hour bug like we thought,” she said.

  The monitor let them know that Josh was awake and fretting for his morning bottle, so she slid out of bed, hurriedly threw a robe around her naked body, and eased the door open. The coast was clear, so she padded barefoot to her bedroom, slipped inside, and gathered Josh up from his bed.

  “We’ve got to get you something bigger if we’re staying past Christmas, son. You’re about to outgrow that little thing.” She stripped off his pajamas and changed his diaper. “What should you wear today? We’ve got to go to town this morning and do some last-minute shopping. When we go to Silverton, we’re supposed to take our presents. Your grandma said not to waste postage mailing them, to just bring them with us then and she’ll have ours ready at that time too. You’re going to have a big Christmas and you won’t even remember it. We’ll take lots of pictures though and when you are older, you can look at them.”

  Josh spit his pacifier out and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

  “Well, that’s a trait from your father. He sucked his thumb until he was five years old,” she said.

  Lucas poked his head in the door. “Is he dressed? I’ll take him to the front of the house while you get ready. The two of us can even get his bottle ready before you make it to the kitchen. You sure you’re feeling better? You still look a little pale to me.”

  “I’m fine. After breakfast Josh and I are going to Sherman to do our last-minute shopping, though. You want to go?” she asked.