“Quick thinkin’.” Nash panted. “I hope he doesn’t kick out any windows on the way to the barn.”
“If he does, we’ll be eating mutton until spring. Get inside fast so he doesn’t jump over the seats and try to get out one of the front doors.”
Nash wanted to continue the conversation about her not leaving, but the crazy sheep put up a noise all the way to the Texas Star. He was still rolling his eyes and bawling when Nash hopped out and opened the barn door wide enough to let Kasey drive inside and then closed it tightly.
They’d come a long way from the day he’d met her during a dirt storm a month ago. If it wasn’t the stupidest idea in the universe, he would propose to her today. He loved her and didn’t want to spend one day of the rest of his life without her. He reached into his coat pocket to finger the velvet box he’d tucked there… but there was no little box. His chest tightened and his heart fell to the barn floor.
She crawled out of the van. “What’s wrong? Are you all right? Flashbacks?”
“You know, I haven’t had any nightmares since you’ve been sleeping with me,” he answered honestly, but his mind was on that spot where he picked up the ram and evidently lost the velvet box. It would be completely covered in snow by the time he got back there, but he had to go find it. How was he going to explain why he couldn’t go to Hope Springs with her?
“Okay, then let’s put this boy back in his stall. I bet he’ll be happy to stay put after that little escape into the real world.” Kasey laughed.
Nash picked a halter off a nail on the wall and slung open the van door. The ram stepped out like he owned the world and marched right back to his stall without so much as a single bleat.
“You might be right.” Nash sighed.
“What’s the matter with you?” Kasey opened the gate and the ram wasted no time going to his feed bucket.
“He’s learned his lesson.”
“Not him.” Kasey shut and locked the gate. “You’re acting strange.”
Nash shrugged and shoved both hands into his coat pockets. And there the box was in his left pocket. He remembered putting it there earlier than morning in case he needed to tuck Silas’s sippy cup in the right one.
“We started a conversation, but…” He let the sentence drop.
She crossed the distance separating them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Nash, I don’t want to leave Texas Star either. When I came back here to live at Hope Springs, it was like I went backward eight years. I was just Brody and Jace’s kid sister again. But since I’ve been on your ranch, I’m a grown woman who’s capable of making decisions and living a real life and…” She paused.
“And what?” He tipped up her chin and stared deeply into her beautiful green eyes.
“And it’s not just because I’m a whole person again and have you to thank for that as well, or that the kids love it here. It’s because I’ve fallen in love with you, Nash,” she said.
He moved back a few steps.
She stammered, “You don’t have to say it right now. It’s insane for me to say it, since we’ve only known each other a month but it’s the truth…”
“Honest? Are you in love with me?” His heart was beating so fast that he thought it might leave his body and thump around on the floor at his feet.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He pulled the box from his pocket and dropped down on one knee. “You have given me back my will to live, Kasey. When we come to the end of our lives, I hope that we make the jump into eternity together. I love you more than living one more day without you, and I’m in love with you, too. Kasey, will you marry me?”
He popped the lid open to reveal the rings. All shiny now from a secret trip to the jewelry store, they sparkled even in the dim barn.
“Yes,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. “But only if we can live together until spring.”
“Anything you want, chère,” he said as he slipped the engagement ring on her finger and then put the box with the wedding band back into his pocket.
“It’s beautiful and it fits perfectly,” she whispered and then her lips were on his in a kiss so passionate that it warmed the whole barn.
“It was my great-grandmother’s. I’m so glad you like it. And on a little side note, can I tell Rustin that Santa brought him a daddy for Christmas?”
“As soon as we get back to the house, but only if I never have to take this ring off. And since the whole family will be at Granny’s for leftovers, we can tell everyone at once.”
He drew her into his arms and then his lips found hers and all was right with his world. “I do love you,” he breathed into her hair when the kiss ended.
“And we’re going to have a beautiful life together,” she whispered.
* * *
Jace was so eager to get to his place, unload the feed, and not be late to Hope Springs by noon that he didn’t even notice the ring or the grins on both Nash’s and Kasey’s faces. He blew his sister a kiss and disappeared within two minutes of the time they walked through the back door.
“Hey, Rustin,” Nash called from the bottom of the stairs. “Y’all kids want to come down here. We got something we want to tell you.”
In a matter of seconds Rustin and Silas appeared at the top of the steps with Emma right behind them. Rustin tucked Silas’s hand into his to help him, and Emma held on to the rail.
“Easy now, brother. Your legs ain’t as long as mine so we’ll go slow,” Rustin said.
“Mine is long as yours,” Emma said.
“Are not!” Rustin argued.
They were halfway down when Silas let go of Rustin’s hand and yelled, “Here me comes, Nashie.” And he flew through the air, arms out and a smile on his face, right into Nash’s arms.
“Silas McKay!” Kasey squealed.
“Nashie gots me.” He grinned.
Nash flashed a brilliant smile at Kasey. “Yes, I do, forever, amen.”
“Don’t you ever do that unless Nash is right there, promise,” Kasey fussed.
“Yes, ma’am,” Silas said.
“Well, he got that down plain enough,” Nash said.
“First thing a little cowboy had better learn to say to his mama when she’s either mad or scared out of her wits.” Kasey held up the ring to catch the light coming through the window. “It’s so beautiful, Nash.”
“What’s beautiful?” Emma asked as she slipped her hand into Nash’s free one.
“My new ring that Nash gave me,” Kasey answered. “Come on in the living room and we’ll tell you all about it.”
Nash sat down on the sofa and Silas scrambled off his lap to the floor to stand with the other kids. Kasey snuggled up close to Nash’s side, and he tucked her hand into his.
“What was on your list for Christmas that you didn’t get, Rustin?” Nash asked.
Rustin dropped his chin to his chest with a sigh. “A daddy. I really wanted a daddy.”
“Well, I asked your mama to marry me, and she said yes. So if it’s all right with you kids, I’ll be your new daddy.”
“Really?” The hope in Rustin’s face was almost heartbreaking.
“You’ll still have your daddy in heaven, of course, but I’ll be your daddy here on earth,” Nash explained.
“A daddy, for real?” Emma squealed.
“Yes, a daddy for real,” Kasey said, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“We don’t have to move?” Rustin asked.
“Nashie, daddy?” Silas frowned.
“Yes!” Emma threw herself into Nash’s arms. “Nash is going to be our daddy. Do we get to call him daddy?”
“Only if you want to,” Nash said.
Rustin slung an arm around Nash’s shoulders. “I just can’t believe it. I asked God every night for you to be my daddy.”
Silas crawled up into Nash’s lap with Emma. “Yes. Nashie is daddy.”
“Guess that settles it then. How about a March wedding?”
“Anytime you want, chère. Tomo
rrow, next year, March or June. Just don’t ever leave me.” Nash leaned around the kids to kiss her.
“It’s real.” Emma sighed. “He kissed her just like in the Cinderella movie.”
* * *
“Where are those kids? Dinner is almost ready.” Hope took a big crock bowl from the cabinet. Like always, her gray hair was styled perfectly, makeup done impeccably, and her cute little holiday bibbed apron covered a pair of black dress slacks and a pretty bright blue sweater.
“They’re probably having trouble getting that sheep back to the ranch. An old ram can be cantankerous,” Gracie answered.
“Do y’all think she’ll move back home tomorrow?” Valerie pulled a pan of hot rolls from the oven.
Lila started filling glasses with ice and sweet tea. “Home? I believe that Texas Star is her home now and that if she does come back here, she won’t stay more than a few days.”
“Well, we all wanted her to be happy, didn’t we?” Hope said.
“That’s a really pretty bowl, Hope,” Lila commented.
“I love this bowl. My mama always put the mashed potatoes in it for Christmas dinner and it reminds me of her.”
“I always wondered why it didn’t match your other Christmas china and crystal,” Valerie said.
“A reminder that the odd lookin’ in our lives might hold the best things.” Hope smiled.
“I do love your mashed potatoes.” Valerie hugged her mother. “I’m going to call Kasey and see what’s keeping them.”
Hope nodded toward the kitchen window. “I see them driving up now. They’ll be coming through the door any minute.”
“You’re just in time,” she announced as Kasey and her family piled in the back door. “We’re ready to start putting everything on the table.”
“Guess what, Granny!” Rustin yelled the minute they were in the kitchen.
“We got a daddy!” Emma squealed. “We got him for Christmas even if it was yesterday.”
“Nashie, daddy!” Silas joined in the excitement.
Kasey held up her ring. “We’re engaged.”
“Congratulations!” Hope set the bowl down and hugged them both at once. “Jace, Lila, and Brody. Come on in here. Kasey and Nash have some exciting news,” Hope yelled and then motioned for Valerie to join them in a group hug.
“Welcome to the family, Nash,” Valerie said.
Hope took a step back, tears in her eyes as she took in everyone together, everyone so happy. Family, indeed, was the greatest Christmas gift of all.
When Jace Dawson hears Carlene Varner is back in town, he’d like to pick up where they left off on graduation night years ago. But Carlene’s got secrets—including the identity of her daughter’s father—and the truth might tear them apart…
A preview of
Luckiest Cowboy of All
follows.
Chapter One
Sometimes it’s too late to do what you should’ve done years ago. Aunt Rosalie had said that so many times that it should have been in a book of famous quotes.
“I get the message loud and clear,” Carlene whispered around a lump the size of an orange in her throat.
“You okay, Mama?” Her daughter, Tilly, ran from the porch out to the minivan. “Here, let me take that box. It says stuffed toys, so I can carry it inside.”
Carlene shifted the box into Tilly’s hands and picked up a heavier one to carry inside the little two-bedroom frame house. With its peeling paint and hanging rain gutters, it looked like the last wilted rose of summer right now, but come spring she’d put a coat of fresh white paint on it, maybe plant some bright colored flowers around the porch, and it would look better then.
A bitter cold north wind whipped her long blond hair around into her face, reminding her spring was a long way off as she headed from her bright red minivan to the porch. Tilly opened the door for her and then closed it behind her.
“I made you a cup of tea.”
“Thanks, baby girl.” Carlene smiled. “Did you make one for you?”
“I made me some hot chocolate,” Tilly said. “I liked our house in Florida better than this one.”
“Why?” Carlene pulled a wooden rocking chair up closer to the coffee table and picked up the mug of steaming-hot chamomile tea. Too hot to drink, it warmed her hands. Tomorrow, when she and Tilly made a grocery store run to Amarillo, she’d have to remember to buy gloves for both of them.
“This place smells funny,” Tilly said.
“We’ll burn candles this afternoon and air it out on the first day with some nice weather. When we get settled, we’ll start giving it a face-lift. You’ll be surprised what new paint and a little fixin’ up will do.”
“And we’ll get rid of the dead Christmas tree.” Tilly glanced at the brown pine tree in the corner.
“Of course,” Carlene said. “If you want, you could start to unpack what’s in your room and I’ll get those last three boxes while my tea cools.”
“Okay. I’ll have to take all that stuff off the shelves. I’ll put my animals on the bed and then use the boxes to put Aunt Rosie’s things in.” Tilly carried her cup of hot chocolate to the bedroom.
With five moves in her eight years, Tilly was a pro at the moving business. Now her daughter was in the third grade, and it was time for them both to put down roots. So when the job offer came from Happy right after Aunt Rosalie died and left the place to her, Carlene did what she should’ve done years ago. She came back to the town that she should’ve never left.
Carlene nodded and leaned her head back on the rocking chair. It had been ten years since she’d been in the house. In those days Aunt Rosalie bragged that she’d never met a speck of dust she couldn’t conquer. Looking around, evidently when her aunt died, all the dust she’d fought with over the years had reappeared and brought more with it. It would take days, possibly weeks, to get the house whipped into shape.
“That’s tomorrow’s work. Today’s is getting Aunt Rosalie’s things sorted through to make room for ours. Happy New Year’s to us.” She raised her cup of tea and then set it on the table.
Carlene drew her jacket closer around her chest and headed back out for the rest of the boxes. “Thank you, Aunt Rosalie, for leaving me everything in your will. At least I own the house, have a place to live, and don’t have to pay rent.”
She stepped off the porch when she heard tires on the gravel road. With the house the only one on a short dead-end road, she was pretty sure the visitor would be pulling into her driveway any second. She tucked her hair behind her ears and shivered.
Shading her eyes against the bright winter sun, she watched a big black crew-cab truck came to a stop right beside her minivan. Cowboy boots were the first thing that appeared when the door opened and then a very familiar figure followed. Jace Dawson tipped back his hat and waved. In a few long strides he was close enough for her to catch a whiff of Stetson aftershave—a scent that still created a stir in her hormones every time she smelled it.
Happy, Texas, had a population of fewer than seven hundred, so it was a given that she’d run into Jace someday, probably sooner rather than later, but the first day she was there, before she could even get unpacked, meant that the gossip vines had not died in ten years.
“Carlene, I heard you were coming back to town. Here, let me help you get those into the house.” He picked up all three of the remaining boxes and headed off toward the porch. “So you’re going to be the new fifth-grade teacher, Mama tells me.”
“That’s right.”
He filled out those Wranglers even better than he had in high school and had maybe even grown another inch or two.
“Been a long time,” he said. “Where you been all these years?”
She opened the door for him and he set the boxes in the middle of the living room floor. “Here and there. Moved around a lot. California, then Georgia and Oklahoma, back to Florida and then here.”
“You plannin’ on livin’ here? Mind if I sit down?”
“Whe
n did we get to be so formal? Of course you can sit.” She kicked off her shoes and padded barefoot across the cold hardwood floor.
He avoided the rocker and sat on the sofa. “Look, I don’t know how to tell you this…” He hung his head and looked into his hands, taking a deep breath. “I’m real sorry to have to say it, but I bought this place from Rosalie last year. She was planning to check herself into a nursing home and said she needed the money.” He removed his hat and laid it on the coffee table.
“No!” Carlene sank down into the other end of the sofa and felt the color drain from her face. “She didn’t…she wouldn’t…she said…”
“I can bring the deed to show you. You goin’ to be all right? I’m so sorry about this misunderstanding.” Jace raked his fingers through his dark hair and his gray eyes were filled with true remorse. “And I’m real sorry for your loss. I know that you spent a lot of time with her when you lived here.”
“Sell it back to me.” Carlene met his eyes across the short distance separating them. “That shouldn’t be too difficult. I have enough savings for a down payment, and we can get a loan at the bank for the rest.”
Jace inhaled deeply and let it out very slowly. “Even though it’s not fit for you to live in, I would sell it to you if I could and I’d even be willin’ to help remodel it, but I can’t. It’s all been deeded over to the rodeo association. I bought it for that reason. We’re going to expand the grounds next door and build a new concession stand and bathrooms right here on this property.” Another deep breath. “Demolition is scheduled for February fifteenth. The contractors are starting the new buildings right after that.”
“Dammit!” Carlene swore.
Jace had always had one of those faces that couldn’t hide what he was thinking, and it was plain that he was not lying to her. Still, surely to God if Aunt Rosalie had sold the property she would have told Carlene. They talked every single Sunday evening from eight to eight thirty, and she always said that her greatest wish was to die in the same house where she’d been born. That her roots were in the place and it would make her life come full circle.
Long, Tall Cowboy Christmas Page 29