Christmas with a Cowboy: Includes a bonus novella (Longhorn Canyon Book 5)

by Carolyn Brown

  “How did you ever do this? How did you leave your home country? Did you ever regret it?” The words came out so fast that Bridget wondered if Iris even understood her.

  “I never regretted my decision to leave Ireland, but I’ll have to be honest, I got so homesick to hear someone speak Irish that first year that I went in the bathroom and talked to myself in the mirror.” Iris laughed. “You know you don’t have to make a decision based on a man. You’re an independent woman, and you should give this some thought.”

  “I can’t decide. I’m in love with Maverick,” Bridget blurted out. “But he’s got all these possibilities now that he has something to offer a woman. That’s what has held him back from settling down, you know.”

  “I believe he’s in love with you too, but he just hasn’t figured out a way to say it. Have you told him how you feel yet?” Iris asked.

  “No, I guess I’m waiting for the right time.” Bridget sighed.

  “I love my grandson, but this is your life, girl,” Iris said. “Leaving my friends, and especially your grandmother, was tough, but I had a husband I adored. And, honey, when I cried at night because of homesickness, that man held me in his arms. He thanked me a million times in our years together for loving him enough to marry him and leave everything I knew behind.”

  “Really?” Bridget had no doubt that Maverick would be like his grandfather in that respect, but was she strong enough to take that big leap over an ocean?

  “I had three miscarriages in the first three years I was in Texas, and I began to think that it was punishment for leaving Ireland,” Iris went on. “Thomas held me when I lost those babies and cried right along with me. I remember the first time I thought of Texas as home. I’d given birth to Maverick’s father, Barton, and we were on the way home from the hospital. I can still see the proud look on my Thomas’s face when he helped me into that old truck we had back then. He asked me if we needed to pick up anything from town on the way to the ranch, and I said, ‘Honey, I just want to go home. I missed you so much while I was in the hospital.’ He didn’t even realize that it was the first time I’d called Texas home. But I’ll remember it forever.”

  “I said that word, home, the other day.”

  “Did you tell Sean about that?” Iris asked.

  “I haven’t told him much of anything in several days.” Bridget told her about their conversations, and how disappointed she was in him.

  “Honey, we live and we die with the choices we make. George Jones sang a song that said something like that years and years ago. Sean will have to live with the choices he’s making. But you have to live with yours too, so don’t be too hasty. If you’re patient, you’ll find peace when you make your decision,” Iris said. “And now I have a therapy session, so ’bye for now.”

  “’Bye and thank you,” Bridget said and ended the call.

  Laela and Dolly were both sitting at her feet. She picked the baby up and hugged her tightly. “I’m glad you’re too little to ever remember the trip that brought us here.”

  The baby squirmed until Bridget finally let her down to crawl around again. “You’re not a bit of help. You’d probably cry all the way back to Ireland if you had to leave Maverick behind.”

  Bridget was on her way back to Iris’s bedroom to see if there was anything at all she could do to start organizing paperwork when her phone pinged. She saw that she’d missed two messages from Sean: Can we talk?

  She fired one back to him: Call me.

  She made sure Laela had toys and that Dolly was nearby, and then she sat down on the sofa to wait for Sean’s call. “If this phone doesn’t ring in five minutes, I’m going to refuse to answer it,” she said.

  It rang in three minutes and she answered on the first ring. “Hello, what’s going on?”

  “You sound like you’re out of breath. Were you having sex with the cowboy?” Sean teased.

  “I was moving furniture, and what I do with the cowboy is none of your business,” she told him. “What’s up?”

  “Kelly threw another jealous fit about all my women friends on Facebook. She’s gone for good, so don’t get in a hurry about your things. They’re just fine where they are until you want me to do something with them, or until you come home,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that. You were right all along, so you can say ‘I told you so.’”

  “Oh, Sean, I’m sorry. This was one time I didn’t really want to be right. But it’s better to know this now and be done with her.”

  “You’re absolutely right, luv. As always. But I saved the best until last.” He gave a dramatic pause. “I’m buying the bakery. I have enough from my savings for a down payment and our boss is carrying the rest of the note. You’ll sure enough have a job if you come home.”

  “Sean, that’s wonderful news. Congratulations!” She took a deep breath and made a decision. “I’m extending my stay in Texas, so you might as well ship those boxes here. I’ll send you the money for whatever it costs.”

  “Just give me an address. I think I’ve always known that you wouldn’t be coming back,” Sean said.

  “It’s not necessarily forever,” she told him softly. “I’ll text you the info.”

  Two horses with one arse came to her mind again. She’d decided to ride with Maverick if everything continued to work out, and the decision not only put a smile on her face but also brought peace, like Iris had mentioned, into her heart.

  She picked up Laela and carried her to Iris’s bedroom. The baby began to explore, and Bridget just stood, staring at the piles of papers on the desk for a good five minutes. Doing her best to keep them in the stacks they were in, she moved them all to the bed. Then she found a tape measure in one of the drawers and measured the desk.

  “I think it will fit between the windows on the west wall of the living room,” she muttered as she hurried out of the room. It only took a minute for her to determine that she’d been right, but when she returned to the bedroom, she couldn’t find Laela. She called the baby’s name twice before she heard giggling. Following the sound, she found her in Iris’s bathroom. She had pulled up to the edge of the toilet and tossed her toy giraffe into the water, and was now trying to get it out.

  “You little scamp,” she said as she picked the baby up and held her over the vanity sink to wash her hands. “Now your favorite toy will have to be washed and dried before you can play with it again.” When she’d dried Laela’s hands, she put her back on the floor and fished the toy from the toilet, tossed it in the sink, and washed her own hands—twice with soap both times.

  Laela didn’t even respond with a look but kept crawling across the floor.

  “All right, you are going into your crib for about ten minutes.” Bridget picked her up and took her across the hall. She made sure Laela had toys and then went back to the desk.

  She pushed up her sleeves. “If I can move this desk, I can do anything. Nana and I moved a buffet once that was bigger than this. I’m trying to remember how we did it.”

  The memory came back when she noticed the throw rugs on each side of Iris’s bed. She and her grandmother had used two similar rugs to move the buffet. They had flipped the rugs over so the soft side was against the wood floor, and the buffet was sitting on the rubberized backside. It took all her strength to lift the corner of the heavy desk and kick the rug under it. The other end didn’t seem as tough, but then, it wasn’t the one with three drawers in it.

  With the rugs in place, Bridget simply put her shoulder into it and slid the desk all the way to the living room. Hopefully, Maverick wouldn’t be upset that she’d taken it upon herself not only to figure out where to put it but also to move it.

  She’d just finished taking the papers from the bed and putting them back on the desk when Laela began to really fuss and Bridget’s mobile rang. She freed Laela from her crib, took her to the living room, and set her down beside Dolly, who was sleeping next to the Christmas tree.

  She shoved the phone into her hip pocket, gathered
up the last stack of papers, and went back to the living room. A rattling noise caused her to head for the front door. It was a little early for Maverick to be home, but it sounded like keys. It could be Ducky scratching at the door, but she thought that he’d gone in the truck with Maverick. Then it hit her that it was probably the UPS man bringing more boxes to go in the back bedroom for Iris. That woman had bought an awful lot of Christmas.

  Sure enough there were two boxes on the porch. She put them away, and when she got back to the living room, she found Laela unloading her purse in front of the sofa—tossing makeup, wallet, and everything else over to one side. In her free hand, she held Bridget’s keys and was swinging them like a Christmas bell.

  “You are a stinker today,” Bridget said as she gathered up everything and put it back in her purse. She picked up the keys and remembered that Sean had given her the ring they were on for her birthday several years before. He had said that she was a true Libra and told her all the traits a person had when they were born under that sign. “You are indecisive and you are independent. You put everything on the scale and weigh the pros and cons before you make a decision, but when you do, your mind is made up. You are loving and kind and you want to fix everything for everyone, often to the tune of wearing yourself out.”

  “He’s so right,” she muttered. She dropped the keys into her purse and set it up on the bookcase, high enough that Laela couldn’t reach it.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Like always, when he finished his morning chores, Maverick came in the back door. The aroma of hot bread baking wafted out to him as he removed his coveralls and hat. “Hello,” he called out. “Where are my girls hiding?”

  “In the living room,” Bridget yelled.

  He stopped in the doorway and stared. She met him halfway across the room with open arms and a kiss. Even in jeans and a faded T-shirt, she took his breath away. When he heard Laela jabbering over by the Christmas tree, he turned his attention that way. From her tone and the way she was glaring at Dolly, he’d guess that the cat had done something she shouldn’t have done. Coming home to kisses was so much better than hitting a honky-tonk once a week for a little excitement and then having nothing waiting in the house through the days and long nights.

  “Look what I did.” Bridget pointed toward the desk.

  “How did you do that?”

  “Rugs and elbow grease.” She grinned.

  “Well, remind me to give you a raise.” He gave her a Hollywood kiss—one of those where he bent her backward and they were both breathless when it ended.

  When he raised her up again, she hung on to him. “One more of those, and I’ll be too weak-kneed to pick up the baby.”

  “I love you.” He chuckled.

  Had he really said those words out loud? Would it spook her? He checked her face to see if she was shocked, amused, or aggravated by his words. She was smiling as she tiptoed and cupped his face in her hands. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and brought his face to hers for another kiss.

  “Oh, Maverick, you saying that is the best Christmas ever,” she said softly when the kiss ended.

  She hadn’t run for the hills, but she hadn’t said the words back to him, either. Strangely, he wasn’t disappointed. He would rather wait until she was ready than for her to say the words just because he had said them.

  “Well, thank you, ma’am.” He tucked her hand in his and led her to the sofa, where he pulled her down beside him. With her that close, he felt as if the whole world belonged to them—together.

  “Want to start on those papers before or after we eat?” She snuggled down into his arms.

  “After.” He sniffed the air. “I smell homemade bread.”

  “It’s cooling on the counter,” she responded. “I made a pot of baked potato soup with ham in it for dinner.”

  Laela crawled over to Maverick, got a hold of his leg, and tried to stand but kept plopping down on her bottom. He picked her up and held her in his lap with one arm and kept the other one around Bridget’s shoulders.

  “Do you think Iris will be upset at us for changing things around, like moving her desk?” Bridget asked. “Or for sleeping together in her house?”

  “We are consenting adults, and besides, if the walls of this house could talk, I can tell you right now that the stories would put a permanent blush on me and Paxton both.” He chuckled.

  “Oh, really?” She pulled away from him and drew her eyes down in a fake frown. “Want to tell me a few of those stories?”

  He shook his head. “What you women talk about in the kitchen stays in the kitchen. What those guys used to do before they found the love of their lives, stays in the walls or at the Wild Cowboy Saloon. But, honey, I kind of lost my appetite for that kind of life. I rather like rocking the baby to sleep and then holding you.” He drew her back to his side. “How about you? Do you miss the pub life?”

  “Sometimes, but then Laela does something cute, and I realize that this is the good life,” she answered.

  Someone knocked on the door and Bridget hurried out to open it. “It’s just the UPS man bringing more boxes,” she yelled. “I’ll put them in the back room.”

  Christmas! Holy hell, he’d been so tied up in knots with trying to show Bridget that she should stay in Texas that he’d forgotten about presents. He always got pretty much the same things for his brother, grandmother, and the folks that he was close to, but Bridget was another story. What on earth did he buy for her? He only had six days to figure it out.

  Bridget returned to the living room and sat down beside him again. “Iris is going to have a lot of wrapping to do back there. Does she buy for everyone in the whole state?”

  “I have no idea,” Maverick answered. “She always has three presents for me and three for Paxton. She says that the reason for that is that baby Jesus had three gifts brought to him.”

  “Then Paxton comes home for Christmas?” she asked.

  “If he wants to live to see another year, he does.” Maverick chuckled. “Seriously, no matter where we are, we always come to Granny’s for Christmas. We arrive on Christmas Eve, and we’re here through Christmas Day, at the very least. If possible, we come a little earlier and stay a little longer. Granny expects”—he paused—“no, not expects. Granny demands that much out of us, but she also deserves it.”

  “Sounds a lot like my nana,” Bridget said.

  “You mentioned that you needed to do some Christmas shopping. Want to go up to Amarillo to the mall and get it done this afternoon?” he asked.

  Her eyes went to the desk. “I haven’t bought anything at all, but we’ve got so much to do if we’re going to get things organized to input into the laptop in a couple of weeks.”

  “It can wait until tomorrow. Let’s go spend a day in the mall and have some presents under the tree when Granny and Wanda get here.” Maverick stood up with Laela in his arms and carried her down the hall. “I just need to change my shirt and boots. We can even eat in the food court and save the soup and bread for supper.”

  * * *

  Bridget followed him to the bedroom and made a mental list of all the folks she needed to purchase gifts for, and then she thought about how much money she could spend. She should be fine, she thought, to buy seven presents and maybe even splurge on a new dress for Alana’s party.

  Maverick got changed quicker than she did and came straight to her bedroom. Without even asking, he started repacking the diaper bag while she finished getting Laela ready. They were already acting like a young married couple, except at night—then they acted like two love-starved teenagers who’d just discovered sex.

  She was eager to see a real American mall, so she hurried through changing into a fresh pair of pants and a nice sweater. She shook her long, red hair down from her ponytail and ran a brush through it.

  “Gorgeous, as always.” Maverick put the baby’s coat on her.

  “Would you be talking to me or Laela?” she asked.

  “You,
darlin’,” he said. “Are we ready to go, then?”

  “I sure am. I’ve heard so much about your malls that I can’t wait to get there,” she told him as she headed to the foyer to get her coat.

  With the baby in his arms, he followed Bridget down the hall. Bridget made a fast trip through the kitchen to fill a couple of Laela’s bottles, and put the pot of potato soup in the refrigerator. Then they left the house together with him in the lead so he could get Laela into her car seat. The frozen grass crunched beneath her boots as she followed the trail they’d made when they’d rolled up snow for the snowman. It was cold but the wind wasn’t blowing as hard as it had been in days past. When Maverick opened the door for her, she hopped up into the seat and fastened her seat belt.

  “How far is it from here to there, and how many stores are in the mall?” she asked as he fastened his seat belt and adjusted the rear view mirror.

  “It’s about fifty miles up there, and if the roads are all clear, we should be there in an hour,” he answered. “And there’s about a hundred stores in the mall. Is that about what you have in an Irish mall?”

  “Most of the malls are on the opposite coast from where we live. There’s one a little closer that we get to—maybe every two or three years. Most of the time, we shop in our own village. I can’t even imagine going to a place with a hundred stores, but I sure am excited about it.” She couldn’t wait to take pictures of everything and send them to Sean.

  Maverick got in behind the wheel and started the engine. “Would you happen to have a piece of paper in your purse? I didn’t make a list, and I always do better if I have one.”

  “I sure do.” She brought out a small notepad and a pen.

  “Bridget, Laela, Granny, Wanda.” He drove out of the yard and down the lane. “The following will be family presents. Emily and Justin. Retta and Cade. Levi and Claire. Tag and Nikki. Mavis and Skip. And I’ll probably have them shipped from the store. They should be there on time.”

  “Are all these people going to be at the ranch for Christmas?” Just thinking of that many new faces and people was pretty bloody scary.