A Little Country Christmas

by Carolyn Brown

  Dixie stood back in the shadows for a few moments and listened to him read. He hadn’t quite picked up the Texas drawl that all the other cowboys out on Longhorn Ranch had, and with his shaggy blond hair and scruffy beard, he didn’t look much like them either.

  Oh, but he sure looks fine to me, she thought.

  Landon looked up, caught her eye, and smiled. “You got those coats ready? This little princess says she’s ready to go. My mama would have loved her. She told me that she always wanted a daughter, but all she got was three old ornery boys. I still have trouble forgiving her for not telling me about my two brothers until I was grown.”

  “I have trouble forgiving my mother for turning her back on me when I got pregnant, and Sally’s father for leaving us. But it doesn’t stop the sun from coming up every single morning.” Dixie took the baby from him and slipped the snowsuit on her and zipped it up, then pulled a stocking cap onto her head and tucked her wispy blond hair up under it.

  “In other words,” Landon said as he laid the book back on the table and stood up, “life goes on, and our forgiveness don’t matter much one way or the other?”

  “Oh, it matters. Not for those who did us wrong, but for ourselves. Unforgiveness and hate can take up a person’s whole heart and then there ain’t room for love,” she answered. “So, when we get ready to forgive those who’ve been ugly to us, we free ourselves from the burden of carrying all that crap around.”

  “Then why is it so hard?” Landon kept Sally in his arms and opened the door for Dixie. “And who made you so smart?”

  “I’m not smart, Landon,” she told him. “I’ve figured out that it’s just human nature to want to get even, not forgive. I hated Sally’s father for leaving, but then it finally came to me that he didn’t even know how I felt, and if he did, he wouldn’t care. So why was I hanging on to those feelings when I have a better life right now than I ever had before—and a lot better than if he had even stuck around?”

  “Oh, no!” he said.

  “You don’t agree with me?” she asked.

  “No, not that,” he answered as he opened the back door to his truck. “We need a car seat for the princess.”

  “It’s in the house. I’ll go get it.” She turned around and jogged back to the shop through the inch of snow that was on the ground. She still wasn’t sure about this whole idea of putting up a tree in the shop. Maybe she should ask Claire before she did such a thing. After all, Dixie only worked at the Quiltin’ House, she didn’t own the place. Claire was married to Levi, the foreman out on the Longhorn Ranch. Working for her the past year had been wonderful, and she had become a close friend. Dixie valued their working relationship and their friendship too much to jeopardize either one.

  When she returned, Landon was sitting in the driver’s seat, letting Sally play with the steering wheel. They were both having so much fun that she couldn’t tell him she was having doubts about bringing a tree into the shop without asking. If Claire said that she didn’t want a tree in the shop, then Dixie would just move it into her bedroom.

  “Give me a minute or two to get this thing roped down, and then you can hand her over.” Dixie talked as she worked. “First time I did this when I came to live here, we were in Claire’s car and it took me forever to figure it out, but Sally was only three months old at the time. I’ve had a lot of practice since then.” One of her insecurity tells was to chatter when she was nervous. Most of the time she wasn’t all jittery when Landon was around. He’d been in and out of the shop lots of times when Claire asked him to pick up something in town. She’d spent Thanksgiving at the ranch with all the extended family, and he’d been there too. But this was the first time she’d been alone with him in a vehicle, and it seemed an awfully lot like a date—and that made her tense.

  She got the baby seat fastened down, and Landon handed Sally over the front seat to her. “I’ve never even tried to get a baby seat fastened into position,” he said. “Never been around babies until I came here to work a few months on the Longhorn Ranch. It’s like a big extended family out there. I feel like Emily is my sister as well as Tag and Hud’s, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned from Cade and Levi and Justin. I didn’t even know I liked babies until I moved over here from out in the western part of the state. Retta and Cade’s little girl, Annie, stole my heart, and Claire’s son, Wyatt, and Emily’s little Hayden, why, they’re the next generation of cowboys.”

  “There’s even more on the way. Rose is pregnant with twin boys,” Dixie said. “And you, Landon Griffin, are a natural baby whisperer the way they all take to you.” She got into the passenger seat of the truck. “Nice vehicle here.”

  “Thank you. I saved up my money from working for my brothers and bought it just before I came over here.” He started the engine and backed out onto the street. “I’ve never driven or even ridden as far as that trip was. Mama hated road trips, so we flew everywhere. What’s been the longest drive for you?”

  She didn’t want to talk about road trips. She would rather ask him why he had to leave, but then that might open up a can of worms she didn’t want to deal with. She’d followed in her mother’s footsteps when it came to men. If forty good men were standing in front of them with roses in their hands and singing a love song just to them, they would pick the forty-first one who wasn’t worth crap—the one who wouldn’t work, wouldn’t stay with them in tough times, and was more interested in a six-pack of beer than buying them a rose. She didn’t trust men, but she also didn’t trust herself to pick out a decent one.

  “Did you hear me?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry. I was woolgathering. My longest trip was from southern Louisiana to over around Abilene.” She noticed a spiral of smoke coming from a nearby chimney and then caught a whiff of it. The fire that had almost taken her life and Sally’s had happened more than a year before, but the smell of smoke still made her shiver.

  “Cold?” Landon asked.

  “No.” Dixie shook her head. “It’s the smoke. Gets to me every time.”

  “I heard that you and Sally were in a fire. What happened?” He drove straight to the barn on the ranch and pulled the truck through the double doors.

  “Sally and I were hitchin’ rides, goin’ toward Sweetwater, and we got stuck in Bowie,” she answered. “We were going to sleep in the park, but we saw an abandoned house where we’d at least be out of the cold weather, so we went inside. It caught on fire, and Hud Baker rescued us. I spent a night in the hospital, and Hud took Sally to Rose’s place. The next day Claire offered me a job, and this is where I’ve been ever since. The whole extended family out at the Longhorn Ranch has become my friends since then.”

  Landon laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  “I keep telling myself that the worst thing in our lives turned out to be for the best, but I suppose the smell of smoke will always remind me of the fear of dying and leaving Sally without either parent.” She glanced over at him and their gazes locked for a few seconds. Then he turned back to watch the road. She wanted to read something into that moment but was afraid to let herself. To Landon, she was a good friend, and it was best to keep it that way.

  She sighed and said, “Maybe it’s just to let me know that I shouldn’t take anything, not even the air I breathe, for granted.” She caught another whiff of smoke when he opened the truck door, and a vision of Hud coming through the gray fog to lead her and carry Sally to safety popped into her head. Had she and Sally slept in a park that night and hitched another ride the next day, she would never have met Landon. Sarah, one of the elderly people who lived down the road from her, often said that everything happens for a reason. Dixie believed it—almost. If everything really did happen for a reason, then why would fate bring Landon into her life, only to have him leave again?

  Maybe it’s to teach you that you need someone other than a baby and a few friends in your world. Claire’s voice was loud and clear in her mind.
/>   I don’t need anything more than what I’ve got, Dixie argued.

  Chapter Two

  Landon hopped out of the truck with intentions of helping Dixie, but she was already sliding out of the passenger seat when he got there. “I’ll get Sally out of the seat so she can go see Little Bit. He’ll be glad to have some company.” He pulled an apple from the console and handed it to Dixie. “Y’all can give him his treat tonight. I usually find a reason to come out here and bring him an apple or a carrot so he doesn’t get lonely.”

  He freed Sally from her car seat and carried her over to the stall where the miniature donkey was already flipping his tail from one side to the other in excitement.

  Sally wriggled and said, “Down, Lan-Lan.”

  He lowered her to the ground, and she plopped down right beside the bottom rail of the stall and reached up for the apple. When Landon put it in her hand, she held it out toward Little Bit, and as if he understood how small her hand was, he peeled back his lips and very gently took it from her.

  Beau, the ranch dog, slipped under the railing from another stall and came over to lay beside Sally, and then Gussie, the cat that lived among all the houses on the ranch, curled up on the baby’s other side.

  “That’s a modern-day nativity scene,” he whispered.

  “Where are the shepherds and the three wise men?” Dixie asked.

  “They’ll be in the church play. This one tonight is just for us.” Landon draped an arm around her shoulders, and a sense of peace surrounded him like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. He didn’t want to remove his arm and end the moment, or leave the scene, but if they didn’t go soon, they’d be cutting down a tree with nothing but the light of the moon to guide them. With a sigh, he took a step back and said, “I’ll get the feed unloaded in a few minutes, and then we’ll go find a tree. I know just the place to start.”

  While he hefted the feed from the truck onto his shoulders, he stole looks over his shoulder at Dixie. She’d sat down beside Sally in the hay that had been strewn on the barn floor. He had never had a feeling like what he’d experienced moments before, and now that it was gone, he wanted it back. He loaded the last two bags of feed onto his shoulders and stacked them with all the others on the far side of the barn, then made a quick call to Cade, the ranch owner, and returned to Little Bit’s stall.

  “We really should be going,” Dixie said. “Daylight is fading.”

  Sally stopped petting the donkey and stood up. “Lan-Lan, go,” she said as she held out her arms for him to take her.

  “Little corn has big ears,” Dixie said.

  “Evidently,” Landon agreed as he stood and picked up Sally. “I’ll have to remember that when I want to sneak something past her.”

  “Now where do we go?” Dixie asked.

  “Cade said we could grab a tree stand from the barn and that we might have luck finding just the right-sized tree up by the cabin.”

  He settled Sally back into her car seat, held the passenger door for Dixie, then jogged around the back of his truck and slid in behind the wheel. He drove from the barn to the old cabin at the back side of the ranch, whistling “Jingle Bells” the whole way. “You ever been back here?” he asked as he parked.

  “Nope, but I’ve heard the stories about it. Just about every couple on this ranch and on the one next door have used this cabin to live in at one time or another,” she answered. “Claire says it’s magical. That when one of the cowboys moves in here, his true love finds him.”

  I wouldn’t mind getting stuck back here with you, Landon thought.

  “Oh, really?” Landon raised an eyebrow. “So that’s why the boys in the bunkhouse won’t even drive back here. They’re afraid they’ll meet someone, fall in love, and have to give up their weekends at the Rusty Spur.”

  “I wouldn’t know about that, but I think this is a beautiful spot. Not that it matters. We’re here to get a tree and take it home, so we don’t have anything to worry about,” Dixie said.

  He unfastened his seat belt and turned around to say something to Dixie, but he couldn’t utter a word. With a beautiful sunset behind her, all he could think about was taking her in his arms and kissing her until they were both breathless. “What?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”

  “Do you think that us being even this close to the cabin might have an effect on us?” he whispered.

  “Not when you’re going back out to the Panhandle in a couple of weeks,” she said.

  He tried to hide the disappointment on his face and remind himself that he was excited to see his brothers again. “So, what’s your type?” he asked, gesturing to a stand of trees nearby. “Tall and skinny, or short and fat?”

  “I always imagined I’d have a tall, handsome one,” she answered, her eyes sparking.

  Lord love a duck! That cabin might be working its magic yet.

  * * *

  That man is going to make a wonderful father someday, Dixie thought as Landon unbuckled Sally from her seat. He’d been so kind to them. Shortly after they’d met, he had stopped by the shop to bring in some flour and sugar he’d picked up for Claire. He’d sat down on the floor and played with Sally while Dixie put the groceries away, and then he’d stuck around for a while longer talking to Dixie. She’d never had a man—not one of her stepfathers or Sally’s father either, for that matter—treat her like what she had to say mattered, but Landon did. That started the friendship, but these days it seemed like when she was around him, her heart beat a little faster and her pulse raced—that was attraction, not friendship.

  She’d vowed not to put her life, her heart, and her trust in another man after what she’d gone through in the past. Sally’s father had been sweet and kind at times in the beginning but he’d changed when the going got tough. Landon might do the exact same thing.

  She shook her head to clear the thoughts and made herself think about making him a quilt for Christmas. She should applique a snowflake on one square so he would remember this night. Claire had bought a whole bolt of bright red fabric that was printed with white snowflakes for her Christmas Quilt Club, and there was at least half a yard of it left. That, along with a Christmas tree, should commemorate this evening.

  Oh, and I’ll trace Sally’s little hand on a piece of fabric for a square, also. She made plans for more pieces of the quilt as they walked from the truck to the stand of cedar trees.

  “What do you think of this one?” Landon pointed at a tall, thin tree. It was only a few inches shorter than he was, and he had on his cowboy hat.

  “It’s a little too tall, and it’s got all those gangly branches.” She waved her hands as she talked.

  A squirrel climbed down the tree next to the one Landon had picked out, and Sally pointed at the ground. “Down,” she said.

  Landon put her on the ground, and though bundled up in the snowsuit, she chased after the squirrel as fast as she could. When the animal ran up a nearby tree, Sally went right to it and pointed.

  “I guess she’s chosen her tree,” Landon said.

  “It’s the ugliest one in the whole area.” Dixie pointed toward another tree. “What about this one over here, baby girl?”

  Sally stared at the cedar tree and said, “No! No! No!”

  “She can sure say that word plain enough,” Landon chuckled. “If she likes the ugly one with the squirrel, then that’s the one she should have.” He went back to where the truck was parked and brought out a saw.

  “I’ve got some fabric that has animals on it,” Dixie told him. “I could make ornaments that look like squirrels, and maybe elephants and giraffes. You sure you don’t want me to try to talk her out of that poor ugly tree? It looks like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.”

  “It might not be beautiful now, but it will be when we get it decorated,” Landon told her.

  “It’ll take a lot of ornaments to make that pitiful-lookin’ tree pretty,” she laughed.

  He dropped to his knees and she giggled.

  “What
’s so funny?” he asked and then realized that he was on his knees right beside her. “Have folks been teasing you ever since we met too?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she answered. “We’ve got to admit, it was kind of funny.”

  “Yep, it was,” he agreed as he started sawing through the base of the tree. The brave little squirrel hung on until the minute the tree began to fall, and then he jumped to the ground and ran away.

  “We’d better get this loaded before the princess follows that pesky animal to a ten-footer.” Landon threw the tree over his shoulder as if it were as light as a bag of marshmallows.

  Dixie could imagine his muscles bulging under his denim coat and wondered what it would be like to have those strong arms wrapped around her body.

  Stop it! she scolded herself. Don’t let yourself go there. He won’t even be around after the New Year. He’ll find someone out there in west Texas to hang out with.

  He tossed the tree in the back of the truck and then turned around to Dixie. “Since we’re here, would you like to see inside the cabin?”

  “Don’t you need to ask someone or get a key?” she asked.

  “Folks leave it open all the time unless someone is living here,” he said as he led the way over to the cabin. He held the door for Dixie, holding Sally in her arms, and then reached around to switch on the lights. “Especially after Claire got stuck in the snow and had to take shelter here. Did she tell you about that?”

  “Yep,” Dixie answered. “She said that she and her little niece would have frozen if it hadn’t been for the cabin.”

  She stepped farther into the cabin and looked around. A stone fireplace was to her right, a small kitchen area to her left. A coffee table that looked like dozens of pairs of boots had been propped on it sat between the well-worn sofa and the fireplace. Beyond all that, in what was like a little cubbyhole, sat a king-sized bed covered with a brightly colored quilt—no doubt one of Claire’s creations.