Her Last Cowboy Christmas

by Liz Isaacson

See you soon. Amber almost added a heart emoji, but she wasn’t sure if she was quite that woman yet. Then she grabbed her keys and headed out, feeling lighter than she had since Jewel had shown up in her office a few weeks ago.

  “Moving day,” Amber said when Lance opened the door to his cabin. “The cabin is spotless.” She stepped into his embrace and held on tight. Her heart felt like it was tearing into tiny pieces, and she was giving him another shred with every day that passed.

  “I hung the curtains, and I made sure there are groceries for tonight.” She stepped back to find a hint of anxiety in Lance’s blue eyes.

  “Thanks, sweetheart,” he said, his attention already somewhere else.

  “Hey, is everything okay?” she asked, looking over her shoulder too.

  “Fine,” he said. “Everything is set for Rufus?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Your mom just needs to sign the form, and I left it on the counter in her new place. He can go right over to the Canine Club when he gets here.”

  Lance nodded, finally focusing on her. “You want coffee?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” She smiled at him, reaching up to touch his face before he could move further into the house. Time stilled as they looked at one another. “Lance, I told Jewel I wasn’t going to accept the new job.”

  A smile filled his whole face. “Really?”

  Amber closed her eyes and nodded. “So kiss me before your family shows up, and we have to get to work.”

  He did exactly what she said, and Amber enjoyed the slow, round way he kissed her before taking her hand and leading her into his kitchen, where he not only had coffee, but a couple of boxes of doughnuts too.

  Several minutes later, a horn sounded, and Lance practically jumped out of his skin. “They’re here.”

  Amber followed him out of the house and down the steps. They walked up the road together, hand-in-hand, and she hugged his mother, who looked like she’d been crying.

  “Morning, Mom,” Lance said as a couple of other cowboys showed up to help her move in. “This is Dave and Sawyer. They’re both in the band. Cache too.” He nodded to the blond cowboy who came jogging across the lawn.

  “Hello, boys. Oh, I feel like I know all of you.” She hugged them all. “You have the new baby girl, right?” she asked Dave, and Amber marveled at how she could remember that. It seemed like there was a lot going on around the ranch these days, and Amber felt like she could barely remember things.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Dave said.

  “Thanks for coming to help.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Mom,” Lance said, drawing on her elbow. “This is Ames. And Cook. Gray had to be out in the pasture today. Hudson and Scarlett are coming. And there’s Carson with Gramps.”

  “Gramps?” Amber shaded her eyes as she looked down the road. Sure enough, Hudson and Scarlett strode toward them easily, but Carson stayed back with the older gentleman. “He can’t really help, can he?” she asked Hudson as he arrived

  “He wouldn’t stay home,” Hudson said. “He can sit in the shade.” He smiled at Lance’s mother and shook her hand. She hugged Scarlett, tears pouring down her face now.

  “Thank you so much for letting me come live here,” Jamie Lee said.

  “It’s fine,” Scarlett said. “It’s empty, Jamie Lee. You might as well be living in it.” She beamed at her, and then Lance.

  “My brother,” Lance said. “Arthur. His family is coming to help too.”

  “They had to stop for gas,” he said. “And Kristen texted to say Tia is having a meltdown, so they’ll be a little late too.”

  “Well, we have plenty of help,” Amber said, looking at Lance. “So let’s get your mom moved in.”

  He smiled at her, all traces of his nervous energy gone. Art opened the back of the trailer, and Amber linked her arm through Jamie Lee’s. “Come on, let’s go inside. You can tell them where to put everything as they bring it in.”

  She led Jamie Lee up the steps and into the cabin. She paused, glancing around. “This is nice,” she said. “Lance sent me pictures, but it’s hard to see until you’re here.”

  “We put up curtains,” Amber said. “To make it feel more homey. And he’s checked all the lightbulbs, all the doors. Everything is ready for you.” She stepped over to the fridge. “I got a few groceries for you. Everything is ready.” She pressed her lips together, realizing she’d repeated herself.

  Why she was nervous, she wasn’t sure. She just wanted Lance to be happy—and his mother. Change was hard, Amber knew.

  “Thank you, dear.” Jamie Lee turned as Lance came inside with a couple of boxes.

  “Tell us where, Mom,” he said, holding up the line of men ready and willing to work.

  “I labeled them,” Jamie Lee said, and Amber stepped forward to help too. “Those go here in the kitchen.”

  Lance moved, and Amber told Cache, “Those go in the spare bedroom. The one on the right side of the hall.”

  Box by box, and piece by piece, everything got unloaded off the truck and moved into the house. Amber, Kristen, Sandy, and Scarlett started unpacking boxes and putting things away. With the truck empty, the cowboys tipped their hats and got back to their regular jobs around the ranch—all except for Lance.

  He stayed in the living room with his mother and the rest of his family. “Mom, I’m going to take Rufus now,” he said quietly.

  Amber straightened from a box she was unpacking in the kitchen.

  Jamie Lee nodded, kneeling down to take the huge dog into a hug. Amber went over to her and helped her stand, keeping her hand in hers.

  “I’ll go with you,” she said to Lance.

  Jamie Lee sniffled, and Lance clipped a leash to Rufus’s collar. “Be back in a few minutes, Mom. Kristen.”

  “We’re fine here,” she said. “Take your time.”

  Amber followed Lance and Rufus out the front door and down the steps. She wanted to comfort Lance, who had tension radiating from his shoulders. But she knew sometimes a situation just required silence and time to overcome, so she slipped her hand into Lance’s as she kept Rufus’s admission papers to Last Chance Ranch gripped in the other.

  Chapter 17

  Lance’s mother seemed to settle into her cabin well enough. She didn’t come out for a few days, and then he got a text from Amber that said, I just assigned your mom a room in Feline Frenzy today!

  A smile lit him up, and he knew things would only continue to improve. A week passed, and they went to church together. Karla made her first big meal of the spring, and Lance found his mother behind the table, helping her to serve everyone, when he showed up.

  And near the end of April, when his mother had been on the ranch for almost a month, he got a text from Carson that said, Gramps and your mom are sitting together on his back porch.

  Lance stared at the screen, trying to work out how he felt about that. “They’re probably just friends,” he said to himself. After all, Gramps was at least a decade older than Lance’s mother. Maybe more.

  That’s great, he sent back to Carson, because he didn’t know what else to say. She hadn’t talked to anyone in the house, so for her to be here, among all these people, was good. She needed friends, and everyone here worked—except for Gramps. It was a good friendship, and Lance wasn’t going to worry about it being more than that. There’d be no point anyway.

  May arrived, and with it, all the pollen and allergy-inducing spores. Lance stocked up on medication and sometimes he wore a bandana around his nose and mouth as he worked. The sun started to heat the days for longer, and before he knew it, the entire ranch was holding its breath.

  Because Scarlett and Hudson had left for the city a couple of days ago, and they were bringing home their twin boys that afternoon.

  Adele, Amber, and Karla had been cooking since Scarlett had left, and everyone on the ranch was invited to the homestead for a huge party. It wasn’t what Lance would want to do if he’d been gone for a few days and now how two
babies to take care of. But Scarlett had always made a big deal out of happenings on the ranch, and she’d been waiting to be a mother for a long time.

  So Lance found himself smashed into a corner of the homestead with dozens of other people at the appointed time.

  “They’re coming,” Adele said, lifting her phone. “Jeri said they just passed Prime.”

  The excitement grew, and a few people spilled out onto the front porch, as if seeing Hudson’s truck first was important. Amber came over to Lance and sat beside him, her face aglow.

  He took her hand and brought it to his lips. Things between them had been going great, especially once she’d truly chosen him over the job in Denver. He hadn’t even realized he needed her to make that choice, but he had.

  He wasn’t sure what had prompted her to do it, but he didn’t care. He’d noticed she was different than usual, and he wondered if the online counseling was helping. She hadn’t made big changes, but she seemed more confident around the ranch, and he hadn’t heard her say anything negative about her engaged sister or her mother in weeks.

  She’d been out shopping with them, and JJ had asked Amber to go with her to choose the flowers. Neither experience had upset her, though Lance had expected them to. He hadn’t asked her, because he didn’t want to imply she wasn’t a great person before.

  She was.

  He’d liked that woman, but he really liked this one. He hadn’t admitted it to himself yet, but deep down, he knew he was in love with her.

  “Two babies at once,” he said. “What do you think of that?”

  “I think I could barely handle one,” she said with a smile.

  “I’m sure you’ll be a great mom,” he said.

  “You think so?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you be? At the very least, you’d always know where the diapers were.”

  She laughed and leaned into him, and Lance lifted his arm and put it around her shoulders. “This might not be a great time to talk about this, but have you thought about getting married? I mean, do you want to get married? I mean—” He forced himself to stop talking.

  Amber straightened and looked at him. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “I mean—I’m just asking if you want to get married in general.”

  “That’s usually how it works,” she teased. “You get married and then have the babies.”

  “I know,” he said. “I just…you’ve never said.”

  She gazed at him, so much being said without words. “Yes,” she said. “I want to get married.”

  “It’s just…you never dated anyone for very long.” Lance didn’t know why he was still talking, especially when Amber’s eyes sharpened.

  “I was taught that I could date around,” she said. “Really get to know what kind of man I liked. So…I guess maybe I took that a step too far.” She smiled, but it was strained along the edges.

  Before Lance could apologize or say anything, the front door opened, and Hudson entered the homestead, one baby in his arms. Behind him, Scarlett carried the other blue bundle. Amber jumped to her feet and hurried toward them as a cheer went up.

  Lance joined in the clapping and congratulating, because it was an amazing thing to leave one day without children and come home with two. Amber was a few years younger than Scarlett, and he wondered if she’d be able to have kids of her own.

  He watched her hug their friends and take the baby from Hudson. Adele stood on a chair and announced that the food was ready, and everyone should come eat it while it was hot. Lance vacated his chair and migrated toward Amber, who gazed down at that baby with pure love shining in her face.

  “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Amber looked up at Lance with such hope in her eyes.

  “He sure is,” Lance said. “What did they name them?”

  “This one is Miles,” Amber said. “The other one is Logan.”

  Scarlett hadn’t given up Logan yet, and Lance didn’t blame her. His mother joined them, stroked her finger across baby Miles’s forehead, and looked at Lance. “When are you going to have grandbabies?”

  “Mom,” he said, heat rushing to his face. “I’m not even married.”

  “You two better get working on that,” she said with a smile, no hint of shame or apology anywhere, and turned to get in line for lunch.

  Lance looked at Amber, mortified. But she simply started laughing. After pressing a kiss to the baby’s cheek, she said, “I guess everyone is thinking about marriage today.” She followed his mom, leaving Lance to wonder what she meant.

  Was she thinking about marriage? Getting married to him, specifically?

  And if so, why did that make Lance’s heart prance in such a strange way?

  Life around the ranch marched forward, and June announced its arrival with a thunderstorm and strong winds that had most of the cowboys fixing something that had been blown over or had something blown into it during the night.

  The Canine Club was no exception, as it had miles of fences keeping dogs where they should be. And wind and fences didn’t normally play well together.

  Lance made sure he went and got Rufus each morning, and he took the dog with him as he did all his chores around the Club. Rufus had started running with the cross-country team, and he didn’t bark nearly as much as he had out on the farm.

  Days passed, and fences got fixed, and Lance spent time with his mother and his girlfriend. Things felt stable and steady, and it all made Lance uneasy for some reason. He almost felt like the ranch was in the space of time where everything was quiet and perfect just before a huge storm.

  He didn’t want to be negative, and he didn’t worry about things until they happened, but he woke each day with a certain tension in his muscles that testified of hard things to come.

  Not that June was here, all the excitement of a wedding arrived too. Cache and Karla were just a few weeks away from tying the knot, and the pasture that usually housed his cows started getting spruced up for the big event.

  The animals were moved to a new field, and the skeleton of the tent structure started to take shape over the area.

  His mother had a doctor’s appointment that day, and he tried to focus on the dogs he was working with and not what she might be learning. She’d had some health problems in the past, but nothing too serious. She’d get some medicine, and she’d have a few rough days, and things would get better.

  Lance suspected that some of her health concerns came from her mental state, especially after the death of his father. Some of her bad days were simply emotional and mental, and Lance tried to be there for her in the evenings when he could.

  He didn’t hear from her by lunchtime, and he walked home with the summer sun overhead, wishing for the colder days of December. Of course, when it was December, then he’d wish for the warmer days of June.

  “Lance.”

  He looked up at his name to find his mother sitting on his steps. She’d been crying. “Mom.” He hurried toward her and wrapped her in a hug. “What’s wrong? What did the doctor say?”

  She’d been experiencing a lot of stomach problems, and she hadn’t been able to keep much down for about a week now.

  “He says it’s probably a problem with my gallbladder,” she said into Lance’s shoulder.

  “Oh, well, gallbladders aren’t vital,” he said.

  “It’s surgery,” she said. “And I have to stop taking my blood thinners, and there’s a risk for that, and I’m just nervous.”

  “I know.” Lance kept his arm around her as they walked up the steps. “Have you had lunch?”

  “I can’t eat anything with fat in it,” she said.

  “No fat?” Lance didn’t even look at the labels on his food. “What about like…?” He couldn’t even fill in the blank as his mind emptied. “I think I have a protein shake.”

  “I’m fine, Lance.” She sat on the couch, and she certainly wasn’t fine.

  “I’ll look up what you can eat.” He
turned toward his kitchen table, where he kept a laptop he used from time to time.

  “The doctor gave me a sheet,” she said. “It’s mostly vegetables. White rice. Stuff like that.”

  “I’ll come this weekend and help you get things stocked up.”

  “Lance, you don’t need to do that. Kristen and Sandy are coming.”

  “Did you invite Amber?” Lance knew she liked doing things with his mother, and his mom had her number.

  “I did, but she can’t come,” his mom said.

  “I wonder why not.”

  “She said she was going out of town.”

  Lance froze, unsure of what he was even doing. “What? She is?”

  “Yeah, she said she was going to Denver.”

  The word seemed to echo in his ears. Denver. Denver. Denver.

  His mom sighed and she leaned her head against the back of Lance’s couch. He needed to call Amber, but he wanted to do it in private.

  He should eat first, as he was hungry, but he said, “I’ll be back in a minute, Mom,” and he strode down the hall, his phone already out as he navigated to Amber’s text string and practically punched the call button.

  Chapter 18

  Amber heard her phone ringing, but she’d left it near the entrance to the cat enclosure where she’d been called. One of their rescue cats had tested positive for the cat flu, and she’d put a ton of volunteers in Feline Frenzy today to get the cats who’d been infected quarantined from those that weren’t.

  Everything had to be cleaned, and enclosures had to be identified for the sick cats, and Amber’s exhaustion hit a new high before lunch. She didn’t have time to eat, or take phone calls, so she handed another healthy cat to Kelsie and said, “Enclosure two.”

  The air conditioning worked, but it wasn’t up very high, and Amber ran the back of her gloved hand over her forehead as Tricia brought in another cat to be tested.

  Gina, the large animal veterinarian, took the cat from her and gave her to Mariah, the small animal vet. Amber provided an extra set of hands, as most cats didn’t take to being held down or poked and prodded.