The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (17 page)

Lucas shook his hand. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Lucas. That means a lot to me, comin’ from you,” he said.

Sonia joined him from across the room. “And the girls are so excited about a Christmas
wedding.”

Noah threw his arm around her shoulders, but she looked right at Lucas when she talked.
“All his brothers are coming home for Christmas, so his whole big family will be here.
And my sister and brother will be at Granny’s, so they’ll be here. It’s going to be
the prettiest wedding this town has ever seen.”

Lucas kept his eyes on Joshua who slurped down his dinner. “Want me to burp him… Natalie?”

She caught the hesitation before he said her name. She owed him one for not calling
her sweet cheeks right there in front of Noah and Sonia.

“You hold the bottle and I’ll do it. So how many kids are you two plannin’ on?” Natalie
smiled at Sonia.

Sonia looked like a cornered rabbit with her eyes darting from one side of the room
to the other and back at Noah. It was good enough for her after the stunt she’d pulled
on Lucas.

“What do you think, Noah?” Sonia finally asked.

“I grew up in a big family and loved it,” he said. “But I sure don’t want that many.
Maybe some ornery boys like Melody and Jake have.”

Natalie smiled at Sonia. “Well, four is a good round number. I always thought I’d
like to have four like my momma had.”

“Sounds good to me,” Sonia said.

Did the woman ever tell the truth? She’d lied to Lucas and now poor old Noah thought
he was getting a family out of the marriage.

“I must go help get the spoons put in the food. We sure can’t eat it with our fingers.”
Sonia giggled nervously. “Why don’t you guys take the baby so Natalie can help me?
I’ll introduce her to the church ladies.”

Natalie shifted Joshua into Lucas’s arms before he could even reach for him. The catfight
had barely begun and she was more than willing to take it to the next level. Hell,
she’d even take it outside in the street. She would borrow two butcher knives from
the kitchen. Whoever came back inside after the fight could have a second helping
of that chocolate layer cake on the table.

“That was hateful and mean,” Sonia hissed on the way across the room.

“And what you did to Lucas wasn’t bitchy?” Natalie asked.

“I was protecting my waistline, and besides, no man stays in love with a woman when
she’s puking up her guts every morning and her ankles are swollen like she’s got the
gout,” Sonia said.

“Do you love Noah?” Natalie asked.

“Of course I love him or I wouldn’t be marrying him. But just for your information,
I will always have feelings for Lucas. We were together for a long time, but I guess
I screwed myself out of that, didn’t I? If he’d known he could make babies, he would
have used protection and you wouldn’t be here today, so I wouldn’t have a chance at
him again even if I did want it, which I don’t. But, darlin’, you can be damn sure
every time he’s in bed with you, he’s thinking about me.”

Natalie stopped so fast that Sonia had taken two more steps before she realized she
was alone. She turned so quickly that her halo fell to the floor and she stumbled
on the tail of her angel robe. Natalie reached out and grabbed her shoulder to keep
her from falling.

“Whoa! Can’t have you all bruised up for your wedding,” she said.

“You tripped me,” Sonia said.

“You were five feet ahead of me, girl. I did not trip you. Noah is a good man. Why
would you marry him if you still have a thing in your heart for another man?”

“I’m almost thirty. It’s time for me to be married.” Sonia stomped off toward the
tables where the ladies were putting out casserole after casserole and too many desserts
to count.

Lucas was suddenly at Natalie’s side. “What was that all about?”

“Just a little friendly catfight.”

“But you’re going to tell me before nightfall, aren’t you?”

She looped her arm in his. “Ladies do not catfight and then tell.”

Sonia cornered Melody and they were whispering and shooting looks toward Natalie that
would get a real angel kicked off her cloud. A vision of Sonia hitting earth with
a thump so hard that it would knock her halo sideways put a smile on Natalie’s face.

“If I wasn’t so hungry, we’d leave right now,” he said.

“But the little ladies wouldn’t get to fuss over Joshua,” Natalie teased.

She wasn’t ready for the long talk she and Lucas needed to have. First of all, they
had to address the sex. No more unprotected sex.

She needed some time to process the last twenty-four hours. A week would be wonderful,
but even two hours would help. Her Aunt Leah had always said that she was too nice
for her own good. Trusting came easy, but she’d just found out that there were people
that couldn’t be trusted.

“And right in church,” she mumbled.

“What was that?” Lucas asked.

“Nothing. I’m hungry. Do we have to wait much longer?”

Jack waved from the other side of the room and motioned them over. “Willie here wants
to take a look at Joshua. He says that we should’ve let Josh be baby Jesus. I told
him that Josh wanted to sing in the choir, not lay there with nothing to do.”

Lucas steered Natalie in that direction with his hand on her lower back. A simple
touch of a gentleman’s hand shouldn’t have a woman thinking about sex on the front
pew of the sanctuary.

But it did!

“This little Angus went to market. This little Angus stayed home. This little Angus
had smoked ham. This little Angus had none. And this little Angus, this little Angus,
this one right here cried moo, moo, moo all the way home.” Henry chuckled when he
got a grin from the baby.

“I thought it was piggies,” Natalie said.

“Not in a beef rancher’s house,” Jack said. “It’s my turn to hold him, Henry. All
them people at the church this afternoon come damn nigh to stealin’ him away from
us.”

“You’ll have to wait until later, Dad. I’m going to give Natalie and Josh a tour of
the ranch before it gets dark,” Lucas said.

“You can’t take Josh to the cabin without me being there. I want to see his face when
he sees it the first time. You and Natalie go on and look but Josh has to stay with
us. Get my keys from my coat pocket so you can get into the church while you are driving
around,” Henry said.

“Josh would rather stay here and play with us as get back in that car seat anyway,”
Grady said.

“That’s right,” Henry said. “Baby’s been passed around enough for one day.”

“That don’t mean you get to hold him the whole time they’re gone,” Jack said.

“His little bones will get sore if too many people hold him,” Henry said. “Besides,
we need to talk some more about Angus cattle, don’t we, Joshua?”

“Wise men?” Natalie mumbled.

“Or not so wise,” Lucas whispered.

“Go on. Get out of here. Take your time,” Henry said.

Lucas helped Natalie into her coat. “Can’t fight ’em.”

“He has a bottle in an hour. We’ll be back by then,” she said.

“We can read directions and we’ll figure out how to make him another one if he gets
hungry,” Jack said.

“His diaper bag is stocked with everything,” she said.

“Go. Shoo! Get on out of here. We’ll take care of this baby and enjoy every minute
we get with him,” Henry said.

The sleet had stopped and now big beautiful snowflakes floated from the sky in a lazy
fashion. The wind had completely died, so they drifted straight down from heaven and
landed on a solid layer of sleet and ice coating the ground.

Grass blades, covered with a thin layer of ice, reached up to grab the flakes and
hold on to them like a mother protecting her child. Natalie shook the snow from her
hair when she got into Lucas’s truck.

“It’s still a couple of weeks from now, but if it doesn’t warm up, Josh’s first Christmas
could be a white one.” Lucas backed the truck up and then started down a path that
was nothing but two ruts leading around the yard fence and toward the back side of
the ranch.

“We’ll have to take pictures no matter what kind of Christmas it is. Momma is having
a hard time with us being gone as it is. She’d never forgive me if I didn’t have pictures
to show her,” she said.

“What’s on your mind? Josh will be fine with them. Only thing that they might do is
spoil him so much that you have to hold him all the time,” Lucas said.

“What makes you think something is on my mind?”

“I have known you for almost a year and I recognize that expression. You are worried
about something. Are you sorry about last night?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “It’s those three wise men back there. They’re getting awfully attached
to Joshua. It’ll break their hearts when I take him back to Silverton.”

He reached across the bench seat and laid a hand on her thigh. “Confession time,”
he said.

“I’m not a priest and this truck doesn’t look like a confessional,” she said.

“You might not be, but I need to tell you all the same. I really did talk about you
a lot and I showed them pictures of you and they know chances are slim to none that
I can ever have a child.” He paused.

“And they thought we were getting serious before I ever came to Savoy, right?” she
finished for him.

“Oh, yeah! And Dad was worried that you’d want kids and I couldn’t produce them and…”
Another pause.

“Joshua is like icing on the cupcake for them, and I’m all right with that rumor that
Sonia got started with her smart-ass remarks.”

The truck tires crunched on the icy lawn as he stopped in front of a cabin. Two big
cedar trees on either side of the porch were covered in twinkling lights and dusted
with newly fallen snowflakes. The cabin had been built of hewn logs and the roof was
corrugated sheet metal that had years and years of rust peeking through the light
layer of snow settling in the valleys. A fully decorated Christmas tree shining in
the window sent an array of colors out to settle on the white ground.

“He sure did it up good this year. He’ll make sure Josh sees it sometime during the
season.” Lucas got out of the truck and hurried around to open the door for Natalie.

“But it’s so far away from everything that no one sees it,” Natalie said.

“Granny does. Gramps is convinced that her spirit comes to the ranch every December
and lingers through until New Year’s. She loved the holidays and he does all this
just for her. That’s the reason the place is named Cedar Hill Ranch. Gramps would
have named it Christmas Tree Hill, but Granny said that didn’t sound like a ranch.
They went out to get their first tree and found it on a little rise, so she named
it Cedar Hill. It reminded them both of Christmas trees.” Lucas threw an arm around
Natalie’s shoulders.

The inside was warm and cozy with the heat from gas logs blazing brightly. One big
room contained an iron bed that had been painted white against the wall away from
the fire. A kitchen had been set up against the other wall that consisted of a long
cabinet, a tiny stove with only two burners, and a small refrigerator. A crocheted
doily topped a table that had been painted bright yellow. A poinsettia sat in the
middle of the doilies and the two chairs beside the table were pulled out as if someone
had just left. Two rockers in front of the fireplace were painted the same color.

Natalie took in the whole cabin in one glance. “Isn’t he afraid to leave an open fire
burning?”

“He says Granny would tell him if it caught on fire and he’d come put it out.” Lucas
removed his coat, hung it over the back of a chair, and then helped Natalie remove
hers. He motioned toward the table. “Have a seat. I’ll make us a cup of coffee. Gramps
says that this is the same furniture that they started out with. It was four years
before he could scrape up enough money to build her a real house. And even after they’d
moved into it, she’d sneak off down here on Sundays. Gramps called it her playhouse.”

Natalie sat down in a chair and watched Lucas put together a pot of coffee.

“So how many girls did you bring here?” she asked.

He slapped a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt that you’d even think such a thing. Granny
wouldn’t abide me bringing women in here with no supervision.”

“I’m here,” Natalie said.

“But…”

Natalie had never seen a grown man blush like that before. Something way more than
just bringing a girl to the cabin was going on.

“And?” she said.

“Gramps would have my hide if I ever brought a girl to the cabin or to the church
with intentions of making out with them. But it’s okay if you are here because I told
them that I thought you were the one and that this month would tell the tale.”

“And it all blew to hell when you saw Joshua, right?”

His dark eyebrows drew down so far that they became one line. “Dammit, Natalie! If
the situation were reversed, what would you have thought? And didn’t you think that
I might be the one? Why else would you have come all the way across the state to meet
me?”

She was busted and speechless both.

Lucas raked his fingers through his hair. “Well?”

“You didn’t tell me about the tests that you and Sonia had done,” she whispered.

“That’s a little different than a flesh-and-blood baby.”

“Aunt Leah said this Internet friendship and dating thing was why so many people are
disillusioned about relationships.”

Lucas poured coffee in two mugs and set them on the table before he sat down. “I never
believed in them either. Some of the guys around here were meeting women on there,
and I told them they were crazy.”

“Why?” Natalie asked.

“Because to really know someone, you’ve got to live close enough to her to know her
family, her way of life, and what kind of snow cone she likes,” he said.

“And yet, here I am.”

“You are a rancher. You come from a long line of ranchers and you like white coconut
snow cones. Ours is an unusual circumstance,” he argued.

She sipped the coffee. Black and strong enough to open a woman’s eyes. That’s what
she’d told him when he asked how she liked her coffee. He’d remembered the little
details like Drew always did.

Was
Lucas the one for her?

Lucas’s warm hand covered hers. “We’ve still got some time. We don’t have to dot all
the i’s and cross all the t’s tonight.”

The touch of his hand hushed the argument going on in her head.

He gently squeezed and abruptly changed the subject. “I haven’t done any Christmas
shopping yet. After supper tomorrow night, I thought we might go to Sherman and work
on that. Santa Claus is usually at the mall all month. We could get Joshua’s picture
taken with him and maybe have ice cream at Braum’s afterward.”

“I know where I stand now. What about Joshua?” she asked.

“He might be my best friend someday.” Lucas smiled.

She could live with that for the time being.

“Let’s take our coffee to the rocking chairs. Have you ever sat in a tall woman’s
chair?”

He led her to the other side of the room but didn’t let go of her hand.

“I didn’t know they made them in tall or short.”

Using his boot, he pushed the chairs close enough together that he didn’t have to
let go of her hand.

She eased down and sighed.

“Pretty neat, isn’t it? Granny was as tall as Gramps, which would make her about your
height. She said that she felt like she was biting her knees in most chairs, so Gramps
made this set of chairs for her wedding gift. The seat and legs are both longer than
normal,” Lucas explained.

“I could rock Joshua all night in this. But why didn’t she take them to the big house
when they moved?”

“She did but when she died, Gramps brought them back down here. He said her spirit
never left this house and that he wanted her to have her special things when she came
back to visit.”

A single tear found its way down her cheek. She couldn’t let go of the coffee cup
or his hand, so she did her damnedest to ignore it.

“That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s what I want, Lucas. A relationship
like they had,” she said hoarsely.

“Me too,” he whispered.

He set his cup on the floor and reached for hers. Without a word she handed it to
him and didn’t protest when he pulled on her hand. She shifted from her chair into
his lap and curled up like a child in his arms. Lucas Allen had a good strong heart,
one that he’d only give away one time in his life, and she wanted it for Christmas.

She looked up into his eyes just in time to see them flutter shut. She barely had
time to moisten her lips when his mouth covered hers in a hard, hungry kiss. Her hands
snaked up around his neck and she snuggled in closer to his body.

“Ever had sex in a rocking chair?” he asked.

“Bite your tongue, Lucas! Your granny might be in this room right now,” she whispered.

“If she was, she’d have already upset the chair. I think she likes you.”

She studied his face again. She’d always been a sucker for brown-eyed cowboys, but
not a one had ever affected her like Lucas Allen did. The tree lights flickered in
his eyes, creating a soft, dreamy effect. Then they closed and his lips found hers
in another blistering hot kiss.

One minute they were rocking, the next he was carrying her across the room toward
the bed. She felt tiny in his arms, a first for her because at almost six feet, not
many men had the strength to pick her up like a bag of feathers and carry her like
a bride. He laid her on top of a gorgeous wedding ring quilt and stretched out beside
her.

“Oh, my!” she gasped.

“What?” he asked.

She propped up on an elbow and ran a finger down his cheekbone. “What if your granny
comes home and finds us in her bed?”

“Granny is gone, Natalie. Gramps just keeps her memory alive this way.”

“I don’t believe it. If Henry says that she comes home for the holidays, I believe
him.”

Lucas kissed her on the forehead.

She traced Lucas’s lip line with the tip of her finger.

“That is making me so damn hot.” He slipped his hand under her shirt and rested it
on her ribs. “Your skin feels like satin sheets. I could spend the whole day here
and do nothing but touch you.”

She moved closer to him and changed the subject before things went a step further.
“Did you go to the doctor’s office with Sonia when she got the results from that test?”

He forgot the bra, grabbed her hand, and kissed each finger. “No. One time at that
place was enough for me. Why are we talking about this? I’d rather tell you how beautiful
you are and talk about us.”

“Did you see the papers with the results printed on them?” she asked.

He frowned and dropped her hand. “Where are you going with this, Natalie?”

“Did you?”

“No, I did not. She told me what they were. We had a hellacious fight because she
acted happy about it and I was heartbroken. We broke up and I left two weeks later
for Kuwait and didn’t see her again until last week,” he said.

She pushed away from him and sat on the edge of the bed. “We might be in big trouble,
Lucas. We had unprotected sex last night.”

“Remember what the doctor said. A miracle. One chance in ten million. I’d say we got
a lot of chances left before ten million.”

“Maybe not,” she said.

His jumped up from the bed. “Did Sonia lie to me about those tests?”