The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (27 page)

She waited.

“Well?” Jimmy asked.

“You said not to interrupt you.”

“Now you can talk,” he said.

She smiled. “I loved him before I even came out here, but I just didn’t know how much.
He’s my soul mate, Daddy.”

“Did he ask you to marry him?”

“Not yet,” she said.

“Well, if he doesn’t by Christmas then you come on home and he can court you by coming
out here. Will you promise me you’ll do that?”

“I promise,” she said.

“Okay, then, I’ll see you at New Year’s, and I miss you, kiddo!”

Tears welled up in her eyes when he called her that. To him she’d always be his little
girl just like to her, Josh would always be her baby boy.

“Miss you too, Daddy.”

“Where are you? I don’t hear Joshua.”

“Sitting in my truck. I came to Sherman to finish up some shopping. I’m on my way
to…”

“Walmart,” he finished for her. “Woman ain’t been to town unless she goes to Walmart.”

“You got that right,” she said. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she was
going to buy a pregnancy test.

“Love you, kiddo,” he said.

“Love you too, Daddy. And you’re really going to like Lucas. He’s rancher from the
heart out.”

“Thought he was a soldier.”

“Not anymore. He’s all rancher.”

“Well, that makes me feel a little bit better, but I’ll save judgment until I meet
the fellow. He comes from good stock, I’ll give him that much. His granddaddy and
my folks were good friends when they were all young. Now I got to go. Your momma don’t
know I’m calling you. We might keep it that way.”

“Why?”

“When you have a daughter, you’ll understand.” He chuckled. “Bye, now!”

The parking lot was so full that she had to park halfway to Dallas. At least it seemed
that way when she ducked her head against the north wind that tried to push her all
the way to Houston. Finally, she made it into the Walmart store and snagged the last
shopping cart available. She braced herself for the crowd and headed straight for
the side with the cosmetics, vitamins, and beauty supplies.

She tossed a pregnancy test in the cart along with two cans of hair spray, a bottle
of shampoo and one of conditioner, and a big bottle of baby lotion for Josh. When
she reached the end of the aisle she saw a display of lotions and bubble bath and
remembered that she hadn’t gotten Hazel anything. So she picked out a complete set
that smelled like warm vanilla sugar and headed back through the store to look for
a pretty scarf and maybe a nice brooch from the jewelry section.

She decided on a brooch in the shape of a star encrusted in tiny seed pearls with
a tiny diamond in the middle, but the scarf that took her eye was bright green and
red Christmas plaid. She contemplated going back to the jewelry counter and buying
Hazel an initial brooch with red stones.

“Well, hello,” Melody said at her elbow.

Natalie looked down at the pregnancy kit shining right there for the whole world to
see and flipped the scarf over it without a second thought.

“Are you out doing some last-minute shopping too? My oldest son, the little drummer
boy from the Christmas program, told Santa at school that he wanted a red wagon for
Christmas, but he didn’t tell me until this morning.” She smiled.

Natalie smiled back. “I always think I’ve got it covered and then remember one more
thing.”

“Me too. Hey, us girls are getting together for a girls’ lunch to celebrate still
having our sanity sometime between Christmas and New Year’s. Nothing fancy. Maybe
at my house for sandwiches and soup. You should come,” Melody said. “Oh, did you hear
about Sonia? She took a job in Dallas and she’s not even coming home for Christmas.
She said that seeing Noah would hurt too bad, but—” Melody smiled and whispered, “I
think she’s already dating someone.”

“Well, I hope she’s happy in her new place,” Natalie said. “Can I get back with you
on that lunch?”

“Sure. Just give me a call, and if you can’t make it this time, we’ll do it again.
I’m kind of glad that she and Noah didn’t get married. We love Sonia because she’s
our friend, but they made the most unlikely pair in the whole state,” Melody said.
“Well, I’m off to find a red wagon. Santa better dang sure appreciate me for doing
his work.”

Natalie pushed her cart around the next corner and checked to make sure that the pregnancy
box was covered.

***

Lucas took advantage of Natalie being gone and helped the guys move all the furniture
out of the new nursery room. They’d stripped all the paint from the bed the day before
and had stained the oak a rich brown. Grady worked at putting a coat of urethane on
it that was guaranteed to be all right for baby furniture while Jack touched up the
rocking horse and the chair.

When the room was totally empty, he locked the outside door. Natalie seldom ever went
in there, but he had the perfect excuse if she tried to open it. He’d simply tell
her that her Christmas present was too big to wrap and he was hiding it in the bedroom
until Christmas Eve. It wasn’t really a lie because there wasn’t a box big enough
in the whole world to wrap up the future.

She opened the back door at exactly noon and went straight to her room with a couple
of bags. When she returned she’d changed clothes and wore a pair of faded jeans, a
plaid flannel shirt, and her work boots. He thought she was absolutely stunning.

“Get it all done?” Hazel asked.

“I did. I’ll set the table and pour the tea. That soup smells wonderful. What is it?”
Natalie asked.

“Kidney bean soup. It’s a good heavy soup that goes well with crusty bread and sliced
sharp cheese on a cold day,” Hazel said. “So get bowls and saucers. We won’t need
big plates.”

Lucas walked up behind her and slipped his hands around her waist. “I missed you,”
he whispered for her ears only. “Want to go to bed and let me warm you up?”

She blushed. “Shhh…”

“You two better stop whispering or I’ll think something is going on.” Hazel giggled.

“I’m trying to talk her into telling me what she got you for Christmas,” Lucas said.

“Boy, I don’t buy that brand of bullshit,” Hazel said. “Go get that baby. He might
not be old enough to eat big people food, but I like it when he joins us at the table.”

“Later,” Lucas whispered and then kissed Natalie right below her ear. “And, sweet
cheeks, you sure are cute when you blush.”

A thousand butterflies flittered about in Natalie’s stomach on Christmas Eve morning.
More than the usual holiday excitement had filled the house the past four days. The
evening before, Hazel had insisted that she and Josh take her home to see her Christmas
tree. When they got there Hazel had cookies ready and she made coffee and it was way
past dark when Natalie got back home.

Home.

The word created another hundred butterflies. Was it home? Or was she fooling herself?
She was so damned much in love that she wallowed in the present rather than being
wise about the future.

She awoke to dead silence. Lucas wasn’t even breathing on the pillow next to hers.
She sat straight up and stared at the empty bed. No noise came from the kitchen, and
she couldn’t even smell coffee. Dear Lord, had Hazel fallen again and this time really
broken her hip? She bailed out of bed, grabbed her pajama bottoms, and was pulling
them up when Lucas appeared in the doorway.

“Is Hazel all right?” she asked.

“Sure, she is. It’s Christmas Eve,” he said.

“I know that but…” She stopped in the middle of the sentence. He was holding Josh
in one hand and a camera in the other. The baby was dressed in a bright red outfit
with Rudolph on the front that she’d never seen before.

“It’s my first Christmas present for him,” Lucas said. “And Hazel doesn’t cook here
on Christmas Eve. She’s too busy getting dinner ready at her house for tomorrow. She
usually leaves something for us to heat up for dinner and supper or we just have sandwiches.”

“You could have told me,” Natalie grumbled.

“It’s time for Josh to see his big present. Next year he’ll have to wait until Christmas
morning for his Santa Claus, but I’m so damned excited, I can’t wait.” Lucas tried
to stay serious so she wouldn’t guess the surprise, but he couldn’t keep a smile from
covering his face.

“Dear Lord, don’t tell me you brought a pony into the house.” Natalie finished dressing.

Lucas motioned for her to follow him. “Didn’t think of that, but I wouldn’t put it
past Dad to do it.”

Something was missing. He was sexy as hell even in red and green plaid flannel lounging
pants and a long-sleeved red thermal knit shirt, but something wasn’t right. She scanned
him from socks to drawstring on the pants, upward to… there it was—or wasn’t. The
dog tags were gone. He hadn’t removed them one time since he got home, not even to
shower, and now they were gone.

“Can I please make a side trip to the bathroom before Santa Claus?” she asked.

“Sure. Me and Josh will go get his morning bottle ready,” he said.

She ducked into the bathroom, fished the pregnancy test out of the hiding place back
behind the toilet paper on the first shelf of the cabinet behind the toilet, and read
the instructions.

She simply had to know right then. She followed the instructions to the letter and
paced from one end of the bathroom to the other while she waited. Every time she passed
the stick lying on the cabinet she shut her eyes. Maybe she should just toss the damn
thing in the trash and buy a second one after the holidays. She could go two more
days without knowing, couldn’t she?

The second hand on the clock dragged on like a slow-witted turtle, each click taking
a full hour. Finally, it was time to look, and she couldn’t make herself do it. She
put the lid down on the potty and her head in her hands. She wasn’t sick anymore.
She couldn’t eat bacon or sausage in the morning but had no trouble with ham or roast
for dinner or even rigatoni for supper.

“Hey, we’re waiting.” Lucas knocked on the bathroom door. “You don’t have to put on
makeup for the pictures. You are beautiful just the way you are, sweet cheeks.”

“Old MacDonald Had a Farm” started playing on the other side of the bathroom door.
She opened the door just a crack and peeked out. Joshua was sitting in his infant
seat in the middle of the hallway, and the bedroom door across from the bathroom was
thrown wide open.

“You’re pale. Are you sick again?” Lucas had a worried expression on his face.

She glanced down at the stick. Holy Mary, mother of Jesus! The line was practically
screaming out the word
pregnant
.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to faint,” Lucas said.

“I’m fine. Where’s that music coming from?” she asked.

Lucas pointed across the hall. “It’s Josh’s Christmas. I snuck in there and turned
it on so it would be playing for him when we take him into his own brand-new nursery.”

She swung the door open and watched Lucas proudly pick up the baby. He looped his
arm around her waist and together they entered the nursery.

“Oh, my!” she gasped.

“It’s old but it belonged to Gramps and then to Dad and finally to me, until today.
Now it is Josh’s new crib. The rocking chair is what Granny rocked Dad in and what
Hazel rocked me in until I was too big to sit in her lap, and the rest of it was mine.”
He laid the baby in the crib.

Josh laughed out loud at the mobile going around in slow circles above his head.

“He likes it,” Lucas said. “And he’s got room to grow. That little old crib you brought
was stunting his growth.”

“It’s beautiful, Lucas.” Tears streaked her cheeks. “I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.

He dropped down on one knee and took her hands in his. “Will you marry me, Natalie
Clark? I never knew or understood happy until you came into my life.”

The tears dripped from her jawbone onto the bright yellow tank top. She shook her
head. “No, I cannot marry you.”

“Why?” he gasped.

“Because you are only proposing to me because I’m pregnant. You don’t have to do this,”
she said.

He handed her a folded piece of paper. “That would be a marriage license. It’s good
through tomorrow. I bought it several days ago with hopes that you’d say yes when
I proposed this morning. I’m not asking you to marry me because you are pregnant.
I’m asking because I love you. I don’t want you to say yes because we are going to
have another baby. I want you to say yes because you love me.”

She threw her arms around him and sobbed into his chest.

He hugged her close and said, “Josh is our firstborn. My dog tags are in that little
chest on his dresser. I gave them to him this morning and let him chew on them. He
will know about Drew, but I want him to be my son. I want him to be proud of me for
serving my country and to grow up on this ranch, which will be his legacy as much
as the rest of the children we produce, Natalie.”

She leaned back and looked into his soft brown eyes. The message there was clear.
She could trust him with her heart, her son, and her love. “I love you, Lucas, and
I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Does this mean we are getting married
today or tomorrow?”

“That’s your gift to me, sweet cheeks, so you decide. Gramps is an ordained preacher
and the little church on the ranch is decorated for Christmas. I reckon it could be
in half an hour or tomorrow, or if you want to wait a year, I can always buy a new
license every ten days.”

***

The church was decorated for Christmas with a small tree beside the old upright piano
and poinsettias on either end of the altar. She wore the ivory lace dress that she’d
worn to the Angus Christmas party. Lucas wore his black Wranglers, a white shirt,
and carried Josh in his arms as they walked down the aisle together.

Grady, Jack, and Hazel sat on the front pew and Henry waited at the front of the church.
When they were standing before him, he reached out and took Josh from Lucas.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join Natalie… what is your middle name,
honey?”

“My full name is Natalie Joy Clark,” she whispered.

“Okay, to join Natalie Joy Clark and Justin Lucas Allen in holy matrimony and to make
them a family with Josh… what’s his full name?” Henry asked.

“His name is Joshua Lucas Clark…”

A grin covered Henry’s face. “A family with Joshua Lucas Clark, soon to be Joshua
Lucas Allen. Can I have the rings please, Lucas?”

“You didn’t tell me that you named him after me,” Lucas said.

“You didn’t ask. I named him for my best friend, Joshua Andrew Camp, and the cowboy
who helped me get over his death, Justin Lucas Allen. He will also have your initials
when you adopt him,” Natalie said.

“You’re not going to fight me on that?” Lucas asked.

“Hell, no! He’s going to sleep in your crib and you gave him your dog tags. I think
Drew would be happy for him to have your name,” she answered.

Grady chuckled. “Is this a wedding or a discussion?”

“The rings?” Henry said.

Lucas fished them out of his pocket. She hadn’t expected him to have rings, but then
the day had been full of surprises.

“These rings belonged first to me and my beloved wife, Ella Jo. We are glad to share
them with this couple today and it is our hope that they will be as happy as we have
been all these years,” Henry said.

Natalie swallowed hard as Henry blessed the rings. She hadn’t even gotten over the
weepy sentimental emotional roller coaster of pregnancy with Josh and now it was starting
all over again.

Henry asked them to repeat the traditional vows. She didn’t stutter once when she
promised to love, honor, and respect Lucas until death parted them. No problem there
except that even death couldn’t part them any more than it had parted Henry and Ella
Jo. Lucas Allen was her soul mate.

“And now you may kiss the bride,” Henry said.

Lucas tipped her chin up, looked into her blue eyes, and then kissed her with so much
love and passion that her knees went weak. When the kiss ended he turned around and
said, “Folks, welcome Mrs. Lucas Allen to Cedar Hill Ranch.”

Hazel dabbed at her eye. “And Josh. We welcome both of you.”

Henry handed the baby to Lucas and hugged Natalie. “Ella Jo is so happy that she’s
got a granddaughter now and a great-grandson that she may stick around after Christmas.”

Jack was next. “You’ve given us the best Christmas ever.”

Grady was last in line. “Lucas sure got a good Christmas. Ain’t many cowboys get a
bride and a baby both for Christmas. And the rest of us are mighty happy for him.
He couldn’t have found a better woman to ride the river of life with.”

“Thank you, all,” Natalie said. “My momma says that you are all to come to Silverton
with us on New Year’s where she’s planning a wedding reception. She’s not any too
happy about not being here today, so you will be going with me. No is not an option.”

Hazel giggled. “I pass my bossin’ crown on to you right now. And we’ll all be ready
to go to Silverton at whatever time you say.”

***

Lucas’s hand was around Natalie’s waist as they carefully laid Josh in his new bed
that night. He spit out his pacifier and stuck his thumb in his mouth and they both
smiled.

“Are you ready for bed, Mrs. Allen?”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “Soon as I make a trip to the bathroom.”

“You are pregnant, sweet cheeks. I’m so happy about it I could scream it from the
top of the barn. You don’t have to check it again,” he said.

She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you in the bedroom in a couple of minutes.”

He hurried down the hall, grabbed the CD and the candle that he’d given her, and carried
them to their room. He lit the candle, turned out the lights, and put the CD in the
player. When he heard the bathroom door shut he pushed the right button to start the
music. Alan Jackson was singing “I Only Want You For Christmas” when she walked through
the door, but Lucas couldn’t hear a single word of the song.

There she stood, strip stark naked, barefoot, hair all mussed up with a big red velvet
bow tied around her waist and her pink pistol in her hand.

“Merry Christmas, cowboy,” she whispered.

He pulled the bow and led her to the bed. “Yes, ma’am, it surely is. You going to
shoot me with that thing when I untie that ribbon?”

“No, I just keep it in the nightstand beside my bed. It goes with me. You got a problem
with it?” She cocked a hip out to one side as she put the pistol in the drawer of
the nightstand.

He reached out and pulled the ribbon and the bow came undone just as Alan sang that
he only wanted her for Christmas, baby, that he didn’t need anything else. “I don’t
have a problem with anything about you, sweet cheeks. Merry Christmas to me.”