Darn Good Cowboy Christmas (25 page)

Not often was she able to think at all when he kissed her. Usually every sane thought left her head in a void that could only be refilled with thoughts of him after the love making had finished. But that night with the smell of horse and hay all around her, she realized something vital.

It was Raylen's touch and kisses that watered the roots she was growing in Montague County, Texas. And the pain of pulling up the roots would be worse than the pain of cutting off her wings. Every time she had doubts, all she needed to do was curl up in his arms and let him pour on the water.

“I see you every day but I miss you every hour I'm not with you,” he said.

She laid her head on his shoulder. “But we saw each other this morning and we've slept together two nights.”

“Slept. Not this. I missed having time to hold you without falling asleep, to kiss you until my brain goes to mush, and…”

She touched his zipper. “Looks like something else isn't mush.”

He reached up above his head and flipped a switch. The stall went dark with the dim lights out in the center aisle barely letting him see the hot desire in her dark eyes. He kicked the stall door shut with his boot and grinned.

“Ever made love in a horse stall?”

“No, but I'm plannin' on it right now,” she said as she slowly unbuckled his belt.

He deepened the kiss, making love to her lips and mouth with his tongue. She moaned and melted against him. He slipped a hand under her shirt and with two fingers undid her bra for the second time that night.

“Are you sure we won't get caught again?” She muttered words between passionate kisses.

He took his time standing up so that he wouldn't miss a single moment of tasting her lips and picked her up like a new bride.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Right here, but that cot is too narrow.” He tossed the blanket he was supposed to use for cover while he napped onto the ground and laid her down on it. “It's not satin sheets but it's as big as a king-sized bed.”

“Satin is overrated.” She smiled.

“Your skin can be the satin for the night, and darlin', that's not overrated,” he whispered as he removed her jacket and shirt and covered her skin with hot, steamy kisses.

She wiggled and undressed him in a hurry, pulled the side of the blanket up over them, and ducked under it to cover his hard body with nibbles, nips, tastes, and kisses. When she reached his toes she started back up the other side, stretching out on top of him when she got to his lips. She nibbled on his earlobe, and he wrapped his hands around her slim body and with one expert flip, she was under him and the blanket still covered them both like a cocoon.

If his kisses were the water that kept her tiny new Ringgold roots alive, then sex was the fertilizer, she thought just before his touch and kisses erased everything but that deep, hot, juicy desire to make love with Raylen. She arched against him and ran her hands down his back, digging her nails into his hips.

“God, Raylen,” she said.

“Praying?” he panted.

“Oh, yeah,” she said.

“For what?”

“For this to never end.”

Raylen had found places that she never knew could make such intense heat, had already made her feel like she was teetering on the edge of a cliff. If she died right then, they'd find so many of those sexy chemicals in her body that there would be no doubt as to cause of death.

“That could be arranged,” he said as he found another spot high on her inner thigh that fanned the already out-of-control blazing fire, making it even hotter. He began a long, easy rhythm that erased every word from her vocabulary: roots, wings, staying, carnivals, horses. They all disappeared, and the only word left in her brain was Raylen.

The crescendo built into panting breathlessness so intense that it would not be denied and had to be satisfied in that moment, and the barn lit up in a display of sizzling sparks. The monitor sitting above their head said they'd awakened Danny Boy with their noise.

“Guess we woke the baby,” Raylen said as he rolled over to her side, keeping her hugged up to him in the cocoon.

“Need to check on him?” she panted.

“No, I think he was giving us his blessing,” Raylen chuckled.

“I should go.” She yawned.

“Stay a little while. I'll wake you up before midnight,” he said.

“Oh, no. As tired as I am I'll fall asleep and Dewar would find us. I'll stay a few minutes but then I have to get out of here,” she said.

“I wouldn't care if he did find us.”

She wiggled until she was in position to kiss him. “That is so sweet. Now hold me until the bones come back in my knees.”

“What if the bone comes back in all my joints?” he teased.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled as she fell asleep.

She awoke at eleven thirty, eased out of Raylen's arms, and was fully dressed when he opened his eyes.

“Did Danny Boy wake you?”

“No, he's breathing easy.” She dropped down in the straw and kissed him on the forehead. “Good night, darlin'. I'll see you tomorrow evening at the house.”

“Oh?”

“It's an invitation. Bring Colleen. Aunt Tressa and Blaze are making Italian in my big kitchen.”

He sat up. “You sure that's wise?”

“They like you. Momma even wondered if you'd like to travel.”

He grinned. “No thank you. But wise about Colleen and Blaze?”

“Honey, she might find out that he's way too much for her to handle if they spend time together.”

“Or he might find out the same thing.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her down for another searing kiss. She scrambled out of his embrace when his hand moved up her back toward her bra strap.

“Good night, Raylen. It's a quarter till twelve. If you don't want Dewar to find you strip stark naked, you'd better be gettin' your britches on!” She heard him scrambling as she made her way down the aisle toward the front door. And she and Dewar passed each other on the path from the house to the barn.

Liz, Hooter, and Blister stood on the porch and watched the long carnival parade arrive. First the travel trailers and then the semis and last the flatbeds.

Marva Jo brought up the rear. When she saw Liz waving and smiling, she leaned out the window and yelled, “It's beautiful, Lizelle! Just beautiful!”

Liz could hardly believe her ears. That her mother had agreed to set foot on Haskell's land was a miracle. But for her to tell Liz that it was beautiful was acceptance and that was even more than a mere miracle; it bordered on magic. But then it wasn't Haskell's property anymore, it was Liz's. And denying a daughter would be tougher than denying a brother.

By the time the last flatbed had parked, Liz was making the rounds, showing them the barn, where the electrical outlets were, and where the Porta-Pottys were parked to the north of the barn. Her mother and Aunt Tressa were already in the barn, but they weren't looking at her tree or the multitude of presents under it. They were sizing up the barn and taking in the tack room.

“It's big enough,” Tressa said.

“For what?” Liz slipped an arm around each of them.

“Winter,” Marva Jo said.

“You are thinkin' about changing the winter site to here? Wow!” Liz's voice went high and squeaky and tears brimmed in her eyes.

“Not now. When you and Blaze take over the carnival. It would be ideal. Raylen could spend several months a year next to his folks and then y'all could travel the rest of it,” Tressa said.

“Keep dreamin', ladies,” she giggled. “It ain't happenin'. I wanted a cowboy for my Christmas present, not a carnie.”

“And what's wrong with a carnie?” Blaze came up from behind and wrapped his big arms around all three of them.

“Not one thing. I love you all, but I've made up my mind. Don't matter if it's Thanksgiving or spring, Uncle Haskell is giving me this place. But I'd be glad for y'all to change your winter place when Poppa is gone.”

“That will be for the next generation to talk about. Blaze will be in charge of making decisions if you are serious, Lizelle,” Marva Jo said.

“I am very serious,” Liz said slowly. Saying the words settled it in her heart forever.

“That's not for years and years. Tressa and Marva Jo are still going to be running the big show when they are ninety. Now show me and Tressa to the kitchen. It's been years since I had a big kitchen to work inside,” Blaze said.

Liz spun around, kissed him on the cheek, and whispered, “Thank you!”

“Is it this way?” Tressa pointed toward the tack room.

“No, it's in my house where you two are sleeping tonight.”

Marva Jo shook her head. “We've decided that we'll eat in your house and cook in your house and maybe even enjoy a bubble bath in a big tub, but we aren't sleeping there. Neither of us would be able to get a wink of rest with no wheels under us, and besides, look what sleeping in that house has done to you. Those roots might attack us in our sleep and never let us leave, and we've got a carnival to put on the road in four months.”

Liz was only mildly disappointed. But it was a minor setback that she did not intend to argue. This year, she'd talked them into staying three nights and setting foot in her house. Next year, she might get them into a real bed. One baby step at a time and she could be a patient woman… in some things.

“Then lead the way,” Blaze said.

“I will, but you don't get to play in the kitchen until after you round up some guys to haul a bunch of tables and folding chairs from Raylen's barn to mine. I'm borrowing them for our dinner on Wednesday night,” she said.

Blaze gave her an extra squeeze. “I can do that. You show these two women the kitchen and then come back and take me to Raylen's barn. Can we make a side stop somewhere along the way and see Glorious Danny Boy and Major Jack?”

“No.”

Blaze looked puzzled and hurt at the same time.

“I wouldn't deprive Colleen of that for anything. She's going to want to give you the tour of her folks' place. Think you can wait until after supper? I've invited her and Raylen to eat with us.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Blaze's eyes looked like gold nuggets.

Liz talked nonstop the whole way to the house. “You should have been here when I first discovered that barn was on my property. I thought it belonged to Raylen. And then we found the Christmas stuff up in the loft where Uncle Haskell had his wood shop, and Jasmine and Ace and Dewar and Gemma all pitched in to help me get it all up and lit before you got here. And I can't wait for you to meet Jasmine. She owns the café where I work. Don't look at me like that, Aunt Tressa. I know I'm rich and I don't have to work, but I want to. And I've invited everyone I know and a lot that I don't, since they know people I do know, to the party so you can meet the whole community. Oh, you are going to love Nellie and Ellen. They bicker and banter and the stories they tell are so funny. And you'd never believe that Jasmine left a high paying corporate job to be a cook in her own little café; or that Pearl was a high-powered banker and left that to run a motel over in Henrietta. And what do you think of this infatuation Blaze has with Colleen?”

Tressa giggled. “You threw that last question in there pretty slick, girl.”

Liz led the way up the steps to the front door. “Oh, before you answer, meet Hooter and Blister. He's a terrible watchdog, and I understand she has kittens two or three times a year, but they are wonderful listeners. Now please answer that question, Aunt Tressa. I've been dying to ask you, and Blaze is always around, and he'll be back when he gets the guys all together to get the tables for me.”

She slung open the door and stood back. Hooter and Blister followed Marva Jo and Tressa inside. Liz stepped in and shut the door behind her. “How do you like it?”

“Which question do you want answered first?” Tressa was taking in the whole huge living room in one glance.

“Blaze.”

“He's a big boy and I like Colleen. My instincts tell me she's a quick study and I can already see her in costume.”

Liz's dark eyes almost popped right out of her head. “For what?”

“Telling fortunes,” Tressa said. “We lost the last one I trained, but I think I could get Colleen ready in a few weeks.”

“You think she'd leave her family and her job?” Liz was astonished.

“You did. Now show me the kitchen and the pantry. You did remember to get fresh garlic, didn't you?” Marva Jo answered.

Liz nodded. “This way.”

Marva Jo looped an arm around her daughter's waist. “I love the house. If I wasn't a carnie, it's exactly what I'd want. Big living room for the family. Big kitchen to cook in, and bedrooms on the other end. I can see why Haskell built it this way. Too bad he and Sara never had kids. I liked that woman. She would have made a good mother.”

“You saying that means a lot to me. It can't be easy,” Liz said.

“You'd better have more than one child. Have a house full, because at least one of my granddaughters is going inherit my traveling blood, and I'm going to make you pay for your raisin' one of these days,” Marva Jo said. “Until then, know that I love you enough not to send you on a guilt trip.”

Liz put both arms around her mother and hugged her fiercely. “You are the best mother in the whole world.”

“Tell me that when I steal your favorite child and make her a carnie. It'll be in her bloodline, Lizelle. Don't forget who you are.”

“I can never forget that. Now let's go cook before you make me cry.”

Tressa laughed. “You cook! Darlin', have you told Raylen that the extent of your cooking ability lies with whatever you can pour out of a can or heat up in a microwave?”

Liz pointed toward the end of the living room. “His momma lives one mile that way and she is an amazing cook. If I don't take her son off to the carnival, I'm bettin' I can wrangle a meal or two a week over there. And don't forget I'm a waitress at a café. Jasmine is an artist in the kitchen, and her prices are reasonable. I can take him up to the Chicken Fried when his momma ain't cookin'. And on the nights we want to stay in and have sex until our brains are fried, I betcha he doesn't mind canned soup and microwave pizza at all.”

Tressa threw back her head and roared. “You raised a genius, Marva Jo!”

“Yes, I damn sure did, didn't I?” Marva laughed with her sister.

“Who's a genius? God, this is huge,” Blaze said as he slipped in the kitchen door.

“Not really. Wait until you see the O'Donnell place. That's huge,” Liz said.

Blaze's expression changed in the blink of an eye. “That big, huh?”

“Yes, it is,” Liz said honestly. She tried to think of something that would make him feel better, but that was something he'd have to do on his own. “You ready to get those tables? Then while you help Aunt Tressa cook, the guys can set them up for us. That way if they want a place to gather up tonight they'll have it. I want them all to know I appreciate these few days. They could be halfway home.”

“They all love you and they're ready for a rest and a big party,” Blaze said. “Let's get this show on the road. I can't wait to mess up this big old kitchen.”

“What you can't wait for is a glimpse of Colleen, and remember, the rule applies in a big kitchen the same as a little one: what you mess up you clean up. Only thing I like less than cooking is washing dishes,” Liz teased on the way out the back door.