Darn Good Cowboy Christmas (10 page)

She missed it all.

Liz wasn't a spectator. She was a player. She liked to dance. She liked to be in the midst of the carnival. She liked to tell fortunes and watch the people and children. What in the hell ever made her think that she could settle down and never roam again?

Raylen pulled out a chair for her and sat close enough that he could drape his arm over her shoulders. Liz looked out across the people laughing, talking, milling about from one group to the other. The energy wasn't as electric as opening night at the carnival, but it was there and it fed the atmosphere.

“Would you go steal a candle from one of those tables, Raylen? And ask Jasmine if I can have one of her smoky cauldrons, and then I want a handful of dirt in one of those orange paper plates,” she said.

“Why?” Raylen asked.

“Props,” she whispered.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Earth, wind, and fire. I'll call on the spirits to steer me to the right future for the people,” she said.

“Hocus-pocus.” He chuckled.

“Spirits.” She smiled.

He could easily move earth, wind, and fire for her when she smiled like that. Hell, he could talk the angels out of their wings and the devil out of his horns if Liz wanted them for her hocus-pocus.

“Why are you stealing my candle?” Becca looked away from Taylor when she noticed Raylen picking up the candle.

“Fire. Madam Drabami told me to bring her fire, and her wish is my command,” he said.

“You're goin' to get burned,” Becca said.

“Not if I don't stick my fingers in the jar.” He laughed.

He set the candle on the table. “There you go, Madam.”

She smiled up at him. For another smile, he'd damn sure find her some wind and earth. He picked up an orange plate on his way outside and scooped up a handful of dirt.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Colleen asked.

“Taking earth to the gypsy fortune-teller,” he said.

“You are crazy and you're goin' to get hurt,” she said.

“Not if someone like you don't blow hot air across my dirt and get it in my eyes,” he said.

He passed the bar and picked up a cauldron.

“Hey!” Jasmine yelled.

“Got to have wind if the folks want their fortunes told,” he said.

“Then take it and be off with you, knight-in-shining-Indiana-hat.” She waved him away.

When he returned, Liz had a deck of cards in her hands, shuffling them. He'd never seen such quick hands or such speed. Colleen couldn't even put on a show like that and she was a professional blackjack dealer.

Liz spread the cards on the table, quickly picked them back up, and did an air shuffle that reminded her of Blaze. She looked across the table and pictured him sitting there beside Raylen.

She blinked and it was gone, but she couldn't stop thinking about Blaze. They had shared everything, including one kiss along the way. She was eighteen and both of them had had one too many beers that evening. They'd been scraping and painting wagons all day with Grandpa and they were tired and sweaty from the work inside the warm barn. She'd reached for a beer at the same time he did, and their hands and eyes met somewhere in the middle. Looking back, it was inevitable since they were thrown together so much, but it had been awkward instead of passionate.

When it was over, she wondered why the women acted like momma cats in heat every time they were around him. And he'd wiped the kiss away with the back of his hand.

“I don't kiss that bad,” she'd said.

“No, but I feel like I just kissed my best friend, or worse yet, my sister.” Blaze laughed.

“Yep, that's what it felt like,” Liz said.

“Guess we know now that we ain't meant to be together no matter what Tressa and Marva Jo think,” he'd said.

“Guess so,” Liz had told him.

And that was that. From then on, they talked every night about everything. She heard about his women. He heard about her crushes. She knew when he thought he was in real love with that woman from Amarillo. He knew when she lost her virginity to the son of an air conditioner repairman right there in Claude, Texas, during the winter months. Blaze had held her hair back while she threw up after drinking too much the night she broke up with the boy, and Blaze was the only person in the whole world who knew that she'd harbored a long-time crush on Raylen O'Donnell.

“I'd give a whole quarter for your thoughts right now instead of a penny,” Raylen said.

“Sorry, I was thinking about fortunes,” she said.

Well, she was in a way.

Her future and Blaze's, anyway.

Creed Riley drew up a chair across the table from Liz and right beside Raylen. “Is it time for the palm reading to begin? My girlfriend just went to the bathroom, but she wants to be first so she sent me to hold her place in line. You don't look like a witch. And why do you need old Indiana Jones to protect you? If you could really see the future then you'd know if you were in trouble with this feller around you.”

Liz looked up and giggled. “I'm not a witch. I'm a Drabami, that's gypsy for fortune-teller. There's a big difference. And Indiana isn't protecting me; he's my wingman.”

Creed couldn't have looked less like Ace's brother. He had brown hair, green eyes and towered above his older brother. “So why do you need a wingman?”

“I don't tell people what they want to hear. I tell them what I see, and sometimes they'd just as soon no one else heard what I have to say, so my wingman keeps everyone back about ten feet and turns them loose one at a time. Kind of like one of those good-lookin' doormen at a fancy big-city club,” she said.

Creed laughed.

His girlfriend, Macy, sat down at the table and plopped her hand out in front of Liz. “Tell me that cowboy is going to make a wonderful husband.” She had a high squeaky voice and blond hair peeking out from behind the Minnie Mouse wig.

Liz fanned the air above the cauldron. “Wind, earth, and fire, descend on us and give us your power to see the future. Show us what lies in the morrow as well as in the distant future.” She shuffled her cards one more time.

“Macy, cut them and then lay out the top card on the table.”

The woman laid out the wine card and Liz said, “You will soon have a cheerful experience. Your birthday must be nearing.”

“Let's hope the wine means a party before then. My birthday isn't until the end of March,” Macy said.

“You will have a wonderful, exciting year beginning next spring. You'll have parties to attend and I see long-distance travel in your future with a new love interest that you will find in one of your trips. There's a jackpot in your money sector if you take advantage of the financial opportunities. If not, you will find happiness but it won't be ecstatic happiness.”

“I'm not sure I like this fortune tellin'. It sounds like I'm going to find my true love away from Ringgold,” Macy said.

Liz nodded. “You will be happy if you decide to stay in Montague County but your real happiness and wealth awaits outside of Texas.”

“Now I know this is all bullshit. I'm going to marry Creed and live on a cattle ranch,” she said.

Liz smiled. “Just remember what I said when you travel.”

At midnight Liz had read everyone's palm except Raylen's, and she didn't want to read his or lay out the cards for him either. She'd told Slade's wife that she would have a third pregnancy which would produce twin boys and Rye's wife, Austin, that she would have a big family in the next ten years. Colleen's fortune said that she would marry someone who would take her to faraway places and make her an exotic princess.

“Now what do we do with earth, wind, and fire?” Raylen asked when the party finally broke up.

Liz shuffled her cards and returned them to her pocket. “We return earth to earth, blow out the fire, and turn off the wind with the button on the bottom of the cauldron.”

Gemma sat down and propped her feet up on the table. “Well, darlin', you made the party tonight. It was the best we've ever had. Everyone was talking about what you said. Creed said he'd prove you wrong because his girlfriend was going to marry a cowboy, and Colleen says you are full of shit because she's never leaving this area.”

“We'll see.” Liz smiled.

“Me, I want to believe you, darlin'. I want to think that by next Christmas I'll have found my own special cowboy. Matter-of-fact, I'm going to be damn good this whole year so Santa can bring him to me. I want him to show up on Christmas day wearing nothing but one of those cute little Santa hats and cowboy boots. Whooo-wee, that makes my little hormones whine just thinkin' about it,” Gemma said.

“God Almighty, Gemma!” Raylen said.

“Yep, he is, but Santa might be almighty too if he can bring me that by next Christmas. I'm goin' home. We'll pack up and clean up tomorrow night. Jasmine and Colleen are helping. You want to?” Gemma looked at Liz.

“Sure.”

“Supper is on the house for anyone who helps. It's leftover party food and whatever Jasmine brings,” Gemma said. “See you tomorrow.”

“I'll drive you home.” Raylen looked at Liz.

“No need. I drove myself,” she said.

“Then let me drive your truck home and I'll walk back through the pasture,” he said.

“I didn't see any devils or blackbirds in the cards.” Liz laughed.

“Blackbirds?” Raylen frowned.

“They signify dire misfortune,” she said.

“Well, there's crows between here and your place so I better see you to the door.” He laughed.

“Okay,” she agreed. “But that Dalton fellow really should be taking me home since I promised him a dance and got so busy that I never did dance with anyone.”

Gemma took her feet off the table and stood up. “Hey, girl, let Raylen take you home. Dewar got hooked up with Angie Sutter and took her home. I really did think you and him would hit it off but guess I was wrong. Remember what you told him?”

Liz nodded. “That love was on its way to meet him.”

“What'd you tell Raylen? I didn't hear his fortune,” Gemma asked.

“Didn't do his. He was my wingman and we didn't have time to see what the earth, wind, and fire could conjure up for him. We'll have to read his cards next time around. Good night and thanks for inviting me.”

“It's me who's thankin' you. See you tomorrow at the café,” Gemma said.

Liz and Raylen were both quiet on the way to her house. Raylen had seen the glow around her as she read palms and told fortunes. It was exciting and exotic. He'd be a complete fool to think that she'd ever give up a life like that to be a waitress in Ringgold, Texas, the rest of her life or settle down with a horse rancher either. She belonged in a carnival, not on a Texas ranch.

The evening had plumb worn Liz out. When she worked at the carnival, her hours were different. She worked until midnight, spent an hour locking everything up, another one talking to Blaze or Tressa and her mother, and then slept until midmorning. Tomorrow the alarm would go off at five. It didn't give a damn if she'd told fortunes until midnight or if she'd gone to bed at ten o'clock. The café opened at six, and customers were usually sitting in their cars waiting for the doors to be unlocked.

Raylen parked the truck and walked Liz to the door, waited while she opened it, and stepped inside without being asked.

“Raylen, it's late,” she said.

“I want three minutes of your time,” he said.

She cocked her head to one side. “What?”

“I want you to dance for me,” he said.

“You've never seen a belly dancer perform?”

He shook his head. “You are so beautiful and I've imagined you dancing all evening. Please?”

“Okay,” she agreed.

She picked out a CD, put it into the CD player, and pushed a button. Raylen settled into one recliner while Blister claimed the other and Hooter slept on the floor in between.

Liz went to the middle of the floor and turned her back. When the music started, her hands were up with her shawl tangled up in them and one leg slightly cocked outward. Her body and the music became one entity.

She moved close to him and popped a hip out to brush against his hand.

He smiled.

Putting a hand on each side of the recliner, she did several torso rolls, the sequins and fringe becoming a sparkling blur in constant movement. She knew that she was putting more sexiness into the dance than she had ever done before. It was belly dance and pole dance combined, but she loved the hot desire in his eyes.

His eyes locked with hers and a fine bead of sweat popped out on his upper lip.

She stood up, locked her fingers above her head, and turned her back to him, hips rolling from one side to the other. So he was hot, was he? Well, her skin was on fire from the way his eyes had gone all soft and dreamy. If his eyes could do that to her, she could hardly imagine what sex would be like.

Raylen was so aroused by that time that he was aching. He reached out to touch her, but she moved away and his fingertips barely got a taste of what he wanted.

She swirled in front of his eyes, the scarf becoming fairy wings. One minute it flirted with his face and then was gone before he could capture it with his lips. Another moment it snaked across the pulsating bulge behind his zipper, and even though he couldn't really feel it, it was a blowtorch that heated him up even more.

All he could hear was the tinkling of her bracelets and the bells on her ankles, a sound that filled his ears with music. She said she couldn't play anything but a fiddle, but that wasn't true. She was doing a fine job with silver bracelets and little brass bells strung on an ankle chain.

When the music ended, the shawl was dragging behind her and their eyes were locked together in a heated gaze that said only one thing would ever put the fire out. He grabbed her hand, pulled her to him, and using every bit of willpower he could conjure up, he undressed her without tearing her costume to shreds.