Honky Tonk Christmas (14 page)

“What do you intend to do with the house you are living in now?” Sharlene asked.

“My grandparents on my momma’s side are retiring. They’re selling their farm to my brother in another year and we’d like to remodel the old house for them to live in. They’d never be happy in town and Grandpa has to have animals around him or he gets cranky. Grandma likes to garden. They’ll have what they like without the responsibility of a big farm and harvest season,” Fiona said.

Holt was grinning when Sharlene looked at him.

“And you?” He nodded at Lisa.

“Oh, honey, I could keep a crew busy for a year all by myself. Jeff needs at least two new barns. I want a deck, a family room, and a new garage,” she said.

“Sounds like there’s plenty of work up here if a person would relocate,” Holt said.

“And that’s not even counting the women we know whose husbands can bring in a hay or wheat crop but can’t figure out how to put in a lightbulb,” Molly said.

Sharlene almost choked on a bite of sweet potato casserole. Dear Lord, they were trying to move Holt to Corn. If she was truly interested in him then they’d lure him into their net and she’d follow. She wasn’t totally stupid and they weren’t as sly as they thought they were. Well, if they could talk Holt into moving to Corn, Oklahoma, they could have him. She wouldn’t even fight for him. She’d joined the army to get away from Corn. No way in hell was she coming back to it.

Judd tapped Holt on the shoulder. “Daddy, can we go play now? We ate all our dinner and throwed away the plates in the trash can like Jodie and Tasha. And there’s kittens out in the garage and Waylon and Matty are going to go see the sheep and goats and he’s all finished too and the ham was so good. Did Granny make it or did God?”

Sharlene rolled her eyes at her beaming mother. “Granny made the ham, Judd. She’s got a secret she won’t tell anyone about how to make it so good.”

“Yes, you can both go play. Have fun,” Holt said.

Dinner took the better part of an hour with the conversation going from construction to wheat to hay to cattle. Sharlene didn’t pay attention to any of it. She had enough on her hands just keeping still when Holt’s thigh accidentally brushed against hers. Add that to every time one of them reached for their iced tea their shoulders touched. She could have sworn something was on fire close by and the embers were falling on her skin. Heat like that should be extinguished in a bedroom or in a hayloft on a nice soft blanket. And where had it come from, anyway? Why did she have to say that there might be something brewing in the wind between them? That one admission, which was a lie to begin with, had sure fanned the embers that were already there to create a full-fledged forest fire.

There was little chance of anything happening with four brothers and fourteen kids all around, not to mention her mother and four sisters-in-law. She felt like one of the women in Iraq who was never allowed out in public without a male escort to be sure she didn’t do anything ornery.

Holt studied the house, the yard, and the livestock on the other side of the yard fence while he ate. A carpenter could tell where the additions had been made even though the whole outside had been sided afterwards. It was light gray with white shutters with a white picket fence surrounding it. The huge backyard had two swing sets in addition to a couple of tire swings hanging from tree branches. He’d noticed roses and flower beds in the front yard and thought of the roses climbing up the back porch posts in the abominable multicolored house where he and the kids lived.

He looked out further and saw the barns. Good sturdy buildings that had been well maintained. Her leg brushed against his again and he inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. If she didn’t stop touching him, even thinking about houses and barns wasn’t going to keep down an embarrassing physical reaction. He might have to “accidentally” spill his ice cold tea right in his lap just to cool things down.

Jenny looked across the table at Sharlene. “What’s the matter? Are you sick?”

Sharlene looked up at her sister-in-law and realized she was talking to her. She’d been trying to come up with an excuse to go into the house and wash her face with ice water. Hell’s bells, she might need to soak her whole body in cold water the way it was reacting to every brush of his leg or hand or even the scorching look in his eyes when they landed on her.

“No, I’m not sick.” She quickly put a fork full of sweet potato casserole in her mouth. All she needed was for them to start some balderdash about her being in love.

“Then why aren’t you eating? I swear when she came home from Iraq both times we thought we’d never get her filled up on good common food,” Jenny said. “She went there for a year, came home for two weeks, and they sent her right back.”

Jenny reached for her tea and Fiona picked up the story, “Just about killed Molly the first time and we won’t even discuss the second time around. She didn’t think she’d ever see her daughter again but Sharlene came home after a year. There was talk they might station her out at Fort Sill. I remember the day she got a call and said she was going back for another year. It was not a good day around here.”

“Why on earth a woman would enlist is beyond me,” Clara said. “But Jenny is right. She ate like she’d never get full both times when she came back home. When Sharlene isn’t eating, something is the matter. So ’fess up, girl. Don’t tell us you went back in the army?”

“I did
not
join the service again,” Sharlene said.

“Then what’s got you off your food?” Jeff asked.

All eyes were on her and the adult table went silent. The kids’ laughter blended with the bawling of cows and neighs of horses but all that was in the distance, like music playing softly in a movie scene.

“The heat,” she said honestly. “I’ll outdo you all come supper time when it’s cooler. And tomorrow when there’s homemade ice cream and watermelon, you’d best get in line before me.”

Holt bumped her knee when he wiggled in his seat. Heat that had nothing to do with the weather radiated from her thigh all through his body. It might take more than ice water to put out the fire. He wondered how much a plane ticket to the North Pole cost these days. And when did he get so damned attracted to her, anyway?

“So you want banana or chocolate chip?” Molly asked Sharlene.

Sharlene looked bumfuzzled. “What?”

“Ice cream! I swear you’re comin’ down with something,” Molly said.

“Both,” Sharlene said hurriedly.

“I’ll do the banana. You do the other.” Fiona looked at Clara.

She nodded.

Molly stood up. “It’s time to put away the food until supper.”

All five girls started inside to help her.

She waved a hand at Sharlene. “Not you. You take Holt and show him around the place.”

“I’ll do that,” Claud said. “Your mother’s been fussin’ for months about not getting to see you, girl. You go on in there and visit with her.”

Molly narrowed her eyes and shot Claud a look that left no doubt he would hear about his big, big mistake later.

“What’d I do?” he asked.

“Nothing, darlin’,” Molly said syrupy sweet.

When the ladies were in the house Molly stomped her foot on the wooden floor so loud it sounded like a shotgun blast. “Man doesn’t say three words all week and today he decides to be a magpie and take all Holt’s time. I’m sorry, Sharlene, I tried.”

Sharlene threw her arm up around her mother’s shoulders. “Hey, I see him almost every day. It’s all right if Daddy steals him.”

“He works in Dallas? I got the feeling he worked in a small place like Corn.” Molly studied her daughter intently. Something wasn’t right and she’d ferret it out before Sharlene left the next day or she’d flatten all of Holt’s truck tires and keep them until she did.

“He works wherever his job takes him. Now tell me who all is coming for dinner tomorrow?” Sharlene said.

“Don’t test her mettle. She knows something is going on. You might as well ’fess up and tell all. You know very well she won’t abide secrets,” Fiona whispered.

Molly put plastic wrap over the platter of ham and set it in the refrigerator. “You asked who is coming to dinner tomorrow. Well, we have invited Dorie and her two kids and the new neighbor. His name is Wayne Mulligan, by the way. And both sets of your grandparents. And two ladies from the Circle didn’t have kids coming home. And Fiona’s in-laws and then there’s Jenny’s aunt and uncle. Did I forget anyone, Lisa?”

Lisa shook her head. “That about gets it.”

“Why did you invite the whole county?” Sharlene asked.

Fiona’s giggle was high-pitched and always sent them all into laughter just listening to her. “She didn’t,” Fiona said between giggles, “until we found out you were bringing home a bachelor.”

“Mother!” Sharlene exclaimed.

“Well, if you aren’t interested in Wayne then Dorie might be and if you aren’t really serious about that pretty cowboy, then Dorie might be. Then again, even if you are interested in him, he and Dorie are more fitted to each other since they both have a boy and a girl and they’re about the same age. And Wayne is a good man. You could do a lot worse. I like what I’ve seen in Holt. He’s seems like a hard-working, honest man with a future but I’m not so sure he’s for you,” Molly said.

Sharlene popped her hands on her hips. She’d known coming to Corn would be a mistake. What was she thinking anyway? Inviting Holt to the land before time? “What if I don’t want a husband at all? I’ve been doing very well without a man in my life.”

“Just don’t come whining to us when you get that urge for kids and you’re too old to have any,” Fiona said.

“Or when all that’s left are dregs,” Lisa chimed right in. “The good ones in this area are taken by the time they’re twenty-five. Lots of them younger than that. By the time a woman gets thirty the pickin’s are slim as a bad year’s cotton crop.”

Sharlene glared at her other two sisters-in-law. “Well?”

“Don’t get me into this. I’m the shy one, remember,” Clara said.

“Shy, my ass. I’ve heard you fight with Matthew,” Sharlene said.

Clara raised an eyebrow. “Well, if you want my opinion you can have it. Just remember, you asked for it. You’ve always been a temperamental handful and you might be doing the male population in the world a big favor by not marrying. I wouldn’t want to be your husband. You could probably chew up old Holt and spit him out in little pieces. I like the man. Bless his heart, raising two kids alone can’t be easy. He needs a good strong woman like Dorie, not an overbearing snit like you.”

Sharlene set her jaw in anger. “I’m not a snit, darlin’. I’m a full-fledged red-haired bitch and don’t you ever forget it. Okay, Jenny, throw your two cents in before I slam the back door and go for a long walk.”

“Love you, honey, but I dang sure feel sorry for any man you set your sights on. He’ll have a hell of a life. I wouldn’t want Holt to live that way or for Wayne to be miserable the rest of his natural born days either,” Jenny said.

Sharlene glared at them all, slammed the back door with enough force to rattle the dishes in the cabinets, and took off across the yard. She ignored the gate and climbed over the yard fence.

Claud shook his head and set his mouth in a firm line. “Looks like Grandma’s temper has surfaced in my daughter this afternoon. Them women do that sometimes. They get to talkin’ around the table and before you know it, one of them is hotter’n sheet metal in July. You might want to go attempt to pour some water on the fire, Holt.”

“Why me?” Holt asked.

“Ain’t none of us ever been able to put it out. Ever since she was born she’s been feisty. You might as well try,” Claud said.

“I guess I can try but don’t expect miracles. Judd, you and Waylon be good and mind Claud and Molly. I’m going to take a walk with Sharlene,” Holt called out.

“You mean Granny and Gramps?” Waylon yelled.

“Yes.” Holt put a hand on the fence, hopped over, and began to jog toward Sharlene.

Cows and horses looked up from grazing to see what was making so much noise. He would have loved to stop and pet that big roan horse but there wasn’t time. He’d grown up outside of town. His mother had a garden. His father had one cow, a horse, and a few chickens. He always loved that old mare. Sharlene’s strides got longer and longer and pretty soon she was running toward a barn in the distance.

She disappeared inside. When he reached the door he caught a glimpse of her climbing up into the hayloft and followed. She was sitting on a bale of hay, looking out the door at the end of the loft when he reached the top.

“What are you doing here?” she asked icily.

“They sent me to put out the fire of your temper,” he said honestly.

“They ain’t got much sense if they thought one man could do the trick.”

His gaze locked with hers and he took two steps forward, scooped her up in his arms, and landed a hard, passionate kiss on her lips before she could protest. She melted into his embrace and kissed him back, tasting sweet tea and smoked ham and inhaling the aftershave that had set her desire meter on the high level that morning when he showed up at the Honky Tonk looking like sex on a stick.

Where had she heard that expression? And what a hell of a time to wonder about it right in the middle of a kiss. Oh, yeah, it was when Larissa told her about Cathy and Daisy. One of them referred to the cowboy who made them leave the Honky Tonk as sex on a stick.

He broke the kiss and she pulled his lips back down for another. As the kiss deepened she forgot all about the Honky Tonk ladies and let the heat flow through her veins like hot lava.

He broke away again and buried his face in her hair. “Cooled down yet? And what set you off anyway?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Hell no, I’m hotter than ever only in a different way,” she said.

He sat down on the bale of hay but kept her in his lap. “Me too.”

“Right now I’d like a cold beer or even a shot of Jack,” she said.

“We could sneak off to a beer joint,” he suggested.

“It’s Sunday. Liquor stores are closed. Might buy some beer at the convenience store in town, but if Momma got a whiff of it? Let’s just say we wouldn’t be eating supper here or having a party tomorrow either. Now, why didn’t I think of that? She could kick me off the farm and I could go to Mingus and run my beer joint in peace.”