The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (22 page)

“Oh, the precious Drew had a fault?” Lucas asked.

“That year he didn’t know when to shut up. I used to tell him that knowing when to
hush would be the hardest lesson he ever learned. I’m not sure he ever did. We’ve
been out here amongst the smell. Think we’d best take a shower before I serve up dinner.”

“It’s not that bad. We can eat and shower together later.”

But they didn’t take a shower together or make love that night. Their closest neighbor,
two miles away, slid off the road into a ditch. And all four guys left before the
six o’clock news to help. Henry drove the pickup and Lucas took the biggest tractor
they owned.

At ten o’clock he called her to say that the neighbor and his wife had to be taken
to the hospital in Denison, so he and Jack followed the ambulance. If they were treated
and released, then they’d need a ride home.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s all part of ranchin’,” she said.

On Thursday morning she woke up to another note.

We brought them home. Wilbur has a few stitches on his head. Livvy has a twisted ankle.
But it was midnight when we got home. See you at breakfast.

L

The rest of the day was a real bitch. The water to the washing machine froze up. She
was busy thawing it out with her hair dryer and almost burned the chocolate chip cookies.
Joshua fussed all day and wanted to be held.

“Henry has spoiled you rotten to constant attention.” She rewound his swing but he
still fussed.

“Oh, all right,” she said as she took him out and carried him on her hip as she folded
laundry with one hand.

Henry had taken a pie and two dozen cookies with him and left right after breakfast
to go over to the neighbors and sit with them all morning. Natalie wished she’d sent
Joshua with him by the time the day was done.

Lucas came in that evening and one look at him said that his day hadn’t been a bit
better. So much for a shower and wild sex that night. She was worn out from a fussy
baby all day. He was tired to the bone from hard work. They ate supper in silence
and then Henry brought out the whiskey bottle.

“I’m havin’ a drink.” His tone dared them to argue with him.

“I’ll have a beer.” Grady went to the refrigerator. “Jack? Lucas?”

They both nodded.

No one asked her if she wanted anything. Maybe she still smelled like skunk or maybe
she was a big part of the family and they thought she’d speak up if she wanted something
or maybe Lucas was pissed at her about something. Even the cute little notes, which
seemed more explanatory than sweet right then, didn’t make up for the fact that he’d
been downright standoffish since she shot the skunk.

She whipped around to see where Lucas was to find four sour-faced men at the table,
three with beers and one with a shot of whiskey.

“Pour two fingers of whiskey and join us,” Henry said.

She picked up the Jack Daniel’s and poured a healthy dose into a water glass.

“Livvy and Wilbur drove me crazy bitchin’ about how long it took the doctor to see
them at the hospital. I wished I hadn’t even brought them a pie or the cookies. I
even put one of them frozen dinners in the oven so Livvy could sit in her rockin’
chair, and she wouldn’t eat it. I bet Josh missed me, didn’t he?” Henry said. “Now
I’m in a pissy mood. Lucas, I want you to drive me around the ranch.”

She sipped the whiskey. It was warm going down, but it didn’t help her mood. It would
take at least five tequila shots to chase the demons from her that evening and there
wasn’t anything but bourbon and beer in the house.

“Damned old tractor is about to drive us to cussin’,” Grady said.

“About? I’m ready to shoot the damn thing like Natalie did the skunk,” Lucas snapped.

“Buy a new one. Lord, boy, you’ve got enough money to buy a fleet of damn tractors,”
Jack said. “He’s a tightwad, Natalie. Won’t spend a dime unless it’s so necessary
he can’t get out of it.”

“He sounds just like my dad.” She tossed back the rest of the whiskey.

“Come on, Lucas. We’re going for a drive. Ain’t neither one of us fit for anyone’s
company. Poor little old Josh would think we was both old bears,” Henry declared.

Jack finished off his beer with a long gulp. “See you kids in the morning.”

Grady sat there a few more minutes. “Weatherman says there’s a fresh storm brewing
up north and coming this way. Might as well suck it up and get ready for another blast.
He says this time there’ll be at least three inches.”

“Well, shit! That means the coyotes will come closer because they can’t find food,
and we’ll have to watch the young calves, and those pesky pups might crawl out of
the fence again. They think they’re big enough to hunt with the big dogs already,”
Lucas said.

“I’m leaving too. See you tomorrow morning.” Grady put on his coat and hat and left.

Henry put on his coat and Natalie watched him and Lucas both leave. She turned on
the television and settled into Henry’s recliner with Joshua in her lap. In thirty
minutes the back door slammed. From the noises, she heard Lucas hang up his coat,
stop to pet and talk to the momma cat, and then pad to the living room in his socked
feet.

“I’m not your dad,” Lucas said.

“I didn’t say you were. I said that you sounded like him. He doesn’t spend money when
it’s not necessary either.”

His chin shot up so high that she could see up his nose. “I’m not a tightwad.”

“I didn’t say you were. Don’t take it out on me because your tractor is giving you
fits. Joshua gave me fits today because your grandfather has him spoiled rotten, and
I didn’t take it out on you,” she snapped.

“I’m not taking anything out on you,” he said.

“Yes, you are, and I did not say that you were my dad,” Natalie countered.

“I’m not Drew, and I’m not your dad. I’m just me. Take me or leave me, but don’t be
making me into someone that I’m not,” he said.

“You need to get in a better mood or I’m out of here. I don’t have to put up with
this shit,” she said.

He pushed the chair back so quick that it crashed on the hardwood floor and Joshua
started to cry. “Don’t you threaten me, woman!”

“Don’t you call me
woman
. I’ve got a name. Either use it or don’t even talk to me.” She stood up, put Joshua
in his swing, and turned around. He was standing there, arms hanging limp and anger
on his face. She took two steps and her breast brushed against his chest. The heat
was still there when she touched him even when they were fighting. Yes, ma’am, Mother
Nature was a real bitch.

“Well, that’s just what you are, a woman!” he said.

“Darlin’, I am not just a woman. I’m a big cup of sass, covered in ornery sauce, with
a splash of bitch, and a dash of pure old stubbornness thrown in for good luck. You
remember that next time you think you can outshoot or outargue me,” she said.

Joshua set up a howl, but she ignored it and continued to stare at Lucas.

“Get your baby. He’s crying,” Lucas said and stormed out of the kitchen.

She heard the shower running, but she’d be stripped naked and thrown out in the snow
before she opened the bathroom door. She picked up Joshua and sat down in the rocking
chair. He stopped crying and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

She removed it and said, “Cowboys don’t suck their thumbs. They throw fits and pout,
but they don’t suck their thumb.”

He popped it right back in his mouth when she let go of it.

“Maybe you’re going to be an artist or a ballet dancer instead of a cowboy,” she said.

“The hell he is,” Lucas said from the hallway.

“He’s my kid, as you so recently pointed out. And he can be anything he wants to be.
If he wants to wear tights, cute little ballet shoes, and dance then he damn sure
will,” she said.

“I’m not fighting with you about this tonight, Natalie. I’m going to bed. I’ll collect
on that shower later.”

“And I’ll collect on the lovemaking, but tonight I don’t even want to look at you,”
she said.

“The feeling is mutual.” He turned around and went back to his room.

Natalie wanted to laugh or cry but she did neither. Instead she got her baby to sleep
and took a long shower. She didn’t realize how stressed she was until the hot water
jets beat the tension from her muscles.

Natalie was asleep within seconds after her head hit the pillow. At two o’clock the
baby woke up for his feeding and she changed him, made a bottle, and rocked him back
to sleep. She’d barely gotten back in bed when she heard Lucas yelling, “No! No! I
can’t tell Natalie.”

She bailed out of bed and ran down the hall. She threw open the door to find him sitting
up in bed, glazed look in his eyes, and shivering from head to toe. She crawled into
the bed with him, put a hand on each cheek, and said, “Lucas, it’s a nightmare. Wake
up, honey. Open your eyes for real.”

“Natalie?” He blinked.

“I’m right here,” she said.

He grabbed her in a tight hug and buried his face in her neck. “Don’t ever leave me,
Natalie. Hold me.”

“I’ll stay, but you hold me,” she said.

He picked her up and set her to one side, pushed her back on the pillows, and slipped
an arm under her. He pulled her to his side and hugged her so close that she thought
she’d smother. The shivering stopped and his eyes fluttered shut.

“When did you start having these nightmares?” Natalie asked the next morning as they
worked together in the kitchen. She browned sausage in a cast-iron skillet while he
started the coffee brewing and set the plates out on the bar.

“I had a few over there, but since I’ve come home, they’ve been almost every night.
I’m beginning to doubt that they’ll ever go away.”

Henry pushed the back door open and stomped the snow off his boots. “You doubt what?”
A grin deepened the wrinkles around his eyes when he saw them hugged up together.

“Is it ever going to warm up and melt all this ice and snow?” Natalie asked to get
Henry talking about something else.

“Oh, it will one of these days. In a few months we’ll forget all about the snow and
the mess and we’ll all be bitchin’ about the summer heat. I heard poppin’ down at
my place last night that sounded like shotgun blasts. It was limbs breakin’ off and
fallin’ to the ground. When it does thaw out, we’re going to have a lot of dead limbs
layin’ on the ground. It’ll take the work crew a month just to get the place back
in some kind of order. What’s for breakfast this morning?”

“Ham and eggs, hash browns, and biscuits. Anything else you want?” Natalie asked.

“Ask me what I want. It won’t have anything to do with food,” Lucas whispered.

She spun out of his embrace and picked up an iron skillet.

“Looks like you might ought to sit down and stop teasing her.” Henry chuckled. “Where’s
Josh?”

Before she could answer the baby monitor said that he was awake and hungry. “Guess
he’s awake now,” she said.

“You go on with breakfast. I’ll take care of him,” Lucas said.

“Diaper?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t think I know how to change a baby?”

She smiled. “I’ll have a bottle ready when you get back with him.”

“And I’ll sit in the rocking chair and feed him,” Henry said. “Wouldn’t want you to
burn my ham and eggs.”

***

Lucas picked Joshua up from the crib and laid him on Natalie’s bed. “Good mornin’,
cowboy. Good grief, feller, you are wet from the hide out. No wonder you’re trying
to eat your fists. All that milk you had last night has run straight through you.
I bet your poor little tummy thinks it’s starving. Okay, now be still and I’ll get
you all changed and fixed up for the day. We’ll show your mommy that two cowboys can
take care of anything.”

He unzipped Josh’s pajamas and peeled them off his body, then pulled the tape on the
diaper. He’d barely gotten the new one under his bottom when the baby let a fountain
loose that hit Lucas right in the chest before he could get the diaper thrown up over
the baby.

“Got quite an aim there, cowboy. When I get you all changed, we’ll have to change
me before we go find your breakfast.” Lucas laughed.

He chose a cute little outfit with a stick horse appliquéd on the front and a pair
of white socks for Josh to wear that day. It bothered Lucas that Natalie and Josh
were still living out of a suitcase. He made a mental note to tell her to unpack her
things and hang them in the closet where they belonged. When Josh was fully dressed,
Lucas picked him up and kissed him on the forehead.

Josh looked up at him. Dark brown eyes met the same color eyes as man and baby bonded
in the distance from one bedroom to the other. “I see why the rumors got started.
I swear you do have my eyes, but then your daddy had the same color as I do. He was
a hero, Josh. You can grow up proud that he is your daddy.”

Lucas laid Josh on his bed and changed shirts. “Your dad was my best friend over in
Kuwait. And he was your mommy’s best friend too. He would have loved to see you, but
he died before you were even born.”

He picked the baby back up and held him against his chest. When he reached the kitchen,
Henry was grinning so big it looked like his face would split. Natalie’s eyes were
misty and she was biting her upper lip.

“What?” he asked.

“Guess Mister Josh sprayed you down,” Henry said. “I remember the first time you did
that to me.”

“How did you know that?”

“Heard it all on that contraption over there on the cabinet,” Henry said.

Lucas’s face turned instantly hot. What he’d said to the baby wasn’t supposed to be
broadcast all over the house. “We’ll have to be careful when we’re telling secrets,
cowboy. Your momma has ears in the back of her head!”

Natalie reached for Josh and hugged him tightly against her. He wiggled, squirmed,
and fussed. “Good morning, sweetheart. Henry is going to feed you breakfast. You be
good and eat it all.”

“That’d be Gramps to Josh,” Henry said.

“Humor him,” Lucas said softly.

“Then Gramps, here’s the bottle and here’s the baby,” Natalie said.

Jack came through the back door, but before he could close it, the puppies came rushing
in again. The momma cat hissed and fluffed up to twice her normal size. She stood
between the laundry basket where her babies were squirming and the puppies with a
wicked gleam in her eye and screaming at the pups in a language that Natalie was glad
she couldn’t understand.

They all took off across the kitchen floor, yelping and howling, trying to get traction
and sliding on their bellies all the way to the den where they hid under the leg rest
of Henry’s recliner.

“Damn dogs,” Jack cussed as he and Grady gathered them up again.

Henry chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Jack fussed.

“Provin’ my point real good. Y’all might want to look out in the front yard. I see
something out there and I believe old Crankston’s goats are back too.” Henry laughed.

“I’ll be glad when the weather clears up,” Grady declared.

“It’ll all be fine,” Henry said. “It’ll all be just fine after this day.”

“You been nippin’ in that whiskey too much,” Lucas said.

“Now, Ella Jo never did see me drunk and she ain’t goin’ to this season neither,”
Henry declared. “And I got a little job for you today, after y’all go out there and
pen up them goats before they eat more of our decorations. You’re going to take Joshua
and let him see all the animals on the ranch. The puppies and the cows in the barn,
and even drive him up to Crankston’s place and let him look at the goats and the jackass
from the fence.”

“Why would I do that?” Lucas asked.

“Because I’m old and Ella Jo done told me that’s what she wants you to do for Christmas.
So you’re going to do it,” Henry said.

“Just do it if it’ll make him happy,” Natalie whispered.

“Okay, Gramps, if it’s important to you.”

“It is and y’all got to go by y’all’s self. No one else can go with you. Just you
and Joshua. Bundle him up real good. It’s cold out there,” Henry said.

“I’ve got plenty to do to keep me busy. I’d welcome thirty minutes without a fussy
baby this morning,” Natalie said.

***

After supper that evening, the guys hung around until the six o’clock news was over
and then lingered until after eight before they finally left.

“For three old fellers who were pushin’ so hard yesterday, they’ve sure managed to
keep us apart today,” Lucas said.

“They’ve got something up their sleeves. You can bet on it. I’m going to give Josh
his bath and get him ready for bed,” Natalie agreed.

“Josh, not Joshua?” Lucas asked.

“Slip of the tongue,” she said.

“I wondered if you’d catch it. He really is a Josh, Natalie. Joshua sounds like a
preacher or a professor. Josh sounds like a rancher or a bull rider.”

“That’s what Henry told me,” she said.

“Will you sleep with me tonight? After you crawled in with me last night, the dream
stopped.” He changed the subject so quickly that she was taken aback.

She hesitated.

He threw an arm around her shoulder and hugged her tightly. “I’m worn completely out,
sweet cheeks. Those old codgers kept me at the grindstone all day after I took Josh
for his morning zoo trip. He loves going to see the animals, and watching him smile
and coo sure put me in a better mood. I agree with you. The guys have got something
up their sleeves. I’m asking you to let me hold you and sleep with you and that’s
all for tonight.”

She barely tilted her head, but that was enough to keep the grin on his face.

“When you get finished giving the baby a bath, I’ll hold him and feed him while you
get a shower. Then I’ll take one and we’ll cuddle up here on the couch and watch television
until bedtime. Deal?”

“Sounds good to me,” she said. “But after this day I might want a long bubble bath.
I probably won’t have time to do much in the way of beautification tomorrow.”

Lucas looked up from the recliner. “What’s tomorrow?”

“Your Angus Association party.”

“Well, shit! I promised to take you shopping again for a pretty dress. I’m sorry,
Natalie. We should’ve done that this evening.”

“No need to apologize. I’ll wear something in my closet.” She could hardly keep the
excitement of the surprise out of her voice.

“Well, sweet cheeks, you could wear that nightshirt you had on last night and look
better than anyone else there,” he said.

“Okay, okay, you can call me darlin’. Sweet cheeks sounds so…” She couldn’t find the
right word.

“Redneck?”

“That would be high class compared to what I was thinking. I’m taking this boy to
the bathtub and then it’s my turn,” she said.

“Take as long as you want in the bathroom. Me and Josh will be fine, but you will
always be sweet cheeks to me.” He yawned.

Josh screamed like she was beating him the whole bath. He kicked and yelled while
she dressed him and no amount of sweet-talk or even kisses appeased him.

“Looks like you got your momma’s temper,” Lucas said from the doorway. “I went ahead
and got the bottle ready when I heard the fit.”

She handed Lucas the baby when she finished dressing him. Josh stared up into Lucas’s
eyes and stopped crying immediately. Lucas shoved the bottle in his mouth, and the
little rascal had the nerve to grin around the nipple.

***

Bubbles looked like heavy foam on a glass of cold beer when she sank down in the claw-foot
tub. She leaned back on a towel and sighed. Did Hazel ever feel like she was worn
to a frazzle after a day in the house?

She opened her eyes when the door hinges squeaked. Joshua wasn’t crying, so what could
Lucas need?

He put the lid down on the toilet and sat down. “Those teeth are worrying him to death.
I rubbed a little whiskey on them. He shuddered and went right to sleep.”

She sat straight up. “You put what in his mouth?”

“Whiskey. I called Gramps and he said that was better than any of the junk you buy
on the market. I’m not making an alcoholic out of him just by rubbing it on his gums,
so don’t go all pink pistol on me,” Lucas said.

He picked up the washcloth and said, “Lean forward and let me do your back.”

She leaned. “Pink pistol?”

“Sounded better than going ape shit on me, didn’t it?”

He massaged her back with the soapy cloth until the kinks were out and she felt like
a wet spaghetti noodle. When she straightened up, he was holding a sprig of mistletoe
over her head.

She stretched and he bent. Their lips met in a kiss that blended two souls together
as tightly as if they’d been superglued.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For the back scrubbin’ or the kissin’?” he asked.

“Both,” she said.

“Does television noises wake Josh up?” he asked.

“That came out of the clear blue, but nothing much bothers him after he’s asleep,”
she said.

“I moved his crib into my room. It’s on your side of the bed. Thought we’d just snuggle
up and watch a movie in my bedroom until we fall asleep,” he said.