The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby (21 page)

The song ended and Rascal Flatts sang “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Tears welled up
in Natalie’s eyes. Where was home? She’d thought it was in Silverton, Texas. She’d
been born there and she’d die there after a long life with some old cowboy who loved
ranching as much as she did. But lately when the word came to mind she related it
to Cedar Hill.

“He’s down for the count. You know how they kinda sigh when they’re really asleep.
When I put him in the crib, he did that,” Lucas whispered as he crossed the room and
sat on the floor beside her.

“How did you know that?”

“I don’t have nieces or nephews, but I’ve been around babies. Lots of my friends have
families already,” he answered.

She put all the wrapping supplies in a sack and pushed it back. “Think the guys will
be happy to see presents?”

“Oh, yeah! They’re just little boys in big boy jeans.” He laughed.

Scotty McCreery had just begun to sing “First Noel” in his deep Southern voice when
Lucas picked her up and sat her down in his lap. She leaned into the kiss and parted
her lips. His tongue made sweet love to her mouth and the room temperature rose twenty
degrees.

She wrapped both arms around his neck and toyed with the penny chain still holding
his dog tags. He groaned and inched his hands up under her shirt, traveling slowly
toward her breasts. They ached for his touch but he took his time, massaging, teasing,
and kissing her until she was panting.

She’d never before felt like her insides were filled with molten lava about to explode
any second. She ran her hands up under his shirt and touched his bare skin. Taut muscles
rippled from his waist to his shoulders. She found the chain again and slipped under
it to touch his neck.

He groaned. “God, that feels so good. I love your hands on my body.”

“Ditto.” She panted.

He broke the kiss and leaned back. “I can see the Christmas tree lights in your blue
eyes.”

“Your brown eyes are shot with gold from the reflection of the dying embers in the
fireplace,” she whispered.

She scooted away enough that she could unfasten the buttons on his shirt. “Tell me
right now if we have to stop because by the time I get to the bottom button, you are
going to be in big trouble if we do.”

He reached up and pulled a condom from his shirt pocket. “I ain’t got a word to say.”

“We need that?” she asked.

“We do,” he said with a big grin on his face.

The moon didn’t fall out of the sky. The Christmas tree didn’t catch on fire. Tomorrow
she’d think about all the maybes in her life. Right then she wanted satisfaction and
the only person who could deliver it was Lucas Allen.

“You can unbutton faster than that,” he said.

“Probably, but I’m not going to. I’m going to make you every bit as hot as I am.”

His lips found hers in another sizzling kiss that jacked up her inward temperature
to the boiling stage.

“Oh, honey, you don’t even know what hot is but you are about to find out,” he whispered
seductively in her ear.

She finally undid the last button and threw his shirt back to look her fill of that
broad chest, ripped abdomen, and taut nipples. She kissed each one and then reached
for his belt buckle.

“Oh, no!” He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips to kiss each fingertip.

Mercy! When did fingertips become an erotic zone? They washed dishes. They scrubbed
floors and did laundry. They even wrapped Christmas presents, so how in the hell could
he turn her on by kissing each one?

He took just as much time undoing her buttons as she did his. When he threw back her
shirt and saw the bright red lace bra, he gasped.

“Like what you see?” she asked.

“Christmas has come early in the Allen house,” he answered.

His hands were like coals of fire when he reached around her rib cage and unfastened
her bra. She pulled his lips to hers for another hard, steamy kiss, this time not
holding back a single thing. She wiggled her shoulders to help him take the shirt
off and when the bra slipped over her shoulders, she leaned backward to give him better
access to her breasts.

“Oh my God!” she said when his lips and tongue toyed with each one, giving them equal
attention before he returned to her lips.

“I don’t think God has much to do with this,” he whispered as he strung a trail of
slow steamy kisses down her long, slender neck before settling back on her mouth.

“You are stunning, Natalie Clark,” he said.

His eyes, his hands, his kiss all made her feel like she was the most beautiful woman
on the whole planet. Being the tall, gangly kid her whole life, she’d never known
such a feeling.

“Listen,” he mumbled.

“To what?”

“The song that’s playing,” he said.

Alan Jackson was singing “I Only Want You for Christmas.”

“Are you serious?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

What about after Christmas?

The thought was a blur as it passed through her mind. She’d worry about after Christmas
later. Right then she only wanted Lucas.

He sang the chorus softly into her ear as he undid her belt buckle. Alan said that
she should tie a ribbon around herself. Which part did Lucas want that ribbon tied
around?

“My room?” he asked.

“Right here!” She peeled her jeans and boots off, tossing them to one side as she
did.

They went from sitting to stretched out on the throw rug in front of the fireplace,
both of them as naked as the day they came into the world. God, she wanted him so
damn bad, but she didn’t want to rush it. She wanted to look her fill into his brown
eyes and touch his body until he felt the same way she did. One of his thumbs was
circling her wrist, turning the bonfire inside her into a raging Texas wildfire.

His erection pushed against her belly, so she slid a hand between their bodies and
circled it, teasing it to the point that he moaned.

“I’m so ready,” she whispered.

He pulled a pillow off the sofa and she raised her head. He shook his slowly. “Not
for that end, sweet cheeks.”

She was lying there naked, panting, wanting him, hell, begging him to have sex with
her—so why was she blushing at the idea of a pillow under her butt to keep him from
pounding the imprint into the hardwood floor?

When the pillow was in place, Lucas cupped her face in his hands.

Natalie wrapped her long legs firmly around his waist. Without breaking the kisses,
he removed the condom from the wrapper and rolled it into place.

“Yes,” she said when she figured out what he was doing.

In one firm motion he plunged inside her and she gasped.

“My God… that is… wonderful,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am, it is at that,” he said, punctuating each word with a harder thrust.

Nothing kinky. Nothing fancy. Just plain old hot sex and her whole body tingled from
head to toe. She wanted it to last, but she wanted him to go harder and faster. He
took her right to the edge of the climax three times before she became so frenzied
that she clawed his back and begged.

“I’m going to die if…”

He increased the rhythm.

“Oh. My. Sweet. Lord.” She could force out one word at a time and panted hard between
them.

Natalie was not a virgin, but she was damn sure in strange territory because when
he growled her name and settled his face into her neck, her body was totally satisfied.
Satisfied in a way that it had never known before, not even the first time they’d
had sex after the party.

He shifted to one side and drew her close, reached up, and pulled a throw from the
sofa and wrapped it around them both.

“That was incredible!” He slipped the pillow out from beneath her and tossed it across
the room. “I want to hold you all night right here.”

“Until the baby monitor wakes us, that sounds like a plan,” she said sleepily.

He nuzzled his face into her neck. “I dreamed about this so many times when I was
over there.”

“I dreamed about this when you were over there. I wonder if it was on the same nights.”

She brushed a sweet kiss across his lips and shut her eyes.

The captain clamped a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “You will not be going out today on
the reconnaissance mission. We’ve got a situation that you need to monitor.”

“Yes, sir,” Lucas saluted.

Drew gave him a thumbs-up sign as the jeep pulled out of the gates. He waved and before
he got to the building where the computers were set up, he heard the blast.

“No! No!” His feet were like lead as he ran toward the gate.

“I can’t tell Natalie,” he screamed over and over.

***

Natalie sat up so fast that she pulled the cover from Lucas and the room did a couple
of hard spins before she got it under control. Lucas had his hands over his eyes and
kept mumbling, “I can’t tell Natalie.”

According to the clock on the wall it was four o’clock and the sounds coming from
the baby monitor said that Joshua was fidgeting in his sleep. He’d slept right through
his two o’clock feeding for the first time in his life.

She shook Lucas on the shoulder. “Tell me what?”

“Captain, he can’t be dead. I can’t tell Natalie.”

She shook him harder. “Wake up, Lucas. It’s a nightmare.”

He sat up and his eyes were open but the Christmas tree wasn’t what he was seeing.
She could tell from the expression on his face and the tears streaming down his cheeks
that he was looking right at the explosion that killed Drew.

“Two vehicles went out. I was supposed to be in the one with Drew,” he said in a hollow
voice.

She walked on her knees until she was in front of him. “Lucas, look at me. You are
home. I’m right here. I know Drew is dead. You don’t have to tell me.”

He blinked rapidly half a dozen times. “Natalie? How did you get here? Drew is dead?
I’m sorry.”

She put her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “You are home, Lucas. It was just
a nightmare. Do you have them often?”

“Almost every night,” he whispered.

The baby monitor noise went from whimpers to full-fledged demands.

“Sounds like we’d better fix a bottle,” he said.

“You make the bottle. I’ll get him changed. Meet you in the den?”

He rubbed his eyes and nodded.

She wrapped the soft throw around her like a sari and padded barefoot down the hall
to her bedroom. She hurriedly threw it on her bed, grabbed a pair of underpants and
a long nightshirt from her suitcase, and put them on before she picked Joshua up.

“Sorry about that, son. We’ll get a fresh diaper and then go look at the Christmas
tree lights. Will that make up for me being so slow?”

He wailed out his answer, kicking and flailing his arms the whole time she changed
him. She met Lucas halfway down the hall. He was dressed in brown and ecru plaid lounging
pants and a thermal undershirt that stretched over his broad shoulders and looked
sexy as hell. Strangely enough, the baby bottle in his hand didn’t take away a bit
of the sexiness.

“Sounds like he’s ready for this,” Lucas said.

She took it from him and they returned to the living room where she sat down in a
recliner. Joshua sucked hard, eyes wide open and staring up at her. “Hey, boy.” She
laughed. “Don’t you look at me in that tone, young man. It’ll get you grounded from
Henry reading to you this morning.”

Lucas eased down into the rocker close to her and chuckled. “That’d be punishing Henry
more than Josh.”

“It probably would. Now tell me about this dream you keep having,” she said.

He hesitated a full three minutes.

“It helps to talk things through, Lucas,” she said.

“It’s just reliving that day when Drew died. Only it happens in different ways. Sometimes
it’s me running out to the gate when I heard the explosion. Sometimes it’s me sitting
in front of that computer knowing that you are going to pop up any minute. And sometimes
it’s me with the other guys standing at attention when they loaded what was left of
him on the plane to send him home. But it always ends the same way with me waking
up in a cold sweat because I don’t want to tell you that he’s dead,” Lucas said.

The television had been left on all night and now there was a segment of gospel videos
playing. Alan Jackson was singing “I Want To Stroll Over Heaven With You.”

“That song was played at his funeral,” she said.

“Tell me about it.”

“Not much to tell. It was closed casket. The church was packed and I wasn’t the only
woman weeping, even though we sobbed for different reasons when that song played at
the end. It was military with full honors. I jumped every time the guns fired and
felt cheated when they gave the flag to his oldest sister,” she said honestly.

“He would have wanted you to have it,” Lucas said seriously. “Maybe someday she’ll
give it to Josh.”

Natalie shook her head. “Whole town of Silverton knows that Josh is Drew’s son, but
his sisters won’t believe it. I intend to tell him that his father was a hero.”

“He should know that his father was a hero,” Lucas said.

Joshua’s eyes shifted from Natalie to Lucas, and he smiled around the bottle nipple.

“Look at that charmer. He doesn’t want to be grounded from Henry’s reading sessions,”
she said.

Lucas reached across the space between them and touched Joshua’s hand. He immediately
wrapped his chubby hand around Lucas’s finger and held on tightly.

“He’s telling me he’s sorry that he looked at you in that tone, but the cowboys on
Cedar Hill are cranky when they get hungry. He says it won’t happen again.” Lucas
said.

***

On Tuesday evening the guys left after the six o’clock news. Joshua had fallen asleep
in his swing, and Lucas pulled Natalie down into his lap in the recliner when she
walked past him. She fit well in his arms, like she was made special just for him.
He tangled his hand in her hair and massaged her scalp.

She groaned. “Lord, that feels good.”

“I’ve got ulterior motives.” His found hers in a hard, steamy kiss.

“I like your motives,” she whispered.

“Grab that monitor and we’ll take our motives to the bedroom,” he said.

She reached for it and his phone rang.

“Well, shit!” he grouched.

He fished it from his shirt pocket and looked at the caller ID. “Got to take it. It’s
Gramps. Hello.”

“Did I interrupt anything?” Henry chuckled. “There’s a cow down in the pasture out
by the church. Looks to me like she’s havin’ trouble birthin’ a calf. I swear those
crazy heifers don’t have a lick of sense. We know when they need to be bred so they’ll
throw them calves in the spring instead of in the worst storm that Texas has seen
in years. But do them cows ask me before they go screwing around? No, sir, they do
not!”

“I’ll holler at Grady and go see about her,” Lucas said.

“You and Natalie can go. I’ll come back and watch Joshua.”

“You stay put. We’ll take care of her,” Lucas said.

“Cow or woman?” Natalie asked.

“Heifer, not hussy.” Lucas kissed her on the cheek. “I might just shoot her.”

“Don’t you dare!” Natalie said.

“Can I borrow your pink pistol?”

She shook her head. “Hell, no! Don’t nobody use that gun but me. She wouldn’t even
shoot straight if someone else used her.”

Grady was watching reruns of
NCIS
on television and grumbled about having to go back out in the cold. “Damned old cow.
Just like a woman to have a baby at the wrong time of year and at night at that.”

Lucas had been doing something a whole lot more fun than watching reruns, so he had
a bigger excuse to bitch, but he didn’t say a word. All three of the guys were so
deep into matchmaking that they didn’t need an extra scrap of encouragement. He liked
Josh and he really, really liked Natalie. Hell, he could see himself spending the
rest of his life with her right there on the ranch. But convincing her that Josh would
get a fair shake out of the deal wouldn’t be easy.

***

Natalie awoke on Wednesday morning to find a note from Lucas on the pillow beside
her.

Got in after midnight. Got a brand-new bull calf in the barn. Josh will have to see
him and decide which calf he wants to claim as his own. Didn’t want to wake you, so
I’ll see you at breakfast.

It was signed with the letter
L
.

She smiled as she read it. Sure, the
L
stood for Lucas, but wouldn’t it be something if it really was the
L
-word?

The morning drug by like a lazy old slug. At breakfast Lucas said that he and Jack
had to make a trip into Sherman for tractor parts and that the hired hands were doing
all the feeding that morning. She baked two extra pies and made six-dozen peanut butter
cookies just to have something to do. Laundry was caught up; house was spotless; Joshua
was fed; and Henry was busy entertaining him.

When the last cookies came out of the oven she still had an hour before time for dinner,
so she took her pistol apart and cleaned it. She intended to show Lucas that she was
a damn fine shot. Her mother didn’t consider target practice wasting ammo, so it wasn’t
a sin to fire at something stationary instead of something dangerous or moving.

Her phone rang when she had the gun in pieces. She didn’t have to look at the ID to
know that it was her mother.

“Hello,” she said cautiously. Surely Debra couldn’t hear that she’d had sex, unprotected
sex at that, over the phone, could she?

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning my pistol,” Natalie said.

“Why? Did you fire it?” Debra asked.

“Killed a coyote a few days ago and haven’t had time to clean it until now. I baked
two pecan pies and a bunch of cookies this morning.”

“Talk to me about ranchin’. You know the kitchen ain’t my thing. What’s going on there?”

“Just ranchin’,” Natalie answered.

“And my grandson? Is he missing me?”

“Yes, ma’am. He whines at the door for you every day. Momma, he’s not even three months
old yet. He don’t know…”

Debra cleared her throat. “Much more of that sass and I’ll be out there by dark and
haul you both back here where you belong. Did you sleep with Lucas?”

Natalie dropped the grip to the pistol and had to do some fancy grabbing to keep it
from hitting the floor. “Why in the hell would you ask that?”

“I hear something in your voice that’s never been there before. It scares me, Natalie
Joy,” Debra said.

“You haven’t second-named me in years,” Natalie said.

“Haven’t had to. Promise me you’ll be careful,” Debra said.

“I promise. And remember I brought my pistol.”

Debra laughed. “Like I told you when you started dating, I keep two shovels all sharpened.
Anybody hurts you, we’ll take care of the bodies and God will look the other way.”

“I love you, Momma,” Natalie said.

After she talked to her mother, she finished cleaning her gun, put it all back together,
and had dinner on the table when the guys wandered in the back door.

Lucas brushed his fingers across hers as he passed her in the kitchen.

She sniffed the air.

Skunk!

And it wasn’t far away. She sure hoped it wasn’t anywhere near those puppies. She
grabbed up her gun and headed outside.

“Watch the baby and shut the door,” she yelled.

Lucas ignored her orders and reached for his coat.

***

“Skunk,” Henry said.

“Reckon we ought to go help her?” Grady asked.

“Hell, no!” Jack answered. “She told us to watch the baby. She’s got a gun and if
they get sprayed they can be miserable together.”

“Animals again,” Henry said.

“I tell you it’s Lucas. They’re all comin’ around because he’s home. It’s crazy but
it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Grady said.

“It ain’t Lucas. It’s Joshua,” Jack said. “We’ve got this precious baby with us. He’s
a blessing and the animals know it. Hazel is the one that put me on to the idea before
you tell me I’m crazy and ask me if I’m seeing ghosts and hearing voices. It’s like
they all have to come see what is happening since Joshua came to the ranch. I wouldn’t
be surprised if that coyote that Natalie shot wasn’t after the puppies at all, but
he was just the first visitor to come check out Joshua.”

Henry cleared his throat and wiped a stray tear away from his eyes. “I was tellin’
Ella all about the crazy animals happenin’s last night after I got into bed and I
got the same message from her. She said that we should count our blessings and that
the animals were trying to make us see that Joshua is special.”

“Sounds kind of hinky, don’t, it?” Grady asked.

“It is hinky. But we all got to admit that something is going on and that this little
boy was destined to be raised up on this ranch. I’ll prove it all come tomorrow morning,”
Henry said.

“How’s that?” Grady asked.

“You just wait and watch. I’ll prove that my Ella Jo is right.”

***

Skunks are nocturnal. They sleep in the day and come out to feed, breed, and play
at night. To see one in the day sometimes meant it was sick or rabid. It was a big
old fellow and it was headed straight for the dog pens when Natalie located it.

She took aim and fired once. It dropped and didn’t even quiver.

“Good shootin’,” Lucas said behind her.

She jumped and spun around. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry. Come on in the house. We’ll let him alone until after dinner and then me and
Grady will dispose of it. I reckon something was wrong with it if it was out prowling
around in daylight.”

“It stinks. That’s enough wrong with it for me,” she said.

“You sound like you are speaking from experience.”

“I sure am.” She laced her fingers in his and headed back toward the house. “I was
target shootin’ once and one got me square on the jean legs. The denim did not keep
the smell from getting into my skin and Momma tried everything in the world to get
it out but I stunk for a whole week. Thank goodness it was in the summertime because
I would have refused to go to school. Took a bad ribbin’ from my brothers, and Drew
was a real son of a bitch.”