Cowboy Boots for Christmas (18 page)

She sat straight up in bed, sweat dripping from her jawbone onto her nightshirt. She rubbed her eyes to get the visual to go away, but the muffled whining continued, and it was coming from Finn’s bedroom. She padded across the room, through the closet, pushing back clothing until she found the next door, and then worked her way through jeans and shirts.

Shotgun raised his head when she stepped into the room, but he didn’t growl when she headed straight for the bed. She threw back the covers and crawled in the bed with Finn, cradling his head against her shoulder. She recognized the strange noise coming from Finn immediately. It was the haunting nightmares again. She’d wakened herself many times moaning just like that.

“Shhh, it’s the bad dreams. It’s not real,” she whispered.

His eyes opened slowly.

“Callie?”

“Closet door, remember? What was going on in the dream?”

“There was a little girl with blue eyes in the school. She ran out at the same time I fired, and I knew she was dead.”

“I dreamed of a little boy outside the base on a land mine. It’s the children being here that brought it on, I’m sure,” she said.

He pulled her close to his side. “Will we ever be normal again?”

“Normal is just a word. For us, this might be normal,” she said.

“Stay with me a little while. You’re the nightmare whisperer.” His face was pressed into her hair now.

“Maybe it takes both of us to chase them away,” she said.

“Callie, my precious Callie.” His voice was low and hoarse when he propped up on one elbow and lowered his mouth to hers.

He slowly undressed her, removing her shirt, socks, and underpants. She didn’t even notice where he tossed the pieces of clothing, because hot sensual kisses on every part of her body had erased all thoughts of anything but wild abandonment in Finn’s arms.

He traced the outline of a moon pattern on her face. “You are gorgeous, Callie Brewster.” He bent low and kissed the tip of her nose.

Every nerve ending in her body hummed with want. She pressed her body tighter against his and ran a hand inside the thermal knit shirt that covered a bed of soft dark hair. She cupped his face with her hands and kissed him with so much raw passion that she felt like she was burning up.

“You are driving me insane, Finn O’Donnell,” she gasped.

“Must be that full moon, because you’re doing the same thing to me,” he said.

Taking time to kiss her from lips to belly button, he continued on down her body and even kissed the soles of her feet, making her squirm and moan. Who would have thought that knees and feet and inner thighs could be erotic zones? Everywhere he touched with his hands or his lips felt like a blowtorch next to her body. She wanted him to stop; she wanted him to never stop.

“You are making me bat-shit crazy!” She tugged his shirt up over his head and gave it a toss into the darkness. His pajama pants followed, and she stared at his nude body in awe.

“My God, you look like a Greek god in the moonlight,” she whispered.

“Darlin’, Greek gods do not have black hair. They’re all blonds,” he said.

“Darlin’, I’m telling this story, and you are a Greek god in it.” She pushed him back on the pillows and straddled his waist. She’d had a few relationships but never had she been so uninhibited, never had it felt so right as it did right then.

“Do Greek gods do this?” He rolled on top of her and with a powerful thrust began a rocking motion.

“In my dreams they do.” She arched against him and nothing mattered but satisfying whatever it was that was between them. She dug her nails into his back, and he landed a hard kiss on her lips, his tongue probing her mouth, kisses turning him on as much as the ultra-hot sex. She reached first one climax and then two before he finally buried his face in her neck and said her name in a hoarse drawl.

“Oh. My. Sweet. Lord,” she gasped.

“If every time gets more intense, we’ll burn out the relationship,” he said hoarsely.

“But what a way to go.” She nestled down into the crook of his arm when he shifted his weight to one side. He kissed her eyelids, her forehead, and then her mouth, and they slept until the first rays of daylight drifted through the window.

She awoke to find Finn staring down at her, a smile on his face.

“I’m going to love having you this close every night.”

“We won’t be like a flash in the pan and fizzle out. Promise me we won’t, Finn.”

“I promise.” He stretched out beside her. “We’re in this for the long haul, darlin’. We’ve got four kids to raise.”

“And a granny to take care of in her old age,” Callie said.

“But right now, in this room, there is only the two of us.”

She flipped her body over on top of him and guided him into her. “Now there’s one of us,” she whispered.

He rolled with her, and her legs went around him. Her hands looped around his neck and brought his lips to hers in a fierce kiss that held the promise of a future together as they made love like Callie had never known. It was more than sex, more than gratification, and words could never explain the warmth that penetrated her heart. She hoped it would never end and that this was just the beginning of a lifetime of memories.

“Oh. My. Blessed. Soul,” she said when they reached satisfaction at the same time.

Finn collapsed for a few seconds then propped up on an elbow. Still gasping for air, he managed to kiss her passionately.

“I feel like I’ve defied gravity and I’m floating,” she panted.

“I’m right there with you,” he said.

“I’m going now, Finn. We’ve got four kids to get ready for church,” she said.

He hugged her tighter. “You know I had a crush on you over there, but…”

“I didn’t know. But I’ll confess that I had one on you, too.”

“What in the hell was the matter with us?” He grinned.

Polly, Gladys, Verdie, Olivia, Ricky, Adam, Martin, Callie, and Finn—that’s the way they were lined up down the church pew. Two weeks before that day Finn had been getting ready to move to Burnt Boot and was resigned to spending a winter alone with only Shotgun for company. He’d gone to church with his parents and his brothers’ and sister’s families that Sunday in Comfort, Texas. Last week, he had attended right there in Burnt Boot with Callie and Martin. This week he had the better part of a pew with him when he walked into the church that morning.

“If we grow by this much another week, I’ll have to build another wing on the house,” he leaned over and whispered in Callie’s ear.

“Just don’t move me out of my new room. I like that secret passage,” she whispered back.

It was Finn’s turn to blush, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about the heat filling his neck and face. But he didn’t have to suffer alone. He cupped his hand over Callie’s ear and said, “I liked waking up to a buck-naked woman in my arms this morning.”

***

Instant fire turned Callie crimson from her hair roots to her fingertips. The visual his comment put in her mind, his breath on her neck; holy hell, neither of those things belonged in church.

She smoothed her denim skirt down over her thighs and immediately thought of his hands on her body and the blush deepened to a deeper scarlet. Thank God the preacher finally took the pulpit and announced that they would sing a hymn, or her pretty red Christmas sweater might have started to smoke.

Even then, she had to keep focused on the words in the hymnal because her eyes kept straying to the hands holding it and thinking unholy thoughts about what she’d like them to be doing.

When the song ended, the preacher said, “This morning’s special program is our version of the Hanging of the Green. I’m turning the program over to Quaid Brennan, who serves as the Sunday school teacher for our teenage group.”

A small group filed from the back of the church, singing “Mary, Did You Know?” She looked down the line of four little kids and tried to imagine Martin, Adam, and Ricky with changing voices and scruff on their faces. There they sat—two little dark-haired boys and one blond who would change drastically in the next three years.

Then there was Olivia, looking pretty in her little denim skirt and braids. Thank goodness Verdie had decided to French braid her hair that morning. It tamed that wily mop of blond hair and made Olivia feel pretty at the same time.

Quaid stood behind the pulpit as the group took their places in the choir section behind him. He talked about the wreath that one of the kids came forward to hang on the front of the pulpit. It was round, signifying the unending love of God in sending his son to earth.
Love
, Callie thought. Just thinking the word twisted her heart up until it looked like Olivia’s braid. Love for Martin; that was one thing. But love as in
falling in
was a whole different matter. To have a crush, to be half a consenting adult couple with a secret passage between bedrooms, that was something different than love. Love meant trusting with the whole heart. Callie didn’t know if she or Finn could ever do that with their past history.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Finn whispered. “Are you sick?”

“No, just letting my mind go where it has no business visiting,” she said.

During the last ten minutes of the service, Callie crossed and uncrossed her legs, tried not to think of that last cup of coffee she had that morning, and for damn sure didn’t let her mind wander to running water. If Quaid didn’t end the program soon, she would have to do the pee-pee dance all the way down the aisle with Betsy Gallagher staring at her. She’d already gotten so many drop-dead looks that it was a wonder her bladder hadn’t dried up like a prune.

The second the old guy delivering the benediction on the back row said “Amen,” she dashed off to the ladies’ room, leaving Finn to fend for himself. Maybe Verdie and the kids could protect him from the feuding bitches until she returned.

She had finished and was washing her hands when Honey and Betsy pushed open the door.

“Well, well, well.” Betsy leaned against the door, holding it secure with her back. “Here’s the hired hand who likes to do kinky things with women. She’s into biting the same sex.”

“I understand church is neutral ground,” Callie said.

Honey leaned in to the mirror and fiddled with her eyebrows. “Neutral in that the Gallaghers and the Brennans can’t fight each other. Nothing in the rule book says we can’t fight outsiders.”

“You sure you’re up to that?” Callie smiled into her part of the mirror and filled the palm of her hand with soap at the same time. “Did Betsy tell you that I haven’t had my rabies shots this year?”

“I don’t talk to Betsy. I got my information from another source. I don’t need a damned Gallagher tellin’ me anything.” Honey drew her hand back to deliver an open-handed slap right to Callie’s face.

Callie flicked soap in Honey’s face and stepped to one side as Honey crumbled in a heap in the floor, clawing at her eyes and squealing like a piglet between a rock and a hard place.

Betsy opened the door for Callie. “I don’t like you and never will, but that was damned beautiful. See you later, Honey.”

***

“I liked church this morning,” Olivia said on the way home.

“Can we start going to Sunday school?” Adam asked. “I want to be a part of that program when I’m old enough. I liked the story about the wreath.”

“I liked the part where they all took an ornament and put it on the tree, and when the preacher plugged in the lights and it all lit up. It reminded me of our big tree at home,” Ricky said.

Home.
Kids adapted so much quicker than adults.

The pickup was cramped and full that morning with the four kids in the backseat and Callie between Finn and Verdie in the front. When they got to the ranch, it looked like the truck exploded, spitting kids and adults out of all four doors.

Martin’s stomach growled loudly at the aroma of roast beef when he slung open the back door. “That smells like heaven,” he said.

Verdie patted him on the hair and said, “You young’uns go on to your rooms and get changed into play clothes, then you can help me put it all on the table.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Olivia beamed.

Callie and Verdie reached for bibbed aprons at the same time, tossed the neck strings over their heads in unison, and tied each other’s waist strings.

Family. Home.
One week and one day since she and Martin showed up. Less than a week since Verdie had moved in. Only twenty-four hours since the three kids had arrived. But it seemed like they’d all been connected forever. She’d heard that miracles happened in December. Hearing the kids’ giggles, Finn’s whistling, and, oh my God, what was that?

Finn yelled from the living room. “Looks like Angel crawled out on a limb that was too little to support her. She’s hightailed it toward Olivia’s room with Pistol right behind her. Poor old boy was sleeping when the tree went down on top of him. He must’ve thought the world had come to an end.”

“Oh, no!” Olivia slapped her hands over her cheeks. “Our beautiful tree. Oh, Miz Verdie…I mean Granny…I’m so sorry.”

“Kids and pets.” Verdie laughed. “Never a boring moment.”

“But your precious ornaments,” Callie almost cried.

“That had been in the attic for ten years because I didn’t have kids and pets. I’ll take the loss of the whole lot of them to have kids in the house again,” Verdie told her. “Come on, boys, help Finn set this thing up. Olivia, you get the paper towels so we can clean up the water that spilled from the pan. And would you look at this. Only one ornament is broken. Now that’s a miracle for sure. Set it up easy now. That’s good. I believe they’re all going to hang just right. Did bust a string of cranberries.” She wrapped the two ends around branches and stood back. “There, now it’s perfect again. Finn, you might put some water in the pan. And Olivia, honey, throw those wet paper towels in the trash can.”

“You are amazing,” Callie said.

Verdie blew off the compliment with the wave of a hand. “We’ve got dinner to get on the table. Olivia, you and Martin get down seven plates. Adam, you and Ricky get seven forks, knives, and spoons and meet me at the table. Finn, you can slice the roast soon as Callie finishes using the electric knife for the bread.”

The house phone rang, and Verdie reached around the doorjamb to grab it. She put her hand over the receiver and said, “It’s Polly. Y’all go on and do what I told you. I’ll just be a minute.”

Verdie listened for a few minutes, then giggled. “Imagine that. Why don’t y’all come visit sometime this week, and we’ll see if we can straighten all this out before they go to settin’ fire to things. Bye now.”

Verdie patted Callie on the shoulder on her way back into the kitchen. “What was it that you did before you came to Salt Draw, Callie?”

“I worked in a gym and taught a class in self-protection to women. Lots of times it was battered women,” she said.

“Well, I guess you showed Honey that you don’t need a gun to protect yourself, didn’t you?” Verdie laughed.

“What?” Finn asked.

“Later. I’ll tell you about it after a while,” Callie said with a wink.

Callie assigned seats around the table—Finn at the head with Callie to his right, Olivia between her and Verdie, the three boys across from them. The moment the kids sat down, they bowed their heads.

Finn looked at Callie, who looked at Verdie.

“This is your house, Finn. You’ll either take care of grace or tell us who is saying it,” she said.

“I’ll give the blessing today,” Finn said. He reached for Callie’s hand and the gesture went around the table until they were one family circle. He bowed his head and blessed the food in a couple of short sentences.

“Wow!” Adam dropped his brother’s hand and Martin’s at the same time. “I like your blessing. Arlan prayed for hours, until we thought we’d starve plumb to death just sittin’ there waitin’.”

Verdie laughed. “Used to have a man like that in church. We all wanted to string him up by the damn rafters when the preacher asked him to do the benediction.”

Callie took the platter of roast from Finn’s hands. “Which one? The preacher for asking or the long-winded man?”

“Both of them,” Verdie said. “And I can say
damn
, but you had better not let me hear you sayin’ bad words, or you’ll be doin’ chores on Sunday afternoon rather than going outside to play.” She punctuated each word with a fork toward a child.

“But, Granny, it’s too muddy to go play outside,” Ricky said.

“If it’s muddy, can we cuss? And we’re supposed to call her Granny Verdie.” Martin had an impish expression on his face.

“Hell no!” Verdie said. “Since it’s too muddy to go outside, I vote we get out the Monopoly game and the bunch of us play all afternoon. And Granny is just fine or Granny Verdie is just fine. Either one works.”

“You mean it?” Olivia asked. “I love that game.”

“I love roast and carrots,” Ricky said. “And I love green beans with bacon in them just like this. Man, you are a good cook, Granny.”

“Well, I love this bread,” Adam piped up. “I ain’t never eat bread this good. Did you make it, Granny, or did the angels in heaven send it down here for us?”

“He’s a charmer, Callie. We’ll have to watch him closely.” Verdie smiled.

“I still think this is all a dream,” Olivia said. “Oh, look, Angel is under the table and so is Pistol. They look hungry, Granny.”

“Yuk! Joe needs a drink.” The bird spit and sputtered while he sharpened his beak on the perch.

“We don’t feed the animals at the table, and Joe is not getting a drink,” Verdie said. “What we are going to do is start around the table, beginning with Finn, and we’re going to say two things that we really want for Christmas, because tomorrow before the roads get any worse and while you kids are in school, me and Callie are going to town to do some shopping.”

“Ah, shucks!” Martin said. “Payday was Friday, and we haven’t got the money yet, but I know Finn is good for it, and I wanted to buy some presents, too.”

“Payday?” Adam asked.

“Each kid who works on the ranch gets a paycheck on Friday. It’s not a lot of money, and you have to put half of it, in savings, but the rest is yours to save up or spend however you want,” Finn explained.

“Are you serious?” Adam asked.

“You can keep my money if you’ll just let us live here,” Ricky said. “I like that bunkhouse room and havin’ my own bed and all them books in there and food like this.”

Callie drank half a glass of tea, trying to get the lump in her throat to go down, but it was in vain. Finn laid a hand on her knee and finally spoke up, but his voice was hoarse with emotion. “Well, son, it’s like this. Good ranch hands are hard to come by, so I pay twenty dollars a week and room and board. But ten has to go into your savings account, which Callie will set up for you. There’s two Fridays between now and Christmas. I reckon that would give you about twenty dollars total to spend if you wanted to do some shopping the Monday before Christmas.”

“I’ll be a good ranch hand,” Ricky said seriously. “But I could work for a lot less since you’re throwin’ in room and board.”

“Me too,” Adam said.

“Are girls ranch hands?” Olivia asked.

“Yes, they are,” Verdie said. “Now pass me that bread, Ricky. And, Finn, send the butter down here. I’m itching to get into that game of Monopoly.”

Callie touched Finn’s knee under the table. “Are you going to play?”

“No, ma’am, I’m having my Sunday afternoon nap. How about you?”

“Sunday nap sounds wonderful.” She smiled.

“Old people take naps,” Martin piped up from Finn’s left.

Verdie sent the bread on around the table. “Not this old person. She’s going to whip four little whippersnappers at Monopoly and try to keep the cat from climbing the Christmas tree again. I’ve got some livin’ to take care of.”