The Cowboy's Christmas Family. DONNA ALWARD

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СКАЧАТЬ worry about me so much. And while I’m at it, get to work on some grandkids for you to spoil.”

      It was a well-worn refrain. And one he understood, but he didn’t need to have it mentioned quite so often. It wasn’t that he had anything against settling down. He just hadn’t met the right one yet. Every girl he dated seemed great for a while, but then the novelty fizzled out.

      Lately he’d started to wonder if the problem was that he was afraid of getting too close to someone. When Roni left him, he’d felt like such a failure. He’d tried over and over to help her, but nothing had worked. He had no idea where she was now, or if she was even okay. Truth be told, he hadn’t been in love with a woman since she’d trampled on his heart. And that had been eight long years ago.

      His mind went back a few hours to Maddy and the way she’d shut him out so quickly. She was living proof of what happened when a marriage went wrong. The last thing he’d want to do was rush into a marriage and end up making a mess. “I’m not in a big hurry,” he replied, frowning into his water glass. “I take marriage seriously, Mom. Isn’t that what you want?”

      “Of course.” She reached over and touched his hand. “You know we just want to see you happy. You’d be such a good dad, Cole. A good husband. You’re a good man.”

      Ugh, she made it sound as though he was such a paragon, when he knew he wasn’t. He supposed she was looking at him through mom goggles.

      “Hmm,” he answered, thinking again of Maddy and how stressed she’d seemed. It had to be hard at the best of times, handling twins. Doing it on her own must be an extra challenge. He remembered what she was like before. A hard worker, always with a smile, with an extra glow once she met Gavin and they got engaged. In Gibson everyone pretty well knew everyone else, even though she’d been a few years behind him in school. It sucked that her vibrancy, that glow, had disappeared.

      “Thinking about anything in particular?” his mom asked.

      “Just Maddy Wallace. She was working at the library tonight and her babysitting fell through and she had the twins. She was run ragged.”

      “Maddy’s had a rough time, that’s for sure.” She nodded. “Losing her husband, finding out he was cheating. She’s one strong girl, picking herself up the way she has. But the whole situation has to be hard.”

      “I got the impression that she doesn’t appreciate a lot of pity,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

      “Would you?” his mom asked simply. “If your dad had stepped out on me, and the whole town knew about it? I’d be humiliated. And really angry. Honey, Maddy hasn’t got anyone to be angry with anymore, except herself, really. I’m sure she’d rather forget all about the whole thing.”

      He hadn’t thought of it in quite that way before. The one person she’d probably like to ask most about the affair couldn’t answer. And as far as he could gather, Laura wasn’t talking. Which was to her credit, really. But it didn’t help stop the gossip.

      “Son,” she said, taking the last drink of her milk, “this is one time I’m not going to do any urging or matchmaking. Maddy has a truckload of baggage to sort through. But if you ended up in a position to give her a helping hand, that wouldn’t be amiss, either. The holidays are coming up and she has those two babies to think about. Maybe your committee can think about that, too, amid all the festival stuff.”

      It wasn’t a half-bad idea, though the idea of Maddy accepting any form of charity was ludicrous. She wouldn’t even accept his help in cleaning up the room tonight, which was just dumping some garbage cans and emptying the coffeemaker.

      It would have to be something secret, something she wouldn’t expect, something that seemed random.

      What in heck would that be?

      “I’m a guy. I don’t do well with this sort of thing.”

      His mom laughed, got up and put her mug in the sink. Then she came over to him and dropped a kiss on top of his head. “You’re probably better at it than you think. And now I have to get to bed. I have a lot of packing to do tomorrow. I’m not letting your father anywhere near those suitcases.”

      After she left the room, Cole fussed with the corner of the magazine pages, thinking. It wasn’t a bad idea, actually, helping one of their own. Besides, up until the last few months, Maddy had always been active in Gibson, helping out with fund-raisers and activities with a smile.

      Life had handed her some huge lemons. Maybe it was up to them to give her the lemonade. It was the season of giving, after all.

      What could go wrong?

       Chapter Two

      Maddy was trying to space out her shopping and minimize her babysitting bills, so she hit the town’s rather small department store on a Tuesday after work to pick up a few things before she was due to get the boys.

      She had forty dollars today. That was it. And there was another payday before Christmas where she might be able to squeeze a bit more out of her check. It wasn’t as though the boys were old enough to know they were getting less than most other kids. It was that she knew. She knew she couldn’t provide the type of Christmas she wanted to and it bugged her to no end.

      As she pushed the metal cart toward the baby section, she took a deep breath. Thinking about finances just made her angry at Gavin again, and that didn’t serve any purpose. In the new year, she was going to make a new plan, that was all. Maybe downsize to a smaller house, for one. The three of them didn’t need two thousand square feet, really. A smaller bungalow would suit them fine and the upkeep would certainly be easier.

      She stopped by the baby clothes, searching for discounts. Pajamas were on sale, cute little blue and green ones with the feet in them and a brown-and-white puppy on the front. She put one of each color in the cart. She picked up fuzzy socks, new slippers with the traction dots on the bottom and two soft white onesies.

      Calculating in her head, she had about fifteen dollars left. Barely.

      At the toy section she was utterly daunted. How could she buy two toys with what she had left?

      She’d decided on the rock-a-stack rings she knew the boys loved from the church nursery, and was deliberating the wisdom of wooden alphabet blocks when a voice startled her.

      “I just need help getting it down from the top shelf.”

      Maddy looked across the aisle and felt her face go red-hot. Laura Jessup was smiling at an employee, pointing at a crib set on a high shelf. She was everything Maddy wasn’t, it seemed—petite, red haired, creamy complexioned, young.

      And carrying Maddy’s husband’s baby. There was no mistaking the roundness at her middle. At Maddy’s best guess, Laura had to be close to seven, eight months along. Not that she was about to ask the exact due date. Gavin had died five months ago, which meant that he’d been seeing Laura pretty much since she’d showed up in town last spring.

      With the plastic case containing the comforter in hand, Laura turned around and caught Maddy staring at her. For a brief second she looked embarrassed and awkward, but then she put on an uncertain smile. “Madison,” she began, and started walking toward Maddy.

      Hell, СКАЧАТЬ