The Texan's Christmas. Linda Warren

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СКАЧАТЬ ran his thumb over the frosty bottle. “If you call me Crisco one more time, I’m going to jump across this bar and show you how strong I’ve gotten in twenty years.”

      Bubba Joe laughed, a sound that rumbled through his large chest. “Hey, Kid. I’m joking.”

      “I didn’t like it when you called me that in third grade and I don’t like it now.”

      “Hell, Kid, you got all the looks and charm and all I got was a big head. I had to have some fun.” Bubba Joe rubbed his balding head. “I think I still have knots that you put there.”

      “I didn’t hit you that hard.”

      “Life was good back then, huh?” Before Kid could answer, Bubba Joe shouted to Lucky. “Hey, Kid Hardin’s back in town.”

      “I know. I served him a beer,” she said without any emotion, and without looking his way.

      That was even colder.

      She remembered. On that thought came another. After all these years she was still pissed and madder than a bear caught in a trap. He knew Lucky and her stubborn pride. She wasn’t ever going to forgive him. Forgiveness wasn’t something he needed—too many years had passed for that. But he was sorry he’d hurt her.

      After his parents’ tragic deaths, his mind was all messed up and Lucky was there to comfort him in a way no one else could. They were friends a long time before their relationship had become intimate.

      “Are you moving back to High Cotton like your brothers?” Bubba Joe asked, leaning on the bar.

      “Nah.” Kid took a swallow. “I’m staying in Houston. I’ve gotten used to the bright lights.”

      “Yeah. I bet.” Bubba Joe snickered in that I-know-what-you-mean sort of way.

      Kid just drank his beer, but every now and then he could feel Lucky’s heavenly baby blues on him. But now there was nothing divine about them. Instead, they gave off more of a fire and brimstone feel.

      “Chance built a huge roping pen back of his house. I see him out there roping most weekends. His little girl, too. Sometimes Tyler Jakes ropes with him. He’s a roping champion.”

      Kid brought his attention back to Bubba Joe. “Tyler’s a rodeo guy and he and Chance will always be cowboys.” Tyler was younger than the Hardin boys but his rodeo success was well-known.

      “Chance’s wife just had a baby.”

      “Yeah.” Kid twisted the bottle. “A little boy named Cody.”

      “His wife teaches at the school. My cousin has her for a teacher and he has a big crush on her—a beautiful blonde. Who wouldn’t?”

      “Shay’s a real nice lady and Chance is lucky to have met her.” But the relationship almost disintegrated on its own when Chance had found out the truth about Shay’s past.

      Chance had been asleep in the backseat the night their parents had crashed into a tree and died. Loud voices had awakened him. Seemed their father was leaving his family for another woman. That was the horrible secret Chance had kept, never telling anyone until about three years ago when he’d finally told his brothers.

      No one knew who the other woman was until Shay literally crashed into Chance’s life. The other woman was her mother.

      Kid gulped the cold beer. That news had been hard to take, but they’d gotten through it as brothers. Their father had been a big part of their lives, so much so they’d followed him into the oil business. Chuck Hardin had roughnecked most of his life. He’d told his sons that they’d do better than him. They’d get an education and move up the ladder into a position of power. Everything their father had taught them felt tarnished by his betrayal.

      “We all knew Cadde was going to succeed,” Bubba Joe was saying. “He had that drive, even back then. Who knew he’d marry the boss’s daughter.”

      “Yeah, who knew?” Kid swirled the beer around in the bottle. The marriage of convenience had turned into something special. Nothing much distracted Cadde from the oil business, except Jessie. When they’d lost their first child, Kid feared Cadde was never going to make it back from the edge. But he’d heard love had the power to heal. Kid didn’t know much about that, though.

      “I see his wife every now and then at Walker’s General Store. She pushes the baby around in a stroller looking at everything in there like she’s at Neiman Marcus. Her dog is in the stroller, too. It’s a weird thing without any ears and if you get anywhere near that baby it growls and barks. Jessie, I think her name is, always apologizes. Man, she’s a looker, and pregnant again. You Hardin boys are going to keep the name alive.”

      “Yeah,” was all he said. His brothers had found something rare and he was happy for them. But he would always be the uncle and he was comfortable in that role.

      “How about you, Kid. You married?”

      “Nah. How about you?” Kid drained his beer.

      “I still live with my momma. Every time I try to leave she gets sick.”

      Kid wanted to laugh. “Big-headed momma’s boy” is what they used to call Bubba Joe. He didn’t quite understand why kids had to be so cruel. In third grade Billy Ray Tarvel couldn’t say “Cisco” so he’d called Kid “Crisco” because that’s what his mom used to make pies. Kid had to forcibly hold Billy Ray down one day to make him say “Kid.” After that no one but Bubba Joe called him that twice. Bubba Joe never did it in a cruel way. It was fun and he wanted to be Kid’s buddy. Kid put knots on his head anyway.

      Mostly, he had good memories about school, especially high school, and Lucky was a big part of that.

      “Nice talking to you, Kid,” Bubba Joe said. “I have to get back to work. Stop in again when you’re in town.”

      “Thanks.” He nodded and glanced toward Lucky. She was still talking to the cowboys as if they were her very best friends and giving them a very good view of her breasts. This wasn’t the shy, demure girl he’d once known. It didn’t matter. He was here on business and he had to get the job done.

      “Lucky?”

      She glanced at him, said something to the guys and came his way.

      “You want another beer?” Her voice was so cold a chill ran up his spine.

      “No. I…uh…I’d like to talk.” Damn! He sounded like he was sixteen asking her for a date. But he’d never been this nervous. Talking to women came naturally to him. Why wasn’t it easy to talk to Lucky?

      “Talk,” she replied, keeping the temperature subzero.

      He stood and motioned toward a table. “In private.”

      He thought she was going to refuse, but she walked around the bar and sat down on a faded chair. He joined her. The air-conditioning was cool but he could feel the heat building between them. And it wasn’t a good heat.

      Removing his hat, he placed it on the table and looked into her cold, cold eyes. “You look great.”

      Lucky СКАЧАТЬ