Page 6 of Deck the Halls with Cowboys
I cleared my throat and looked away from her. When Val came to us with these elaborate Christmas dinner plans, I’d foolishly volunteered to cook the ham.
I didn’t know how to cook ham.
Like everything else in my life, I was going to wing it and hope for the best.
Which is why I needed a backup.
No one could fuck up a ham twice.
“No reason,” I lied, smiling at her. “The twins might want leftovers.”
As I walked out, she called, “That was nice of you, thinking of the twins!”
By the time I got to the barn, Mags had Lawson pinned to one of the horse stalls.
Maybe the twins wouldn’t need leftovers, after all.
Chapter Three
Beau
We were supposed to be out in the pastures an hour ago.
No.
Fuck that.
It was Christmas Eve morning, and I was supposed to be in bed with Abbie.
I tipped my head back, resting it against the barn wall, listening to Mags chew out Lawson for fucking up Midnight’s feeding last night—because he was trying to make Christmas cookies.
“It was fucking cold, Mags! The temps were in the low teens last night!” Lawson argued.
Here we fucking go.
“So you can go inside to make some fucking cookies for yourself?” Mags growled. “But leave myhorse to starve?”
“She had food! I just didn’t top her off,” Lawson argued. He swallowed. “The cookies weren’t for me.”
“If you say they were for fuckin’ Santa, your ashes will be spread on Kings’ Mountain before sunset.”
“Mags,” Pop warned gently, his weathered voice steady.
I rolled my tongue, moving my toothpick to the opposite side of my mouth in an effort not to laugh as Mags glared at Lawson like he was the dumbest person on the planet. And today, he just might be. From beside me, I heard the heavy footfalls of Denver as he came down the stairs from his office loft. Just as I was walking into this shit show a few moments ago, he’d gotten a phone call from Chase, Hayden’s sheriff. Once Denver was at the base of the wooden stairs, his smoke-gray eyes landing on me, I jerked my chin.
“What did he want?”
Denver pocketed the phone and shook his head. “Power went out on Main Street last night. Pole fell down just outside of town, tripping up the entire grid.”
My dad cleared his throat and chimed in from his place across from me. “Some of those poles were planted when I was kid. It was just a matter of time before they collapsed.”
“Is the shop all right? The flowers?” I asked. When Abbie and I were there last week, Valerie had nearly all the holiday orders out and didn’t have much inventory left, but what she did needed to be kept in refrigerators.
Denver nodded. “I’ll go into town this afternoon and check on it, just to be safe.”
“Diana can go,” Mags called. All eyes were on him then, and unfortunately, Lawson was still pinned to the wall, Mags’s thick forearm pressed across his chest. “She’s going into town to give Emma and Thomas their gifts.”
And to pick up the extra decor.
