Page 8 of Deck the Halls with Cowboys
That worked.
“Stop fuckin’ up,” Mags ordered the twins. “You have been cowboys too long for this shit. Hallow Ranch comes first.”
She always did.
Half an hour later, Mason and I approached the herd on the south side of pasture three, the cold air around us deathly still. My eyes scanned over the black beasts and muddy snow underneath them as Mason shifted on his horse beside me. The sun was hidden by clouds, and toward the west, the sky was unusually dark. It was a sight I was all too familiar with.
There was a storm coming, and by the looks of it, it was going to be devastating.
My mind went to Abbie, knowing she was due to head to Washington D.C. for a story on the twenty-sixth. There was no telling how long this blizzard would last—or how long we would be snowed in.
Mason’s gruff voice pulled me from my thoughts. “He knows.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, looking at him and tightening my hold on my reins. “What are you going to do?”
The bull rider’s head snapped toward me, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“He’s your brother, Mase.”
“I know that.”
“Okay, and forgive me for saying this—no, fuck that—I’ve been on this ranch my entire life and I get to say my piece about this,” I said, turning Spirit toward him. Mason didn’t say a word, only lifting his chin as if he was bracing for mine. I raised my finger. “You both are fucking cowards.”
Mason blinked. “Excuse me?”
“It’s fucking Christmas Eve, and both of you have been avoiding the subject of Christmas since you cameback home years ago.”
My words seemed to snap him out of his shock. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“Your father was a fucking monster,” I declared as the herd began to shift in front of us. Neither of us cared. I was too fucking cold to care, but I was going to get this out. “But your momma Jane? She was a fucking angel, and she brought the spirit of Christmas to Hallow Ranch every fucking year.”
“You weren’t around much then, Beau,” he said slowly, his voice growing darker with each word.
I nodded. “Yeah, I was with my own fucking mother who didn’t want me, but guess who was here? Pop. He told me all about Jane.” Small snow flurries began falling from the gray heavens, surrounding us as the rest of the cowboys finally made it into the pasture, getting ready to move the herd. “Your father loved Christmas, but you know better than anyone that he changed after she died.”
“Don’t cross that line, Beau,” he warned.
“Oh, I’m about to fuckin’ obliterate it.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “How much have you overcome? How much has Denver overcome? Harmony? Val? Hell, all of us, Mason! Everyone on this ranch has survived their own versions of hell, and now, we’re here, on the other side of it, ready to celebrate a holiday meant to bring everyone together, and you’re too chickenshit to talk to Denver about the pain you both associate with this time.”
He said nothing, letting the storm in his eyes show me his anger, his pain. “We aren’t ready for that.”
“Been home nearly four years, Mase,” I reminded him gently. “You may not be ready for it, but it’s overdue.”
He looked away from me. “You can’t put a time stamp on healing.”
Fuck, he was going to make me do it.
“And when you bring your son home next month, are you going to teach him to avoid Christmas? Teach him that nothing good comes of this damn holiday,like your father did?”
“What the hell did you just say to me?” he asked, his voice laced with malice. Now it was my turn to brace as he turned on his saddle to face me. Underneath the brim of his hat, I saw the ghost of his father’s anger, the dark shadow of his past looming over his face. “You know about the adoption?”
My head tilted slightly to the left. “You told Pop, man. You should’ve known that man cannot keep a fucking secret—”
“He didn’t tell anyone about our conversations when I was on the road.” He cut me off, jaw jumping now.
“Oh, he can keep secrets from me and the rest of the men, but from Abbie?” I shook my head. “Pop tells her everything.”
There was a beat of silence before he said, “Denver doesn’t know yet—no one is supposed to know. Harm and I were waiting until the right time.” He paused. “We just got the phone call last week.”
