The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby Read Online Free Page A

built on the
     same frame as Lucas, only a couple of inches shorter: tall, broad-shouldered, big
     muscles, and an angular face that was beginning to show signs of rough and rugged
     work.
    Grady followed his lead and claimed the recliner next to his. “Get comfortable, Lucas.
     You are home.”
    “Spit it out, son. There’s something gnawin’ at you,” Jack said.
    Lucas paced from one end of the oversized den to the other. Four recliners—two on
     each end of a long brown leather sofa—a sturdy wooden coffee table, entertainment
     system with a large plasma screen television, and end tables scattered among the recliners,
     and still the room looked half-empty.
    Back when Gramps built the place, there was supposed to be a dozen boys romping through
     the house, so he’d oversized the living room, kitchen, dining room, and den to accommodate
     them and their friends. But Jack was the only child that Henry and Ella Jo could ever
     have, and the house was lonely until they brought Grady to live with them too, after
     his mother and dad died.
    Lucas settled into the recliner again, but he couldn’t find the words to spit out
     anything. He was glad to be home, but he wished he was back in Kuwait so he didn’t
     have to face all the crazy emotions wound up inside him like a string of last year’s
     Christmas lights.
    He had just finished the last of his supper when Jack barreled into the house telling
     all about the weather and Hazel in one breath. He’d stopped in his tracks and quit
     talking when he saw Lucas sitting at the table.
    “Well, I’ll be damned. You made it home early. It’s a good thing Hazel is laid up
     in the hospital. She’s been planning your homecoming for a month. It’s all she’s talked
     about. What she was going to make for you to eat, the banner she’d ordered to string
     out on the porch, whether this storm would keep your plane from landing—I could go
     on and on.” He’d crossed the floor and hugged his son.
    Now they were lined up like three tired old cowboys in the recliners they’d used for
     years. Grady’s and Lucas’s on one end of the sofa, Jack’s and Henry’s on the other
     end.
    “He’s all upset because Natalie didn’t tell him about Joshua,” Grady said.
    Jack looked down the length of the sofa. “That so?”
    Lucas nodded.
    “Even with your problem? I’d think it would be a good thing. But that’s your call.
     You’re the one who’s been doin’ that Internet dating shit with her for almost a year.
     But hey, you don’t have to like her or the baby. It’s up to you, but I promised Hazel
     I’d do anything in my power to keep her here on the ranch until Christmas, so that’s
     what I’m going to do. You got a problem with that?” Jack asked.
    Lucas nodded again. “Yes, I do, but I’m not going to fight with Hazel when she’s sick.
     Why would Hazel want her to stay?”
    “You caused it. You told her all about how that you’d found a woman who could cook
     for the harvest crew, take a tractor engine down to bare bones and put it back together,
     and who loved basketball as much as you do. It’s come back to bite you square on the
     ass, son. Hazel thinks she’s just the woman for this ranch and if she hadn’t fallen
     and hurt her hip, she’d be matchmaking.”
    Grady picked up the remote and then laid it back down. “Hazel is way past eighty,
     Lucas. She’s been telling me and your dad all year that as soon as she got you home
     she was going to go live with her daughter in Memphis. Don’t none of us believe it.
     She’s just fussing and fuming about wanting you to get married to the right woman.”
    Lucas slapped a hand over his eyes. It was too much for one night. First Natalie and
     a baby, for God’s sake, and now Hazel talking about leaving Cedar Hill. It damn sure
     wasn’t the homecoming that he’d thought he’d have.
    Hazel had been there when his dad was born. She was older than Henry and was the very
     fiber of the