Page 39 of The Christmas Cowboy

Chapter Fifteen

Usually, Liam enjoyedThanksgiving. He enjoyed this one too, but good God, wouldn’t it ever be over? He couldn’t remember another Thanksgiving that dragged on as long as this one had. Of course he hadn’t previously had his wife waiting to make love with him for the first time.

He stuck close to her through most of the day, which was both a curse and a blessing. He’d always thought she was pretty but today she looked especially beautiful. And tempting. He could wait, though. He’d already waited almost three weeks. Another few hours shouldn’t be too hard.

Except that it was.

“Damn, Liam, have you heard anything I said?”

Liam managed to drag his gaze away from Val to look at Logan. He started to say of course but since he hadn’t heard a thing Logan was saying he figured he might as well own it. “No. What were you talking about?”

“You’ve been watching Val like you want to eat her alive.”

That was a pretty apt description. He shrugged and said, “So?”

“You look at her like I look at Cici.”

“So?” he repeated.

“I wasn’t sure how you felt about her before this. At first I didn’t know how you got her pregnant when I didn’t even know you were involved. But I guess Cici was right.”

“Right about what?”

“She thinks one of the reasons you two didn’t work out—”

“Besides the fact that she was in love with you almost from the first?”

Logan’s smile was pure satisfaction. “Yeah, besides that. Cici thinks you had a thing for Val but for some reason you weren’t acting on it.”

To some degree Cici was right. Oh, not that his feelings for Val had anything to do with why he and Cici didn’t work out. But because Liam had spent the last few years, especially since Caroline dumped him, tryingnotto think of Val as a desirable woman. He’d succeeded most of the time.

But now they were married, and he had every right in the world to think about her as a beautiful, desirable woman. Thank God they were finally on the same page about when to make love. He changed the subject.

“Have you talked to Mom about Clint?”

“No, but I don’t think it’s a good sign that he isn’t here.”

“Me neither. I’m going to have a talk with her later and find out what’s going on with the two of them.”

“Yeah, now that you’re married, and you hired a bunch of help, she can’t use that as an excuse anymore, can she?”

“Nope, but I’m sure she’ll think of something. Maybe she doesn’t really want to marry him. Maybe she just went along with him and now once it’s imminent she’s changed her mind.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Maureen said.

They all filed into the dining room. The sideboard was piled high with turkey, ham, corn bread dressing, gravy, green bean casserole, and all sorts of other side dishes. Everyone had brought a dish so Maureen and Velma didn’t have to cook everything. Velma had left early that morning to go to her married daughter’s house for the holiday but she’d also made several desserts and other dishes the day before.

His mother had gotten out the good china and crystal and set the table with them. The table looked really pretty, but the few times his mom used the good stuff meant he and his brothers had to hand-wash and dry the dishes. Not his favorite part, but it made his mom happy so he didn’t complain. Much.

Liam told Val to save him a place next to her. As one of the last to get his food it was a while before he made it to his place. Once everyone was seated his mother asked them to hold hands as she said the blessing. Then everyone dug in and started talking at once.

“Aren’t you going to have some wine?” Val asked him. “I don’t mind.”

“No. I don’t really like wine so it’s not hard for me to turn it down. Has anyone asked you why you aren’t drinking?” he asked her in a low voice.

“No,” she answered just as quietly. “I don’t usually drink much so I don’t think it’s that noticeable when I don’t. My latest experience with drinking more than usual hasn’t made me anxious to repeat it. Besides feeling bad, there were other factors,” she said, glancing down at her stomach.

He reached for her hand. “A couple of good things resulted, though.”

---