Page 10 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“Sure,” Lex said, coming to a stop. “Dad had to go to work with Henry. Grandpa asked if I wanted to go with him to do something in town, but I told him I wanted to unpack.”
“Did you bring a box of books?” Audrey asked as the three of them headed to the truck.
“Boxesof books, Grandma. Lots of books.”
“Good for you,” Trenna said a little too brightly, earning herself a look that was just shy of withering. Okay, she’d watch the condescension. It wasn’t what she’d intended, but it had come off that way.
“Lex is a big reader,” Audrey said.
“What genre?” Trenna asked matter of factly, determined to put things back on track.
“Everything except science fiction and military.”
“I kind of like science fiction,” Trenna said. “But I prefer fantasy.”
“Which series?”
Trenna drew a blank, realizing it had been years since she’d indulged in a major reading binge, then said, “Chronicles of Narnia.”
Lex smiled a little, then hefted a box and started for the house. “That’s a good one.” Her voice was cool, like her father’s was when he was assessing someone.
Audrey met Trenna’s gaze as Trenna reached for one of the boxes. “She’s slow to warm sometimes.”
“Is it the old girlfriend thing?”
“Not sure,” Audrey said with a gentle smile. “But I doubt it. I think she might have hit that teen stage when she’s totally sure of herself one minute and not so sure the next.”
“So glad those days are gone,” Trenna said as they started for the house.
Fifteen minute later, they had Reed and Lex’s belongings stacked in the kitchen that seemed to take up half the house. The décor was straight out of the eighties—country blue with a lot of cows—but it kind of fit the place.
Lex pushed the dark hair off her forehead. “I think I’ll unpack the kitchen while Dad is gone. We bought some frozen pizzas and stuff because he said we shouldn’t mooch off you.”
“I’m going to cook for you guys once a week,” Audrey said. “It’s in the pact your dad and I made.” She sounded as if she’d like to cook for them every night, but understood that Reed liked a degree of independence.
“Can I help?” Lex asked. “I can bake, but I haven’t cooked a lot.”
“That’s also in the pact. I’m making dinner tonight, as a welcome home thing.”
“Great. Dad and Grandpa should still be on good behavior.”
Audrey cleared her throat. “Exactly. Timing is everything. Do you want a hand with the kitchen?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Trenna could honestly say that when she’d woken up that morning, she hadn’t foreseen helping Reed’s daughter organize a kitchen, but that was how she’d spent the next hour and a half. It had been kind of a stilted affair at first, with Audrey doing most of the talking, and Trenna and Lex sidestepping one another, until Trenna tried to rearrange the heavy pots on the top shelf of a lower cabinet without taking them out and managed to drop one on her foot.
“Shit.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, looking first at Lex and then Audrey. Both burst out laughing at the same time.
“I guess you’re not as fancy as I thought,” Lex said on a relieved note.
Fancy?
“I think Lex means that you are very put together.”
Trenna glanced down at her jeans, which were indeed so new that the indigo had yet to take a beating in the washer. And she was wearing a nice sweater with a funky pendant that had been her birthday gift to herself last year.
