Page 44 of The Wedding Gift

Finally, after several trips from the wall where the television hung to the kitchen sink and back again, he heard a vehicle start up. He rushed to the window, cupped his hands around his eyes, and looked out, but he couldn’t see a blessed thing. Was one person or two in the car? He couldn’t tell, butlo and behold, there were two squirrels playing chase up and down Mr. Frank James Snowman. A bit of tinsel sparkled on one of their tails.

“I’ll be damned.” He chuckled. “Jorja is right. Fate or the universe or the magic of Christmas is trying to tell us something. Squirrels don’t even come out to play at night, and yet there they are. I can’t deny all the signs any longer now.”

The door from the bar into the apartment swung open, and Jorja headed toward the bathroom. He was almost afraid to turn around. Now that he had admitted that they belonged together as more than just partners, he didn’t want her to leave. Should he beg her to stay? He finally whipped around and locked eyes with her.

“Are you leaving or staying?” He couldn’t tell from her expression. Maybe her intention was to get her Christmas shower curtain and pack it with the rest of her stuff.

Jorja yawned. “I’m not going anywhere, and Abigail is on her way back to Fort Worth to the airport. She says there’s an early-morning flight to Nashville, and she’ll be on it.”

“Thank God.” He heaved a big sigh of relief.

“Are you glad she’s going so you don’t have to sleep on that lumpy sofa in the office, or because I’m staying and you can get a decent night’s rest in your own bed?” she asked.

He took a couple of long steps toward her, wrapped herin his arms, and swung her around. “I’d sleep on the floor if I had to, darlin’. I’m just glad you are stayin’. We make a good couple, and I didn’t want you to leave.”

“As in partners, or…”

He answered her question when his lips came down on hers in a long, passionate kiss. When it ended, he led her to the table and pulled a chair out for her. “As in everything, Jorja Jenks. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now, no matter what it is, I want us to be together in all of it.”

“I don’t take risks,” she whispered. “I usually calculate every single move I make. Signing the papers to take over this bar with you was the most impulsive thing I have ever done. After watching my sister glare at me for the past four hours, it seems like the smartest move I’ve ever made.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “And no matter what the future holds, we can face it together. After all, you are the snake slayer and I’m the spider killer. We make an excellent couple.” She took him by the hand, stood up, and led him out into the bar.

The place was a total mess with bottles, mugs, and pitchers on the tables, and chairs strewn about everywhere, but that didn’t matter. All the decorations were still lit up and sparkling.

“Look,” Jorja pointed to the window. “The sky has cleared, and the stars are dancing around the moon.”

“What are we doing in here?” he asked. “If we’re going to have a midnight snack, I’d rather have a chunk of that cobbler you made for our dinner.”

“Later,” she told him as she plugged coins into the jukebox, took him by the hand, and pulled him toward the door.

When they were on the porch, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to his, then pointed at the porch rail where a pair of robins were roosting. “Robins are a harbinger of spring. They’re telling us that we belong together every season in the year, not just at Christmas," he said.

“I believe it,” she said. “This is our song, and I wanted to have this dance with you out here under the real lucky stars.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cameron two-stepped with her on the porch for the first verse and then danced her back into the bar for the rest of the song. “Well freeze if we stay out there any longer,” he said.

“Not when I’m in your arms,” she whispered. “We should close out Christmas this way from now on.”

“I love that idea. Merry Christmas to us,” he agreed and brushed a soft kiss across her lips.

Chapter 1

Becca scolded herself for leaving the door open.

Now Dalton’s pesky dog had snuck into the watermelon wine shed. If he scratched off a hair and it landed in one of the containers of juice, she intended to strangle the shaggy critter and hang him out on the barbed wire fence to show all the other ugly mutts in southern Oklahoma what happens when a dog hair got into her wine.

She crammed the air lock down on the bottle, wiped the outside, and hurried over to the door. “Get out of here!” she yelled as she pointed outside. Austin had trusted her with the wine shed for a whole week, and she was not going to let her boss and best friend down.

Tuff rolled over on his back and looked up at her with big brown eyes. “I said, ‘Go!’” She stomped her foot, but the dogjust wagged his tail. “Who names a raggedy-ass mutt Tuff, anyway?” She grabbed a broom, and his tail flipped back and forth so fast that it was a blur.

“He ain’t afraid of a broom.” Dalton’s deep Texas drawl startled her. “I use one just like that to scratch his tummy out in the barn, and he’s named after Tuff Hydeman, who is a world champion professional bull rider.” He gave a shrill whistle, and Tuff jumped up from the floor and stood at attention. “Come on, boy. We won’t stay where we’re not wanted.”

“Shaggy from the old Scooby-Doo shows fits him better,” Becca said.

“Now, you’re just hurting the poor little fella’s feelings,” Dalton said. “Don’t pay no attention to what she says, Tuff. She don’t know jack squat about a good rodeo dog like you.”

Becca popped her hands on her hips. “I’ve been to rodeos, and I grew up on a ranch. Don’t tell me that I don’t know nothing about cattle dogs.”

Dalton Wilson’s confidence oozed out of him, but then there wasn’t a woman in the whole universe who wouldn’t jump at the chance to walk down the aisle with him. Sweet Lord, the cowboy looked like sex on a stick.

---