The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby by Carolyn Brown Page A

putting up the Christmas tree
     today.”
    “God help us all!” Leah said and the line went dead.
    Four men brought in an enormous box with a picture of a Christmas tree on the outside
     before she could get the phone back in her pocket.
    “I smell”—Henry raised his eyebrows—“vegetable soup, right?”
    “No, you don’t. You’re getting old. That’s chocolate cake, isn’t it?” Grady said.
    “Don’t be calling me old. I know what I smell. Ella Jo made it once a week even in
     the summertime because it’s my favorite,” Henry argued.
    “It’s both,” Natalie said.
    “See, I told you it was chocolate,” Grady said.
    “I’ll never get them raised,” Lucas whispered and headed across the den and dining
     room toward the back door.
    The front of the house was an enormous square. Two doors opened from the wide porch.
     One into the living room that was as big as a hotel lobby. Two archways opened up
     to the left off the living room. One led into the den, the other into the dining room,
     with a third arch separating those two. The kitchen was at the back of the dining
     room with a normal-sized door opening into the living room and one into the dining
     room.
    The whole effect created by so much openness was spacious and intimidating to Natalie.
     The guys set the biggest box she’d ever seen on the floor of the living room, just
     to the left of the fireplace. The picture on the box reminded her of the one they
     put up at the Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. She’d been mesmerized by that
     tree when she was a little girl and they’d gone there in December for a week.
    “Hey, you come on back here, Lucas. Your job is right here. You’re the tallest one
     of us and you can do this without getting a ladder. We’ll go on out and get the rest
     of the boxes. You can put this thing together,” Jack said.
    “Sir, yes, sir!” Lucas returned and saluted sharply.
    Henry slapped him on the arm. “That’s enough of that shit. You ain’t in the army no
     more.”
    “You’d never know that he’s an ordained preacher the way he talks, would you, Natalie?”
     Lucas said.
    “Don’t you be tattlin’ on me while I’m gone,” Henry said.
    Natalie picked up Joshua from the swing. “I’ll take him back to the bedroom and change
     him. It’s time for his morning bottle. Shall we sit on the sofa and watch or what
     is my job in all this?”
    Lucas opened the box and picked up the base. “Your job is to make those old farts
     happy, and it don’t matter what you do, if Josh smiles at them, they are happy. So
     I guess your biggest job is to make sure they can see the baby and talk to him. Never
     knew three old dogs to get so excited over a new pup.”
    ***
    Lucas was glad she was staying, but it could never work between them, not with a baby
     involved—no matter how much the family liked having a child in the house.
    Natalie hadn’t been honest with him, but then he hadn’t been up-front with her, either.
     Still, it seemed like her secret was bigger than his… or was it?
    “Okay, this box says lights and garland. Jack is bringing the one that says ornaments,
     and we’re letting Henry carry the one that says skirt and tree topper. He’s pitchin’
     a shit fit, so don’t tease him about not being able to carry anything heavier,” Grady
     whispered to Lucas as Henry appeared in the living room.
    Natalie was back by the time Henry set down his box and was about to sit down in a
     rocking chair when Henry reached for the baby.
    “I’ll feed the baby while you young people decorate the tree. Me and him are already
     good friends. Been a while since I burped a baby, though. Is it still two ounces and
     then throw ’im over the shoulder?”
    She draped a burp towel over Henry’s shoulder and handed him the baby and the bottle.
     “It’s like riding a bicycle. It all comes right back. I think he does like you.”
    He put the bottle nipple into the baby’s mouth and eased down into