Darn Good Cowboy Christmas Read Online Free Page A

year. Liz’s dark eyes reminded him of a deep, dark hole that could swallow him up if he stared into them; as if they could see straight into his soul and tell him everything he’d ever thought or would think.
    â€œSo you are Uncle Haskell’s nearest neighbor, now mine, I guess?” she asked.
    He pointed toward the fireplace. “Less than a mile as the crow flies, straight that way. Haskell’s house and ours is probably set on a plumb line, but to drive there, you have to go down to the highway, hang a left, drive a mile, turn left down the lane, and then back as far as your place is off the highway. But I jumped the fences and walked over tonight. Needed the exercise after Momma’s supper.”
    I would shoot you between the eyes if you called me Momma. When I get a husband, even when I have kids, he’s not calling me Momma, she thought.
    He noticed the scowl on her face. Lord, what did I say wrong?
    â€œHow many fences?” she asked.
    â€œWell, you leave the backyard fence but it’s got a gate. Then the corral fence but it’s got a gate too. After that there’s the rail fence out into the horse pasture, but there’s a stile over it, and then your fence. So I suppose I only actually jumped one fence.” He grinned.
    That grin was flirting. If he was her husband he’d be in the doghouse with Hooter for looking at another woman the way he was staring at her. Liz couldn’t remember when she didn’t work at the carnival in some capacity or another. And she’d seen men walking down the midway with their arm around one woman and eyeing another just like Raylen was doing.
    Raylen saw the disgusted look cross her face and stood up so fast that Blister rolled down into the chair. “I came to invite you to Sunday dinner tomorrow. We do the big family thing on Sunday, and Grandma wants to have music.” His palms were sweaty, and high color stung his neck.
    She pointed. “One mile straight across there?”
    â€œThat’s right. At noon. My sisters, Gemma and Colleen, will be there and my brother, Dewar. My other brother, Rye, and his wife and baby daughter, Rachel, live over in Terral, right across the river and they’ll be coming too. And of course Grandma and Grandpa and Momma and Daddy.”
    Liz’s dark eyebrows knit together in a frown. Did he live with his mother and father?
    Well, you lived with your mother until yesterday, so don’t be casting stones! Aunt Tressa’s gravelly voice whispered so close that she turned to make sure she wasn’t in the room.
    â€œI’d love to come to dinner. At noon? Can I bring something? What’s your wife’s name?” she blurted out and wished she could cram the words right back in her mouth. God, that sounded so tacky.
    â€œWife?” he stammered.
    â€œYou didn’t mention your wife’s name. Rye, your brother, is married to Austin. Are any of the rest of you married?” She might as well be hung for a full-fledged sheep as a little bitty lamb. She’d opened the can of worms. She might as well let them all out to wiggle.
    â€œHell, no! I wouldn’t be over here askin’ you to dinner if I was married. That wouldn’t be right.” The words shot out of his mouth like cannonball.
    She cocked her head to one side. Were all the women in Ringgold, Texas, blind? Raylen filled out those Wranglers right well, and his biceps strained the seams on his Western-cut, plaid shirt. How in the devil had he outrun all the women?
    â€œDo you have a husband?” he asked bluntly.
    It was her turn to blush and shake her head emphatically. “Carnies aren’t the marryin’ type.”
    â€œCarnies?” He wondered if that was a family name.
    â€œThat’s right. You sure I can’t bring something?”
    â€œWe plan on music.” He smiled. “If you play an instrument bring it along. If not, just bring a healthy