The Cowboy Who Saved Christmas - Jodi Thomas Page 0,86
every day to find more because we have something we want to buy,” Annie responded.
“What do you want to buy?” Amelia asked.
The girls exchanged a look, then replied in unison, “It’s a secret.”
“I see. Well, you shouldn’t tell a secret.” Amelia stood and placed her hands on their shoulders. “Let’s go help Mrs. Nelson with dinner.”
“Can we stay here with Mr. Mitchum and pan some more?” Annie asked.
When Amelia glanced at Clint to see if he was agreeable, he smiled at her. “They can stay with me if you don’t mind.”
“Stay with Mr. Mitchum and don’t wander off, and don’t ask him a thousand questions.” Amelia didn’t know if Clint knew what it was like trying to keep up with two girls, so she gave him fair warning. “They can ask a ton of questions.”
Clint laughed. “No problem. I’ve already been the target of Bo and Boone’s inquisitions.”
As soon as Amelia was out of earshot, Annie moved closer to Clint and whispered, “We’ll tell you our secret. We want to buy something for Ma.”
Clint looked at their earnest little faces. “What do you want to buy?”
Before the girls could tell their secret, Bo and Boone joined them. Boone handed Clint a cup of coffee. “Mrs. Nelson told us to bring you this, and to tell you supper will be ready in thirty minutes.”
“Thank you, boys.” Clint smiled when he saw the cup was only half full.
“We’re going to tell Mr. Mitchum our secret,” Annie announced to the boys.
“They already told us their secret,” Bo told Clint.
“Well, we don’t want Ma to know, so don’t tell her,” Katie instructed.
Bo and Boone nodded. “We won’t.”
Clint took a sip of his barely warm coffee just as Annie said, “We want to buy Ma a husband for Christmas.”
Clint choked on his coffee and started coughing.
Katie slapped him on the back. “Are you okay, Mr. Mitchum?”
When he finally stopped coughing, he sputtered, “I thought I heard you say you wanted to buy a husband for your ma.”
Katie and Annie nodded in unison. “That’s what we want to do,” Katie confirmed.
Clint dropped his pan on the bank, his eyes bouncing from Katie to Annie. “That’s your secret?”
Annie grinned at him. “Yes, we want to surprise her. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Boone sat down beside Clint. “We heard Mrs. Nelson tell Pa lots of men send money for wives, but I don’t know where they send the money. Do you know where to send the money, Mr. Mitchum?”
“Why don’t you buy our pa for your ma?” Bo asked the girls before Clint could respond.
“Yeah. Your ma is real pretty. I bet our pa would like her. He’s really been missing our ma,” Boone agreed.
Clint held his hand in the air. “Now wait a minute. You can’t go buying a husband for your ma, girls.”
Annie stuck out her lower lip, and Katie frowned at him, saying, “That’s how Mr. Collins got his wife. He wrote a letter and sent money for a wife to come meet him.”
Clint was stunned how much the children knew about the affairs of adults. “Who told you that? And who is Mr. Collins?”
“I heard Mrs. Nelson tell Ma. Mr. Collins owns the boardinghouse in La Grange,” Katie answered. “His new wife does all the cooking.”
“Mrs. Nelson said she would make a better floozy, because she can’t cook,” Annie stated.
Bo furrowed his brow at Annie. “What’s a floozy?”
Annie shrugged and shook her head from side to side. “I don’t know, but I guess she does it better than she cooks.”
Katie looked up at Clint. “Mr. Mitchum, do you know what a floozy is?”
“Ah . . . it’s ah . . .” Clint didn’t know how to answer that question for children’s ears, so he quickly thought of something else to say. “I don’t think your ma would want you to find her a husband. She can do that all by herself, when she’s ready.”
“But we heard Ma tell Mrs. Nelson she didn’t know how she would care for us since our pa died. We want to stay with her, so we need to find her a husband,” Annie replied.
Clint thought the girls were just missing their pa. “Of course you’ll stay with your mother. I know you miss your pa, but it might take some time for your ma to want to marry again.”
“Mrs. Nelson said a lot of men don’t want no one else’s children. We’d be good, and he don’t have to like us,” Katie added.