A Little Country Christmas - Carolyn Brown Page 0,14
down here in the snow, but I told her that I used to ride a four-wheeler to gather up the cattle in worse weather than this. Besides, I want to play with Sally and eat some cookies right out of the oven. I smell cinnamon. Are you making snickerdoodles this morning?”
Dixie nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I don’t expect many customers in this weather, but Claire and I always have cookies and coffee ready just in case. I bet Patsy had a smart-ass remark about you on a four-wheeler, didn’t she?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sarah opened one of the baby’s books. “She said that she used to ride a mechanical bull, but that didn’t mean she was stupid enough to do it now.”
Dixie could visualize Patsy popping her hands on her chubby waist and telling Sarah that she was too old to drive a quarter of a mile in the snow. “You sure you only need one yard of this fabric? Better get as much as you need while you’re here. You might have to whip Patsy to get to drive down here again.”
“By damn, I’ll walk if she hides my keys,” Sarah declared. “Right now, I’m going to enjoy some one-on-one time with this baby girl before I eat some of those cookies. You got coffee made?”
“Pot is almost full. I’ll bring you a cup,” Dixie offered.
“Thank you,” Sarah answered and then started reading a book to Sally about a puppy who was all alone at Christmas.
“I dreamed about a puppy last night,” Dixie said.
“Every kid needs a pet. When you get your own place, I’m going to go to the shelter and adopt a puppy for y’all,” Sarah told her.
“I’m sure Sally would like that, but it’ll be a long time before we save up enough to get our own place,” Dixie said as she handed Sarah her coffee.
“If you’d let us help, we could rent you that little place next to ours, and then we could babysit this sweet little girl every day while you work,” Sarah said.
“Thanks for the offer. I really appreciate it, Miz Sarah. I love all of you, but I need to do this on my own.” Dixie cut Sarah’s fabric, made up a ticket, and laid it to the side. With icy roads and bad weather, this might be her only sale that day. She was returning the bolt of cloth to the shelf when the phone rang.
“The Quiltin’ House. Merry Christmas,” she answered.
“Is Sarah there?” Patsy asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Dixie answered. “You want to talk to her?”
“Nope, but please call me when she leaves,” Patsy said.
“Be glad to,” Dixie told her. She had barely put the phone back on the stand when it rang again. This time it was Claire.
“Hey girl, I’m not even going to try to come to the store for the next few days unless you need me,” Claire said.
“I can hold it down. I doubt that we will have many customers, and we’re all caught up on orders until after the New Year.” Dixie thought about the throw she was making for Landon and kind of hoped for a couple of slow days so she could finish it. “Oh, and we put up a tree in front of the window in the shop. Is that all right? Landon cut it down for us, and I made ornaments from scraps.”
“Sounds cute. Take a picture of it with your phone and send it to me. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of doing something like that before now. Can’t wait to see it,” Claire said.
“It’s not quite finished yet, but sure. I can take a picture of it now,” Dixie told her.
“Great! Then I’ll see you in church Sunday if not before. Right now, I’m just staying in with the baby. He’s cutting teeth and so cranky it’s not even funny,” Claire said.
“I’m in the same boat with this girl of mine. See you in a few days,” Dixie said.
The call ended and Dixie made a mental note to send a picture as soon as she got the first batch of cookies from the oven. She put a dozen on a tray and took them to the little table in the living room where Claire always had cookies ready for the customers.
Sarah reached for a cookie and dipped it into her coffee. She pinched off a small corner for Sally before she put it in her mouth. “Good, ain’t it, baby girl? Just a little coffee with a snickerdoodle makes it a thousand