A Little Country Christmas - Carolyn Brown Page 0,31
world…and she had flat out fallen in love with him. The ugly tree, the tiny snowman, the burned cookies—a perfect Christmas was a feeling, not everything turning out flawless. Every time she thought about this year, she would wrap the warmth of that emotion around her like a warm blanket on a snowy night and think of Landon.
There were only a half dozen vehicles in the pizza place parking lot. Monday night was buffet night, so they didn’t have to wait to be served. Landon loaded up two kinds of pasta on a plate for Sally, along with some tiny bits of ham and cheese from the salad bar so that there would be a few things she could eat all by herself. Then he fed her bites as he ate his meal. Every one of his gestures, every moment she spent with him, every smile he flashed her way was a memory, and there could never be another Christmas as perfect as this one had been—not even if she lived to be a hundred.
They were back in the truck headed for the entrance to the light show in less than an hour. Dixie hadn’t known what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t what she saw. From the time they crossed under the brightly lit arch and started the drive through the park where the lights were on display, she felt like a little kid.
“Go slow so I can take pictures for our album,” she said as she snapped photo after photo until her battery went dead.
“Here, now you can use mine, and I want a couple of selfies of you with the displays behind you in the window,” Landon told her. “And don’t forget to turn around and take some of Sally. I’ve been watching her in the rearview, and her little mouth has been a perfect O ever since we started the drive.”
“Neither one of us has ever seen anything like this. I thought maybe we were just going to drive around and look at people’s houses all fancied up,” she said.
“Did you do that when you were a kid?” Landon asked.
“Once,” she replied, but kept snapping pictures. “The stepdad who was with us then took us to look at the lights, but he and Mama got into a big argument on the way home, and she kicked him out. But hey, I got to see something pretty before the bad stuff happened that time around.”
“Do you always find something positive, even in terrible situations?” he asked.
“I do my best,” she answered, and wondered exactly what she would find positive when she and Sally were telling Landon good-bye.
Don’t weep when he goes. Give thanks for the time you got to spend with him.
Chapter Nine
By Christmas Eve night, there were boxes of cookies in every room at the Quiltin’ House. Landon worked for half an hour loading the boxes with plates covered in plastic before transferring them to the truck. Then he and Dixie got Sally strapped into her car seat so they could begin their delivery rounds. First stop was the Fab Five house, where they took in five separate plates full of cookies—one for each of the elderly folks. Then they drove out to the ranch and were able to catch the bunkhouse guys before they all left for a couple of days with their kinfolks. That taken care of, they swung by Claire and Levi’s house and were invited in to visit for a little while.
Levi and Landon left the ladies in the kitchen and disappeared into the living room with a couple of beers. “When are you moving into the cabin?” Levi whispered.
“Already did,” Landon said. “Got all my stuff in there today. I love the place, but good lord, that bathroom is tiny.”
“Yep,” Levi chuckled. “It sure wasn’t designed for a couple to shower in, but Claire and I managed to defy the odds a few times. Does Dixie know yet?”
“I’m going to tell her tonight. I even put up a tiny little tree, and I have a present wrapped for her and one for Sally waiting underneath it,” he said.
“Did you call Pax and Maverick?” Levi asked.
“Yes, and I’ll be going back out to west Texas the first day of June, so teach me everything you can between now and then. I’ll be working for Maverick at first, and maybe later, I’ll help with both ranches,” he answered.
“Nervous about telling Dixie and the move?” Levi asked.