Chapter Seven
Harmony
The phone only rang twice before the familiar sound of Eddie’s voice filled my ear. “Heya, sweetheart!” he greeted, his Texan accent thick.
“Hi, Eddie,” I greeted, smiling even though he couldn’t see it.
“Didn’t figure you’d have time to call me with all the planning,” he said with a chuckle. “Denver find out about Mason’s ham yet?”
My eyes shot over to where Denver, Val, Mags, and Diana were standing around the island.
Although I adored my husband, I was starting to realize he may be in over his head with the whole Christmas ham thing.
He’d told me it wouldn’t be a problem, but there was no way I could stop Mags and Denver from unleashing their wrath on him if the ham got screwed up.
Mags, who probably felt me staring, lifted his head.
I gave him a thin smile, and he tipped his head in response.
Mags never smiled at anyone other than NJ and Diana.
Just then, my ear filled with the precious sound of my niece’s giggles echoing from somewhere in the house.
The smell of cinnamon was in the air, Diana having placed her famous apple crisp in the oven to warm back up a few minutes ago.
“Where the fuck is my screwdriver?” Beau bellowed from the dining room.
All of our heads swiveled in that direction.
“Why in the hell would he need a screwdriver to put up a tree?” Valerie asked.
Diana shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t question the method of the cowboy,” she said, looking up at her fiancé. “I just nod my head and move on.”
Denver pinched the bridge of his nose as Mags chuckled. My lips parted at the sight. Since Diana and Mags had found their way, he’d been lighter—happier. It was a miracle, something this year had been full of.
Denver muttered, “That’s comforting coming from my fuckin’ lawyer.”
“Sounds like a full house,” Eddie noted on the other end of the line, humor lacing his voice.
Clearing my throat, I turned to face the coffee maker as I lowered my voice. “How do you know about the ham?”
“Oh, you know your bull rider, Harmony,” he drawled. “He’s been calling me to get him out of shit for nearly a decade. The ham was just some more shit.”
Holy goodness.
“Yeah, well with the storm, I don’t think you’ll be able to help him out of this one,” I noted, tucked a curl behind my ear.
Eddie and Jackie were supposed to fly up yesterday, but their flight out of Dallas had been delayed, and now they probably wouldn’t be here until after Christmas.
“I don’t know why you let him take that responsibility.”
I reached out and fidgeted with Denver’s signature mug, moving it from its spot by the coffee maker. “You know Mase. He got that cocky look in his eye and said he could do it.”
Eddie howled with laughter. “And you believed him?”
I huffed. “First of all, he’ll spot the biggest bull on tour, look at me with that same cocky gleam, tell me he is going to ride it for eight seconds, and then ride it for nine,” I practically hissed.
Eddie was too far gone now, his laughter filling my ear as I glared up at Den and Val’s pretty green cabinets.
I should’ve called Billie and Cabe, their winter vacation in Scotland be damned. Or heck, even Mason’s PR manager, Pam.
“Is that Harmony?” Jackie, Eddie’s wife, yelled in the background. “Give me that phone, Eddie!”
“Woman, I’m talkin’ to her about important things!” he yelled back so loudly that I had to pull the phone away. “Mason fucked up the Christmas ham and Denver is gonna kill him!”
I winced, rubbing my ear. “Jeez, Eddie! Just tell the entire world, why don’t you?”
“Oh, if you don’t think I’m bringing this up on the next Pbr tour, you got another thing coming, Harm. This is gold! The cowboy who can’t be thrown also cannot kill a ham for shit.” He roared with laughter again.
“Eddie, I didn’t call you to discuss that stupid ham,” I whispered hotly.
“Right,” he muttered, his laughter subsiding. “So, about y’all’s gift—”
“Eddie?” Denver parroted from behind me. “Is that Eddie on the line, Harm?”
My spine snapped straight. “Uh.”
“Is Harm on the phone with Eddie?” my husband called out from somewhere in the house.
I looked out the window, hating how, after years here, I still wasn’t used to the cold. Which was why I hadn’t gone outside to make this stupid, clearly unproductive phone call.
Eddie continued rambling. “Look, I know we aren’t going to make it for Christmas, but you and Mase don’t have to wait. I know you wanted to be there when you two announced—”
The phone was ripped out of my hand then. “Hey!” I whirled around to find my brother-in-law putting my hot pink phone against his ear.
“Hey, man. Are you and Jackie still coming down?” he asked.
“I was having a conversation,” I grumbled.
Denver shot me a wink and moved away.
I’d been an only child and when Mason brought me to Hallow Ranch, things were iffy between them.
We’d come here to stop my ex from trying to buy this land, but somewhere in the middle of the chaos, the Langston brothers had found their way back to each other.
When Denver had called me “sis” for the first time, I wanted to cry.
Now, when my brother-in-law did crap like this, I wanted to bop him over the head with the flour-coated rolling pin in Valerie’s hand.
“Denver, give me my phone.”
“No.”
I looked at Valerie, throwing my hand out. “A little help would be nice.”
Her lips twitched before she pressed them together, trying to suppress a giggle. “What do you want me to do?”
“He is your husband,” Diana chimed in.
Mase came into the kitchen, NJ on his hip, a huge Christmas bow on top of his head.
That was my husband, my big and fierce bull rider, wearing a red glitter bow instead of a cowboy hat.
After the cowboys had discovered the truth about our girl dinner sessions, we got to work.
Mason told everyone he was on “fun uncle duty” and retired to the living room to play with NJ.
His stormy eyes met mine, and instead of his usual cockiness, love was shining in them.
Those eyes scanned me up and down as they always did when he spotted me, silently checking to make sure I was okay.
It was more of a habit than anything else.
We were home, the safest place on earth for me.
I gave him a reassuring nod before his attention moved to his older brother.
Slowly, as NJ babbled and clapped in his arms, his brows came together, watching Denver pace in front of the island.
“Yeah, man, we understand. We just needed to know,” he said.
“Are they not going to make it?” Diana asked, putting the pieces together.
I moved over to her and plucked a piece of the sugar cookie dough out of the bowl. “No, their flight got delayed in Dallas.”
Abbie emerged from the hall then, rolling her eyes. “Why did I fall in love with a man who doesn’t know how to put up a Christmas tree?”
“I heard that!” Beau yelled. “It ain’t me; it’s this stupid stand.”
“Yeah, we’d love to have you and Jackie. Anytime,” Denver said, still pacing.
“Can I have my phone back now?” I called as Mase rounded the island to come to me.
Denver paused, turned, patted me on the top of my head. “No,” he answered, giving me his back again.
My jaw dropped as Diana said, “Mags knows how to put up a tree. He cut ours down and put it all up while I was in court.”
Valerie hummed, smiling widely at the grumpy cowboy. “That was sweet of you.”
“I’m two seconds away from burning this entire fucking place to the ground,” he deadpanned, his jaw tight.
Abbie did a double take as I popped the cookie dough into my mouth. “I see that thing that crawled up your ass is still taking up residence.”
He looked at the journalist, staring at her for a few beats before he looked down at Diana, who was pressing down a Santa cookie cutter. “You said there would be food.”
Diana gestured to the unbaked cookies. “This is food.”
“No, Firefly, this is the fifth circle of hell.”
“Har, har!”
I turned, finding NJ leaning away from Mase, her chubby little arms stretched out toward me. She still couldn’t get her Ms out, and I secretly hoped she never would. Har, har was just too cute coming from her.
I beamed at the sweet angel. “Hello, my sweet little sugar plum,” I cooed, reaching for her. “You coming to see me before Diana snatches you up?”
My husband jerked her away from me, stepping back. “It’s still my turn.”
“Mason, it’s been an hour,” Val reminded him from behind me as I closed the distance between us. “We share in this house.”
“No the fuck we don’t,” all the cowboys said at the same time.
The girls and I shared a look.
“Give me my niece!” I demanded, returning my attention to the issue at hand.
My husband pursed his lips, pondering. After a second, he clicked his tongue and winked at me. “No.”
“Mason Langston!”
“Harmony Langston,” he purred, grinning down at me as I put my hands around NJ’s little body. She leaned into me and as I plucked her out of his arms, setting her on my hip, I whispered, “Are you going to be this selfish when Micah gets home?”
No one could hear me, thank God. They were all too busy bickering over cookies and Christmas trees.
Mase’s eyes darkened. His arm shot out, banding around my waist and yanking me against him. NJ giggled and bounced in my hold as I looked up at my love, my eyes searching his, stomach sinking. “What is it?” I murmured. “No one heard me.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You said his name.”
I could feel my throat swelling then, my heart about to explode in my chest. “Yes,” I rasped.
I hadn’t said our son’s name out loud yet.
Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was wildly afraid that he would be ripped away from us, that something would happen and the adoption wouldn’t go through, even though we’d signed all the paperwork.
Micah was ours, but his foster family wanted to spend Christmas with him.
They’d already bought him presents, and we didn’t have the heart to tell them no.
Not after everything they’d done for him.
That was the only reason our boy wasn’t here.
A look came across Mason’s face then. It was the same look he got whenever our daughter, Sammy, was mentioned. “We need to tell them,” he whispered, serious now.
NJ had some of my curls in her fist now. She stretched the hair out before letting it go, watching it coil back to normal. “I thought we agreed on tomorrow.”
I felt his thumb stroke my waist. “Whatever you want, Little Song.”
“I love you, Mason.”
One of his hands cupped the back of my head then, guiding me closer so he could kiss my forehead. “I love you, baby.”
A loud clap had us breaking apart. All eyes were on Beau. He grinned proudly, holding out his arms. “The dining room tree is officially up. Don’t bother holding back your round of applause.”
Everyone was silent but Abbie as she moved toward him. She put her hand on his chest. “You did good.”
“Good is an interesting word to use,” Mags grumbled, leaning against the stairwell.
My head snapped over to where Denver was standing in the foyer.
He had a hand on his hip. The other held my phone against his ear, head bent, listening intently to whatever Eddie or Jackie was telling him on the other line.
If I had to guess, he was talking to Jackie now.
After all, she had been Valerie’s mom’s in-home nurse for years before Nancy passed.
I felt the hair on my arms rise up and when I looked over to Valerie, I wasn’t surprised to find her watching her husband, a shadow of emotion hanging over her beauty.
I turned back to Mase. “Are we being selfish?”
“Harmony, out of everyone here, you deserve to be a little selfish,” he answered, an edge to his voice.
“I know but—”
“Don’t, gorgeous. My brother and his wife have their shit handled,” he cut me off, cupping my face.
His eyes dropped to his niece. “Seeing you with a baby on your hip drives me insane,” he murmured.
“I can’t wait to watch you sing to Micah with him on your hip, swaying in our kitchen, rocking him in the nursery—”
“Uh, Beau?” Caleb called from down the hall. “The tree is about to fall over.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Mags growled, pushing off the wall. “I’ll fuckin’ do it.”
“Who knew the Grinch would be the best tree setter?” Diana hummed, lifting the tray of cookies and heading to the oven. Beau followed her cowboy down the hall, groaning.
“Something tells me Mags won’t be a Grinch for long,” Mase tacked on, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
Diana smirked as she put the cookies into the oven.
A few minutes after that, when Denver had given me my phone back, Jigs and twins arrived with dinner, the blizzard right on their heels.