Chapter 12
Ginger
A tall man in dark jeans bellows a greeting and it startles me. Dallas tells me it’s his father, then quickly gets out and comes around the truck to help me over the ice patches his father points out.
Dallas and his father look a lot alike. Same build, same dark hair and easy smile. His mother looks like she could easily be a movie star. Now I know why Dallas is so handsome.
I walk up the steps, taking in the gorgeous house decorated like it belongs on a Christmas card. All the windows are lit with candles. A large wreath with a red bow graces the front door. On either side of the door, tall nutcrackers stand guard.
Lights cascade in a waterfall from the roof and it’s all so breathtaking.
Elizabeth opens her arms wide and pulls me into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.” When she pulls back, I catch Dallas giving her a warning look and wonder what that’s about.
“Come on inside. Too damn cold out here,” Ned says.
Dallas takes me by the hand, and we walk into the house together.
The scent of pine and cinnamon lingers in the expansive living room.
An enormous Christmas tree stands in front of floor to ceiling windows decorated with hundreds of ornaments and topped with a big red bow.
Festively wrapped gifts crowd beneath the tree.
There’s a fire crackling in the fireplace and flannel blankets thrown across the sofas and chairs.
“It’s so beautiful and festive,” I remark.
Elizabeth brings me a new pair of fuzzy pink and white bedroom slippers. “Here, in case your feet are cold.”
“They are.” I accept the slippers gratefully.
“And mine are where?” Dallas asks, pulling his mom to his side for a hug.
“Just wear your socks,” she tells him dismissively.
Ned laughs and claps Dallas on the back. “You might as well give up, son. After years of having only boys around, your mom is ready for another woman’s company in the house. I’ll go find you a pair.”
I put on the fuzzy slippers and wiggle my toes in relief.
“Come here, Dallas. I want to get a picture of you and Ginger,” Elizabeth says.
I try to protest that after the flight and the trip I look a mess, but she won’t hear it. “You’re the type of person who’s always beautiful, sugar, now come here. Stand in front of the fireplace.”
She takes a few pictures with her phone, then Dallas insists she use his too.
When we’re done, Elizabeth says, “There’s freshly made homemade hot cocoa in the kitchen. I’ll make you a cup. Do you want marshmallows?”
I can only nod because suddenly I’m feeling choked up missing my mom and the Christmases I won’t get to have with her. And missing her feels even worse because my dad won’t be here for this one.
“Are you alright?” Dallas massages my shoulders.
I don’t want to drag down the mood, so I assure him I’m fine. “This is a beautiful home, and your parents are wonderful.”
“I’m the better half,” Ned says as he returns and hands Dallas a pair of slippers.
“Of course you are, honey,” Elizabeth says, catching my eye. She hands me a mug of cocoa filled to the brim with miniature marshmallows.
Ned glances at his wife, then his watch. “Where are the rest of the boys? I told them Dallas would be back.”
“Radley’s probably at the barn. Royal’s probably with Radley. Ridge went to get Dallas’s dog, and I saw Rocky unloading the tractor he brought back from Butterfly Buck’s house.”
Ned sighs. “Did he get a hold of it again?”
“Butterfly Buck is kind of a staple around Lucky River,” Dallas says.
“Just like Claudia Morris.” Elizabeth adds. “Buck is an elderly man who’s famous for painting butterflies on things he shouldn’t. Like the mayor’s car. Claudia runs the annual Lasso a Cowboy event. It’s all in good fun.”
I find their conversation fascinating because of how often they’ve smiled at each other while speaking. Their connection is sweet.
Elizabeth snaps her fingers. “In all the excitement of meeting Ginger, I forgot I made barbecue chicken earlier. Are you hungry? Because I can—”
Whatever else Elizabeth said is drowned out by the loud, prolonged blare of a horn. She and Dallas exchange a glance, then she looks at me. “Ginger, honey, could you go outside and see what’s going on?”
“Uh…sure.” Puzzled, I glance at Dallas who shrugs. Maybe this is his mom’s way of including me.
As soon as I step out onto the porch, the horn falls silent. The passenger door of a big red pickup truck swings open.
“Dad!” I’m stunned and rendered immobile. I blink thinking I’m seeing things.
But my father bounds up the walkway and onto the porch, crushing me to him in a big bear hug. He smells like woodsmoke and the aftershave he’s used since I was a kid.
I can hardly believe this is happening. “You’re here!” I cling tightly to him.
He swings me around while laughing delightedly. “Thanks to Dallas and his buddies, I am. Where is he?”
Dallas comes out to greet my father and looks at me. “I told you I’d make sure you wouldn’t miss Christmas with your dad.”
My heart is so full. This man…and how he cares for me…the power of his love…I’m unable to put into words what I’m feeling.
“Hey, I should get some glory, too. It was my stellar driving skills that fetched him.” A cowboy with dark eyes and a closely trimmed beard and mustache walks up and introduces himself. “I’m Jonas. And the weird looking guy with me is Marshall.”
“Speak for yourself,” Marshall says.
“Marshall? The dildo guy?” I say the words I was thinking but didn’t intend to speak out loud.
Dallas and Jonas laugh.
“Um…well…” Marshall rubs the back of his neck as he stumbles over his words.
My dad frowns. “Ginger. What a thing to say. Do you know him?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say I don’t but I know his candy cane dildo gift. I choke those words back. “No, we’ve never met.”
Ned calls out to my dad, and he wanders back inside the house.
Marshall is still embarrassed. “It slipped out,” I say, trying to assure him I didn’t mean to say it out loud. “Not the dildo because I didn’t use that.” I want the porch to open up and swallow me. “Sorry.”
Jonas is laughing so hard he’s having trouble catching his breath.
Dallas puts his arm around my shoulders. “I’m grateful for that toy. I think when we get married, we should have small dildos as the cake topper. One dressed in a tuxedo and the other—”
I elbow him.
Marshal laughs. “I’m a matchmaker at heart I guess.” Then he sends Jonas a devilish grin. “Don’t you need to rush back? You don’t want to keep Melody waiting.”
“Since it’s Christmas Eve, I’m gonna let that vile comment go.”
“Your life would be easier if you’d admit you want that woman.”
“I want her like I want to get neutered. Like I want to sit on a spur. Like I—”
“You love her then?” Marshall says.
“I’ll wait in the truck. Hurry your ass up if you want a ride.” Jonas stalks off.
Marshall laughs and shakes hands with Dallas before leaving.
“What’s wrong between Melody and Jonas?” I ask once we’re alone on the porch.
“I don’t know all the details, but something happened that neither of them will talk about. Calling them enemies is putting it mildly. They hate to even be in the same room together.”
The front door opens a crack. “Let’s watch a movie, Ginger,” Elizabeth says with another strange glance at Dallas.
There’s already a romcom on the TV screen and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table when I go back in.
“I’m going down the hall to my dad’s office,” Dallas tells me once I’m settled on the sofa beside Elizabeth. I’m surprised because I thought he’d join us.
“I’ll tag along,” my dad says.
“What’s going on, Dad?” I ask. Normally, he’d be the first one to chill on the sofa when a movie is playing.
“Nothing. I’m just hanging out with my new friends.”
He walks away with Dallas, and I take a handful of popcorn and hold it without eating it. “Dad’s acting strange. So’s Dallas.”
Elizabeth passes me a glass of tea. “They seem fine to me.”
The movie starts but I can’t shake the feeling I’m missing something.
Halfway through the movie, the front door opens, and two men stride in, their voices lowering when they spot us.
“Royal, Radley come meet Ginger.”
Royal glances at the TV screen. “Ma, you’ve seen this movie a hundred times.”
She shushes him.
Royal sits down on an ottoman. He’s holding a thin gray kitten.
“You found another one?” Elizabeth asks, then explains to me, “Someone abandoned a handful of kittens in an alley by the liquor store in Clover County a couple of days ago. We’ve been trying to catch them.”
“Radley’s been working harder at that than any of us since he’s got his eye on the new veterinarian in town.”
“I told you that’s not true,” Radley denies. Then he mutters, “Marina doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Are you almost done with that thing you were handling?” Elizabeth asks him.
“What thing?” he says.
“The chore,” Elizabeth’s voice carries a warning.
“Oh. Ridge and Rocky finished putting up the l—” He glances at me and stops speaking.
Something is definitely going on.
Dallas walks into the living room and holds out his hand to me. His face and ears are red like he’s been in the cold. “Take a walk with me.”
I look at the grandfather clock in the corner. “It’s after midnight.”
“I know.”
I stand and slip my hand in his and we go to the foyer to get my coat. “Is something wrong?” I ask as I put it on.
“No.”
His short response is unlike him and now I’m worried about whatever is going on. My heart clenches. I don’t think I could withstand it if something happens to make the man I love disappear from my life. If I could never see him again…
I stand frozen while Dallas drapes a scarf around my neck. I love Dallas. I look up at him. At his handsome face. His kind eyes. His lips. I don’t know when…maybe I did from the beginning but fought it…I love Dallas. I really…
“Let’s go.” He leads the way through the house to the backyard. Someone has cleared the snow and strung lights around an enclosed gazebo. It glows in the cold darkness.
“How pretty!” I snap out of my shock to exclaim.
“Inside is even better,” he says while pushing the door open.
I walk in and stop, hardly able to absorb everything I see. Three large pictures hang on a wall. The first one is a black and white image of Dallas sitting atop a horse and staring off into the horizon. It’s bleak and lonely.
Beneath the picture are the words Where I was.
I start crying. I know where this is heading.
The second photo is the one of me and Dallas in the ugly Christmas sweaters. Below it are the words Where I am.
The third is one of the pictures his mom took of Dallas and me in front of the fireplace. Instead of the clothes we were wearing at the time, the picture was altered. He’s in a tuxedo and I’m in a wedding dress.
Beneath that photo are the words Where I hope to be.
Dallas moves to stand in front of me. “I know you’ve been hurt before and I hate that. It breaks my heart. But I’ve got you now. And I’ll keep your heart safe. I’ll choose you every day of my life.”
He draws in a deep breath. “I’ll never make you feel small or unimportant. I’ll hold you when the world is tough and you’re feeling like you’re not. I will always speak to you with love and always be the one you never have to doubt is on your side.”
He drops to one knee. “You’re the one I hope to be with in the future I hope to have together. My beautiful woman, will you marry me?”
He takes a ring case from his pocket and opens it. My mother’s ring sparkles in the light.
My legs turn to jelly, and I sob from the depths of my heart, dropping to my knees in front of Dallas.
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
He slips the ring onto my finger, blinking back tears. “I love you. So much. I knew I loved you the moment I saw you.”
He pulls me to my feet, and I rest my head on his chest. “I love you too.” I lean back to look at him. “My candy cane cowboy.”
Laughter rumbles in his chest and he kisses me.
Sudden shouts and laughter erupt from the back porch, and we turn to find his family and my father.
“Were they in on this?” I ask.
“They were.”
“That’s what was up with all the strange glances!”
“It was so hard to keep quiet,” Elizabeth says, darting across the cold ground in her slippers. “I want to be the first one to hug my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.” She hugs me for a long while whispering to me how glad she is I’m here. How I’m family and will always be her favorite.
I laugh and wipe away my tears. Then my dad strides toward me and the tears begin again. “How can you be this old already?” he asks. “You should still be in messy braids and roller skates.”
“I know, daddy. I know.”
“I brought the champagne,” Royal says.
“I’m freezing my ass off out here,” Radley adds shaking Dallas’s hand and then hugging me.
“Come in out of the cold,” Ned says.
And that’s exactly the way I feel after experiencing the way Dallas loves me. Like I’ve come in out of the cold.