Merry Christmas, Cowboy by Janet Dailey

Author:Janet Dailey [Dailey, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2013-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The standoff didn’t seem worth it. Zach hadn’t called her. She hadn’t called him. Paula had stopped by the Christmas House late in the day on Sunday and he hadn’t showed.

Monday and Tuesday came and went. Same deal. Paula knew she was making herself crazy checking her cell phone so often. Just in case . . . but nobody called. She bit the bullet and turned it off Wednesday morning.

Edith had asked her to lend a hand today. If his Royal Cowboyness showed up to do the same thing, Paula would be polite to him.

She picked out a sweater that just happened to be a deep, rich wine color. Other than that, the baggy fit and scrunched turtleneck wouldn’t remind him of what he was missing.

She peered into the mirror. Her face looked pale and her eyes not there. Paula looked for the beaded bag that she’d taken to the ball. Her makeup was still in it.

For morale, she told herself as she applied a touch or two. Not for him.

She grabbed her coat and out she went.

The Christmas House was a hive of activity as she came through the front doors.

“Norville! You’re back,” she said happily as she hung up her things.

“Yep.”

The older man didn’t look her way. He was busy counting bills and sorting them by denomination.

“Did you miss us?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I’m happy to see you. We’re making money.”

“Looks like.” He finally glanced up at her, keeping a hand on the stack of bundled twenties. “But we may come up a bit short this week. Me and Chuck are counting the torn tickets and comparing them to the cash and credit card receipts.” He didn’t seem overly concerned as he added, “Tally’s off. Not by much.”

She was more interested in his other offhand comment. “Chuck stayed on? That’s great. An experienced volunteer is worth his weight in gold by this point.”

Norville nodded. “Didn’t have to train him.”

“I want to thank him. Where is he?”

“Right here. Hi, Paula.”

She could barely see the retired cop behind the large plastic reindeer he was carrying, legs out. It looked like a lawn ornament, the kind that didn’t light up. Paula dodged the hooves.

Chuck set the reindeer down and straightened an antler. “We were keeping the tickets in Rudolf here.” He lifted the saddle for her to look inside. A heap of colored tickets filled the belly.

“You have to count all those? Gosh, that’s a lot of work.”

He looked at her hopefully.

“Can’t,” she said with no regret whatsoever. “Edith has a million things for me to do upstairs.”

“Like what?” Chuck wanted to know.

“Ah . . . the toy drive committee has a meeting scheduled. She wants to use the folding tables and put a centerpiece on each.”

“Edith and her dang centerpieces,” Norville muttered. “She used to do them for all our church suppers. She just can’t stand a bare-naked table.”

It was true. Paula laughed but Chuck Barbera didn’t.

“She’s going to show me all the tricks of the trade,” Paula continued. “It will take awhile and then I have to—”

“The girl’s no fool,” Norville interrupted.

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