A Cowboy's Christmas Reunion (The Boones of Texas 1)

“You’re shivering,” she said, turning up the heat as he snapped his seat belt into place.

“Heater in the room was broken.” He shrugged, holding his hands out to the warm air.

She looked at him, fighting back a million questions. Rage wasn’t an emotion she was familiar with. But right now, she was so furious with Amy she could barely see straight.

Eli looked at her.

Amy and anger could wait. She searched his face. He was so mature for his age, but she knew he had to be hurting right now. “We should call your dad,” she murmured.

“He’ll get all riled up.” Eli frowned. “You don’t understand.”

And while Josie thought Hunter had every right to get upset over his son being left in some off-the-highway one-night-stand motel, she suspected Eli wouldn’t want to hear that. “You’ll talk to him as soon as you get home?”

He nodded.

She didn’t want to be in the middle of anything. She didn’t want to keep secrets from Hunter, not where Eli was concerned. “Thank you.” She beamed at the boy.

He was watching her closely. “Dad said your mom wasn’t the best in the world.”

She answered carefully, trying to decide what she should or shouldn’t say. “That’s true.” She added, “She loved me. I know she did the best she could by me.” Josie put the car in Drive, turning them in the opposite direction. “She didn’t really know what to do with me.”

“What do you mean?”

She hesitated for a minute. “My mom wasn’t the motherly type. She was more interested in her...hobbies.” Men, marriage, weddings, that sort of thing.

“Guess my mom and your mom have a lot in common.” His words were soft, but sad.

Even though she wasn’t her mother’s biggest fan, it was a hard comparison to hear. “You think so?” she asked, offering Eli the chance to vent. Whatever had happened between Amy and her son, he’d needed rescuing tonight. And he’d called her to do the rescuing.

“Rodeo calls and, bam, Mom’s there. I call?” He shook his head, anger coloring his words. “She doesn’t show up when she says she will. But when she does, she’s full of...of it.” His hold on his bag tightened. “She believes what she says when she says it, but it never lasts. Like tonight, telling me and Dad we were staying in town, ordering pizza and hanging out.” He sucked in a deep breath, calming a little before he went on. “Dad always tells me to be careful—to not get my hopes up. And that really bugs me, because I hate that he’s right about her. If he’d just believe in her, she might change, you know?”

She knew exactly what he wanted to hear. “Nice thought, that someone can change someone else. I wish it was true.”

“It might help.”

“It might.” She retreated a little, desperate to keep him talking. “But my experience is change is a personal choice, Eli.”

“I guess... She’s my mom, you know?”

“I do.” And she did. She really did. She smiled at the boy again.

“Dad doesn’t get it. His mom was the best.”

“She was,” Josie agreed, remembering Mags Boone with real affection. “She was pretty much the perfect wife and mother. She kept a neat house, always had food on hand for anyone who stopped by, and looked put together without trying.” Josie laughed

. “Of course, I was used to my mother, so Mags was like a real-live fairy godmother. She liked everyone—”

“She didn’t like my mom,” Eli interrupted.

Josie could imagine that. Mags had always been fiercely protective of her boys. Sure, Amy hadn’t gotten pregnant on her own, but Mags would have found a way to believe it wasn’t Hunter’s fault. It was the first time Josie ever felt even the slightest twinge of sympathy for Amy. One glance at the ten-year-old boy and the sympathy was gone.

“I don’t think they ever made Mom feel welcome,” Eli muttered. “Maybe that’s why she leaves. Maybe she comes back, thinking things will be different. Then she sees it’s still the same and there’s not enough here to stick around for.”

She looked at Eli and ached. You are enough. She blinked back tears. He was enough. Amy had this amazing boy’s love and she chose to leave. She sniffed, tears dangerously close to spilling over. If he was hers, he’d have been her world and she’d make sure he knew it.

Eli continued, “Guess I feel like I need to make up for that.”

“Oh, Eli, that’s a big job for one man.”