Holding Out for Christmas (The Christmas Tree Ranch 3)

Katy and her parents were here, too. Daniel had spotted them and was carrying his plate over to their table. Megan could have scolded him for deserting his own family. He needed a reminder to be more sensitive and respectful to his parents. But now was not the time. She would mention it later, at home.

She filled two plates for her parents and carried them back to the table. A lively gray-haired woman had joined them, sitting in the empty chair. Megan recognized her as the city librarian.

“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to meet you at last, Mrs. Carson,” she was saying. “We have all your books in the library. The children love your illustrations. If you can ever spare the time, we’d love to have you come for a visit. Some of the children want to be artists. They’d be so excited to meet you.”

Megan read her mother’s expression as pleased, but hesitant, as she gestured to indicate her wheelchair. “That’s very kind of you, but as you see—”

“If you want to go, Dorcas, I’ll see that you get there,” Ed said. “Think how happy you’d make the children.”

“Well . . .” There was still a moment of hesitation. Megan held her breath. Her mother had shut herself up in the house, with her work and her family, for too long. She needed to get out and make some friends.

“Well, I guess I could do that,” Dorcas said. “Call me after the holidays, and we’ll work something out.”

Megan exhaled in relief as she walked back to fill her own breakfast plate. There were no guarantees, but at least her mother had agreed to a later arrangement. She still hadn’t decided about letting Daniel take the driving course, but maybe that would be next.

By the time breakfast was over, Dorcas was tired and needed to go home. Daniel wanted to see the parade with Katy, so Megan chose to return home with her parents. Conner would be in the parade, driving the horses that pulled Santa’s sleigh. To see him from the sidewalk—maybe even make eye contact—would shatter her. Sooner or later, she would have to face him. But she couldn’t do it unprepared.

For now, she would go home, get some rest, practice her new song, an

d transform herself into Lacy—perhaps for the last time.

* * *

As Conner drove the sleigh down Main Street, pulled by Chip and Patch, he willed himself to look straight ahead. To search the cheering crowds for Megan would be a mistake. If he didn’t see her, he’d be disappointed. If he did see her, and she didn’t acknowledge him, he would be crushed. But if she so much as smiled, he’d have to fight the urge to jump off the sleigh and sweep her into his arms.

He was better off not looking.

The weather was perfect for a parade, the sky crystalline blue, the warm sun taking the edge off the chill. The sleigh’s steel runners glided on the packed snow that covered the street. Brass bells jingled on the horses. Christmas lights twinkled overhead. Marching bands from three different high schools played Christmas songs that clashed and blended in a festive cacophony.

Behind Conner in the sleigh, Hank Miller, Travis’s father, made a magnificent Santa, waving, laughing, and tossing wrapped candies to the kids on the sidewalk.

“Conner! Conner!” A familiar voice caught his attention. Glancing to the near side of the street, he saw Daniel with one arm around Katy. He was grinning and waving. Conner waved back. Megan wasn’t with them. Somehow he’d known she wouldn’t be.

What if she’d gone—quit the band and driven back to Nashville? But he couldn’t think about that now. He only knew that if she showed up at the ball tonight, he would be taking the biggest chance of his life. For a man who’d climbed on bucking bulls, that was saying a lot.

* * *

The Cowboy Christmas Ball wouldn’t officially start till 7:00; however, the doors of the high-school gym opened at 6:30 for people delivering food, arranging the chairs, and setting up the ticket table at the entrance.

Megan, in full Lacy regalia, had arrived an hour earlier to practice with the Badger Hollow Boys and help them set up on the makeshift stage. At the first sign of people coming in, she retreated to the classroom that had been set aside for the band’s use. There she sipped a Diet Coke, leafed through the magazine she’d brought, and waited nervously for the call to go on.

She hadn’t practiced her new song with the band. If she sang it at all, it would be a solo, with no accompaniment except her own guitar. But she wasn’t sure she would sing it. Playing the song at home, she’d realized how personal it was, and how deeply her love for Conner was woven into it. Singing those lyrics before a crowd, especially with Conner there, could turn out to be more than she could handle.

By now, it was after 7:00. Through the closed door, she could hear people arriving and the muted sound of recorded Christmas music over the school PA. They’d be eating first, while the food was hot. Then, about 7:30, the band would start up, and the entertainment would begin, followed by dancing until 11:00, or until the last dancers called it a night and went home.

The music over the PA had stopped. The silence was puzzling. It was too early for the band—wasn’t it? Megan was taking deep breaths, doing her best to stay loose and focused, when Tucker opened the door. “Hey, Megan, you’re missing the excitement,” he said. “Come on out. You can watch from behind the stage. Nobody will see you.”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“You’ll see. Come on.”

She took off her Stetson and flung a coat over her distinctive leather jacket before venturing out of the room to follow her friend. From behind the raised platform of the stage, she could look into the gym, where something unusual appeared to be happening.

No one was in line to eat. A white cloth covered the food on the long buffet table. Chairs had been taken from their places around the open dance floor and the dining tables. They’d been arranged in two sets of rows, like pews in a church, with an aisle down the center, leading to the tall, glittering Christmas tree at the end. People were settling in their seats, silent now, as if in anticipation.

And suddenly Megan realized why. Something wonderful was about to happen.

A lump rose in her throat as Tracy, looking like an angel in her delicate lavender gown, took her place, standing with her back to the Christmas tree. Two men in cowboy dress came in from the side to stand together, a little in front of her. Travis, still scarred and battered, looked nervous but happy. Beside him, supporting his friend, stood Conner.