A Cowboy Christmas Miracle (Burnt Boot, Texas Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

bluntly.
    “Well, that damn sure breaks my heart. I just knew you were trying to get me drunk and take advantage of my innocence.”
    “You probably have more notches on your bedpost than I have on mine if the gossip is true, so don’t be calling the kettle black.”
    She had to fight the heat rising in her neck. No way was he seeing Betsy Gallagher blush. “So you’re the kettle and I’m the pot here? What if I want to be the kettle?”
    He might be off-limits, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t flirt a little bit. After all, no one was looking. Just to be sure, she scanned the area again and didn’t even see a stray dog or a fish that might rise up to tell on her.
    “Gallaghers blow up schools. They have to be the pot. Do you get the pun?” His eyes sparkled in the moonlight.
    “Yes, and it’s a stupid pun. But if you weren’t talking about secret sex, what kind of secret was on your mind?” she asked.
    “What the church needs is stuff, right?” he asked.
    She nodded.
    “Well, Granny Mavis has banned any member of the family from giving a single dime to the church for the Christmas program. So we’ll have to get around that,” he said.
    “So did my granny. She’s threatened to throw us off Wild Horse if we set up a fund or donate a penny to buy new things for the programs.”
    “Okay, then, we cannot ask for money or give money. But that doesn’t mean we can’t donate or ask for stuff, does it? I bet I can get some Brennans to give me some stuff, like a Christmas tree from a shed that no one is using and maybe some spare ornaments. If I go about it right, Granny wouldn’t know,” he said.
    “And I could do the same with the Gallaghers—like a manger for baby Jesus and maybe some lights. We could both work on the folks who aren’t family, like Polly and Gladys and Verdie and the O’Donnells.”
    “We could talk to the preacher on Sunday after church. I’ll ask him if we might come in and visit with him before choir practice that evening. If he’ll help us out, we could leave our donations at the church on a particular night of the week and no one would ever know where the stuff came from, not even Preacher Kyle. Then, there could be a Christmas program,” Declan said.
    Betsy had nodded as he spoke. “You ever wish this feud was over?”
    “You don’t know how many times,” he whispered. “But we might as well wish in one hand and spit in the other. You can guess which one would fill up fastest.”
    She nodded seriously. “No question about that, but if I said it out loud, Granny Naomi would probably hang me from the nearest pecan tree with a length of rusty barbed wire.”
    “When do we start our job of begging, borrowing, or stealing the Christmas stuff?” he asked.
    “How about the day after Thanksgiving? That work for you?”
    “That will give us three weeks to get it all gathered up in time. We’ll keep it secret until, say, December 18. That will give the folks time to get all the stuff we collect set up and put the program together. It’s pretty much the same every year anyway. Who’s going to be in charge of the play this year?”
    “The Gallaghers have a baby boy due right after Thanksgiving,” she said.
    “We’ll have to do some meeting in secret to discuss who we’re getting things from, so people won’t put two and two together and realize that we’re working together.”
    Betsy wasn’t afraid of rattlesnakes. Mice and spiders didn’t scare her. If the devil himself rose up out of the Red River, she’d kick him right in his little forked tail and drown his sorry ass right there in the cold water. But the idea of working with a Brennan and the repercussions it could cause came close to making her jump up and run like the wind back to Wild Horse Ranch. Naomi Gallagher scared the bejesus out of her, and meeting in secret with Declan Brennan would cause a stir worse than old Lucifer rising up out of the river.
    He shoved his hand out toward her. “Deal? After