Read Online A Lone Star Christmas by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online

agreed.
    A moment later, with the right-rear wheel of the wagon levered up from the ground, Mo crawled under the wagon and put the jack in place. Tom lowered the wagon onto the stand, which still kept the wheel clear of the ground.
    They pulled the wheel off, took it into the machine shed, and replaced the broken spoke. When they came back, Mo tried to put the wheel back onto the axle, but there was an obstruction underneath that prevented it.
    â€œI’ll crawl under there and clear that away,” Mo said. “As long as it is on the jack stand, it’ll be all right.”
    It would have been all right, but some of the obstruction was caught under the jack stand itself, and when Mo tried to move it, the jack stand started to fall over.
    â€œIt’s falling on me!” Mo shouted at the top of his voice.
    Acting quickly, and without giving it a second thought, Tom caught the wagon as it was falling. With muscles in his arms and shoulders straining, Tom not only kept the wagon from falling on Mo, he actually lifted it high enough for Mo to get out from under.
    â€œPut the wheel on,” Tom said.
    â€œI’ll get the lever.”
    â€œPut the wheel on,” Tom repeated, and quickly Mo slipped the wheel hub back on to the axle. Only then did Tom put the wagon back down.
    â€œSum’bitch!” Mo said. “I ain’t never seen nothin’ like that!”
    Â 
    By now the story of Rebecca’s initial contact with the two cowboys the night she came back home had made the rounds. The two cowboys, Dutch and Pete, had ridden for several of the ranchers over the last few years, always as part-time riders. When they weren’t riding, they performed odd jobs around town. It was said Pete’s fingers were still misshapen from his run-in with Tom.
    â€œHe may be an Eastern dude, but I tell you true, he ain’t someone you want on your bad side,” one of the cowboys said, and all the other riders of Live Oaks agreed.
    Â 
    A few days after the incident with the wagon, Rebecca went out on a ride with no particular destination, but with a definite purpose. She needed to sort out her feelings about Tom Whitman. From the very first day, it was clear that Tom wasn’t like any cowboy she had ever known, and she had been raised around cowboys.
    In fact, Tom was not like any man she had ever known, and in the beginning, her interest in him was curiosity only. That was because she had discovered there was much more to him than met the eye. He was a gentleman of the first order, he could discuss anything, and he was not intimidated by wealth or position. The other cowboys of the ranch sensed the same thing about him, but they harbored no resentment toward him, nor did they ever tease him as they would any other tenderfoot.
    As she rode around the ranch that day, she realized that her feelings for Tom had grown beyond curiosity and fascination. She found herself staring at him sometimes, wondering what it would be like to be kissed by him, and more.
    She thought back to the dance last month, and the walk they had taken away from the dance. He had not kissed her, though she had the feeling that he very much wanted to kiss her. Why didn’t he kiss her? She was certainly letting him know in every way she knew, short of actually coming out and saying it, that she wanted to be kissed.
    That night, in bed, she had imagined what it would be like to have him there with her, in bed beside her. Though she was a virgin, she knew what men and women did, and as she lay there, she felt a tingling all over her body as she engaged in thoughts that she dare not share with anyone.
    Cresting a small rise in the ground, she saw someone working at a creek just ahead. Then, with a small twinge of excitement, she realized that it was Tom. He was clearing brush from the creek.
    She had known this!
    She remembered now, hearing her father tell Clay to have Tom clear the brush away from Wahite Creek. She had