A Cowboy Christmas Miracle (Burnt Boot, Texas Book 4) by Carolyn Brown Read Free Book Online

plenty of time for folks to get it ready.”
    “Does this mean the Gallaghers and the Brennans are going to work together on this project of making this happen? You know we need costumes, props, a Christmas tree, decorations, and all that does not come cheap,” Kyle said.
    “Hell no!” Betsy slapped a hand over her mouth. “Forgive me for cussin’ in church, but the families are not working together, and they’d skin us alive if they knew we were. It absolutely has to be a secret.”
    “Go on,” Kyle said.
    “We figure if we collect an item here and one there among all the families in Burnt Boot that, pretty soon, we’ll have plenty of stuff for the program,” Declan explained. “We just need you to give us permission to leave what we gather up here at the church and be our go-between on this mission. We’ll be telling everyone that it’s a secret but that they’re going to love what happens and that they can’t let anyone know who or what they donated. Everyone loves a secret like that.”
    Kyle chuckled. “With the way gossip flies around this town, do you really think you can keep something like that a secret?”
    “Oh, they’ll talk, but they’ll be very careful not to let either one of the grandmothers know anything because no one wants to suffer their wrath,” Declan answered.
    * * *
    Kyle had never doubted that God would answer his prayers if he was earnest when he petitioned his heavenly Father. When he took the job at the Burnt Boot church, he’d had second thoughts, but something kept pulling him to the little north Texas town. It came to him in a dream one evening that it was the feud and his mission was to end the thing once and for all, to bring peace to Burnt Boot. And right here was proof that he’d done the right thing.
    He nodded and said, “I will be glad to help in any way I can. It will be wonderful to have a program. Truth is, I was hoping someone would come forward with a plan, but I sure didn’t expect it to be a member from each of the feuding families.”
    “It really, really has to be a well-kept secret,” Betsy said seriously. “My granny would scalp me. Don’t look at me like that, Kyle. I’m thirty, but she still holds the whip over at Wild Horse.”
    “And so would mine, and you know very well how big my granny’s whip is,” Declan said.
    “Then it will be. Until and if you two want the credit, my lips are sealed,” Kyle said. “What can I do?”
    “We need a key to the back door of the church to unload our things once a week. Thursday would be good because that’s the evening you make your visits to the sick and the folks who can’t get out for church services. That way, you can truly say that the stuff just appeared in the church, and you don’t really know where it came from,” Betsy said.
    Kyle nodded. “And what else? I suppose you have already thought of the fact that using your phones might be dangerous. Anyone could pick them up and, with a few keystrokes, know that you were talking to each other. So why don’t I put a tin can under the back porch steps and you can put notes in it if you want to talk to each other. Oh, and the church bulletins usually arrive on Thursday. The UPS man leaves them on the back porch, so could you bring those in for me?”
    “We’d be glad to take care of it,” Declan said.
    “I hadn’t thought of the phone business. Notes are a smart idea,” Betsy said.
    “Sometimes the old ways are best.” Kyle smiled.
    * * *
    Burnt Boot was a small town—grocery store, bar, church, and school that made up the core of several ranches. If anyone wanted anything more than what they could find in town, they went to Gainesville or Denton.
    But like all little Texas towns, the gossip vines were busy twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with no time off for holidays, not even Christmas. Lord help if anyone saw Betsy’s and Declan’s trucks both parked at the back of the church on Thursday nights.
    Fear was something that