Honky Tonk Christmas by Carolyn Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

on the potty. Her feet didn’t touch the floor and she swung them as she looked around at the room. It wasn’t as big as the bathroom in their new house. That one had a bathtub that Uncle Holt said was as old as God. Judd wondered how Uncle Holt knew God’s birthday and how old He was as she rolled off a fist full of toilet paper.
    “I’m getting dressed. If you need anything, holler at me,” Sharlene said.
    “You got a pretty bathroom. How old is God?” Judd yelled.
    Sharlene smiled. “Thank you. I don’t know how old God is. Why are you asking me?”
    “Because Uncle Holt says our bathtub is as old as God. I wondered how old it really is. What do you do in here all day?”
    “I don’t spend my whole day in the bathroom,” Sharlene hollered back and looked up to see Judd standing in her doorway.
    “I’m right here now. I got finished in there and I didn’t mean in the bathroom. I mean in this house. If you don’t have to build stuff like Uncle Holt does, then what do you do?”
    “I write books.”
    “Like Bambi books?” Judd asked.
    “Something like that.”
    “Oh. I like Bambi and Cinderella. Uncle Holt reads to us before we go to sleep at night. Waylon likes Bambi better than Cinderella. Someday I’m going to grow up and be just like her. I’m going to wear pretty dresses and the fairy godmother is going to make my hair all pretty. Hey, you want to come outside and play with me and Waylon? You can be it and chase us,” Judd said.
    “I think I’d better stay inside and get some work done but thank you. You and Waylon can come in and use my bathroom anytime you want,” Sharlene said.
    “How about Uncle Holt? Can he use your bathroom? I’ll tell him to put the seat down,” she whispered.
    Sharlene bit her lip to keep from grinning. “If he can remember to do that, I suppose it’s all right.”
    Judd took off like a jackrabbit with a coyote snapping at its fluffy tail, yelling at the top of her lungs. “Uncle Holt, Sharlene said you can use her bathroom if you put the seat down. That goes for you too, Waylon Mendoza. If you don’t put the seat down I’m going to slap a knot on your head.”
    “No you won’t,” Waylon yelled. “I can outrun you.”
    “But when I catch you I can whoop your ass. Whoops!” She looked at Holt.
    “You better learn to watch those bad words or you’ll get in big trouble when you start school,” Holt said. “And Sharlene, Judd can use the bathroom out in Donnie’s trailer. They won’t bother you again.”
    “Sorry,” Judd sing-songed and ran off to play with her brother.
    Sharlene poked her head out the door. “That’s a long way to run. You might want to let them come on in here when they’ve got to go. It’s closer and could save you a lot of laundry.”
    “If it becomes a bother, just tell me.” He waved.
    She stepped out onto the tiny back porch and leaned on a porch post. Three men were busy hammering boards into a framework for the foundation support. She hadn’t realized the addition would take up so much space. There would be no side yard to mow anymore and she wouldn’t be able to step outside her back door and see all the way to the road. But change was good… wasn’t it?
    Kayla said it had been good. Even Baghdad was better than Oklahoma according to her. She’d finished her tour and went home to get a master’s degree in nursing and nowadays she was pulling in a good salary in Savannah, Georgia. Yes, change had been good for Kayla, but Kayla had been trained as an army nurse so she had something to fall back on when she got home. Sharlene had been trained as a glorified secretary and a sniper. One she could use on the outside; the other she’d sworn not to talk about once she was discharged.
    At least I got away from wheat and cows in Corn, Oklahoma. And now I own a beer joint, a house, and I’ve written a book—which is all a miracle. Not many authors can say they got an agent and a publisher for their first rattle out of