The Cowboy's Holiday Blessing by Brenda Minton Read Free Book Online Page B

already had her door open. “I bet he’s still sleeping.”
    â€œNo, he isn’t. I saw him walk out of the barn.”
    â€œOh, okay.” Jade slammed the door of the Buick and ran toward the big barn.
    Madeline waited. And she worried. What happened to a girl when she thought she’d found a fairy-tale parent who would make everything right, and then found herself let down? Heartache? Madeline remembered a father, but he hadn’t been her real father. She blocked the memory because too many other memories chased after it. Yesterday she’d gotten a card from hermother. Her mother always managed to find her. Madeline couldn’t run far enough or fast enough to outrun Marjorie. She would never escape the past.
    She never answered the cards or letters. Usually she moved and hoped it would be the last time. No matter how much Marjorie apologized or said she wouldn’t hurt her, that she just wanted a chance to talk, Madeline couldn’t believe.
    The one person she wanted to see had disappeared off the face of the earth. She’d searched for her sister the way Jade had searched for Jackson. She hadn’t found Sara. Maybe she had married. Or changed her name. Madeline had been given that option years ago, to change her name.
    But she was Madeline Patton. She didn’t know how to be anyone else. She’d always felt as if she had to face this life, not change her name and become someone else. Not that it hadn’t occurred to her. Not that she didn’t think a change of name would be a great way to start over.
    â€œCome on!” Jade had raced ahead but she turned back, hugging her new coat to herself.
    Madeline nodded and smiled. She followed at a slower pace, not quite as excited about spending the day with Jackson. Dealing with him. It exhausted her just thinking about it. He had too much energy and twice as much charm.
    â€œYou coming?” Jade headed her way. The dog ran out of the barn and caught up with her, nipping at her pant legs.
    â€œI’m not going to run.”
    â€œYou’re walking too slow. We’re going to get a Christmas tree.” Jade reached for her hand.
    â€œI know and it’s twenty degrees out here.”
    â€œRight, that makes it more like Christmas.”
    Jackson walked out of the barn, smiling and waving when he saw them. “I have everything we need in the truck. I’ll get it.”
    â€œCoffee?” Madeline shivered inside her coat. When she looked up, met his gaze, he smiled. And then he let his gaze drop.
    â€œWhere’s the schoolteacher?” He winked at Jade.
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Madeline looked down at herself and then up at him.
    He moved his hands in circles. “You’re in jeans. And you’re not wearing your glasses.”
    Jade laughed, loud and silly. “I did it. I talked her into wearing jeans and putting in the contacts she never wears. You can’t chop down a Christmas tree in a skirt.”
    â€œI see.” Jackson took a step closer. “Not a bad change, Maddie. Not bad at all.”
    â€œIt’s jeans and contact lenses.” She shot him a look and he raised both hands in surrender, his smile fading. She pulled her heavy coat a little closer. “And my name’s Madeline.”
    â€œYou’re right, it’s just jeans and a new coat. People change clothes every day.”
    Jade raced into the barn. A second later she ran back out, her face beaming. “It’s a wagon, Madeline, a real wagon.”
    The pumpkin will be your coach, Cinderella. Make sure you’re home by midnight.
    She grimaced and pushed fairy tales from her mind as she walked into the barn to see what had Jade jumping up and down this time. The girl went from defiant and strong-willed to giddy in the blink of an eye.
    Maybe changing with the ease of a chameleon wasa Cooper trait and the girl had gotten it from Jackson. Hazel eyes, blond hair and the ability to