Bless your heart, Uncle Haskell, for keeping all this for me, Liz thought as she looked up to see dozens of other boxes marked CHRISTMAS.

The next one she removed very gently so the dust didn’t gag or blind her. It held more lights, as did the third, fourth, and fifth ones. The sixth one was filled with ornaments wrapped individually in newspaper. She undid each one, lining them up on the table as she did. The last one had a nativity scene that would look lovely on the mantel.

It’s Christmas before Christmas, she thought as she stood back and looked at all the treasures.

***

Glorious Danny Boy, a solid black quarter horse, pulled at the reins, but Raylen kept him to a steady trot the first time around the pasture. Danny Boy had put the O’Donnell Horse Ranch on the map a few years back, and when Maddie and Cash won the Texas Heritage Stakes again the next year with Major Jack, the ranch became famous. Nowadays, Maddie and Cash raised horses but didn’t race them. Glorious Danny Boy and Major Jack had such sought-after bloodlines that Maddie was particular about what mares she’d even allowed to carry one of their colts. And each year, she sold half a dozen of her own prize colts sired by Danny Boy or Jack.

Raylen finally gave the big black stud enough rein to let him gallop around the pasture. “Do you feel like you are back in the race?” he asked the horse.

Danny Boy slowed down and went straight for the pasture fence. He neighed and several mares raised their heads.

“Are you checking on your harem? I can barely keep up with one woman at a time, old man.” Raylen leaned forward and patted the horse on the neck. He hooked a leg over the saddle horn and let Danny Boy flirt with his women for a spell while he thought of Liz. He remembered Wil telling him about the night his wife, Pearl, convinced him that her full name was Minnie Pearl Richland.

Nice try, Liz Hanson, he thought. Wake up, lady, I didn’t just fall off the hay wagon, and you are not going to snooker me like Pearl did Wil.

Was Liz’s last name Hanson? Haskell’s last name was Hanson, so it stood to reason that her mother and aunt were Hansons. But if her mother was married, then Liz’s name wouldn’t be Hanson. She hadn’t mentioned a father, not even when she was trying to make him believe that farfetched story about belly dancing.

“I bet if I’d said I’d be over at six-thirty for a belly dancin’ demonstration she would have backtracked,” he said.

Danny Boy took a step backwards. Raylen had just made the second round in the pasture when he noticed the barn door over at Haskell’s place was wide open. He reined in and dismounted.

I wonder what she’s doing in the barn, he thought as he looped the reins to the rail fence.