Free Christmas in Texas by Rebecca Winters, Tina Leonard Page B

is so you’ll know that
Seagal took off like the wind immediately. Daisy would have had to throw herself
into the truck bed to catch him.”
    The two women sat in the formal room, in front of the pretty
Christmas tree Seagal and her mother had decorated. The colored lights glowed
softly, catching against the silver and gold ornaments. She and Mathilda were
going over the Christmastown event, trying to figure out what could be improved
for next year.
    “It doesn’t matter.” Capri didn’t want it to matter, but her
heart ached. She had two beautiful children; she was a mom. There was no time in
her life for stressing about Daisy Donovan anymore.
    “You know how she is,” Mathilda said. “She’s always been
fast.”
    Seagal had once loved fast. Capri sighed. “I was never fast.
Sexy is not what men see in me.”
    “True,” Mathilda said, with her customary forthrightness. “I
think Seagal sees something he likes better.”
    Capri considered her husband as she looked around her beautiful
formal room. “Sometimes I don’t think we were really all that well-suited. He
hated this sofa, for example, and I loved it.”
    Mathilda smiled at the flowery, feminine sofa. “Men don’t care
about living rooms. The den is usually their cave. Wherever the television
remote is.”
    Capri smiled. “He did enjoy our den. Lots of leather and wood.
I told him to decorate that room any way he liked, and he did. Iron stuff. Manly
things.”
    “Exactly.” Mathilda nodded. “Anyway, don’t think about this. I
just didn’t want you to be surprised when Seagal tells you about Daisy.”
    Shocked, she looked at her planning partner. “You think he’ll
tell me?”
    “Sure. Seagal isn’t going to want you to hear it from anyone
else, least of all Daisy.”
    “Oh.” Capri pondered that. “I guess you’re right.”
    “I am. He’s going to want his conscience clean. He wants to
keep his marriage,” Mathilda said simply. “The best way to do that is not to
have any secrets.”
    “But he wouldn’t admit he was staking out my shop,” Capri said,
and Mathilda said, “What?”
    “Never mind.” Capri sighed.
    “He’s staking out your shop? Is that what he was doing parked
across the street?”
    “It was just an expression.” If there was an investigation
under way, Seagal wouldn’t want the details out. It would get him in all kinds
of hot water with the department. And Mrs. Penny, bless her, was the town
telephone. “I have no idea why he was parked by the courthouse.”
    “You have those two darling babies to think of,” Mathilda said.
“I was married for fifty-four years. Divorce is hard on the kids, and hard on
you, too. Not that it’s any of my business,” she said, “but I wouldn’t give up
on my marriage just because of Daisy.”
    “It’s not quite like that,” Capri murmured.
    “Well, it’s none of my business.” Mathilda gave her a gentle
smile. “I imagine you’ll want to give up your position on the committee for the
annual Bridesmaids Creek swim. You’ve got a lot on your hands.”
    Capri shook her head. “I’ll be fine. I want to stay busy.” Part
of living in Bridesmaids Creek was trying to benefit the town. The town meant a
lot to her. She’d been born here, raised here, knew most of the people. She
cared about what the citizens of Bridesmaids Creek cared about—they pulled
together through thick and thin.
    “What about the charity race at Best Man’s Fork? You’ll surely
not want to co-chair that, too?”
    Capri laughed. “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying
to say I have too much to do, now that I’m a mom. That I should give up my
committees. The thing is, my grandmother had four children and held these
positions for years. I plan to do the same.”
    “Of course, your grandmother had her children one at a time,”
Mathilda pointed out. “I’ve got to think it’s easier to be a mom one baby at a
time. Especially if you really think you’re determined to be a