Free Christmas Kisses (Romance on the Ranch Series #5) by Verna Clay

be a pretty nice lady and even though she and his
father had denied any hanky-panky, he wondered if they were lying. He slid his
gaze to the chubby girl who'd entered with the first group. Normally, he didn't
pay much attention to girls who were overweight, but she was really cute.
    "Hello everyone and welcome," Cecelia
spoke loudly, and the gathering of maybe a dozen people stopped talking to
listen. "I just want to express how grateful I am that you've taken time
out of your day to help me decorate the coffee shop for Christmas." She
laughed and lifted her hands in an expressive motion, something she did often.
"I know…I know…it's not even Thanksgiving. Not to worry. I'll be dressing
the shop with Thanksgiving items on the tables. But for today, let's turn this
place into Santa's North Pole Workshop."
    One of the twin boys said, "I'm ready to
get started."
    Cecelia grinned at the boy. "We will in
just a moment. But first, I'd like to introduce a young man visiting our town.
His name is Sean Barfield." She pointed toward him.
    Sean wanted to groan. He hated introductions.
    Everyone in the room spoke almost in unison.
    "Hi Sean."
    "Nice to meet you."
    "Welcome to Paxtonville."
    "Hello, good to have you here."
    Sean wanted to groan again when Cecelia said,
"Instead of me introducing everyone, why don't we go around the room and
you can give your name and tell something about yourself?"
    The lady that had been the first to arrive said.
"That's a great idea. My name is Sarah Tanner and the twins are my sons.
We live on a ranch outside of town. If you'd like to visit, you're more than
welcome."
    The boy in a green T-shirt beside her said,
"Hi Sean, I'm Toby. Glad you're here."
    A second later his brother in a red T-shirt
said, "Hi, I'm Preston. Where'd you come from?"
    Sean said, "San Diego."
    Preston replied, "Cool. Believe it or not,
our school made it to the baseball Nationals last year in San Diego."
    Sean wasn't much interested in baseball and figured
that since Preston didn't mention anything about winning the playoff, they'd
probably lost.
    Everyone looked at the cute girl. She turned
pink and said shyly, "My name is Tessa."
    Toby piped up. "Her Dad is Dirk Branigan,
the rodeo champion."
    Tessa turned pinker and Sean almost smiled. She
was super cute with really curly brown hair that reached her shoulders, and a big
dimple in one cheek. She was too young for him, though; maybe twelve or
thirteen.
    The next person to introduce himself was a guy
probably in his early twenties. He said, "Hi Sean. I'm Justin and I work
here. I make the best coffee drinks in the county." He glanced at a woman
standing across the room and amended, "Besides Julie, that is."
    The woman he grinned at replied, "You got
that right. You could say I was Justin's mentor." She looked from Justin
to Sean. "Guess you figured out that I'm Julie. Nice to meet you." She
pointed at the twin boys, "And those rascals are my brothers." She motioned
toward a girl of maybe seven or eight standing beside her and wearing a pair of
shredded jeans and a stretched out T-shirt that made her look like a homeless kid.
Julie said, "This is my daughter, Maudie."
    Maudie grinned and said loudly, "Howdy,
Sean."
    After that, introductions continued. Sean
figured he'd probably forget all the names, except for Tessa. The last person to
speak was an old lady who said her name was Molly Tucker. Sean tried not to
grin. His mom and dad had once made him go to a musical called Annie Get
Your Gun. The woman was dressed like Annie with a full leather skirt,
fringed jacket, and fancy boots. Blue hair peeked from beneath her pink cowboy
hat. He wondered if she packed a pistol.
    Sean was happy when the introductions were over
and the attention moved away from him. Suddenly, the door burst open and a
teenage boy called loudly. "Hi, Aunt Cecelia. Sorry I'm late. Mom and Dad
said to tell you hello. They'll be back after grocery shopping."
    Cecelia said, "Good morning, Harris."
She turned