Secret-Santa Cowboy (The Buckskin Brotherhood #6) - Vicki Lewis Thompson Page 0,1

clean a little longer. We have a newbie.” He let go with a rainbow pass to Rafe, who’d wandered over to the bandstand to inspect the rolls of Christmas wrap.

“I’m for that.” Rafe caught it effortlessly before firing it toward CJ, who completed the round by tossing it to Garrett.

“Are we graded on our wrapping job?” Garrett spun the ball in his hands. “Because I can’t wrap worth a damn. I require about fifty feet of tape for each package.”

“We’re persnickety at the beginning,” Jake said, “but after a few rounds of cider, we loosen up.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you do.” He looked over at Garrett. “Last year they decided to wrap Merlin.” He gestured to the life-sized plush moose head mounted over the bar. “It didn’t go well.”

“It would have been easier if we could have taken him down,” Rafe said. “It’s tough to wrap something when you’re standing on the bar.”

“Merlin stays put.” Ben swept a glance around the room. “And he does not get wrapped.”

Rafe nodded. “Understood. Can we stick bows on him, though?”

“If you must.”

“We must,” Rafe said. “Garrett, since you ended up with the football, you get to choose a toy category.”

Garrett glanced around the room. “Board games.”

Matt groaned. “I knew it. Easiest—”

“Action figures!” CJ and Nick called out together, followed quickly by Jake shouting blocks at the same time Rafe did.

The haggling over categories continued as two tables were cleared and pushed together to create a workspace. Ben served everybody hard cider dressed in knit holiday bottle huggers to control bottle sweat.

Leo went behind the bar and turned up the music. When he’d signed on at the Buckskin he’d told anybody who’d listen that he’d lost the Christmas spirit. Operation Santa had given it back to him.

Two hours later, Merlin was covered with stick-on bows and every cowboy had at least one bow on his hat. The tables were bare and brightly wrapped packages filled the entire bandstand. Each bore a coded tag with a child’s first and last name.

Rafe manned a broom, sweeping up the last bits of wrapping paper and any hopelessly crushed bows. The rich aroma of barbequed pork drifted from the kitchen where Jake and Ben were making hot sandwiches and country fries.

Leo added his last package to the pile and returned to his chair. “We did it.”

“Yeah, we did.” Nick pulled his bottle hugger off his empty one, went behind the bar and tugged it on a fresh brew. He glanced up at the moose head. “Merlin looks good, but I still think Ben should have let us wrap his antlers. We were responsible this time. We put down rags before we stood on the bar.”

“Maybe next year.” Matt sipped his coffee. He and Leo were the designated drivers, so they’d switched from cider to coffee midway through.

“Wrapping makes you hungry.” Garrett had stuck a bow to the front of his shirt in addition to the one on his hat. He didn’t tend to get toasted at Brotherhood events, but he sounded like he had a buzz going tonight. “I never knew that.”

“Food’s up!” Jake called from the kitchen. “Come dish yourselves.”

Leo followed Garrett in. “Have fun?”

“Big fun.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Overdid the cider, though. Glad you’re driving back.”

“Happy to. It’s your first toy-wrapping. I wanted you to relax and get into it.”

“I surely did. It’s great to know those kids will have something to open on Christmas morning. Wish I could see their faces.”

“You will. We get pictures.”

“We do?”

“The parents always send them to Ben, who forwards them to Ed. She makes a quick video with a Christmas music soundtrack and emails the link to Henri. We usually watch that before Christmas dinner.”

“Very cool.”

Garrett didn’t know the half of it. Leo had spent ten memorable Christmas seasons at the Buckskin.

The ranch was closed to guests for two weeks, giving Henri and the staff much-needed down time. Except for caring for the horses, which Leo enjoyed, the Brotherhood had no official duties. The holiday had gone from his least favorite to his most cherished one of all.

After loading their plates with barbeque sandwiches and chunky country fries, the men grabbed their spot around the former wrapping station and tucked into the dinner. Conversation halted for a while.

Garrett was the first one finished with his meal. He tucked his napkin under his plate and leaned back in his chair. “How do you distribute the toys?”

“That’s Ben’s job,” Matt said. “He puts on the Santa suit tomorrow night,