Sugar Plums for Dry Creek & At Home in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad Page A

else.
    â€œI’m surprised you don’t have children,” Judd said. “Of your own, I mean.”
    Lizette looked up at him. “I do hope to have children some day.”
    Judd could only nod. He didn’t really even have any good reason to feel so disappointed. Of course she wanted children. She had to be ten years younger than him, which would only make her twenty-three or twenty-four. A woman like her would want the whole family thing.
    Judd didn’t know where the thought had come from in the past few days that maybe he could marry if he just limited him self to a wife and didn’t think of children. Children were what made a family any way. He wouldn’t have a clue about how to be a father. Sure, he’d got ten along fine with Bobby and Amanda. But they weren’t like other kids. They’d been frightened so badly that they clung to him for safety. If he hadn’t been there, they would have clung to that stray dog of his as long as the dog de fended them from their night mares.
    Other children would expect more. No, a man like him had no business thinking about raising children. Maybe some day he’d meet a woman who didn’t want to have children either, and the two of them could marry.
    Suddenly the dough nut Judd was eating didn’t taste so good. It was too bad about Lizette.

Chapter Six
    L izette heard the sound of boots crunching in the snow. Lots of boots.
    â€œBetter hide those dough nuts,” Charley said as he stood and looked out the window. “Another couple of pick ups from the Elkton ranch are parked in front of the hard ware store. Wonder when they got here.”
    â€œIt’s too late,” Judd said. He’d eaten the last of his dough nut, and he pushed his chair away from the table.
    The door to the ballet school was closed, and there were a dozen knocks on it all at the same time. Lizette could see, just by looking out the side window, that a lot of men were standing on her porch.
    â€œI don’t sup pose they want to sign up for class,” Lizette said as she stood to go to the door.
    â€œNo, I can’t imagine they want to be mice,” Judd agreed.
    Lizette looked over her shoulder at the platter of dough nuts she had on the table. It still had five doughnuts on it. She had the rest of the dough nuts in the back room.
    She opened the door and saw a sea of cow boy hats nod at her. “Come in.”
    â€œThank you, ma’am,” the man who stepped over the thresh old first said.
    â€œMy, it does smell like heaven in here,” the second man said as he walked into the room.
    Each man who stepped into the room craned his neck to see the dough nuts sitting on the platter that was on the table. There was a black mat next to the door, but none of the ranch hands paused to let their wet feet dry there.
    â€œWe just stopped by to say a neighborly hello,” one of the cow boys said as he craned his neck to look around her at the dough nuts.
    â€œThat’s nice,” Lizette said. She decided that if they didn’t notice her standing there, it was fu tile to point out the black mat. Besides, the mat wouldn’t make much difference. If a couple of men stopped to let their boots dry, the others would just keep the door open and the floor would eventually get wet any way. In addition, the air in the room would be cold.
    â€œThe dough nuts are for the ballet students,” Charley said be fore any one could carry the conversation further. Then he sat back down at the table. “Andfor the men who have been guarding the school, of course.”
    Several of the older men stepped for ward through the pack of cow boys.
    â€œWe’re the guards,” Jacob said as he stepped forward. Two other older men followed him. “We’ve been keeping a watch out the windows for strangers.”
    â€œThat ain’t a fair way to decide who gets the dough nuts—they haven’t had to do any thing but