by Mandy Baxter
Tess hoisted herself up to sit opposite him on the floor. “Should I?”
Carter cupped the back of his neck and tried to rub out some of the nervous tension that settled there. “I guess not.”
“Oh my god,” Tess’s tone shifted from playful to mortified. “You’re not a Cowboys fan. You’re a player, aren’t you?”
Carter gave her a questioning look.
“The flag,” Tess said. “On your patio. I thought you were a big football fan, but you play for the Cowboys, don’t you?”
He’d forgotten all about the flag. After he’d signed with the team, he’d let Travis use the house for the weekend and his brother had put up the Cowboy’s flag as a sort of congratulations. Carter had planned to take it down and replace it with a Dallas Stars flag in support of Travis’s team making it to the playoffs, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“Quarterback,” he said.
Tess rocked backward, her grimace of embarrassment coaxing a grin to Carter’s lips. “You must think I’m such an idiot. I bet people recognize you everywhere you go.”
She gave him way too much credit in the fame department. “Not really. Unless you follow football, or the team specifically.” Carter decided to omit the bit about being born into Dallas high society. It was a fact he and his brothers tried to avoid at all costs.
“If I’d ever seen you play—even once—I wouldn’t have forgotten who you are.”
Her gaze leveled on him and once again Carter felt the stirrings of something so unfamiliar it might as well be alien. “I doubt I’m that memorable.”
“Are you kidding?” Tess’s eyes widened. “Do you not own any mirrors? Believe me, Carter, you’re that memorable.”
His heart pounded in his chest as her voice once again took on that husky, flirty quality. It’s not as though women hadn’t tried to flirt with him over the past year and half. He’d been hit on here and there. But he’d been so wrapped up in his own grief that he’d never had the presence of mind to truly notice. He noticed now, though. Something about Tess sparked his interest. She seemed so fearless, and the one thing Carter found sexier than anything was confidence. Tess had that in spades.
A stretch of silence passed between them. Right now, Carter was feeling anything but confident. He looked around at the elaborate fort the girls had erected in Tess’s barn. Damn, they’d been busy.
“There’s no way they did this in a week,” he mused.
Tess dragged her gaze away from him and looked around. When she tuned back to face him, her smile nearly stole his breath. “I have a feeling this is a work in progress. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with them playing out here, but I was worried that the place might collapse.”
“I’ll call a contractor to come check it out,” Carter said. “Honestly, if you ever wanted to turn it into a guesthouse, you could probably do a fairly cheap remodel.”
“Don’t bother with the contractor,” Tess said. She looked away and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “My remodel budget doesn’t go beyond paint at this point.”
“It’s on me,” Carter said. “The inspection. Especially if the girls are going be sneaking over here.”
“Okay,” Tess aid slowly. “But you have to let me cook you guys dinner.”
For the first time since they’d pulled into the driveway, Carter didn’t feel the weight of grief and loneliness pressing on his chest. “Deal.”
Four
Forward much, Tess? Just last week she’d sworn she didn’t care if she ever had another relationship or not and now she was in full flirt mode and inviting Carter over for dinner. Was it even appropriate to hit on a widower? Was that skeevy somehow? She had no idea what the etiquette was. Too late to worry about it now.
The weather was nice enough to eat outside, and she’d settled on hotdogs and macaroni salad for Jenny and Jane, and steaks, corn on the cob, and fresh fruit she’d gotten from the local farmers’ market that morning. The corn might not have been the best idea. She doubted she’d look very ladylike while eating it, but it was delicious grilled on the barbeque. Besides, Tess didn’t like to play games. She was who she was. Period. Anyone who wanted to spend time with her could either accept her or find someone else.
Obviously, Jared hadn’t wanted Tess for who she was. Otherwise he wouldn’t have taken her best friend to bed.
She really needed to stop dwelling on a relationship that was over and done with. Jared was her past and Tess only wanted to look ahead to her future. She couldn’t help but wonder if that future included Carter Christensen.
His contractor had shown up earlier in the morning to inspect the barn. It showed the sort of clout Carter carried that he could make a phone call and have someone drive down from Dallas the next morning. The barn was deemed sturdier than Tess had originally thought but until she could put a little money into shoring it up, the contractor suggested that it should stay off limits for the time being.
The girls had been upset when Tess gave them the news, but their dad promised to let them use the attic space in their house for a fort until he could build a treehouse in the large oak in the backyard. Before the contractor left, she spied Carter signing some paperwork on a clipboard. If she’d had to guess, the girls would have their treehouse before the end of summer.
“Are we too early?”
Tess turned and her stomach flipped at the sound of his deep, velvety voice.
The girls raced up onto the porch ahead of Carter, and her breath caught in her chest. How could anyone be so drop-dead gorgeous without even trying? He wore a pair of trendy jeans with his signature Chucks and a casual button-up with the sleeves rolled to show off the impressive definition of his muscular forearms. His hair was still damp from a shower and brushed his brow in a careless way that once again made Tess itch to reach out and touch.
“Not too early at all,” she said with a smile. She swallowed down the butterflies that threatened to fly right up her throat and turned to the girls. “Hope you guys like hotdogs and macaroni salad.”
“Hot dogs, hot dogs!” the chanted in unison. Jane added, “Can we have ice cream too?”
“Yeah, yeah!” Jenny bounced on the balls of her feet. “Ice cream!”
“You know you guys,” Carter said “not everyone has ice cream sitting around in their freezer.”
“That’s probably true,” Tess said with a wink. “But I’m not one of those people. Dinner first, and then ice cream. Or maybe s’mores. How does that sound?”
“You act as though they have a choice in the matter,” Carter said with a laugh. “Dinner first. Dessert later. Period.”
The girls frowned at their dad, but they didn’t seem shocked at the mandate.
“I got you guys a surprise,” Tess said.
Their little six-year-old eyes lit up and expectant smiles stretched across their faces. They were almost too cute for words, and for a minute Tess just stared. The sun itself shone in their expressions.
Tess went into the kitchen and retrieved a bag from the counter. She stepped back out on the patio and caught Carter’s gaze trained on her. She tried to ignore the intensity of his stare and the way it heated her body almost to the boiling point as she dug out two boxes with Barbies inside. She held them out to the girls. Their tiny brows drew in over their eyes and they looked at each other and then Tess as though they’d never seen a Barbie in their entire lives. She set them down on the picnic table with a nervous laugh. Good thing she had a backup plan.
“You can play with those later if you want. In the meantime, maybe you’d rather play with these?” She pulled two small soccer balls from the bag. They each snatched a ball from her waiting hands and ran out into the yard. In no time, they were kicking the balls around the back lawn like a couple of pros.
Carter continued to watch her, and Tess gave a nervous laugh. “Something told me they might not be Barbie girls.”
Carter cringed. “It’s sort of telling, isn’t it?
”
“What?”
Carter’s expression saddened and the intensity of that emotion sliced through Tess like a blade. “That they’re a couple of wild tomboys and probably won’t ever have a girly bone in their bodies thanks to me.”
Tess narrowed her gaze. How could he possibly beat himself up over some antiquated notion of what girls were supposed to like? “Carter, you do realize how ridiculous you sound, right?”
His gaze snapped up to meet hers. She guessed not a lot of people called him out on his shit. “What do you mean?”
Tess rolled her eyes and flashed a piteous grin. “It’s not because you’re a single dad that they don’t like Barbies. If I had to guess, Jenny and Jane have always been active girls who like outside play. Did you play with a G.I. Joe or sit on the couch playing video games when you were their age? Or were you outside throwing or kicking something?”
His gaze remained steady as he contemplated her words. “I was an outside kid,” he replied after a moment. “Always.”
Tess gave him a soft smile. “They were probably born with the sports gene.”
“Do you like games, Tess? Or you a sit-on-the-couch sort of woman?”
Tess swallowed down the wave of lust that rose hot in her throat. It was downright criminal to have such dirty thoughts about a single dad. “Depends on who I’m on the couch with.”
Carter’s gaze warmed. His full lips parted and Tess held her breath as she waited for his next words.
“Dad! Come play with us!”
“Yeah, daddy! Come on!”
The spell was broken as Jenny and Jane called out to their dad to join them. Carter flashed an apologetic smile as he hustled down the stairs toward the lawn. In a graceful maneuver that boggled the mind, he swept the ball away from Jane’s feet and juggled it between his feet as he raced toward Jenny at the far end of the yard. Tess released her breath in a whoosh of air.
Wow. What would it be like to be a part of Carter Christensen’s life?
* * *
Dinner was great but honestly, Tess could have served him a steaming cow pie and Carter would have thought it was amazing. She’d known Jenny and Jane for less than a week and already realized that they’d rather play with a soccer ball than a Barbie doll. The girls already loved her, and his own infatuation with his next-door neighbor was steadily growing. Tess was smart, beautiful, laid back. She could barbeque a steak like a pro and served up Blue Moon IPA complete with the orange slice. And instead of calling it a night after the sun had set, she’d started a fire in the fire pit down by the lake and broke out all of the stuff for the girls to make s’mores. She was almost too good to be true.
“So, what made you want to leave New York for a run-down house in tiny Nacogdoches?”
“A cheating son of a bitch ex-boyfriend,” Tess replied. She popped a marshmallow onto the end of a sharpened willow branch and lowered it to the glowing embers of the fire. “He thought it was okay to sleep with my best friend, and I wasn’t so much on board with that.”
Carter couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to cheat on a woman like Tess. Her ex was obviously an idiot.
“Dad, we’re out of graham crackers,” Jane said.
“There are more in the kitchen on the counter,” Tess replied. “Go ahead and grab the whole box.”
The girls took off toward the house and Carter studied the nearly empty glass of IPA in his hand. “How long ago was that?”
“It’ll be nine months in June,” Tess said. “I lived in New York for a couple of months after we broke up. Then my dad called and said that Aunt Millie had passed. She left the house to me.” Tess let out a soft laugh. “I’d never even been here. I guess she figured she’d leave the place to the only person in the family young enough to deal with fixing it up. A quiet, small town felt like a good place to start over, so I packed up my stuff and left.”
Carter couldn’t help but be glad Millie Adams had seen fit to leave the place to her niece. “Not many job opportunities here, though.” A lot of the newer homes around the lake were second residences. Nacogdoches wasn’t exactly a career hub. The economy was more tourist-based.
“I’m a graphic designer.” Tess examined her perfectly golden brown marshmallow before offering it up to Carter. A smile tugged at his lips as he eased the gooey lump from the end of the stick. Tess popped another marshmallow onto the tip and lowered it to the embers. “I can pretty much work anywhere. I get the convenience of a home office, plus I’m close enough to Dallas to make some business connections.”
He’d have to talk to his brother Nate and see if maybe Christensen Petroleum could throw a little business Tess’s way. The last thing he wanted was for her to have to move back to New York because she couldn’t find enough work. A companionable silence filled the space between them.
“Do you miss it?”
“New York?” Tess asked. “A little. I miss the food and the energy of the city.”
“No,” Carter said softly. “Being in a relationship.”
Tess looked up and their eyes met. Emotion swelled in Carter’s chest. She was so damned beautiful.
“I do,” she said. “I’ve never been a serial dater. I like the stability, the comfort of knowing there’s someone there to share my day with or watch TV with.” She averted her attention to the marshmallow she was roasting. “I miss having someone next to me in bed.”
“Me too,” Carter said. He couldn’t admit to Tess that since Steph died, he’d slept with a pillow next to him in bed. “Steph and I got together in high school. I wasn’t interested in playing the field. My brother Travis, he’s the player. I always just wanted someone to share my life with.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
Carter wondered if she intentionally steered the conversation away from Steph. He needed to quit keeping everything bottled up and learn to talk about her. “I have three brothers,” Carter said. “Nate’s the oldest. Travis and I are twins. And I have a younger brother, Noah.”
“Wow,” Tess said. “Your poor mother.”
Carter twirled his glass in his hand. “Our mom died when we were kids.”
Tess looked absolutely horrified. Now that he thought about it, his life did sort of come across as pretty damned bleak.
“Carter, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He gave a sad laugh. “It’s not like you had anything to do with it and it was a long time ago. I worry about the girls, you know? We were four rowdy boys—Nate was almost a teenager—and we still missed not having a mom around. I can only imagine what it’s like for Jenny and Jane. Did you see the way they turned their noses up at those Barbies?”
Tess’s lips curved into a soft smile. Carter wanted to reach out, feather his thumb across them to see if they were as soft as they looked. “We already covered that. They’d have a disdain of Barbies even if their mom was still here. They’re their father’s daughters.”
The endearment warmed his heart. They’d always been rough-and-tumble. Steph used to joke about how she’d been so happy to have daughters and so sad that they were daddy’s girls. “They are.”
“You could use a little help in the hair department though,” Tess joked. She offered him another marshmallow as he shook his head. “Your ponytails are pretty abysmal.”
“I know.” Carter chuckled. He sucked at hair. “I promised Steph I wouldn’t cut their hair. She wanted it long.”
“How long as she been gone?” She added quickly added, “You don’t have to answer that. Sometimes I’m too nosy.”
“No one wants to talk about it,” Carter said. “Least of all me. But I need to, you know? I have to, for the girls. I want them to remember their mama, and I’m not helping by making people feel like they can’t talk about her. It’s been almost two years.”
Tess picked at the marshmallow, taking the toasty shell off first. “Do they have any aunts?”
“One on Steph’s side of the family. But she lives in London. Nate settled down with a gre
at girl about six months ago. Noah’s not looking for anything serious.”
“What about Travis?”
Carter rolled his eyes. “He’ll never settle down. He’s the goalie for the Dallas Stars. Damned good, too. Wild and horny as a spring turkey, though. He’s got a big heart. He just likes to share the love if you know what I mean.”
Tess laughed, and the sound rippled pleasantly over Carter’s skin. “Twins and both pro athletes,” she said ruefully. “It’s almost not fair to unleash that much male perfection on the world.”
Whoa. Carter leaned forward in his chair until his arm brushed Tess’s. She brought her gaze up to his, her lids hooded and her lips parted invitingly. God, he wanted to kiss her. The familiar pang tweaked his chest, and Carter forced it away. It was okay to move on, wasn’t it? It was okay to want to feel happy again. He leaned in closer and Tess mirrored the action. Another inch. Another. Her lips parted further as she let out a slow sigh. One more inch and their mouths would touch …
“Dad!” Jane’s indignant screech rent the night air. “Jenny won’t let me hold the box of graham crackers!”
“I want to do it!” Jenny hollered back.
The disagreement quickly escalated into screams, angry shouts, and finally crying. Carter let out a slow sigh. “I think it’s time for bed,” he said as he pulled away.
Tess’s expression fell but she quickly covered it with a smile. “It is pretty late.”
“Do you need help cleaning up?” What had been a perfect moment crashed and burned with the same intensity of his girls’ going at it in Tess’s kitchen.
“I’ve got it,” Tess reassured him. She stifled a giggle as another angry shriek rent the air. “I have a feeling if you don’t put them to bed, someone’s going to draw blood.”
Tess probably didn’t realize how close that was to the truth. “Girls!” Carter barked. “You’ve got ten seconds to get your little butts in line. Understand?” The screeching continued. So much for the big tough dad. “Thanks for dinner, Tess. It was really great.”