Luckiest Cowboy of All--Two full books for the price of one

by Carolyn Brown

  “This is better than Christmas,” she said as she looked inside. “Oh, Mama, I love her already.”

  “You’ll have to take her to the vet in a few months if you don’t want two or three litters a year,” he said.

  “Thank you, Jace,” Carlene said. “I’m sure she’ll be babied until she thinks she’s human instead of feline.”

  Jace dropped to his knees beside the box. “What are you going to name her?”

  “What’s her mama’s name?” she asked.

  “White Mama Cat is all I’ve ever heard her called. She’s pure white and lives in my sister’s barn.”

  “What’s their daddy’s name?”

  “Don’t have any idea who their daddy is,” Jace answered honestly.

  Tilly picked her up and held her close to her chest. “That’s great! She’s just like me. I don’t know who my daddy is either. Mama says it don’t matter because she can be my mama and daddy both. I guess that’s what White Mama Cat told these babies. Well, come on, sweet darlin’, you don’t need a daddy in this house because my mama can be both to us.”

  Carlene didn’t know whether to giggle or weep, so she just blushed and kept her eyes downcast. No way did she want to see what Jace was thinking. He’d never been able to hide his emotions and one look would tell her exactly how that last statement had affected him.

  “Thank you, Jace. I’m going to take her to my room now. Mama, can I call Natalie and tell her? She’s going to be so jealous that I got a baby kitten and she can’t have any because her daddy is allergic. See there, baby girl, if we had a daddy, he might be allergic and you’d have to live in an old ratty barn,” she crooned on the way down the hall.

  Jace rolled up on his feet and sank down on the end of the sofa without an invitation. “I guess I just got told off right well.”

  “Might as well take off your coat. Want a cup of coffee or a beer or something?”

  “I might take that shot of whiskey you offered last time I was here,” he said.

  “Ouch!” She jumped up.

  “What?’

  “This sofa is one thing I’m definitely not going to miss when I move into my new house. Its springs keep pokin’ me. Two shots of whiskey coming right up.”

  “Didn’t she ever ask about a dad?” he whispered.

  She poured the last of the Jack Daniel’s into two shot glasses. “Not until she was in first grade and there was a father-daughter dance at the school for Valentine’s Day. Do they…”

  “Yep, they still have the Happy Elementary School father and daughter dance at Valentine’s. You think she’ll ask me to go with her?”

  “One step at a time.” She set the whiskey on the coffee table and went back for two bottles of water. “How would you feel about it if she did ask you? How do you even feel about having a daughter, Jace? Are you all warm and oozy or kind of trying to figure things out?”

  “I’d go if she asked me and yes, I’m trying to figure things out, Carlene.”

  When she returned and handed him the whiskey, he touched his glass to hers in a toast. “Here’s to the future.”

  They downed the whiskey at the same time and she’d bent to reach for the water when a mouse darted across the coffee table, brushing against her hand in the journey from one end to the other. It bounded off the edge like it had a tiny parachute on its back, scampered across her bare foot, and did a couple of circles around the Christmas tree until it got its bearing and dashed off toward the kitchen.

  Carlene tried to walk on air, but she had no wings. She jumped up on the coffee table and all four legs went out from under it. She was falling forward, hoping she didn’t break a bone, when suddenly strong arms were around her, and her feet were dangling several inches off the floor.

  All those old feelings she thought she’d buried swirled to the surface. Jace’s eyelashes fluttered down to rest on his cheeks and her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. The kiss started out soft and tender, barely grazing her mouth; then it deepened into more, sending waves of desire through her body. Then just as quickly as it started, it was over and he set her on the floor.

  “I told you this place wasn’t fit to live in,” he said.

  “So I’ll buy some mousetraps,” she snapped. Why were they talking about traps when she wanted to kiss him again and see if the second one would buckle her knees as much as the first?

  He took a step back. “Sorry about that. I got caught up in the moment.”

  “Don’t apologize. Consider it payment for saving me from a bad fall.”

  “Well, darlin’, you can fall into my arms any time you want to,” Jace said with a wicked grin as he picked up all the pieces to the table and carried them toward the door. “One less thing you’ll have to deal with when you move.”

  “Too bad I didn’t destroy the sofa too,” she muttered, still breathless and scanning every inch of the floor to be sure that wicked critter hadn’t come back.

  “What is going on? I was talkin’ to Natalie and tellin’ her about my cat and it sounded like an explosion in here.” Tilly touched her on the arm.

  Carlene’s soul slowly settled back into her body as she gave the room another quick glance. “A mouse ran over my foot.”

  “Must’ve been a huge one to tear down the coffee table,” Tilly said.

  “I jumped on it,” Carlene said.

  “She tried to walk on air.” Jace chuckled as he brought in the litter pan filled with all the things her kitten would need. “It didn’t work too well.”

  “If it’d been a spider, I’d be standin’ on the back of the sofa.” Tilly giggled and then turned serious.

  Jace laughed out loud. “Let me know when and if you want me to help with anything. I’ve got some other errands to run so I’ll be going.” Jace picked up his coat. “Thanks for the drink. Seems like it tasted better out at Henry’s old barn, don’t it?”

  “Everything tastes better when it’s forbidden,” she said.

  “Ain’t that the truth.” Jace leveled her a look with his stunning gray eyes that made her weak in the knees. “Mind if I come around and see the kitten every now and then?” Jace released Carlene from his gaze and turned to Tilly.

  “Anytime.” Tilly waved back at him, then sniffed the air. “I smell…”

  “Whiskey. Jace and I had a shot. You want a glass of chocolate milk and some leftover brownies for a bedtime snack?”

  “When I get big, I’m going to drink whiskey. I like the way it smells,” Tilly said. “But since I’m just a little kid, I’ll have milk and brownies for now.”

  Carlene rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. When Tilly was born, Carlene didn’t think she needed a father for her baby. After all, she’d grown up just fine without one. Oh, there’d been a father in the house all right, but she’d always felt like she was nothing but a disappointment to him. And that had been multiplied by a thousand when he found out she was pregnant. Her sister, Belinda, who was ten years older than Carlene, had stepped up and taken her in when their father declared that she was an embarrassment to him, her mother, and their careers.

  But maybe Fate drove her back to Happy so that she could have some help with the teenage years. With Varner and Dawson blood in her veins, Tilly was bound to be one determined, make-her-own-rules girl.

  “Thank goodness for mice.” Jace couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he drove toward town. But the humor was soon overshadowed by the big picture looming in the background. Tilly seemed to like him and she loved the kitten, but what would she think of him as a father? And had Carlene felt the same electricity that he did when they shared that amazing kiss?

  Wake up and quit thinkin’ life would have been a fairy tale if you two had gotten married.

  “And where does that leave me today, right now?” he asked himself as he parked his truck in front of the sprawling ranch house on Prairie Rose Ranch.

  A few weeks ago he thought he’d have loved having the big house all to himself. He’d been looking forward to h
is mother finally retiring and moving into the small two-bedroom house that she’d had built toward the back of the ranch. For the first time in his life, he’d be truly on his own.

  But a couple days after she’d gone, the place felt too quiet, too empty. Jace had already started spending time at Hope Springs with Brody and Lila or over at Texas Star with Kasey’s family.

  Finally, with a sigh, he got out of the truck, braced himself against the ever-blowing wind, and hurried inside. An enormous living room that had entertained hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the past fifty years opened off the foyer. A stone fireplace covered one end with oak bookcases on either side. A buttery-soft leather sofa that did not have springs poking up through the bottom beckoned to him and he plopped down into the corner. Propping his feet on the coffee table and leaning his head back, he let the past half hour play over and over through his mind, from the expressions on Carlene’s and Tilly’s faces to that scorching hot kiss. He’d kissed lots of women in the past ten years but not a single one of them had affected him like Carlene did.

  He didn’t realize that he’d gotten to his feet and was pacing until Brody pushed into the foyer and called out, “Anybody home? Jace, you here?”

  “In the living room,” he raised his voice to say.

  “Why are you sitting in the dark?” Brody flipped the light switch.

  “Didn’t realize I was,” he answered.

  “Kasey said you took a kitten to Carlene’s. When is this coming out into the open so we can meet your daughter? Whole family is eager to see more than pictures on your phone. Mama even went to the school yesterday on a trumped up school board excuse, but she didn’t see Tilly.” Brody pushed through two swinging doors into the kitchen and returned with two longneck bottles of beer. “You look miserable. What happened?”

  Jace took a bottle from Brody’s hand and tipped it up for several long gulps before he sank back onto the sofa again. “I would have married her, Brody. I would have done the right thing and not just because she was pregnant.”

  “I know that. And the whole family knows it too. We’ve been over this before, so what’s the real problem?”

  “I’m so damned angry at her,” Jace admitted. “It broke my heart when she moved away at the end of the summer. Then a week later she changed her phone number and I couldn’t even get in touch with her.”

  Brody sat down on a recliner and popped the footrest up. “That’s probably about the time she found out she was pregnant and made up her mind for a clean break.”

  “I kissed her tonight,” Jace blurted out.

  “Did she slap you?” Brody asked.

  “No, it was like this…” He went on to tell about the mouse and breaking down the old coffee table.

  Brody chuckled through the story. “And where was Tilly in all this noise?”

  “In her room talking on the phone with her friend in Florida. The legs just popped off the table and it went down with a thud; then Carlene was in my arms. Tilly came out after the kiss ended.”

  “How’d it affect you?” Brody asked.

  “How’d that first kiss with Lila last summer affect you?” Jace shot back.

  “If it’s anything like that one was,” Brody groaned, “you are in big trouble.”

  “Yep.” Jace nodded.

  Carlene didn’t need a coffee table. It was just another piece of furniture to bump her knees on and have to dust. Besides, all vertical surfaces attracted junk like flies on honey. So why did it upset her so much to have broken it?

  “It’s not the table,” she sniffled. “I’m supposed to be strong and fearless, and Jace saw me vulnerable and terrified.”

  Tilly bounced into the room after her bath, stopped so fast that her damp feet screeched against the hard wood floor, and pointed at the television. “Kill it, Mama. Hurry!”

  Adrenaline rushed through Carlene’s veins and she expected to see a mouse when she made herself look that way. But it was a huge daddy longlegs inching its way to the floor. Poor Tilly was glued to the floor and shaking so badly that her finger trembled.

  Like mice, the only good spider was a dead one, so Carlene quickly grabbed a paper towel and killed the wicked critter, carried it to the trash can in the kitchen, and tossed it inside. When she returned, Tilly was still standing in the same place, but she was calmly checking out the whole room for another terrifying varmint.

  “I want another house tomorrow,” Tilly said bluntly.

  Carlene hugged her daughter and kissed her on the forehead. “We’ll move, no doubt about that, but it will take me a while to find a place and get things arranged. Until then, if you’ll let your kitten take care of the mice, then I’ll do away with any spiders. Your aunt Belinda says that they’re both more scared of us than we are of them and I bet they didn’t know we were moving in here. Now that they do, they’ll keep away from this place until we move out.”

  “If you hadn’t already broke down the coffee table, I would have. That thing was as big as a bear.” Tilly shivered again.

  “Have you named your kitten yet?” Carlene asked to get Tilly’s mind away from the spider. “Did Natalie have any good ideas?”

  Tilly shook her head. “Next time I see Jace, I’m goin’ to ask him what kind of names he likes for cats.”

  “What makes you think we’ll see Jace again?” Carlene asked.

  Tilly shrugged and pointed. “Look. She’s comin’ out here to play.”

  Carlene’s phone rang, taking her attention away from the cute little kitten with her nose to the ground as if she were hunting. She fished the phone from her pocket as Tilly went to follow behind her new pet as she made her way to the Christmas tree and clawed at the trunk.

  “Hello?” she said on the fifth ring.

  “Hey, sis, how did the first two days of school go?” Belinda asked. “Did you run into you-know-who? Is he married?”

  Carlene filled her in on the house news, her job, and then told her about the arguments she’d had with Jace but she didn’t tell her about that kiss. “And then there was the mouse and the spider.”

  “Oh. My. Goodness. Both in one evening.” Belinda laughed. “You broke the coffee table and what did Tilly do? Sprout wings and fly to the top of the fridge?”

  “No, but she would have probably liked to,” Carlene laughed.

  “I’m glad you aren’t staying in that place forever,” Belinda said. “Use the money Aunt Rosalie left you and put a down payment on something decent. Why don’t you just stay in a motel until you can find something else?”

  “I’ll look at a couple places over the weekend, I promise. There’s two really nice little brick houses for sale not far from the school.”

  “Good. So Jace isn’t married? Think he might still be carrying a torch for you?” Belinda said.

  “I need to talk to Aunt Bee,” Tilly said. “She might have good kitten names.”

  “Give her the phone,” Belinda laughed. “And remember what Aunt Rosalie always said about things passing.”

  “This, too, shall pass,” Carlene sighed. “But the distance between the beginning and the passing takes forever.”

  “Yes, it does. I read a sign last week that said, ‘This, too, shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone but it will pass.’” Belinda giggled.

  Carlene laughed with her and was suddenly nostalgic about all the evenings they’d spent together and the way Belinda could bring her out of the doldrums. “Amen to that. More like a birthin’ than a kidney stone. Sometimes the passing is difficult and painful.”

  “And when it’s all over, the pain is forgotten. Now, let me talk to my niece and then I’ll tell you all about this guy I met at work,” Belinda said.

  “You? A guy? Hold the presses!”

  “Oh, hush or I won’t tell you anything.”

  Tilly was sitting on the floor with her kitten in her lap when Carlene handed the phone to her. She started off telling her aunt Bee every single detail about her week.

  “Bedtime,”
Carlene said.

  “Love you, Aunt Bee. Oh, I forgot. The potty ran over too and there was water everywhere. Here’s Mama.”

  “Good Lord! You’ve got to get out of there.” Belinda’s voice went all high and shrill.

  “It’s not the end of the world. Just a little…rustic. We’re fine for now,” Carlene said. “I’ll find a new place soon, I promise. Now tell me about this guy.”

  She put the phone on speaker when it was time to tuck Tilly into bed. The tone of Belinda’s voice when she told Tilly good night made Carlene go all misty eyed. She hadn’t thought about how much Belinda would miss them.

  Belinda had been the one who had been there through the whole pregnancy, who’d walked the floor with a crying baby until they’d figured out she was lactose intolerant and got her formula straightened out, and who’d read Tilly bedtime stories when Carlene had to grade papers in the evenings. Belinda was the one who’d insisted every time she moved that they do the same and who’d even helped her locate teaching jobs. No wonder her sister hadn’t had time for a relationship for almost a decade—she’d been too busy helping take care of Tilly.

  A fresh wave of guilt washed over Carlene. Tears streamed down her face. She’d been too busy to realize how much she would miss her sister until that moment. Talking to her was great but popping into her apartment right across the landing for a glass of tea or a bottle of beer—well, that wasn’t going to happen. Not with Belinda at her new job in Hampton, Virginia, and Carlene in the Texas panhandle.

  Things had happened so quickly. First Belinda came home with the news that she had been transferred from Eglin Air Force Base to one in Virginia and then Aunt Rosalie told Carlene about the job in Happy and it had kind of fallen into Carlene’s lap. After that, there’d been a flurry of packing and cleaning the apartments where they lived and then Aunt Rosalie died.

  She picked up the phone and hit the speed dial for her sister.

  “Is everything all right?” Belinda asked.

  “It’s fine. I just wanted to say that I’m so, so sorry,” Carlene sobbed.

  “Because your daughter is asleep or because you are not over that cowboy?” Belinda yawned loudly.