“Maybe the fact that the bull got the best of you is reason enough not to get back on it,” she said.
“All you have to do is ask me not to, darlin’,” he said.
She rose up on one elbow and kissed him on the tip of his nose. “And when you are fifty, you’d resent me for it. If you didn’t rope a bull and ride him while I was gone, then what do you have to fess up about?”
He traced the contours of her face with a forefinger, and just that light touch sent goose bumps down her arms. He could recite the phone book in that slow, Texas drawl and she’d start taking off her clothes if she didn’t get control. She moistened her lips as his dark lashes lowered, and then his lips were on hers. She felt a flash of heat as the tender kisses sent hot sparks all around the room.
“I don’t want to hurt your cheek,” she murmured, forcing herself to pull away.
“This is healing it,” he said.
She checked his expression and sure enough there was a grimace. “Healing, my fanny. You’re in pain.”
“Worth every second of it. Sleep with me tonight, Carlene.”
“You can’t…we can’t,” she stammered.
“I want to feel you in my arms and I want to wake up tomorrow with you beside me. Who knows when we’ll have a night to ourselves again?” He ran his palm down the length of her arm and even though her sweater kept his touch from her bare skin, there was still the same feeling as if she’d been strip-stark naked.
“Please?” he asked. “We can watch a movie together or just lie here and talk about the future.”
“Not the past?” she asked.
“That’s done and gone but the future is a bright new day.” He smiled. “But I do have some mighty fine memories of the past.”
“And the present?” she asked.
“Want to hear my confession?”
She wasn’t sure that she did and yet curiosity got in the way. After all, what could be a bigger thing than him not obeying one blessed thing the doctor said?
“Today Brody and I went up by Claude and bought cattle. They’ll be arriving tomorrow. But I took a pillow and ice and did what the doctor told me about keeping my foot elevated and iced.”
“Jace Dawson!” She sat up in bed and moved away from him. “You’re worse than a kid. I can’t leave you alone for five minutes.”
“Which means you better sleep with me tonight or else I might get in my truck and go up to Amarillo to the Rusty Spur after you start snoring.” His eyes twinkled.
“I do not snore,” she protested.
“Rephrasing that. You purr in your sleep.”
She slid off the bed. “I’m going to take a shower and wash my hair.”
“And then you’ll come back to bed with me?”
“We’ll see.”
His eyebrows drew down into a single line. “That’s what you’d tell Tilly.”
“When you act like a child, you get treated like a child.”
He chuckled and picked up the remote. “If I fall asleep before you get back, wake me up for a good night kiss.”
Carlene didn’t even look over her shoulder but went straight to her room and fell backward on the bed. She could not spend the night with him. She wouldn’t sleep a wink and she had school the next day. Her phone rang and she had to find it in the bottom of her purse. The Pistol Annies’ “Hush, Hush” was the tone that played when Belinda called, so she didn’t even look at the caller ID.
“Hello, sister,” Carlene said.
“Do you have a purse full of condoms?” Belinda asked.
“My God…what…why…,” Carlene stammered.
“I just talked to Tilly. She called me on Valerie’s phone and told me that she was spending the night. That means you and that sexy hunk of cowboy are alone in that house and I’m just reminding you that—”
“Hush,” Carlene butted in. “He’s hurt and couldn’t…”
“Whoa!”
Carlene could visualize Belinda throwing up a palm.
“Do you really think that he couldn’t figure out a way? If so, then you aren’t ready to live on your own after all. You’d better let me find you a job in Germany and grow up some more.”
Carlene shook her head. “I’m not leaving Happy.”
“Then there’s nothing left for me to do but have a box of condoms sitting on your porch on the first day of every month. What size do I send?” Belinda asked.
The blush came close to igniting the chenille bedspread. “Good God!”
“Oh, I’ve got the site right here and they have extra large. That sound about right?”
“Sweet Jesus!” The red cheeks were burning over into Carlene’s eyeballs and frying them right out of her head.
“Honey, prayer does not keep you from getting pregnant. I’ll just order the one-size-fits-all and hope for the best. Hey, here’s some that glow in the dark.”
“I’m not going to have sex with him tonight,” Carlene declared.
“Good! That eases my mind but I’m ordering two boxes and overnighting them. They’ll be on the porch when you get home tomorrow night,” Belinda said.
“Don’t you dare! What if Tilly finds them?” Carlene told her.
“Okay, okay. Promise me you’ll be careful and I’ll hang up so you can at least kiss him good night,” Belinda giggled.
“We haven’t talked about your new feller. What size does he need?” Carlene turned the joke around.
“Oh, honey, they don’t even make them big enough, so I’m on the pill.” Belinda’s laughter echoed loud enough that Jace could probably hear it in his room.
“Hush!” There was that hot feeling in her cheeks again.
“You already said that once. Don’t repeat yourself. Good night, sis.”
“Night.” Carlene laid her phone on the nightstand and headed toward the bathroom.
A few minutes later, with a towel around her hair and another one around her body, she stood in front of the dresser with a drawer pulled out. What should she wear to bed if she did decide to cross the hall and crawl into bed with him? She picked up the red silk, spaghetti-strapped slip of a gown that Belinda had given her for Christmas.
“No, that’s just askin’ for trouble.” She laid it back down.
Finally she chose a pair of faded pajama pants with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on them and a T-shirt that hung almost to her knees. She checked herself in the mirror. Not one sexy thing about her that night and if she was lying beside him at least she’d know if he crawled out of bed and tried to get down the stairs alone.
With the towel still around her hair, she padded barefoot across the hall to his room. He was watching reruns of Justified on television but his eyes left the television and were glued to her when she crawled into the bed with him. The dreamy look on his face said that her sister could be right—he might figure out a way to have sex even if he did have to endure the pain.
She sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed and towel dried her hair, then fished a comb from a pocket and started getting the tangles from her long, blond hair. In seconds he was behind her and had taken the comb from her hands.
“Let me, darlin’,” he drawled.
She had no idea that hair could be sensitive but each time he gently worked a tangle out, a little burst of fire, ice, and desire mixed together and shot through her body. She bit back a groan, but it didn’t escape him.
“Feels good, does it?” he whispered in her ear.
The warmth of his breath was the last straw. Forget the tangles and the fact that he was hurt. She could damn sure do the work, and she’d never get to sleep with the ache in her insides. She turned around and threw a leg over each of his until she was sitting in his lap. That hardness pressing against her belly told her that he was more than ready.
He tossed the comb on the floor and his lips found hers in a kiss so passionate that it jacked up the ache in her insides another notch or two. She ran her hands up under his shirt and splayed them out over his hard chest.
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“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed as he removed her shirt between kisses. “I want to hold your naked body next to mine.”
“Honey, I want more than that,” she said. “Where are those condoms?”
“In the nightstand,” he answered huskily.
She rolled off the bed, shucked out of the rest of her clothing, and smiled when she noticed the size on the box. Ripping open the package, she turned to help him take off his pajamas to find him naked. He reached out and she put it in his hands. He rolled it on and braced his back on the headboard.
“Now where were we?” he asked.
“Right here.” She flipped a leg over his lap again and guided him into her.
“Oh, God!” he muttered.
She smiled. “Prayer won’t help you now, darlin’. You belong to me.”
His hands cupped her butt to steady her movements. “I’m not sure that I’ve ever belonged to anyone else.”
When he groaned, she slowed down the rhythm. “Am I hurting you?”
“Hell no!” His voice was raspy.
With one swift roll, he was on top of her. The headboard sounded like a bass drum on the wall. Nothing mattered but this moment.
Then everything exploded and he rolled to the side, panting as badly as she was, his head on the pillow, his fingers lacing with hers to close up the distance between them.
“I’m almost healed,” he said between breaths.
“Almost?” She got out one word.
“Second dose should do it.”
“Why mess with perfection?”
“You will sleep with me, naked so I can feel your warm body next to mine, right?” He inched over close enough that he could kiss that soft spot right under her ear.
Shivers raced all the way to her toes.
“Feels good?” he asked.
She whipped around and met his eyes. “You know it does. Let’s take a shower together and then come back here and feel good all night.”
“We’ve already had showers,” he said.
“And I can’t go to school tomorrow smelling like sex,” she declared. “Believe me, the teachers I work with…”
“I understand.” He reached for his crutches. “Besides, we’ve never had a shower together.”
“We’ve skinny-dipped together in the springs,” she said.
“Want to go down there and do it again instead of a shower?”
Her arms went around her body as she slid off the bed. Just thinking about getting into the springs’ icy-cold water was enough to put chill bumps on every inch of her body. “No thank you!”
“We’ll save that for summer, then,” he said.
Summer. He was thinking that they might still be together by then?
Carlene’s pulse raced just thinking about a future with Jace as she led the way to the bathroom. She’d never thought that such a thing could even be remotely possible. What will be, will be and what won’t be just might be anyway. Aunt Rosie’s saying came back again to her mind.
Chapter Twenty-One
On Monday as she was leaving school, Carlene got a text message from Hope with only one word: Amazing.
She quickly wrote back: As in?
The answer was: Everything. There?
She hit the tiny keys as she walked to the van: Same.
Tilly skipped along beside her. Although the wind was chilly, the sun was shining and a few little white snow flowers were peeking up from the cold ground, a harbinger of spring and the end of winter. Maybe what she and Jace had experienced the past few days was like those tiny blossoms, showing her that better things were ahead if she could put her trust in him.
“Mama, I like it here.” Tilly slipped her hand into Carlene’s. “I’m glad we moved and I’m real glad that we got to go live at the ranch and that I got a Grandma Valerie and cousins and…” She stopped to suck in a double lungful of air.
“Do I hear a but in all those ands?” Carlene knew her daughter and something was on her mind.
“But I’m afraid to ask Jace to go to the daughter-daddy dance. He’s been real nice and we’re friends like I said we might be, but, Mama, he might not want to be a daddy and he might say no and that would be awful.” Tilly sighed.
“You never know what he might answer if you don’t ask the question.” Carlene unlocked the van door remotely.
“That’s what Grandma said. I talked to her and to Aunt Bee about it, but I’m still scared. Will you go with me to ask Jace?” Tilly’s voice sounded desperate.
“Of course I will. You just tell me when,” she said as they both got into the van.
“I was thinking at supper tonight and oh, dang it, I forgot. Grandma wants me to go shopping with her right after supper to get some things for the church for the dance.” Carlene checked the rearview mirror before she backed out. “Do you have homework?”
“No, ma’am. Not a bit,” Tilly answered.
“Then you can go with your grandma.” Carlene headed toward the ranch.
“Yay!” She pumped her fist in the air. “You won’t be lonely, will you? I been leavin’ you a lot lately and I went last night to buy a dress. Oh no! Was it bad luck to buy the dress before I even asked him? Is that crazy, Mama? I see now why you say that boys ought to ask girls. This is tough. And one other thing, Mama. Are we really goin’ to move into another house? I’m not sure I want to move again. I like it on the ranch.”
“We are going to look at another one pretty soon now. One that we can rent, not buy, so it won’t be a permanent thing.”
“Good.” Tilly’s sigh was definitely one of relief.
“Will you miss me if I go with Grandma?” she asked again.
Carlene pretended to pout. “I’ll probably cry the whole time you are gone.”
Tilly inhaled deeply, raised her shoulders almost to her ears, and then let it all out in a whoosh. “I guess I’d better stay home, then.”
Giggling, Carlene looked into the rearview mirror. “I was teasing. I wanted you to have family and get to know them. I’m just fine, darlin’. I want you to go. I was only teasing.”
“For real? I could make you a cup of tea or some milk with a little kick in it before I go,” Tilly said.
“You know, a glass of your special milk sure might be good. Thank you,” Carlene said as she turned into the lane toward the house.
“We take care of each other,” Tilly said seriously.
Red bounded off the porch and wiggled from nose to tail when Tilly got out of the van. She dropped to her knees and giggles filled the air when he licked her across the nose. Carlene leaned on the fender and drank in the sight. This was exactly what she wanted for her daughter instead of living in an apartment in a different town every two years.
From the prickly feeling on her neck and a faint whiff of Stetson cologne, she knew that Jace wasn’t far behind her. When he parted her hair and kissed her neck, every sane thought in her head disappeared.
“I missed you today,” he said.
“Jace!” Tilly squealed. “You don’t have your crutches.”
“Retired them, princess,” he said.
“Princess?” She stood up and twirled a couple of times. “You think I’m a princess?”
“I’ve been leanin’ that way ever since you moved into the ranch house with me, but then you modeled that pretty dress you and your grandma bought last night and it erased all doubt. All you need is a tiara and folks will be bowing at your feet and kissing your ring,” he said.
Another giggle and a cute little curtsy said that she liked what he said. “Well, now that you said that, will you go to the daddy-daughter dance with me?”
Carlene took a step to the side so she could see Jace, but he was a blur. He picked Tilly up and swung her around in circles until they were both dizzy. “Oh, my darlin’ princess, I would be so honored to escort you to the dance. Do you think you should have roses or orchids in your corsage?”
Carlene’s heart nearly burst with happiness to see her daught
er’s face. And Jace looked like someone had just handed him the keys to paradise. This was truly what she wanted when she moved to Happy and she felt so blessed in that moment.
“What’s an orchid?” Tilly plopped down on the cold ground. “I’m dizzy like when I stay on the merry-go-round too long.”
Red sprawled out on the ground beside her and laid his big head in her lap.
“It’s a beautiful purple flower,” Carlene answered.
“I want pink roses and, Mama, can I have a tiara for my hair?”
“Yes, you can.” Jace answered before Carlene could utter a word. “It can be my present to you for letting me take you to the dance.”
“For real?” Tilly’s eyes popped open wide. “Mama?”
“I guess a princess does need a tiara but it can’t be a really big one. You need to save that one for something special,” Carlene agreed.
“But, Mama, this is a special day. But I don’t want a big one, just a little one with sparkly diamonds,” she said. “Can I go call Aunt Bee and tell her that Jace said yes? I thought it would be harder to ask him but it just popped right out of my mouth. You need to try it, Mama. You don’t have to wait for him to ask you if that’s what you’re waitin’ on.”
She danced off to the house with Red trailing along at her side. He flopped down on the porch and she slammed the screen door behind her. Jace picked up Carlene and twirled her around like he’d done Tilly.
“Jace, you are going to hurt yourself,” she scolded, but she loved every minute of being in his arms.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how happy this makes me, darlin’. When she tried on that pretty dress last night, I thought my heart might jump right out of my chest. She’s so beautiful and, oh, Carlene, I get to be her daddy,” he said breathlessly.
“Please tell me this isn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing and you really do want to be her daddy,” Carlene whispered.
“It’s a forever thing,” he answered as he brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “And are you going to let her get ahead of you in this dating game? When are you goin’ to ask me out?”
“What makes you think I want to go out with you?” She teared up but quickly wiped the one that escaped away with her hand. A forever thing—that carried a lot of weight and even though she’d turned the corner when he got hurt and she was terrified that she’d lose him, was she ready for a forever thing?
Luckiest Cowboy of All--Two full books for the price of one Page 24