“I dread it when they’re sixteen,” he said.
“You have every right to dread their teenage years. Am I really supposed to go to all those places you mentioned? I’m the nanny. I can stay home.”
“Yes, ma’am, you are going. A nanny could take the day off, but since you are the mama, you have to go.”
“How far is it into Whitewright?” she asked.
“Five minutes, tops. Why?”
“Because I have two pair of jeans and a torn, dirty wedding dress. If I’m going somewhere with you and the girls, I’d like to look decent,” she answered.
“The keys to my truck are hanging on the rack beside the back door. They’re the set on the keychain that says World’s Best Dad. Don’t have to tell you what I got for Father’s Day last year, do I? I’m not so sure what you can find in Whitewright. Seems like there is a new women’s store across from the library, so you might have to do a quick run up to Sherman.”
“Thank you. And now you’d better get on out of here and let me clear off the table so I can set up the refreshments,” she said.
“Refreshments?” He cocked his head to the side in a gesture that made him even more attractive. Green eyes twinkled and a smile tickled the corners of that absolutely delicious-looking mouth.
“Since this is their first concert, they are giving open backstage passes. We will be serving coffee, sweet tea, and cupcakes immediately after the concert. Just a reminder, you should ask for autographs on the paper napkins,” she leaned in to say softly and wished that she could taste, just one time, his lips after he’d sipped sweet tea. Even thinking about it was more intoxicating than a shot of whiskey.
Mason pushed back his chair. “I keep saying the same words, but I don’t know any other way to say it: you are amazing, Annie Rose.”
“You might want to wait to say that until after the concert. I don’t even know what they are doing after the fiddle song. The other two are with Lily’s karaoke machine,” she whispered.
Mason leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “This week has been incredible.”
She didn’t get the pleasure of a real kiss, but she felt like a teenager who’d been kissed by Blake Shelton at a country music concert. She had to hold her hands tightly in her lap to keep from touching her cheek to hold the kiss there forever.
“It’s been the most fun I’ve had since I was a kid,” she said.
“Daddy!” Lily yelled through the closed door. “Do you have your camera to film us?”
“Yes, princess, your filming crew is ready,” he said.
“Is the refreshment table ready?” she asked.
“It will be in five minutes,” Annie Rose yelled back. “And in exactly nine minutes we will be in our seats and ready.”
“Beers after they are in bed tonight?” Mason asked.
“I’ll be the one on the swing in my bare feet,” she said.
“I’ll be on the lookout for you.” He smiled.
***
Mason and Annie Rose waited until the clock struck seven to open the doors. Jar candles were on the coffee table, the end tables, and defined an area around the part of the living room designated as the stage. They’d gone to a lot of trouble setting up a metal stand with music and a fiddle, a karaoke machine, and two bales of hay. How they’d gotten that hay into the living room was a mystery. Annie Rose thought she’d kept a better watch on them than that.
She and Mason took their seats and managed to keep a straight face when they saw gray duct tape holding a sign on the chair beside the music stand. Written in bright pink crooked letters, it read Welcome to the first concert of the Famous Harper Sisters.
The door swung open and they made their appearance, walking slowly into the living room and waving at Annie Rose and Mason. Gabby was dressed in a pale blue gingham-checked sundress that matched her eyes. Lily wore a hot-pink skirt with a petticoat making it stand straight out, and a cute little tank top. The bling on her hot-pink cowgirl belt glittered in the candlelight.
“Welcome,” Gabby said in a big voice. “Thank you for coming. We’ve got a show that y’all are goin’ to love. We’ll get started with the fabulous Lily Harper playing on the fiddle and accompanying me while I sing “I’ll Fly Away.”
Lily picked up a microphone from the music stand and said, “Afterwards you are invited to a backstage party held in the dining room. Refreshments will be served, and we will be giving out autographs. Now sit back and enjoy the first-ever Famous Harper Sisters concert.”
Mason leaned over and whispered into Annie Rose’s ear, giving her a warm tingle all the way down her spine. “No way can she play that already.”
“Be prepared for a surprise,” she whispered back, her lips close to his ear.
Lily laid the microphone down, picked up the fiddle, tapped the bow on the strings twice, and then drew it down in a whine before she started. She did a perfect chord progression of DGDDAD as a prelude, nodded at Gabby, and then started over again.
“Some glad morning when this life is o’er,” Gabby sang into the microphone held at the right distance from her mouth like Annie Rose had shown her.
She made the last note last long enough to let Lily change chords and then went on. They only had one small glitch, and that came on the last stanza when Lily was supposed to put the fiddle down and harmonize with her sister. She started the next chord procession with the D chord instead of dropping the fiddle. She realized immediately what she’d done, and Gabby covered for her by flipping her hand backwards and saying, “Play it, Sister.”
Lily repeated the prelude and then joined Gabby in the last chorus, harmonizing beautifully for two little nine-year-old girls. When they got to, “When I die, Hallelujah by and by… I’ll fly away,” they were right on key and in sync.
Annie Rose didn’t know if she was prouder of them for covering the mistake like pros or for their fantastic job. She jumped to her feet and applauded.
“Wow! I don’t believe it. I didn’t even hear her practicing,” Mason said.
“Practice time is for an hour or two after you go back to work in the afternoon. But I have a confession that I’m not supposed to tell you. She’s been sneaking that fiddle out and practicing for weeks. She gets chords from the Internet and even read some how-to articles on beginning fiddle playing. She’s a quick study, Mason.”
“And now if everyone will take their seats again, we have two numbers picked out to sing to you,” Lily said.
The first chords of Jason Aldean’s “She’s Country” came through the karaoke machine, and they both picked up a microphone.
“Dear God,” Mason gasped.
Gabby strutted across the stage as she sang about being a hot little number in her pickup truck. Lily came in when the lyrics said she was a Georgia peach with a big Southern drawl. They had the choreography down to a T, winking and pointing at each other as they sang about being born that way.
When the song ended, they held hands and bowed and then popped right up in time for Lily to take the lead on “If I Die Young,” by The Band Perry. She sang that if she died young then the Lord should make her a rainbow. Gabby took first place on the second verse and winked at her daddy.
Annie Rose could feel his tears without even glancing his way. The girls had no idea that any song of dying young would open up raw emotions that were still buried inside his heart. She reached over and covered his hand with hers, hoping that it brought him a measure of comfort and that he didn’t let the dam inside his soul break in front of the girls.
“And this one is because we get to go to The Pink Pistol next week and we love you, Miranda, wherever you are tonight.” Gabby held the microphone up in a salute.
Background music for “Hell on Heels,” by the Pistol Annies came through the karaoke louder than the other songs. At the end of the prelude, both girls came in to sing about being hell on
heels. Then Lily said that she was made pretty and Gabby said she was made smart and they both did Miranda’s part about having a pink guitar.
Mason laughed and drew his hand out from under Annie Rose’s to clap. His whistles rocked the room, and the girls beefed up the performance more with every bit of his applause.
Annie Rose swore she could hear Miranda’s grit in Lily’s voice. Mercy sakes, that child might have a tour bus someday if she could learn to play that fiddle like Alison Krauss and sing like Miranda. Gabby brought her voice to the mix and the two of them didn’t miss a beat when they clapped along with the background singers on the karaoke tape.
“And that ends our show. Your backstage passes are on the table, and there will be refreshments and autographs,” Lily announced.
Mason and Annie Rose applauded until the girls were out of sight.
“The little imps. Look at this. We’ve got passes with our names on them, and they’re good for drinks. Thank you, Annie Rose. I’ve never seen them so happy.” Mason hugged her tightly. She spontaneously looped her arms around his neck and hugged him back.
“Daddy!” Lily’s voice floated into the living room.
“Your adoring audience is on the way,” Annie Rose yelled.
“Is this our first date?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know. Did we go as friends or as a couple?” she asked.
He flashed a brilliant smile. “I’m not sure. What’s the difference?”
“Would you kiss a friend?”
He threw an arm around her shoulders. “That’s putting it pretty straight.”
She smiled and led the way into the dining room, where the backstage passes had to be shown before they could get through the doors. The party lasted half an hour and then the girls had to give up their celebrity status, but they didn’t fight with Annie Rose when she said it was time to clean up the mess in the living room and get ready for bed. Mason volunteered to haul the equipment up so they wouldn’t miss out on their reading time. Annie Rose said that she’d take care of the cleanup in the kitchen.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever calm down,” Lily sighed. “That was so much fun.”
“Will you come tuck us in, Mama-Nanny?” Gabby asked.
Annie Rose glanced at Mason, who had a dollop of chocolate cupcake icing in the corner of his mouth. That was his time with the girls, so she didn’t know what to say. She cocked her head to one side in a question.
He nodded his approval and licked the icing from his lip. She would have gladly taken care of that for him. All he had to do was give her a sign. He didn’t even need to ask.
Good God! What am I thinking? It’s the excitement of the evening that’s gotten to me. That and the kiss on the cheek, but I’m not a teenage hussy. I’m a full-grown woman who’s been hurt too many times to be thinking like this.
“I can do that,” she finally answered. “I’ll get your pillow all fluffed up and then your dad can come in and do the final tucking.”
“I’d like that,” Lily said. “It’ll be the perfect ending to a perfect day. Both parents saying good night.”
***
Mason sat down on the stairs. He wanted to go outside and talk to Annie Rose on the swing. He’d looked forward to that part of the day from the time he got up in the morning. The concert had been wonderful and it was so nice to come home to happy kids and routine. And tonight of all nights, he should go talk to her, tell her again how much he appreciated the way she had turned his life around for the better in a week.
But hugging her had felt strange, again as if he was disrespecting Holly. Maybe it was because he was breaking both of the first rules he’d set up when he decided he could run a ranch and raise two girls all alone. He stood up slowly and made it halfway down the staircase before he stopped. He went to the kitchen to get a couple of bottles of beer and found her sitting at the kitchen table, her knees drawn up under her chin, a pot of hot tea in front of her.
“It’s steeping. It’ll be ready in one more minute if you want a cup,” she said.
“No swing tonight?” he asked.
“Nope. My friend isn’t calling my name tonight, so I decided to have a cup of tea.”
“Mosquitoes?”
She checked the clock and poured tea into her cup. “Get a cup if you want some.”
He pulled one from the cabinet and set it on the table. She filled it and handed it to him.
“Have a seat and relax,” she said. “And it’s not the mosquitoes.”
“Then what is it?” he asked.
“It’s this thing between us. The thing that we’ve been sidestepping all around rather than talking about it.”
He set his cup on the bar and hiked a hip on a stool. “Kind of hard to talk about something that neither of us can even define.”
Annie Rose stood up, walked over to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, rolled up on her toes, and kissed him hard right on the lips. It didn’t feel strange and there was nothing but a tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach when she pulled away.
“Now we’ve talked about it,” she said. “Good night, Mason. See you at breakfast.”
“Good night, Annie Rose,” he said.
When he heard her door shut, he said, “Well, I’ll be damned. She sure don’t kiss like Holly did. Not better. Not worse. Just a hell of a lot different. And I like the way she talks about things.”
Chapter 8
Annie Rose had never shopped so fast and furious in her entire life. Flutters danced in her gut like they had the night before when she closed the door to her apartment. The old Annie Rose, the one who trusted her own judgment, had kissed Mason and enjoyed it immensely. But then that morning at breakfast he’d acted like it had never happened, and now she wondered if she’d made a colossal mistake by breaking every rule she’d set up for herself after the Nicky episode in her life.
She didn’t have time to analyze and pick apart every nanosecond of the impulsive kiss. She had to shop for something to wear to the ranch party. The girls were dashing from one thing to another, and her head swam trying to make decisions.
Finally, she bought two maxi dresses in bright summer colors at the little eclectic dress shop, and she let the girls each pick out a bracelet to wear to the picnic. She was about to pay out when she saw a gorgeous soft, light blue shawl that would work to tie around either dress for church. The owner of the shop told her how to get to the Dollar Store so she could purchase hair spray, a curling iron, and a few makeup items. She and the girls dashed through the store in less than twenty minutes, where Lily picked out a new lipstick for Annie Rose and Gabby picked out just the right hair spray.
“Next year it’s at our ranch and we’ll be ten years old and Daddy says that for our tenth birthday we can get our ears pierced,” Lily said as Annie Rose drove back toward the ranch.
“Oh, no!” Gabby gasped.
“What? It won’t hurt but only for a minute. Kenna got hers done last year,” Lily said.
“No, I’m not afraid of needles. You are, but I’m not. I remembered that Damian is going to the picnic and I almost drowned him last week. He’s going to be out to get even, and he called you a liar, so I might have to whup him,” Gabby said.
“You know what Daddy says. Ladies don’t throw the first punch. But if he hits one of us, you can bet your Texas ass we will finish the job,” Lily said.
Annie Rose didn’t think those were the exact words that Mason used, but she had to agree with Lily. That little red-haired shit would do well to cut his pride losses and stay away from her girls or she might help them finish the job.
***
Mason had never had to wait on the twins before. They usually whined at him to hurry up, but that morning they were closeted in the nanny’s apartment with Annie Rose and it was already five minutes past eleven.
The foyer held three pieces o
f furniture. A mirror hung above a semiround table that caught everything from mail to car keys. All that had been pushed aside that morning and a boxed cheesecake waited to be taken to the picnic.
Farther down beside his office door was an antique hall tree with hats on every hook, boots lined up on both sides and sitting on the bench seat, and two pairs of pink flip-flops in front of it.
In between the two was an old wingback chair that was seldom used for anything except another catchall. He pushed a plush throw and a jump rope to one side and sat down to wait. Brad Paisley’s old song about waiting on a woman came to mind and put a grin on his face. Brad talked about one woman; Mason had three and for the first time he could possibly be late to the picnic.
He heard the door open, and there they were. If he would’ve had to speak or drop dead, it would have been lights-out. His mouth felt like he’d packed it with alum and his eyes grew dry from not blinking.
Shit! Shit! Shit! And dammit, too!
She wore a long, flowing dress with splashes of light yellow, green, and baby blue the exact same color as her eyes, and she’d done something with her hair that made it all soft and curly. By the end of the day she’d have a date for every Friday and Saturday night for the next ten years and all because he’d dragged his feet.
His eyes started at her hair and traveled slowly down to pale pink toenails peeking out from the ends of sandals. And then they started back up again, stopping a few seconds at the slight cleavage, and stopped dead at her lips.
“Too much?” she whispered. “Maybe my jeans and boots would be better.”
“You are gorgeous,” he managed to spit out hoarsely.
“And look at us,” Lily said.
Clones of Annie Rose! They wore sundresses that they usually reserved for Sunday morning, white sandals with pink polish on their toenails, and their hair had been styled exactly like hers.
“You are both beautiful,” he said.
“Smell us. Mama-Nanny let us use some of her perfume and her hair spray so we’d smell like her. What are we waiting for? Let’s go and, Daddy, if Damian throws the first punch, he’s toast,” Lily said.
How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) Page 9
