The Bride Said, Finally! (The Lockharts of Texas)

by Thacker, Cathy Gillen

  Jenna shrugged. “Sometimes they do. The cloths usually smell to high heaven, but they comfort the puppies, remind them of home, until they adjust to the new place.”

  Jake hunkered down beside Jenna and petted Buster again. “What are we going to do?” His eyes searched Jenna’s face.

  She smiled. “The same thing you do with a newborn baby. Love him a lot and rock him to sleep.”

  Jake, who was looking pretty exhausted, glanced at his watch, then back at Jenna. No question he was extremely grateful for all her help, but wary also of asking too much. “You don’t mind?” he said cautiously.

  Jenna smiled as she continued to pet Buster with long, soothing strokes. “To tell you the truth, I’m in heaven just holding this little guy,” she admitted happily. “It’s been so long since I had a dog. I’ve really missed having one.”

  Jake pulled up a ladder-back chair beside her, turned it around, and sat down backwards, folding his arms across the top of it. He rested his chin on his hands. “Why don’t you have one? I remember you had four dogs and four cats when you were growing up.”

  “That’s right. One for each of us.”

  Jake paused. His eyes gentled, as did his voice, “Is it because of what happened during the tornado?”

  All of the cats and two of their dogs had been killed when the barn collapsed on their folks. In the most wrenching week of their entire lives, Jenna and her sisters had had to bury their folks and their pets. Jenna recalled crying until there were no tears left. And after that, just feeling numb. So very, very numb.

  “Maybe.” Jenna sighed as the puppy finally stopped trembling altogether and just snuggled closer. “I think there’s only so much heartbreak and loss a person can take. And when our elopement fell apart and we broke up and everything else that could possibly go wrong for four orphans did, it just seemed more sensible not to tempt fate. Especially given the fact we had sold the ranch by then and were all trying to go to school. Plus, Meg had a baby on the way. We just figured the time for more pets would come later.”

  “Was that the only reason?” Jake prodded, his voice soft and low.

  Jenna wondered if anyone would ever be able to read her the way Jake could. Heaven knew he saw things in her no one else ever had. Or would. Jenna forced a faint smile, met Jake’s eyes and tried not to react to the compelling tenderness and compassion she saw there. “I think in a sense we were all trying to put the past behind us,” she admitted honestly. “Forget the life we’d had, growing up on a ranch with all sort of animals around us, and do something different. Something more citified and sophisticated that wouldn’t remind us of all we had once had and lost. But now that I’m holding this little guy, I’m beginning to think that was a mistake. I’d forgotten how much pets give you in return.”

  “He is pretty affectionate.” Jake stroked Buster’s head, too, and scratched behind his ears.

  “And then some.” With effort, Jenna turned her eyes from the compelling, gentle strokes of Jake’s hand, and forced herself to forget how those same hands felt on her skin, in her hair. She smiled and forced her thoughts back to the subject at hand. “Wait until you and Alex have had Miss Kitty and Buster awhile. You won’t be able to imagine your lives without them.”

  Jake continued petting Buster as he looked over and grinned at Jenna. “I like the difference in our lives already,” he drawled. And Jenna had the distinct and unnerving impression he was not just talking about pets.

  “DADDY, WAKE UP. Where’s Buster?”

  Jake groaned and looked at the clock. It was barely 6:00 a.m. Alex was wide awake.

  “He’s with Jenna.”

  “But she’s not in her room. I saw her suitcases. Her bed is still made.”

  Which must mean, Jake thought, that Jenna had spent the whole night downstairs with Buster. Maybe even on the back porch. He had tried to get her to come to bed when he did, but she had insisted she stay out there and rock the homesick puppy a little longer before she tried to put Buster back in his crate.

  Jake had suspected the puppy was just fine by then. It was Jenna who needed holding and comfort, and Jake who wanted to do the holding and comforting. But with Melinda and Alex just upstairs, he’d had no choice but to back off, accede to Jenna’s wishes and head on to bed, leaving her to follow at will.

  “Check the back porch, then,” Jake advised. “But if they’re sleeping, you’ve got to be quiet as a mouse and not wake them. They may not have gotten much sleep last night. And one more thing.” He paused, wishing he did not have to deliver this particular bit of news, then pushed on cheerfully, “Your mom arrived last night.”

  Despite Jake’s matter-of-fact tone, Alex went very still. “Where is she?”

  Jake smiled reassuringly. “Sleeping. She had a long flight. So I think we better let your mommy rest as long as she needs to—she’s very tired.”

  Alex sat down on the edge of Jake’s bed. She tucked her legs beneath the hem of her long Winnie-the-Pooh nightgown, brought her knees up all the way to her chin, and wrapped her arms around her bent legs. She studied Jake with a wisdom older than her years. “How come she didn’t wake me up last night when she got here?”

  Because she had absolutely no interest in doing so, Jake thought.

  But not wanting to hurt his daughter, he said, “Because she wanted you to get your sleep.” He paused, knowing there was more to be said, for all their sakes, even if he didn’t want to pressure his daughter by saying it, for fear she’d get the idea that what was outside counted more than what was inside a person. Reaching up, he tucked a piece of long tangled hair behind her ear. “I want you to look your prettiest today, on account of your mom being here. That means combing your hair and everything.”

  Jake expected Alex to scowl. To complain. To do all the things she normally did when confronted with the prospect of combing her hair. Instead she just looked at him, obviously thinking, reacting. But refusing to divulge what she was thinking and feeling about Melinda’s sudden reemergence into her life.

  Finally, Alex shrugged with typical nonchalance. She jumped up and bounded off the bed. “I’m going to go find Buster,” she announced. And before Jake could protest, she’d dashed from the room.

  “UH-OH. You wasn’t s’posed to wake up on my account,” Alex said as Jenna struggled to sit up in the rocking chair. Buster, having no such problems waking up after a night of sleeping on the back porch, leapt off Jenna’s lap and into Alex’s arms. Then, after a frenzy of kissing and tail-wagging, he wiggled free and jumped to the floor. “Better let him out back,” Jenna said quickly, seeing the signs of an accident about to happen. “He’s probably really got to go.”

  Alex raced over to open the back door. Buster zoomed out and squatted as soon as he hit the grass. “Good puppy!” Jenna called out enthusiastically as she stood and stretched.

  Finished, Buster zoomed off to dash around the yard. Alex raced after him. Barefoot, her nightgown flapping around her legs, long curly strawberry-blond hair standing in wild tangles around her head, Alex was quite an untidy sight. But a deliriously happy one, Jenna noted.

  Abruptly, Buster stopped, put his nose all the way to the ground, then circled twice, and squatted again. Alex, not understanding what was going on, just knowing she had finally caught up with her frisky puppy again, started to reach for Buster.

  Jenna put up a staying hand and warned, “Watch out, honey, he’s about to—”

  “Oooh! Poop!” Alex said, pinching her nostrils closed.

  “Now praise him, so he knows he’s done a very good thing, going outside instead of in the house,” Jenna said.

  “Good puppy!” Alex said enthusiastically.

  “Pet him, too!” Jenna said, coming outside to stand on the steps leading down into the grass.

  Alex knelt beside Buster, who was now wagging his tail so hard he lost his balance and fell over. “Good puppy!” she said, petting him gently. “You are such a good puppy!”

  Buster licked Alex’s knee.
Jenna smiled proudly. And then all heck broke loose as she heard a funny, sputtering sound, and saw the sprinkler heads popping up through the ground. Before she could do more than open her mouth, the lawn sprinklers were on. And Jenna had no idea how to shut them off.

  “Alex, come here!” Jenna said. “You’re going to get all wet!”

  “I have to get my puppy first!” Alex raced after Buster.

  Delighted at being chased, Buster ran all the harder. The water rained down, drenching them both, while Alex shouted and whooped with glee. Knowing there was only one way to end this—and that was catch Buster before he got any wetter—Jenna stepped down onto the lawn. She winced as the first cold spray of water hit her directly in the face. She knelt and held out her arms. “Buster, come here, puppy!”

  Buster raced toward Jenna. Then raced away. Jenna jumped to her feet and ran after him. Alex ran after Jenna. Buster zigzagged between them both, in his glee charging right through the poop. Alex squealed. Jenna winced. Now they really had a mess on their hands. “Alex, stay right there!” Jenna said, hoping to at least keep the poop off Alex.

  Too late. Buster had already changed directions once again, vaulted into Alex’s arms, smearing poop all over her nightgown and onto her bare arms. Alex screamed, not liking that one bit. Buster leaped. The next thing Jenna knew, Buster was in her arms, smearing more poop all over both of them. And at that moment Jake stepped out onto the screened-in back porch, with his ex-wife Melinda right behind him.

  MOVING QUICKLY, Jake found the console located just inside the back porch door and shut off the sprinklers. Expression grim, he headed outside. Melinda, clad in a beautiful satin peignoir set and matching mules, was right behind him. She looked as horrified as Jenna felt. Alex, realizing this was her mother, whom she hadn’t seen in nearly two years, stopped dead in her tracks. Her exuberance faded. She hung back. And with good reason. Melinda was not holding out her arms, or attempting in any way to warmly or joyously greet her daughter. Instead, she was scowling, shaking her head in obvious distaste.

  “Un-believable,” Melinda said, turning to Jake.

  Afraid, for Alex’s sake, what might come next if someone didn’t do something, Jenna moved forward, a squirming, smelly Buster still in her arms. Someone had to diffuse Melinda’s anger and take her fire. It might as well be her—it would hurt Alex less, and Jake would surely get his share sooner rather than later, too. “Meet Buster,” Jenna said cheerfully.

  “Keep that smelly animal away from me!” Melinda ordered shrilly. She backed up hastily toward the steps. She turned and glared at Jake. “I knew you were lax, but this!”

  “Sure you don’t want to pet him?” Jenna said, edging closer. “He’s really very sweet!”

  “No. Thanks.” Melinda glared at Jake. “I’ll see you inside.” Ignoring Alex completely, she whirled and marched back inside the ranch house.

  Alex, already apprehensive, looked completely deflated. She sank down to her knees in the wet grass. “She’s mad,” she whispered. “My mommy’s mad.”

  “I think she’s just tired from her long flight here,” Jenna said.

  “No. She’s mad,” Alex continued, looking all the more upset, “every time I see her she’s mad.” Tears welled in her eyes. Her lower lip began to tremble.

  “Well, then, we’re going to have to change that, aren’t we?” Jenna said gently. She knelt beside Alex and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. Buster, not to be outdone in the comforting department, climbed onto Alex’s lap and devotedly licked her chin. Unable to help herself, Alex giggled. She put her arms around her puppy. “He’s as wet and smelly as I am!” she said, sighing.

  “You know what else?” Jenna said. “I think we’re going to have to give Buster a bath.”

  “We are?”

  “Well, what else are we going to do?” Jenna grinned. “We can’t let him go around smelling and looking like this.”

  “BUSTER STILL SMELLS kind of funny,” Alex said twenty fun-filled minutes later, as they set an exhausted Buster in front of a bowl of puppy food.

  Jenna dumped the tub of soapy water onto the grass. “That’s because he’s wet. Wet golden retrievers always smell like that. When Buster dries, he’ll smell like the puppy shampoo we washed him with.”

  “Then he’ll smell good.”

  “Yes, he will. And hopefully we’ll be able to say the same thing about the two of us,” Jenna said, as she wrinkled up her nose at her and Alex’s damp, dirty clothes. “I think I need a bath, too. What about you?”

  Alex looked down at herself. “I better get one, too. But I need help washing my hair.”

  Jenna smiled. “I can do that for you.”

  “Good. Daddy’s not good at it. Clara says men don’t know how to wash really long hair.”

  “Clara’s probably got a point.” Jenna waited for Buster to eat and drink his fill, then plucked him up and put him back in his crate, where he immediately settled down for a nap. “I doubt your daddy has ever had hair as long as yours.”

  Alex giggled, trying to imagine Jake with hair nearly down to his waist. “You’re funny.” With a happy sigh, Alex tucked her hand in Jenna’s.

  “Thank you.” Jenna tweaked Alex’s nose. “So are you.”

  Together, they headed inside, through the kitchen and up the backstairs. As they moved down the hall, Jenna literally held her breath, hoping they wouldn’t run into either Melinda or Jake again until they got cleaned up.

  Luckily for them, they saw neither. But they heard them, via the low hum of vaguely disgruntled voices emanating from downstairs.

  Chapter Five

  “You’re leaving?” Jake and Melinda squared off in his study, behind closed doors. He stared at his ex-wife incredulously, beginning to regret his decision to do everything possible to foster a relationship between Alex and Melinda—sending Melinda regular updates about their daughter, and seeing Alex had photos and carefully filtered information about her mother, too.

  He’d known there would be problems one day, caused by Melinda’s emotional abandonment of her daughter. When she was old enough to understand what had gone on, Alex would probably resent the dickens out of Melinda.

  But he had also known it was important for Alex and Melinda to have some foundation in place should Melinda ever realize her mistake and want to be more of a part of Alex’s life.

  He just hadn’t expected this.

  And he certainly hadn’t foreseen Melinda’s simultaneously pushy yet indifferent attitude toward Alex. Or expected she would be in such a hurry to get out of the house. But she clearly was.

  Jake clenched his teeth. “You haven’t even said two words to Alex.”

  Melinda shrugged her slender shoulders. “Is it my fault she’s out of control?” she countered. “You’ve turned our child into a little hoyden.”

  “With no help from you,” Jake muttered, incensed.

  “Exactly.” Melinda straightened the hem of her peplum jacket. She removed her compact from her purse and checked her reflection. “Which is why I’m off to Dallas. I’m going to buy her a new wardrobe.”

  As much as Jake would have liked to veto this, he couldn’t. Their custody agreement specifically allowed Melinda to visit Alex whenever it was convenient, which hadn’t been more than four or five times since the divorce, and to bestow on Alex as many gifts as Melinda chose. Unfortunately, given their drastically different tastes and life-styles, having Melinda buy Alex a whole new wardrobe could only spell disaster.

  Jake watched her pat her hair into place. “I’m having a wardrobe made here.”

  “By your little seamstress friend.” Melinda closed her compact with a snap and sent him a wickedly derisive glance. “I know. I want her to have real clothes, Jake.”

  Jake’s patience was fading fast. Melinda’s snobbery was not something he wanted to pass on to Alex. “As opposed to what?” he shot back, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. “Imaginary ones?”

  Melinda looked at him like he had l
ost his mind. She slipped her compact back in her purse. “You are not amusing.”

  He wasn’t trying to be. With effort, Jake controlled his temper. He couldn’t afford to get in an insult contest with Melinda when their daughter’s well-being was at stake. “At least wait until Alex comes down,” Jake urged gently.

  Melinda released a long sigh. “I’ll see her when I get back.”

  Jake studied the woman he had been married to for nearly two years. He wished he could feel something for her besides loathing and contempt, but given the way Melinda kept tromping all over Alex’s feelings, he didn’t think that was going to be possible. At least not any time soon. Trying like heck to figure a way to turn things around and make Melinda act like the mother Alex needed and deserved, Jake asked quietly, “When will that be?”

  “I don’t know.” Melinda arched an elegant brow at Jake. “A few days is my guess. I’ve got to see my parents. And yours. Plus a number of our other friends.”

  All of whom, Jake realized sadly, took priority over their daughter.

  Melinda glanced out the window. “There’s my car and driver now.”

  “Maybe you could leave her a note.” Jake was desperate not to see Alex hurt again. But how to prevent his selfish, self-centered ex-wife from doing that, he didn’t know.

  “Don’t be silly.” Melinda picked up her purse and flounced toward the door in a drift of expensive perfume, leaving Jake to follow at will. “She can’t read.”

  “Actually, she can, at least the very basic words.” Jake strode on ahead and opened the study door for Melinda. He escorted her through the foyer. “Clara and I started teaching her last year. She’s a very quick study.”

  “Now—” Melinda looked at Jake unapologetically “—if only she could learn to be a little lady just as swiftly.”

  Jake stared at her. He didn’t know what to say without making the situation worse. He only knew he wanted to read her the riot act for hurting Alex. And that was no way to feel about his ex-wife and the mother of his child. He might not be able to change Melinda’s personality or value system. But for Alex’s sake, he had to do a better job of making them get along peaceably. Even if Melinda couldn’t care less about anyone else and wouldn’t lift a finger to help.