“Got a few things. I’m good with them burnin’ it or tearin’ it down.”
A grin turned the corners of his mouth up. “Want a beer to celebrate?”
“Celebrate what?”
“That we have a couple of hours all to ourselves.”
Chapter Sixteen
Yes,” she said.
“To what?”
“A beer.” A grin covered her face.
He laced his fingers in hers and together they went to the living room, where he pulled her down on the sofa onto his lap. He pushed her long hair back and trailed soft kisses from her neck to her lips. When he deepened the kiss, she decided that he’d been right about the fancy whiskey. Getting the taste of beer from his kisses was downright exhilarating.
“Still want that beer?” he asked.
“I had it like you had the whiskey yesterday,” she answered. “Kind of reminds me of those first kisses we had out in Henry’s old barn.”
He ran a rough palm down her cheek and kissed her on the tip of her nose. “I wonder how many notches there’d be on the ladder up to the loft if everyone carved out a little nick to celebrate their first kiss.”
“I wonder if the first nick would belong to Granny Hope and Henry?”
“Or maybe it would be for Henry’s daddy and Granny’s mama. And it could go way back from there because my ancestors settled right here and Henry’s were right next door.”
Carlene cupped his face in her hands. In the past ten years, his dark beard had gotten heavier. He’d shaved for church this morning but there was already a little scruff. He took her hands in his and looked deeply into her eyes. “I’ve got something to say and it’s not easy.”
“I guess you’d best spit it out, then.” She held his gaze.
“After you left, I tried to get Mama and Brody both to let me stay home and not go to college. Brody didn’t get to go what with Grandpa and Dad dying the same summer and I felt guilty about leaving him with so much to do. But they convinced me and…” He paused. “I was angry that you’d gone and you didn’t even keep in touch.”
“And there were a lot of college girls, right?”
He almost blushed. “I kept my grades up and I didn’t do the fraternity thing but I partied on weekends.”
“Bet it wasn’t out in a barn with the music on a pickup turned up loud enough that it scared the buzzards off their roosts.” Her mouth turned up in half a smile.
“No, it was with a fake ID in bars and when I graduated and came back to Happy, there were other women too. But…” Another hesitation.
“I didn’t expect you to be celibate, Jace.”
“I just want you to know that I had the test run last week and it came back that I’m okay,” he said.
“Test?” She frowned.
“HIV and all STDs.” He spit it out in a hurry and then blushed.
She moved from his lap to the other end of the sofa. “I never thought of that.”
“I thought it best to come clean before we…”
“So you think we are going to?” she asked.
“If and when the time is right. But I wanted to be honest with you, Carlene. What about you?”
“I don’t need to take a test,” she said.
“I see.” He stood up, left the room, and returned with two icy cold bottles of beer. He offered her one and then downed a fourth of the other one before coming up for air. “Are you going to look at any more houses?”
“Why did you change the subject?” She sipped at the beer. It tasted better on his lips than right out of the bottle.
“Because you moved away from me.”
“I needed to think for a few minutes. I can’t do that when I can feel your breath on my skin,” she told him. “Yes, I will look at the other house, but if it’s anything like the one Tilly and I looked at today, then I won’t be interested in that one either.”
He sat down and she stood up.
What comes natural—that’s what Hope had said.
Don’t analyze anything to death or worry it into the dirt—that’s what Aunt Rosalie told her when she found out that Tilly was a Dawson. Just make up your mind and don’t look back.
She set the bottle on the coffee table and settled back onto his lap. “The reason I don’t need to take one of those tests is because I haven’t been with anyone other than you.”
“My God, Carlene, that’s ten years,” he said.
She shrugged. “Morning sickness. Colic. Diapers. A few dates that ended at the door with good night kisses but that’s all I’ve got for my ten years.”
“Are you serious? You are so beautiful I’m surprised that guys weren’t lined up at your door and Tilly would simply be the icing on the cake. To have you and an amazing daughter both would be like gettin’ a slice of heaven.”
“You see things different because you are her father.” Carlene cuddled against him with her head on his chest.
“No, I’m her daddy, and those other men are all idiots.” He paused. “But that’s okay.”
“Oh?” She leaned back so she could see his eyes. “Why’s that?”
“They didn’t see the diamond but I do, which makes me the luckiest cowboy of all,” he whispered as his lips found hers in a scorching hot kiss that left them both breathless.
She grabbed the top snap on his shirt and gave a tug and every one of them popped open. Running her fingers through the soft, dark hair on his chest, she leaned forward and captured his lips again. His hands trembled as they inched under her sweater. Carlene shut her eyes and sent up a silent prayer that no one interrupted them because she was so ready for this.
No candles. No champagne. No rose petals strewn over the bed. Just a good wide sofa with a throw over the back if they got chilled. It was perfect.
He slipped the bright blue sweater up over her head and gasped at the sight of the blue lacy bra. “It’s too pretty to take off, but I want to feel all of your skin against mine.”
She whipped the straps down and tossed it toward a recliner. Then she pulled his shirt down over his shoulders and laid her bare breasts against his chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Skin on skin, like this?”
He stood up with her, keeping her close, and unfastened the zipper and button on her denim skirt. She did the same thing with his belt and jeans and then somehow without stopping the kisses, they were totally naked.
“More like this.” He hugged her so tightly that she could feel every tense muscle in his body. “I missed you so much, Carlene. Don’t ever leave again.”
“I don’t intend to,” she said.
He picked her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs to his bedroom, where he kicked the door shut with his bare foot and gently laid her on the king-sized bed. “That sofa is too narrow.”
She giggled. “This is almost as big as the hayloft where we were the last time.”
“I remember waking up at dawn and you were wearing my shirt. It came to your knees and you had straw in your hair. The picture has been burned into my mind for ten years, at times when it shouldn’t have been.” He lay down beside her.
She flipped over to stretch out on top of him. “I remember that morning. I looked over my shoulder and you were raised up on an elbow staring at me. I felt strange, as if something had ended.”
“And now.” He captured her face with his hands. “Today is a new beginning.” After a long, lingering kiss, he rolled her to the side. “Be still, darlin’. I want to touch your body and…”
“Stretch marks and all? It’s changed since our graduation night.”
He kissed each of the faded marks and then trailed more kisses from there to her lips. “They’re battle scars.”
“Ten pounds and six ounces of battle and a C-section after ten hours of labor,” she said.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there,” he said. “But I’m here now, Carlene, and…”
Words stopped as she pulled him on top of her body and guided him to her.
Afterward, she couldn’t form a single thought other than being thankful that he was holding her. All the bones in her body had turned to jelly. Somewhere beyond that bedroom was a world with problems and decisions to be made but at that moment it had ceased to even exist. She wanted to stay here forever and never open that door to let in the outside world, or to leave the one that she and Jace had created.
His hand found hers and closed around it but he didn’t say anything. She snuggled even closer to his side and pulled the down comforter up from the side to wrap them into a fluffy, white cocoon. Then she laid her head on his chest so she could hear his racing heart and fell asleep.
She awoke with a start to something moving fast and then she recognized the sound of a vehicle outside. Jace had jerked on a pair of jeans and a shirt and was running out of the room. She sat up, yawned, and pulled the comforter up under her arms and then realized where she was and what the noise outside meant. She jumped off the bed so fast that she got a head rush and raced to her bedroom, where she quickly found a pair of pajama pants and a shirt in a drawer and put them on. She was halfway down the stairs when she met Jace coming back up, his hands full of the clothing they’d left in the living room.
“Your shirt is on backward and wrong side out,” he said.
She righted things the rest of the way down the stairs and hurried into the living room just before the front door burst open.
“Mama, I’m home!” Tilly called.
“In here,” Carlene responded as she crossed over into the foyer. She waved at Gloria from the door and mouthed a thank-you.
Gloria’s hand stuck out the window and then they were gone.
Tilly frowned. “Why are you wearin’ that?”
“You woke me from a nap. I got comfortable and went to sleep. So, did you have a good time?” Carlene asked.
Tilly put her hand in Carlene’s and led her to the sofa. “You didn’t use a coaster and these bottles have sweated, Mama.”
“Must’ve fallen asleep before I finished mine.”
“Did Jace fall asleep too? There’s two,” Tilly said.
“No, I just didn’t finish mine,” Jace said from the doorway. “Got called away and just now gettin’ back to it. Probably gone stale by now. Did you have a good nap, Carlene?”
“Best in a very long time.”
Jace picked up the beer and carried it to the kitchen. He returned in a few minutes with a wad of paper towels and wiped up the condensation that had settled on the table. “There, not even a ring.”
“Did Mama tell you that we don’t like the house?” Tilly fell back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling. “I bet Jasmine would hate it too. It smelled like nasty old cigarette smoke.”
Jace sat down in the recliner and popped the footrest out. “Yep, she did. What did you not like about it other than the smoke?”
“The carpet was even worse than Aunt Rosalie’s and the cabinet doors under the sink wouldn’t shut and there was a cracked window in the bathroom,” she answered. “And it didn’t feel right, so I’m glad we’re not buyin’ it.”
“Well, I sure wouldn’t want you to live in something like that.” He picked up the remote, surfed through a dozen channels, and settled on a bull-riding event.
“Maribel says that her daddy is ridin’ in one of them.” Tilly pointed in that direction as she got to her feet and removed her coat and hat. “You goin’ to ride?”
“You think I should?” Jace asked.
Her eyes twinkled. “Yep and I can be a clown, right?”
“Not this week, princess.” He smiled. “You’ve got to get trained and that will take at least six months. You’ve got to learn how to dodge in and out away from the bulls and broncs so they don’t stomp you and leave scars on your pretty face.”
“Well, rats! Mama, can I use your phone to call Natalie and Aunt Bee? I want to tell them about the four-wheelers. I want one of my own for my birthday.”
“That’s a bigger present than a pair of boots.” Carlene handed her the phone from the coffee table where she’d laid it earlier that afternoon.
“And I want a clown outfit too. I need it for my lessons.” She skipped out of the room and was already talking to Natalie when she started up the stairs.
“Whew!” Jace wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, darlin’. I couldn’t find your bra when I was gathering up your things. They’re hiding in the liquor cabinet when you want to sneak them back upstairs.”
She peeked over the back of the sofa and there was a blue lacy bra peeking out from underneath. For the second time in half an hour, she got a head rush when she hopped up too fast and rounded the end of the sofa. She jerked it out and pulled off her shirt, put the bra on quicker than the speed of light, and sat back down.
“I had to rush to even be decent,” she explained. “Thank goodness most everything slipped under the sofa instead of lying right out in plain sight.”
“No complaints here, darlin’. I get to see part of you all naked again.” Jace teased.
“Where are we, Jace?” She turned toward him.
“In the living room and we just escaped a near-death experience,” he joked.
“You know what I mean.” She narrowed her big brown eyes at him.
“Where do you want us to be, Carlene?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Well, when you figure that out, you let me know and I’ll join you,” he answered.
“Anybody home?” Valerie’s voice carried from the kitchen.
“In here, Mama,” Jace yelled back at her, but didn’t move off the recliner.
“I’m on my way to the church but wanted to run by for a few minutes and talk to you. I’m glad you are both here. Where’s my granddaughter?” Valerie set a plate of cookies that smelled of cinnamon on the coffee table.
Carlene picked up one and groaned. “Snickerdoodles are my favorite and these are still warm.”
“Right out of the oven. I’d say that they’re Jace’s favorites, but he’ll devour anything sweet.” Valerie pulled a wooden rocker up to where she was sitting between them.
“Amen to that.” Jace winked at Carlene.
Valerie brushed imaginary dust from her black dress slacks. “I don’t need an immediate answer to what I’m about to propose. I just want you to think about it. I heard that you didn’t like that house, Carlene.”
“News travels fast.” She finished the cookie and reached for another one.
“Well, I didn’t want to interfere until you made up your mind.”
“Just spit it out, Mama,” Jace demanded.
“I want to offer Carlene five acres anywhere on this ranch to build a house on. That way Tilly will grow up right here on her ranch close to you. You and Carlene can go on about your lives and when you each marry other people, it won’t uproot Tilly.”
Marry someone else? Was Valerie crazy? And Tilly having a stepmother? God Almighty! That was enough to start Carlene to packing for a move to Germany for sure.
“That’s very generous of you, Valerie, but I’d have to think long and hard about that before…”
Valerie nodded. “It would help Tilly put down roots to be near her family, and you…”
“I won’t say no right now, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” She’d already committed to a lot and this would be a giant step. She glanced over at Jace to see how he was taking this idea, to find an expression on his face that looked like he’d been sucker punched. His jaw worked like he was chewing gum but his lips were clamped shut.
“Fair enough, but the offer is good anytime you want to take me up on it,” Valerie said.
Jace’s hands knotted into fists and his stomach twisted up into a pretzel at even the mere thought of Carlene dating, kissing, or going to bed with another man. He glanced over her way and saw that her cheeks were dotted with high color. In that moment, he realized just how far he’d come in his thinking and his desires the past week.
Valerie stood and shook the legs of her pants down over her boots. “Did you know that your grandmother is planning to go to Florida for a week?”
Jace didn’t want to talk about his grandmother. He wanted his mother to leave so he and Carlene could discuss this idea that Valerie had thrown out. He damn sure didn’t want to think of Tilly having a stepfather, or…His brain almost exploded at the thought of Carlene having more children with another man.
“Are you serious? She hasn’t left the state in my lifetime.”
“And she’s never flown, but I guess that’s on her brand-new bucket list,” Valerie said.
A heavy silence filled the room when she’d left. Jace finally reached for the last cookie on the plate, broke it in half, and handed the bigger piece to Carlene. “Well, no one can ever look back in the history books and say that this day was boring.”
“I’m not going to build a house on this ranch. It would be too awkward if…”
“I could not bear to be that close if you married someone else,” he admitted honestly.
“That’s what I mean by awkward,” she said. “But I appreciate your mother’s offer, and I know she’s only got Tilly’s best interest at heart. I’m going to get a glass of tea. You want anything?”
“Yes, please. Tea is fine,” he said. “Did you know this thing about Granny going to Florida?”
“She mentioned it. So she’s really not left Texas in fifty years?” Carlene stopped midway across the floor.
“If Happy didn’t take up portions of two counties, I’d probably be safe in saying that she hadn’t left the county but I can assure you that she hasn’t been out of the panhandle.”
“Wow! That is some serious roots.” Carlene kept walking. “I may grow up and be just like her.”
“I hope so,” Jace muttered under his breath. He wanted her to have roots so deep that she’d never leave him again.
With her head down and her bottom lip pushed out in a pout, Tilly arrived in the room a couple of seconds before Carlene returned with two tall glasses of tea. Tilly threw herself on the sofa, put the back of her hand over her forehead, and groaned.
Luckiest Cowboy of All--Two full books for the price of one Page 19
