How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) (22 page)

“The girls will be so tickled to see y’all. And I’m pleased to meet you, too, ma’am.” She turned and held out her hand to Lorraine.

“We talk to the girls at least once a week, and they seem to like you better than those damn goats they got for their birthday.” Lorraine did a no-nonsense quick shake and then drop.

“Lorraine,” Sam scolded.

“God knows I cuss,” she said. “Let’s go eat. I’m hungry. And, Mason, we will be here for two days. Our flight to London is booked for Tuesday night, so if Annie Rose would like some time off, this would be a great opportunity.”

“Whatever Annie Rose wants to do is fine with me.” Mason held his arm out, but Annie Rose shook her head.

Lorraine waved across the room and grabbed Sam by the arm. “Oh, there is Clarice. Come on, darlin’, we’ve got to go talk to her. And I see all the old crowd with her. I can’t wait to hear the newest gossip in the area.”

“Now we are fighting. That was mean, springing your parents on me like that, and now you are sending me away for two days?” she whispered.

“Hey, darlin’. I had no idea they were coming until they walked through the church doors, so we can’t fight over that. Not unless you really want an excuse for makeup sex. And what am I supposed to say? That a grown woman who’s worked her ass off can’t have two days to do something she’d like to do?” he said out the side of his mouth.

“I’m not going anywhere, and there will be no makeup sex with your folks in the house,” she declared.

Annie Rose pushed the swing with her bare foot and drew her knees up, propped her arms on them, and watched the black storm clouds brewing in the southwest. Mason had gone with Sam to tour the ranch and talk about bulls, steers, heifers, and the fall sale. Lorraine was in the girls’ rooms, spending quality time with her granddaughters. Lorraine had taken over the kitchen and the girls, leaving Annie Rose feeling like nothing more than a nanny. She probably should have taken a couple of days off and driven out to West Texas to see her friends at the library.

Supper had been beef stew and corn bread with ice cream and frozen strawberries for dessert. The girls had been so excited they barely touched their food, so they’d need a snack before bedtime. She remembered times when Gina Lou had come to her house for a sleepover and her mother had made peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwiches for a bedtime snack. She’d cut the crust off, quartered the sandwiches, and had served them on her fanciest platter.

Annie Rose instinctively reached for her cell phone in the hip pocket of her jeans, but she was still wearing the white sundress she’d worn to church that morning. The phone was in her purse, and that was in her bedroom. The swing had come to a stop, so she padded across the porch and into the house.

Lorraine’s giggles mixed in with the girls’ floated down from upstairs and a streak of jealousy made its way into Annie Rose’s heart. Their grandmother needed time with them, Annie Rose understood that, but she couldn’t help wishing that she’d been invited to join in. Truth was she was totally alone for the first time in two weeks and she hated it. Two years ago, she’d been happy in her solitude after living in tense abuse for so long, but now she loved the noise of a family around her.

She’d planned on curling up in the recliner in her sitting room, but when she had the phone in her hands, the walls closed in on her, so she stomped her feet down into cowboy boots and headed out the back door. The chairs that Mason had pulled up beside the goat pens were still there, so she claimed one and poked in Gina Lou’s telephone number by memory.

It rang five times before Gina Lou answered. “Hello, who is this?”

“Gina Lou, is that you?”

“Yes, it is, and it’s in the middle of the night. Who is… my God… Annie, is that you?”

“Yes, only I’m Annie Rose these days. Where are you?”

“South Africa,” Gina Lou said.

“What in the hell are you doing in Africa?”

“I married a doctor and we’re here working for the Doctors Without Borders program,” she said. “Where are you, and the service is horrible here, so if I lose you I can reach you at this number, right? Is it safe?”

“Nicky is dead.”

“Then I guess you are safe unless you killed him.”

“I didn’t. It was a plane crash that got him and his new girlfriend.”

“And where are you?”

“In a little bitty town in North Texas. It’s a long story. Go back to sleep and we’ll talk another time. I just wanted to hear your voice,” Annie Rose said.

“We’ll be home for a few days in a couple of weeks. We have to see each other while I’m home, since it’s safe now.”

“I agree, and I can’t wait to catch up. Call me when y’all get home and we’ll make plans.”

“God, it’s good to hear from you. I’ll call you when we get back to Texas. Bye now,” Gina Lou said.

Annie Rose barely had time to say good-bye when she heard the screen door slam, making enough noise that the goats hid in a the far corner of the pen.

“Mama-Nanny, Mama-Nanny,” Lily yelled as she and Gabby ran across the backyard toward her. “We couldn’t find you and we were scared.”

“Scared of what?” Annie Rose smiled.

Gabby plopped down in her lap and hugged her tightly. “That you’d run away.”

Annie Rose brushed Gabby’s hair back behind her ear. “I’m not going anywhere. I was talking to my friend, who is working in Africa.”

“Wow! Africa. Granny, remember when you went to Africa and brought home all those pictures of all those lions?” Lily asked.

Lorraine sat down in the chair beside Annie Rose. “Yes, Grandpa and I took a safari trip there a couple of years ago and we saw zebras and rhinos and giraffes too.”

“Well, I bet they don’t have goats like Djali and Jeb in Africa, so you have to stay in Texas, Mama-Nanny,” Lily said.

“I don’t imagine they have goats like Djali and Jeb anywhere.” Annie Rose smiled.

Gabby hopped off Annie Rose’s lap. “Especially goats with gold hoops. Come on, Lily, let’s show Granny how they like to play.”

Lorraine had changed from a flowing skirt and matching cotton sweater to a pair of faded jeans and a knit shirt with a picture of Big Ben on the front. Her blond hair was streaked with silver and her blue eyes said that she was as open and honest as her son.

“They like you,” Lorraine said.

“I love them,” Annie Rose said.

“That’s why they like you. You’ve done wonders with them in such a short time. You are a good nanny, but I’m not sure I like them calling you mama-nanny.”

“That was their idea, not mine,” Annie Rose said.

“Hey, Granny, look at Jeb’s earring. It was Mama’s, and guess what, O’Malley lost Mama’s diamond stud. We pierced his ear, too, but he must’ve scratched it out,” Lily yelled from inside the pen.

“Oh, my God! Does Mason know?” Lorraine asked Annie Rose.

“I took the diamond out of the tomcat’s ear and switched the hoops with some similar but inexpensive ones that I had. Mason knows, and the real ones are hidden safely now,” Annie Rose explained.

“God bless your heart,” Lorraine gasped.

Annie Rose waved at the parade when it passed by her. “Mason filmed it and put a copy of the video in a stick drive so you can take one with you.”

Lorraine nodded stiffly. “I’d like that. They grow up so fast.”

Jeb did something Lily didn’t like before Annie Rose could think of anything else to say. Lily chased him down, held his ears with her hands and made him look her in the eye. “You do that again and I’ll send you to the slaughterhouse. I won’t even take you to the damned old livestock show, and Djali will win it. Are you going to behave?”

“She’s just like me. They both have my hair and eyes, but Gabby acts more like her mother. Holly had a temper, but she didn’t cuss like a sailor. She let things simmer until she’d had enough and then she exploded. Me and Lily, we take it head-on, like grabbin’ a bull by the horns the minute he charges us. Not much simmers with us,” Lorraine said.

Annie Rose got the message loud and clear. It was going to be a long, long two days until Tuesday when they drove away in the rental Cadillac sitting out in front of the house.

Mason parked his truck beside the house and Sam bailed out like he was in a hurry, yelling across the yard as he semi-jogged toward the goat pen. “Don’t let the girls leave before I get there. I want to see if they are training those goats good enough so that they’ll win a trophy next spring.”

***

Annie Rose had taken her shower and was curled up in her recliner with a book when she heard the gentle knock on the door. She grabbed a cotton kimono-type robe and belted it around her waist. Mason had a hand on each side of the doorjamb and she barely had time to snap her eyelids shut before his lips had claimed hers. Nothing else touched: bodies, hands, not even eyelashes. But everything from her toenails to her hair follicles purred like a happy kitten.

“Not with your mother in the house,” she whispered.

“How do you think she got me?” He grinned.

Her resolve melted. “After a marriage had taken place, and believe me, I’m the nanny in her eyes.”

He picked her up and carried her to the recliner, where he sat down with her in his lap. “Is that a proposal?”

She blushed.

“It is not,” she said.

“Well, damn! I was hoping it was,” he teased.

“Maybe after two years. Certainly not after two weeks.”

He tipped up her chin. “Time is nothing but numbers on a clock that marks the sun coming up and going down.”

A strange noise like static on a cell phone caused them to look toward the bedroom at the same time. Annie Rose cocked her ear to one side and shut her eyes. There it was again, and that time it was more like white noise.

“What is that? Did you leave something plugged in, like a hair dryer?” Mason asked.

She put a finger over his lips and said, “Shhhh.”

She got down on her hands and knees and followed the faint noise to the love seat. The green light on a walkie-talkie shone like an alien Cyclops eye in the darkness.

“What is it?” Mason asked.

“Thank you for stopping by my apartment. I called you in here because I want to talk to you about the girls,” she said loudly. “And I need it to be private.”

“What?” Mason dropped to his knees and stared at her.

She pulled his face to hers and whispered in his ear, “Walkie-talkie under the love seat.”

He nodded. “Have they broken any rules? Are you going to resign from being their nanny?”

She sat up with her back against the love seat. “Oh, no! They’ve been very good, especially with their grandparents here. You know how kids can get when their granny and granddad come to visit. That’s not the problem.”

Mason drew her into his arms. “You smell wonderful,” he whispered softly in her ear.

His warm breath was like a blowtorch, sending flashes of pure fire through her veins and making her ache with desire, but damn it, everything they did would be picked up on the walkie-talkie.

“Oh, no!” she mumbled.

“What?” he mouthed.

She cupped a hand over his ear and whispered, “I don’t know if the girls put them there or your mother.”

“Girls, I can understand. If Mother did this, we’re going to fight,” he said as he reached under the love seat and brought out the walkie-talkie. He left her door wide open and she made it to the bedroom window in time to see him set it on a fence post beside the goat pen.

She’d flat-out fallen in love with Mason in only a few short weeks.

In
love!
Her inner voice screamed so loud that she covered her ears.

“Sorry, but it’s the truth. I don’t intend to broadcast it on the radio, but I will tell him when the time is right. But I bet it causes a war between him and his mother,” she muttered.

Annie Rose awoke in a fetal position from a nightmare, sweat pouring from her forehead and whimpering. She felt the presence in the room with her but was afraid to open her eyes. Nicky’s death had been staged, so she’d let her guard down. The girlfriend had been a ruse, and he was right beside her bed. In a few seconds she would be a dead woman and she hadn’t even told Mason that she’d fallen in love with him.

“Good mornin’,” Mason said.

She slid one eye open and carefully scanned the room. It wasn’t real. It had been a very bad dream and she was safe. The air conditioner kicked on and cool air against her wet skin made her shiver.

Mason pulled back the curtains and bright sunlight chased away the shadows hiding in the corners and the fears hiding deep in her soul. “Today is ours. We’ll start by going out to breakfast.”

“Where is everyone? Why didn’t you wake me earlier? Lord, your mama is going to think I’m horrible,” she said.

He was dressed in good jeans, the ones with creases, and a starched shirt, and he smelled like heaven. She blinked to get everything in focus and realized that he’d shaved and even shined his boots.

“Mother says that you are to have the day off, and you won’t take it unless they kidnap the girls and leave. The rest is my idea, so hop up, madam, and let’s have a day and night just for us.” He laughed.

She pushed back the covers. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“Today and tomorrow is ours. Mama and Daddy made plans to take the girls to see their cousins and didn’t tell them until they woke them up this morning real early. It’s all mapped out. They are having breakfast this morning at the Dallas airport and flying to Houston. It’s only an hour flight, so they’ll be there midmorning. This afternoon they’re touring NASA, because Dad says they need something cultural. Then this evening they’ll have supper at my brother’s place and swim in their pool. Tomorrow they’ll fly back to Dallas, and I’m to pick up the kids at the airport. My folks won’t come back here. They are leaving from the Dallas airport to fly to Germany to see my brother who is in the service. They’re doing a stopover in London on the way, and on the flight back, they’re going to come through California and see my other brother before they go back to Florida,” he explained.

“And when was all this planned?”

He held up his palm. “Right hand to God. I did not know a thing about it until about five o’clock this morning when Dad woke me up to tell me that he was kidnapping his granddaughters. So where are we having breakfast?”

She stretched and yawned. “In the kitchen. Naked.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. “Sounds tempting, but it ain’t happenin’, darlin’. Now if you’ll hold that thought until tonight, we will definitely revisit that naked idea. We will wind up in a hotel tonight somewhere near Dallas, but the rest of the time, we will do whatever you want.”

She wasted no time getting out of bed. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

***

Mason hummed Brad Paisley’s “Waitin’ on a Woman,” as he sat down in the recliner. The last time he’d waited, there had been three ladies who came out of her quarters and they’d been headed for a ranch picnic. Would it take as long for one as it had for three? He smiled and checked the clock. Ten minutes went by and then another ten.

It was worth every minute at the end of half an hour when she walked out of the bedroom, suitcase in hand. She wore a pale blue dress that brushed the top of her knees, a pair of brown cowboy boots with cutouts of baby-blue roses. Her hair floated on her shoulders like a blond halo and her perfume made him want to gather her close and never let go.

“Annie Rose, you take my breath away,” he said.

“That’s a damn fine pickup line but, darlin’, I’d rather spend two days in bed with you right here on the ranch than go to a fancy hotel,” she said.

“And when Mother asks where you went on your days off, are you going to give her those details?” he said.

“I could lie.”

He took the suitcase from her hands and laced his fingers in hers. “Not to her. She’s raised four boys, remember.”

When he turned the key to start the truck engine, the radio was on a country station and Trent Tomlinson was singing, “One Wing in the Fire.” He reached to turn it down and she covered his hand with hers and shook her head.

“You like that one?” he asked as he put the truck in gear and left the ranch behind.

Her blue eyes floated in a bed of tears. “I could have written that song about my daddy. Mama said she’d never liked the bad-boy type before she met him. That song came out right after he died and she’d play it over and over again. Sometimes I thought they hated each other, but they had a love that ran deeper than the surface.”

He laid a hand on her thigh and squeezed gently. “So was he an angel with no halo and one wing in the fire, like the lyrics say?”

Her chin quivered slightly, but she kept the tears at bay. “He was sure enough a back-row Baptist and front-row sinner like the words say. But I thought his halo was perfect and I never smelled the smoke on his wings, let me tell you.”

“I can’t say that about my dad. We locked up horns a lot and still do,” Mason said.

The song ended and she dabbed away one lonesome tear that dripped down her cheek. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m missing them today. So where to for breakfast?”

Mason ran the back of his hand down her neck and traced her jawline with his finger. “It’s your day and you get to choose where we eat breakfast this morning.”

“McDonald’s.”

“Are you kidding?”

She shook her head. “Not in the least. I want a sausage biscuit and a cup of their black coffee.”

Miranda Lambert kicked up the music with “The Fastest Girl in Town.” He kept time with his thumb on the steering wheel. “So were you the fastest girl in Beaumont? Tell me about your past. Did you ever turn on the charm when you got pulled over, like she’s singing about?”

Annie Rose turned off the radio and giggled. “I’m not an angel, but I was only in jail one time. That was when I was a sophomore in high school. My girlfriends and I were running up and down Main Street in our little town, honking at the boys and yelling at our friends, like kids do in small towns. Cop pulled us over because her mama’s car didn’t have a current license plate. He asked for registration and her license, and when she opened the glove compartment, there was the biggest damn pistol I’d ever seen, and believe me, I grew up around guns. He hauled us to the jail and put us in a cell block until her mama could come down to the station and show that she had a permit to carry a weapon and that she’d bought her car tag but hadn’t put it on the car that day.”

Mason was glad to hear her voice go from sad to happy. “What’d your mama say about that?”

“Daddy was on the porch when I got home. He said that it was a lesson in small-town livin’, that I couldn’t do one thing that wouldn’t get back to him before I could get home. And that’s the extent of my jail time. I wasn’t the fastest girl in town, but I wasn’t the slowest either. I fell somewhere in between. Does that disappoint you?”

He parked on the side of McDonald’s, unfastened his seat belt, and leaned over the console to kiss her on the cheek. “The past is just that. Here we are at the golden arches breakfast palace.”

They sat in a back booth across from each other, knees touching under the table and sparks dancing all around them. Mason hadn’t thought it possible to give his whole heart away twice in a lifetime, but it had happened, and in such a short time that it completely blew his mind.

Annie Rose reached across the table and touched his hand. “The gears in your mind are working overtime. I can see it in your eyes.”

Mason grinned. “I’m in love with you, Annie Rose. I don’t just love you. I’m in love with you. There’s a big difference and adding them together makes it right.”

Tears welled up in her eyes again. It reminded him of a rainbow arching across the sky while the last few drops of rain still fell upon the earth.

“You make me happy,” she said. “And I didn’t think I’d ever find that feeling again.”

“Me, neither,” he whispered as he leaned over the table to kiss her on the cheek. “It’s kind of heady, having it all, isn’t it?”

“There are no words. Now, tell me, how far is it from the ranch to the airport and what time do we need to be there tomorrow?”

“It’s one hour to the airport if there’s no traffic problems. I usually allow an hour and a half,” he said.

“And where are we right now?”

“Van Alstyne.”

“Which is about thirty minutes from the ranch, right?”

“Where are you going with this?”

“I’d rather have a tour of the ranch on the back of a four-wheeler than do anything else today. Can this date please, please take us home?”

Home
.

She had said that she wanted to go home.

“We can leave the ranch tomorrow in time to get the girls and maybe have supper with them somewhere. I’m not interested in malls or shopping or anything but spending time with you at home,” Annie said, and Mason’s heart flipped over.

He reached for her hand. “Not only are you beautiful, you are the best thing that Bois D’Arc Bend has ever found asleep on the front porch.”

“Now that’s one smooth line, Mr. Harper. Let’s go home and you can show me the rest of Bois D’Arc Bend. I’ve only seen the goat pens, the bunkhouse, the house, and a barn off in the distance. Wow me with a tour. Take me back to where Skip’s granddad lives.”

“You got it, darlin’.”

***

Mason was backing out of the parking lot when Annie Rose’s phone rang. She fished it out of the side pocket of her purse and answered it. “Hello, Gabby, have you gotten to the airport yet?”

“Mama-Nanny, where are you? I called the phone in the kitchen and you weren’t there, so I called the number that you told me to write in my journal in case you didn’t answer the one in the house. Are you outside with the goats?” Gabby sounded frantic.

“No, your dad took me out for breakfast, but we’re on our way back to the ranch now. Are you all right, darlin’?”

She heard a sob and suddenly Lily was on the phone. “We can’t go, Mama-Nanny. Uncle Rory called and said that he was glad we weren’t already on the plane because our cousins have the damn chicken pox and we haven’t had them.”

“But you’ve had the shot for them, right?” She looked across the console at Mason. “Have the girls had the shot to prevent chicken pox?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Doc Emerson keeps up with that stuff at his office. We’d have to call him or check their records, and they’re in the file cabinet at the ranch. Why are they asking?”

“He says he doesn’t know if you’ve had the shot or not,” Annie Rose told Lily.

“Granny is going to call Daddy. We’re in the bathroom and we have to go back out in the airport right now. Please don’t let him make us take a shot. Please, Mama-Nanny,” Lily said.

Mason’s phone rang. He braked, put the truck in park, and dug the phone out of his pocket. “I have no idea, Mother. I’m sorry you are missing the plane, but until I get back to the ranch and check their records, I really don’t know. Doc takes care of all that and tells me when to bring them in for shots.”

“Are you mad at us?” Lily asked Annie Rose on the other phone.

“Not at all, sweetheart. I’m glad you are coming home. I already miss you,” Annie Rose said.

“Okay, that’s all you can do, right?” Mason said to his mother.

“We got to go now,” Lily whimpered. “We’ll be home in a little while. And, Mama-Nanny, we won’t put any more walkie-talkies in your room, we promise. We want you to be there when we get home, okay?”

Annie Rose’s voice quivered slightly. “I’ll be there, sweetie. Good-bye.”

“For real?” Mason asked his mother. “Let me talk to Gabby.”

Mason frowned through a long pause. “But Granny says that they’ll take you shopping or to Six Flags for the day. Are you sure you want to come home? Okay then, we’ll see you there in an hour or so.”

He hung up and sighed. “I’m so sorry. This has to be the worst date in the whole world.”

She undid her seat belt, crawled over the console, and straddled his lap. Taking his cheeks in her hands, she leaned in and kissed him, each kiss gaining in heat and passion until she had to back off or incinerate the inside of his fancy truck.

“I love you, Mason Harper. And this is the best date I’ve ever had, because there are two little girls who’d rather come home to us than go to Houston and be pampered. I miss them and I’m glad they are coming home. I love you and… well, I can’t explain.”

“My heart hears yours and understands completely.” He enfolded her in his big arms and buried his face in her hair. “And I love you. I don’t think time has much to do with it. When things are right, Annie Rose, they are right, and that’s the way it is.”

“Thank you. Now please take me home. I have a wonderful idea for the rest of the day.” She flipped a leg over and settled back into her seat. “You’ll need to stop at that roadside barbecue place we passed on the way. We’re going to put out a spread on the patio for a picnic and swim in our own pool.”

“And tonight?”

“Tonight when they are asleep, we’re taking a blanket so far away from the house that we can’t even see the place and we’re making wild, passionate love under the stars.”

He put the truck in gear and turned out of the parking lot. “And if it rains? It appears that our luck isn’t too damn good today.”

“Then we will take our blanket up to the hayloft of one of the barns and make wild love there. I will have sex tonight, darlin’, and it will be with you.”

He flashed a brilliant smile. “No, Miz Annie Rose, you will not have sex tonight.”

“Why?”

“Sex is one thing. Making love is something deeper and more personal. We are going to make wonderful love, not have sex.”

She slid a long sidling glance his way, letting her eyes travel from his boots to his eyes, only stopping at his belt buckle a few extra seconds. “You any good at that?”

“Oh, honey, just wait and anticipate.”

“Do I need to bring a fire extinguisher?” she asked.

“No, ma’am. I do believe that we’ve proven we have all the right equipment to put out any fires that we get started.”