The Soldier's Surprise Family (19 page)

Not able to resist, she moved toward him and smoothed out the strays. “What is it?”

“Nothing. So you left the party to hunt me down and kiss me?”

She had to laugh. “You make me sound so...forward. The kiss was unexpected, but I hope it got the message across.” Hand flat on his chest, she felt his heart beat. It seemed to pick up the pace. “I want to spend more time with you. Not because of the kids, but because I love you.” There, she'd said it, and the house didn't fall down. Garrett was still standing, too. His face scrunched in a frown.

Okay, not the reaction she'd hoped for.

She looked for a way out. How did you make a graceful exit after saying those words? In one long step, he had his hands on her shoulders, anchoring her in place. No escaping now.

“You weren't supposed to say it first.”

“What? It's a contest?”

He chuckled. “No. I've been debating for a week now, but worried I'd say it too soon. I really messed up last time, and I need to get this right.

“Last time? You've never said—” She covered her mouth when she realized he was talking about his marriage proposal. “The proposal? That was you saying you loved me?”

“Not very well.” Holding his palm up, he waited for her to take his offer. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

They joined hands, and his thumb caressed the back of her hand. So much bigger than hers, his fingers engulfed her hand, making her feel safe and cherished.

She followed him out the kitchen door and up the stairs to his apartment. Now she was curious. What could be in the apartment she had not seen before?

In his living room, he dropped her hand. “Wait here.” He disappeared into his room. Nerves started twisting as she tried to imagine what he wanted to show her.

Joining her, he held a boot box. Okay, so it wasn't a ring. Balancing the box with one hand, he lifted the lid. He pulled out a string? He stopped and looked at her. Uncertainty suddenly appeared on his face.

“What is it? You're killing me.”

“I know we both have broken pieces, but I hope together we can make a family. I love you and can't imagine anyone else. I don't want anyone else.”

With a lopsided grin, he lowered the box. Hanging from the string was her broken wind chime that had been destroyed in the storm.

Her hand covered her mouth. The one she had made when she was expecting Esperanza. She thought she'd lost it forever. Now he offered it back to her.

It was cracked and skewed, but he had glued the parts together. A few were missing, but it was beautiful. She wanted to cry.

Carefully, he put it back in the box. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”

Just like Rio, she launched herself at him. His arms came around her as he staggered back. His laughter rumbled from his chest.

“So you like it?”

“It's the nicest, best gift anyone has ever given me.” Giving him some space, she stepped back and wiped her face.

“I had a whole speech to go with it. I know this might be too soon, but we've been through so much and I can't imagine more time will change anything for me.” He took a knee in front of her and pulled a small box out of his pocket. “I know I'm not the easiest man to get along with, but I want to be there for you. You know me in ways no one else ever even tried to know me.” He took a solitaire out of its velvet box. “Anjelica Ortega-Garza, will you accept all my broken parts and add Kincaid to your name?”

“Are you willing to take on the Ortega family and all that means?”

His dimples came out in full force. “Yes. I almost love them as much as I love you.”

“Then yes! Garrett River Kincaid, I would be proud to marry you and be your wife.”

Somehow his grin grew wider and he slipped the ring on her finger. It was a touch too big. His smile disappeared. “We'll have to get it sized, or you can pick another one.”

Holding her hand up, she admired the swirl and twist of the gold band surrounding the simple classic diamond. “It's perfect.” She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you.”

He glanced at the door. “We should go tell Rio and your family.”

She let go of his neck and took his hand. She just wanted to stay there and absorb this moment with him. The love and happiness so complete it made her aware how empty she'd been before, going through the motions of living.

“Thank you, Garrett. For not giving up on me. I was so afraid of taking back my own happiness.”

Cupping her face, he leaned in and kissed her. “Thank you.”

With a nod, she turned to the door to make the announcement that would send her life in a new direction. A direction filled with love and laughter, even during the rough times.

* * *

Anjelica's hand in his, Garrett wanted to jump down the steps. Colorful confetti coated the yard. The
cascarones
wars must have broken out.

Many of the people turned and stared at them. Garrett was sure he had an expression on his face that gave them away. He scanned the yard for Rio.

From a group of children, his son ran toward him with one hand tucked behind his back. “Daddy, I have a secret.”

Garrett leaned down, and Rio broke the confetti egg over his head. The boy laughed out loud, arching his whole body backward. “I got you, Daddy!”

“You did.” Garrett shook his head and the colored paper flew around them.

“I have a secret, too. You wanna know what I did today?”

Rio looked at his hands with suspicion before getting closer. “What is it?”

He held out his hand to Anjelica. “I asked Anjelica to be my wife and your mother.”

The little boy's eyes went wider as his gaze darted to Anjelica. He pressed his body against Garrett's side. “What did she say?” He whispered it, but the crowd had gotten quiet and it carried across the yard. It seemed as if the whole town waited for the answer.

Anjelica came down to Rio's eye level. “I said yes. Once we get married, we'll all live here together.”

He whooped loud and jumped up. Before Garrett knew what had happened, they were surrounded. He picked Rio up so the crowd wouldn't overwhelm him.

This was his family. Every single person here was now a part of his future. He thought about the cabin he had planned. And didn't feel a twinge of regret or longing about it.

As people gathered and congratulated them, he kept his attention on Anjelica. Someone handed Pilar to her. They were so beautiful.

Parts of him might be forever broken, but the best parts now belonged to her. God really did answer prayers not even prayed for. He'd sent Garrett his very own hero, and now she was going to be his wife. He wanted to laugh and dance. God was good. Life was good. Love was his.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
HER TEXAS HERO
by Kat Brookes.

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for joining me in Clear Water, Texas. It's one of my favorite places. Garrett has been in my thoughts for a few years. When Anjelica showed up in
Lone Star Hero
and walked away from Jake because she couldn't deal with a man in law enforcement, I knew I had found the perfect love for my wounded hero.

Thanks to my cousin Baron Von Guinther, I got to know Garrett better. Sitting by the bay in San Diego, we spent hours talking about marines and some of the things that make them tick. I fell in love with Garrett and watching the healing that a hurt little boy, a baby girl and a strong heroine could bring to his life. They all learned that no wound is too big for God.

I would also like to thank my cousins Chad Van Pelt and Forrest French along with their families for their service.

I love talking with readers. You can find me on Facebook at Jolene Navarro, Author, or visit my boards on Pinterest at Jolene Navarro.

Blessings,

Jolene Navarro

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Her Texas Hero

by Kat Brookes

Chapter One

C
arter Cooper grabbed for the ringing cell phone on the truck seat beside him. A quick glance at the screen listed Nathan Cooper as the caller
.
Swiping his thumb over the answer button, he brought the phone to his ear.

“Missing me already, big brother?”

Nathan snorted. “Hardly. But I am missing the keys to my truck. You got any idea where they might have gotten to?”

A smile quirked at the corners of Carter's mouth. “Can you describe them to me? Might help jog my memory some.”

“Carter,” Nathan growled impatiently.

“What's wrong, Nate? You can dish it out, but you can't take it?” His brother and business partner in Cooper Construction had thought it funny to line the back of Carter's safety goggles with black shoe polish. Carter glanced up in the rearview mirror where, beneath the mirrored lenses of his sunglasses, the remainder of what he hadn't been able to scrub off at the job site remained.

“It was Logan's idea,” his brother grumbled.

“And you executed it.” Their younger brother, Logan, was the real prankster of the family, but he was good at getting others to join in. Or in this instance, pull off the prank for him. The fact that his little brother had gotten Nathan to play along was worth the thick black smudging he was sporting around his eyes. After losing their parents, along with his older brother's wife, in the tornado that had ripped through their tiny town of Braxton more than a year ago, Nathan seemed to have lost himself, as well. He knew the only thing that kept his big brother from giving up on life, at least as far as Carter was concerned, was Nathan's beautiful little daughter, Katie. Or as Carter was fond of calling his six-year-old niece—Katydid.

“All right, guilty as charged,” his brother conceded. “Now where are my truck keys?”

“You know that bucket of wall primer...?” Carter teased as he turned off the main road, intending to take a shortcut into town, where he would swing by the hardware store and pick up something to take the remaining shoe polish off his face.

His brother groaned. “Tell me you didn't.”

“I didn't,” Carter said with a chuckle. “They're...” His words trailed off as his attention was drawn to movement outside the open driver's side window. Just past the wildly overgrown hedgerow that lined the inside of the faded white property fence, a woman lay facedown atop the sagging porch roof of the old abandoned Harris house. At least, the upper half of her did. The rest of her dangled down over the roof's edge.

Slowing his truck, he glanced back at the scene he'd just driven by. Crime was virtually nonexistent in Braxton, Texas. And the only thing anyone would find in that old place would be cobwebs and dust balls, so he immediately wrote off the possibility of a robbery. So what was that woman doing up on the old farmhouse's porch roof?

That last thought had barely surfaced when a high-pitched cry cut through the warm spring air. “Help!”

“Carter?” his brother prompted, his impatience growing.

“In the toolbox,” he blurted out. “Gotta go.” He disconnected the call, then stepped on the brake. Throwing his truck into Reverse, he backed up to the drive that led to the dilapidated old farmhouse that no one had lived in for a good ten years or more.

Sure enough, the woman dangled from the edge of the aging farmhouse's sagging porch roof. She was definitely in trouble. Carter turned his truck into the dirt-and-gravel drive and drove at breakneck speed up to the house, sending a billowing cloud of dust up into the air behind him.

He was out of the truck in no time, racing toward the wraparound porch where the wooden ladder the woman had been using to climb onto the roof had kicked away and was now resting haphazardly against the thick, sprawling branch of a honey mesquite.

The woman was fortunate, he thought with a concerned frown. If the tree hadn't taken root so close to the old farmhouse... Well, he wasn't even going to think about what the outcome might have been. As it was, one flip-flop-covered foot rested at an awkward angle against the top rung of the rickety old ladder. The woman's other foot, currently shoeless, struggled to find purchase below her with no success.

“Hold on!” he called out to her. And then he did something he hadn't done since his daddy and poor little Katie had been taken to the hospital after the tornado. He prayed.

Lord, please let me reach this woman in time.

Years of working construction, much of that time spent atop ladders, told him that her legs wouldn't be able to hold out for long before cramping would set in.

“Mommy!” a tiny voice whimpered.

Carter's gaze shot up to the second-story window just beyond the woman, noticing for the first time the two little faces peeking out, eyes wide with worry.

“Mommy's fine, sweetie,” she replied, her words strained. “I've got a hold on the rope loop Mason made for me.”

His gaze shifted to the length of what looked to be a half-inch manila rope that spilled out over the open windowsill and ran down the weathered asphalt shingles. At the end of the rope was a large loop, which the woman held in a determinedly white-knuckled grasp.

He stepped up to the fallen ladder, just beneath her dangling form. “Are you injured?”

“No,” she called down. “But I seem to have lost my other flip-flop.”

She could have lost a lot more than that, he thought, his frown deepening. “It's right here on the ground,” he told her as he eyed the cotton-candy-pink flip-flop lying on the grass in front of a flowering Texas sage shrub. “What are you doing up there anyway?” he called up to her with a frown.

“Retrieving a Frisbee.”

His dark brow shot up.
A Frisbee?
The woman had risked her neck for a Frisbee? “How about we rescue you instead?”

“I... I'm okay with that.”

His mouth quirked, despite the seriousness of the situation. “I'm gonna reposition this ladder, but I want you to keep your foot braced against it while I do. Then I'm gonna hold the ladder in place so you can climb down.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said unevenly.

He couldn't see her face from where he stood, but he didn't have to see it to know she was more shaken than she was letting on. “Okay, I'm gonna start lifting the ladder back toward the roof.” He raised it slow enough to allow the woman to maintain her foothold, prepared to catch her if her foot slipped and she fell. “Okay, work your other foot over to the ladder,” he told her the moment he had the ladder firmly back in place.

Ever so tentatively, her bare foot felt its way to the top rung. Her long ponytail swung ever so slightly behind her, the afternoon sun bringing out the glints of gold in the honey-brown strands.

“That's it, darlin',” he said, his grip firm on the ladder.

Her legs trembled beneath her, making the ladder vibrate. The shudder was subtle, but it told him that her strength was nearly spent. “Steady...” he said, wishing he could go up to get her. But the ladder was old and too unsteady to risk it. No, he had to make this work. In doing so, he offered up another silent prayer for the Lord to deliver her safely to the ground below.

“Now work your way down,” he coaxed calmly.

She started to step down and then stopped. “I can't. The rope isn't long enough.”

He glanced up toward the window. “What's that rope secured to anyway?”

“An old iron bed,” she replied shakily. “At least, the frame. There's no mattress. It's the only thing in the room.”

“If that bed frame's in the same shape as that roof you're lying on and this ladder I'm holding on to, it's best we don't have you holding on to that rope much longer. You're gonna have to let go of it so you can grab on to the ladder.”

“What if I fall?” she said, sounding on the verge of tears. “I can't fall. My children need me. I'm all they have.”

He thought of the two frightened faces he saw in the window above. Her children were counting on him to get their momma down safely. A feeling like he'd never known came over him and he knew that God had turned him down her road, one he rarely ever traveled on, for a reason.

“I'm not gonna let you fall,” he assured her.

“And if I do?” she demanded with a muffled sob.

“I'll catch you,” he answered without hesitation. “Either way, you're safe with me.”

* * *

You're safe with me.
Audra Marshall replayed those words over and over in her mind as she moved down the old ladder. They were the same words she'd heard before from the man who'd promised to love her forever. A man who'd failed to hold to his vows, leaving her to raise their two young children alone.

“Mommy?” her nearly five-year-old daughter called down worriedly. “Are you going to leave us, too?”

“Mommy's not going anywhere,” she quickly assured her little girl, having heard the panic in her voice. Then she felt herself being lifted from the ladder into a pair of strong arms. “I'm...” She'd almost said she was safe now, but considering she was being held in the arms of a man she didn't know, she couldn't bring herself to say those words. She did, however, say a prayer of thanks to God for watching over her. Not that she'd expected the help she'd prayed for, while clinging frantically to the loop of rope her son had tossed down to her, to show up in the form of a Texas cowboy. Hat and all.

“Why don't you kids pull that rope back in through the window and untie it? Then bring it on down with you?” the man hollered up toward the roof's overhang. Then he muttered, “The last thing we need is for one of them to use that rope to climb out onto the roof to see that you're all right.”

“I've raised my children to have more sense than that,” she said stiffly, automatically defensive when it came to even the slightest criticism where her son and daughter were concerned. Her ex-husband had done nothing but that for the past three years.

The man holding her securely in his strong arms paused midstep to look down at her from behind the mirrored shades of his sunglasses, which were shadowed by the brim of his cowboy hat. Then his head tilted ever so slightly upward, and if she had her guess she'd say he'd just rolled his eyes heavenward beneath the concealing lenses of his sunglasses.

“I would hope they do,” he said. “But I did just save their momma from breaking her pretty little neck after she tried to retrieve a plastic disc from a rotted roof using a ladder better used for kindling than climbing on.”

“I didn't know the roof was rotted,” she replied with a frown. “Just a little sunken.” The ladder, however, she had actually hesitated in using. But after a moment's indecision, she'd given in, deciding that it looked strong enough to hold her for the short time it would take for her to grab her son's Frisbee and toss it down. What she hadn't counted on was having it tip out from under her.

“Maybe so,” he said, “but I'm not about to risk your little ones getting hurt because they don't know better, either.”

She looked up at him in stunned surprise. Here was a man who didn't even know her children, yet he was voicing his concern, rather adamantly, about their well-being, when their own father couldn't care less. She couldn't keep the tears from filling her eyes.

“Ma'am,” he said, his deep, baritone voice laced with concern. “Are you hurt?”

She fought back the tears, shaking her head. “No, I... I'm fine. Just a little shaken.” And sore. Every muscle in her body felt like she'd just rolled down a steep hillside. “I appreciate your concern for my children. I'll have a talk with them and make certain they know never to go out onto that roof. Any roof for that matter.”

He nodded. “Glad to hear it. Now let's get you over to that porch swing,” he said as he headed for the crumbling walkway that led to the old farmhouse's deep-set porch.

“I can walk,” she protested without much conviction as she clung to her rescuer's wide shoulders. Despite her stubborn determination to stand on her own two feet, she honestly wasn't sure she could at that moment. She felt like a rag doll without any stuffing.

“Humor me,” he replied, his long strides never slowing until he had her lowered safely onto the porch swing, which, thankfully, appeared to be sturdier than the ladder she had found in the garage.

“Thank you for coming to my rescue, Mr....”

“Cooper,” he said as he took a step back, putting some distance between them. “Carter Cooper.”

“Audra Marshall,” she replied with a tentative smile as she settled back against the swing, her legs trembling. Her right calf ached from having been perched on the ball of her foot atop the ladder rung for so long. She attempted to stretch the cramping limb, pointing her toes downward. Before she could lift her toes upward to complete the motion, the muscle in her calf knotted up painfully, drawing a soft cry from her lips.

Vivid blue eyes studied her. “Cramp?” Carter Cooper asked worriedly.

“Yes,” she gasped as tears once again filled her eyes.

Kneeling in front of her, he lifted her foot, flip-flop and all, in his large hand and then gently pushed her toes upward, effectively stretching the contracting muscle.

“What are you doing?” Her words came out in a pained whisper.

He looked up at her from beneath the brim of his cowboy hat. “Working the cramp out,” he said matter-of-factly. Then his focus returned to the painfully knotted muscle in her leg. Keeping the pressure steady, he held her foot in place for several seconds before easing up on the tension he'd been applying. Then he repeated the motion once more. “Helping?”

“Yes,” she said, pulling her leg free of his grasp. “It seems I'm indebted to you yet again.”

Looking up at her, he said, “I only did what my momma raised me to do.”