Her Texas Hero (15 page)

“Of course it will,” she said, wanting him to know she understood. “This is what you do. I'm sure there will be times when certain jobs demand more of your time than others do.”

“And that's not a problem for you?”

“I feel blessed for any time that I get to spend with you,” she answered honestly.

“I feel the same way.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her near.

It was a beautiful, clear night. The air cool and crisp. A calming silence settled in the land around them. There they sat in comfortable silence for several long minutes, looking out at the stars that dotted the wide, cloudless Texas night sky.

“Audra...”

“Hmm?” she murmured as she snuggled into the warmth of his side.

“I'd like to get your kids a dog.”

His announcement came from out of the blue. “A dog?” she repeated, lifting her head to look up at him.

“I was thinking that they might like having one,” he explained. “There's plenty of room out here for one to run. And a dog's real good at knowing when someone needs a little extra affection.”

As Carter himself was so good at. He always knew when she needed someone to talk to or a shoulder to lean on. Or, as it seemed to be the case with her, one to cry on. “A dog is a big responsibility,” she said as she considered his suggestion.

“Mostly during the training of it, which I would help with,” he replied. “And there are plenty more pluses to having a dog. He'd keep pesky little critters like raccoons away from the house. He'd bark to let you know when you have company. He'd be excited to see you and the kids every time you came home. And, most importantly,” he added, “I really think Mason and Lily would take to the idea of having their very own dog to love and care for.”

“I know they would,” she answered with a smile, determined not to cry as she sat looking up into his kind, thoughtful eyes. If she hadn't been falling for him already, Audra would have done so right then and there. As it was, she'd just fallen a little bit harder.

Chapter Ten

“Y
ou ready to go?” Carter asked as he stood at the foot of the front porch steps. Above, on the roof, his brothers continued to work on repairs as they had been doing since shortly after daybreak that morning.

Audra hesitated with a glance back toward the door. “Maybe we should take the children with us.” She turned back to him with a worried frown. “Lily likes to pick out the flowers.”

“I'm sure we'll be needing to make more than one trip to the nursery,” he said, hoping they could get a move on before the kids did take notice and ask to go with them. If that were the case, the surprise he had planned for that afternoon would no longer be a surprise. “Besides, they just started watching that princess movie. We'll be back before they know it.”

Laughing softly, she made her way down the steps to join him. “Beauty isn't a princess. At least, not until she marries the beast.”

His eyes rounded. “She marries the bull?”

“The bull is actually a prince that's been changed into a beast. He can only change back into his princely form by learning to love and to be loved back in return.”

As he walked her out to the truck, Carter said, “Who knew movies for little kids could be so complicated? Logan never made mention of it. He's the one who usually does the movie watching with Katie. I'm the ball-tosser and tea-party participant.”

Audra waved to his brothers, who paused in their work and waved back, and Carter pulled away. “I feel bad leaving while they're up on that hot roof working.”

He offered a reassuring smile. “We're Texans, darlin'. And like our state's plant, the prickly pear cactus, we're tough. The good Lord put us here in Texas because we thrive in the heat.”

They drove to Hope's Garden, the local nursery where Logan purchased most of his landscaping plants and trees for his business. They were greeted by Jack Dillan, who had been close friends with Carter's daddy, both men having high hopes at one point that Logan and Jack's daughter, Hope, would merge the two families. But things hadn't worked out and Hope had moved to San Diego after college.

“I was wondering if you were gonna make it by today,” Jack said, extending a hand in greeting. His keen gaze shifted to Audra. “This must be the pretty little filly you were telling me about.”

Carter couldn't help but smile as he watched the blush move across her face. “Jack Dillan, I'd like you to meet Audra Marshall. She bought the old Harris place and is looking to brighten it up with some real pretty flowers.”

“Ms. Marshall,” the older man greeted with a widening grin.

“It's a pleasure to meet you,” she said.

“Come on into the greenhouse,” he said with a wave as he started off toward the arched, multiwindowed building. “We've got plenty of colorful posies for you to choose from.”

“I'll grab a cart while you start making your selections,” Carter told her.

Nodding, Audra let Jack take her along the aisles, showing her the large selection of flowers he carried.

Carter wheeled the narrow metal cart back to where Audra had selected several containers of dark pink-and-white-striped phlox. “Good choice,” he said as he began loading the plastic flower-filled planters onto the top tray of the nursery's shopping cart. He just hoped that Audra was happy with the choice he'd made a few days before on her behalf.

After what felt like forever, mostly due to his eagerness to show Audra the pup he'd chosen for Mason and Lily from among the several he and Audra had looked at during their trip to the pound, they loaded up her flower garden selections and then went to pay.

“Got everything you need?” Jack asked as he rung her out.

“I think so,” she said as she placed her wallet back into her purse.

“I think we might be missing one more thing,” Carter announced from behind her.

She turned to him questioningly.

He looked past her to the older man. “Jack.”

“Be right back,” he said with a beaming smile. He left, returning a few moments later with the adorable little, droopy-eared bloodhound mix Carter and Audra had been especially taken with when they'd gone to the pound earlier in the week. “Can't have you forgetting this little guy,” Jack said as he set the squirming pup down onto the greenhouse floor and handed Carter the loop end of the leash that was attached to him.

“Carter,” Audra gasped as she sank to her knees to fawn over the excited mutt.

He smiled at her reaction. “You seemed mighty taken with him, so I figured if you liked him the kids would, too. I went back and filled out the application to adopt him that same day but couldn't pick him up until this morning once all of his shots had been done and he'd been fixed. So I called and asked Jack if he'd mind my dropping this little guy off and keeping him here until you and I could pick him up and take him home to the kids together.”

She glanced up at him, her eyes misting over with what he hoped was happiness. “So he's ours now?”

The pup, taking advantage of Audra's momentary distraction, jumped up to plant a wet kiss on her cheek.

Jack chuckled. “Appears he thinks so.”

Carter nodded. “He's all yours.”
I'm all yours.
He kept those words to himself, knowing he wanted everything to be right when he made that heartfelt declaration to Audra. And for things to be right he needed to remove the guilt of having kept the truth from his brother. That meant having that talk with Nathan that he'd been trying to work himself up to having. Then maybe that part of him that had been tied up emotionally for the past year and a half would finally be free to love without guilt or reservation.

Audra scooped the pup up in her arms and stood. “Mason and Lily are going to love him to pieces. I know I already do and he's only been mine for a few minutes.”

The joy on her face filled him with such pleasure. Carter turned to Jack. “Thanks for keeping an eye on this little one for a spell and for helping me surprise Audra.”

She looked at Jack. “Yes, thank you so much. For both the dog-sitting and for your help in choosing from all your beautiful annuals. I will be back.”

Jack smiled. “I hope you will.”

“We'd best get going,” Carter said, slipping an arm around her waist. “We've got us some kids to surprise.”

* * *

His brothers were seated on the front porch steps, taking what looked to be a water break, when Carter pulled up the drive. “No sign of the children,” he said to Audra, who sat beside him, holding the newest addition to her family securely in her arms.

“Unless your brothers are keeping them corralled inside.” She looked his way. “Were they in on this surprise, too?”

“Nope,” he said with a grin as he shut off the engine. “Figured I'd just let them think we picked him out together. Can't have them thinking I'm a softie or anything.”

She laughed. “You are a softie, Carter Cooper. You might as well accept that as a fact and move on.”

“You trying to ruin my manly Texas cowboy reputation?” he teased as he stepped from the truck. Rounding the front, he opened the passenger door to take the pup from Audra's lap and lowered it to the ground.

“In answer to your question,” she said as Carter handed her the leather loop at the end of the leash he'd picked up the day he went to get the pooch from the pound, “I happen to find big, strong men who join in tea parties and can braid my daughter's hair far more manly than those men who would never ever consider doing those kinds of things.”

He gave a husky chuckle. “Reckon I have Katie to thank for a good part of my manliness, then.”

“Can't say I recall ever seeing flowers at Hope's Garden that come with fur and a tail,” Logan called out from his perch on the porch.

“Maybe it's some sort of fancy new hybrid posy,” Nathan added with a grin.

“
He
happens to be a surprise,” Carter grumbled, trying to keep his voice low. His gaze moved past his brothers as the screen door swung open and three shrieking little ones flew out of the house.

“Whose doggy is that?” Lily exclaimed as she raced after her brother and Katie.

Audra knelt in the grass, holding onto the pup's leash. “He's yours,” she told Lily with a beaming smile.

“Ours?” Mason gasped as he dropped onto his knees beside his mother.

The pup pounced on him, trying his hardest to cover Mason's face in wet, puppy kisses. But her son managed to dodge most of them, giggling as he did so.

“Yes,” Audra told her. “Ours.”

Carter stood back, watching as Lily practically fell atop the dog in her eagerness to give it a hug.

Katie joined in, scratching the dog's ears. The pup alternated between trying to kiss her and then Mason.

“From the look of things,” Nathan muttered as he and Logan moved to stand beside Carter in the yard, “I'd say you just snagged yourself another piece of her heart.”

He prayed that was the case. Funny thing was if anyone had told him that day when he'd gotten sidetracked on his way into town that his determination to remain a bachelor was going to disappear as fast as his momma's cranberry stuffing used to at Thanksgiving dinners, he would have told them they were plumb crazy. Now it was him who was crazy—about Audra. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the good Lord for bringing Audra and her children into his life. Audra's laughter filled the air as the pup scampered playfully around her legs, long ears flopping about.

“That's my intention,” Carter replied as he moved to join into the fracas. He walked up to Audra, slipping his hand around her slender waist. “Appears I've got myself some competition for your smiles.”

“No worry,” she said, smiling up at him. “I've got plenty to go around.”

The pup stopped playing to sniff at the ground. A second later, he took off, jerking the leash right out of Audra's grasp, dragging its leash behind it.

“Where's he going?” Lily asked, disappointed that their new friend had stopped playing.

“He's going toward the bushes,” Mason said, pointing to the cluster of shrubs at the corner of the house.

“Looks to me like he's picked up a scent,” Logan said as the bundle of fur sniffed its way across the yard like a pup on a mission.

“He's part coonhound,” Carter explained. “They're known for their hunting skills and they're real good at tracking things down.”

The pup disappeared into the bushes in a series of excited yaps. A few seconds later, a rather annoyed looking armadillo scurried out from under one of the bushes as fast as its nearly nonexistent legs could carry it.

“Look what he found!” Lily exclaimed.

The pup darted in wide circles about the fleeing critter, clearly wanting to play. Chuckling, Carter went to fetch it back, giving the poor startled animal a chance to make good on its escape. Not that it would have harmed the armadillo. The pup had simply wanted to play and had chosen an unwilling playmate.

“Here you go,” Carter said, handing control of the leash over to Mason.

Mason settled onto the ground to hug the pup again. “Good job, Boone!”

“Boone?” Audra repeated as Lily and Katie moved in to smother the pup in even more affection.

Her son looked up from the tangle of pup and children to smile at her. “Like Daniel Boone,” he said as if his momma should have known where he'd pulled the name from. “He was a good tracker, too.”

“I'd say that's a right good choice for a name,” Nathan said with a nod.

“He wore an animal on his head,” Lily announced.

Carter and his brothers attempted to smother their laughter.

“Reckon you could say that,” Logan said with a grin.

“We've read a few books about Daniel Boone,” Audra explained with a hint of a blush.

“I gathered as much,” Carter said with a chuckle.

“We'd best get back to work on that roof if we're gonna be finished up in time for supper,” Nathan announced, starting for the ladder they had secured against the side of the house.

Logan followed.

“I'll be up in a minute,” Carter called after them. “I'm gonna grab the flats of flowers from the back of the truck.”

“I'll help you,” Audra said and then turned to the children just as Boone tackled Katie, taking her from a sitting position to lying flat on her back on the ground. She gasped, fearing that in his exuberance, the pup might have hurt her, but Katie popped back upright with a giggle. Relief swept through her. “Can you kids keep an eye on Boone while I help Carter get the flowers and then go inside and start cooking?”

“We sure can,” Katie replied as the dog circled around them, yipping loudly.

“We'll take good care of him,” Lily answered as she stretched out on the ground next to Katie, no doubt seeking some of the pup's attention.

Mason, who stood holding onto the leash, nodded in agreement.

“You need any help with the cooking?” Carter asked.

Audra turned to look up at him with that pretty smile of hers. “I think I can handle it. Besides, you can't very well leave your brothers to do all the work while you stay inside and sneak tastes of all the picnic foods.”

“Wanna bet?” he said with a grin. “Darlin', when it comes to your pecan pie, I'd put on one of them frilly little aprons of yours and offer to wash all the dishes for a sneak taste of it.” Audra had invited them all to stay for a cookout, complete with barbecued baked beans, potato salad and his favorite—pecan pie. He had no doubt he and his brothers would have her roof repairs completed in plenty of time. The promise of a home-cooked meal gave a man plenty of incentive to work hard.

She laughed. “Tempting as your offer is, because I can't imagine you strutting around my kitchen in a frilly apron, you need to stay out here and help your brothers.”