Gambling On a Heart. Sara Walter Ellwood

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СКАЧАТЬ sweetie, I guess your daddy and I need to learn to behave ourselves.” Her mother bent and ruffled the fur of the two Yorkies sitting by her feet. “I think Ginger, Cinnamon, and I are going to bed.” She stepped in behind Tracy. “Goodnight, sweetheart.” With her eyes full of sorrow and her smile rueful, her mother patted Tracy’s shoulder.

      Tracy smiled her forgiveness. “Goodnight, Momma.”

      Her mother nodded once and headed out of the kitchen with the little dogs padding along on either side of her.

      Several minutes of silence passed until her father asked, “So, what’s going on between you and the good sheriff?”

      What was with her parents? Back when she and Zack actually had a chance at a future together, Mom and Dad hadn’t wanted them together. Now, they were all but planning their wedding. She looked down at the cup between her hands. “Nothing.”

      “Why not?”

      “You know very well why not.” She narrowed her eyes on her father.

      He raised a brow and set his mug on the table. “I don’t think I do. You aren’t married. He’s a widower. And there’s no one who attended that wedding today who doesn’t know Zack Cartwright and you would’ve preferred to have been somewhere else instead of on the dance floor.”

      She leaned back in the chair and laughed. “Well, you’ve got that right. We wanted to be on opposite sides of the state.”

      “I meant somewhere alone–together.”

      “Huh?” Zack had treated her like a leper.

      Her father leaned over his arms with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Do I really have to spell it out?”

      “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know what you and Mom think you saw, but I know Zack, and I know now that Dylan is okay, we’ll go back to avoiding each other. He has made it pretty damned clear what his opinion of me is.”

      Shaking his head, her father sat back. “Tracy, I’m going to give you a piece of advice.”

      “Why bother? You know I’m not going to take it.” She stood and carried her cup to the sink.

      “This time I hope you do,” he softly said, and she looked over her shoulder at him. “I know you think there’s no future for you and Zack, but I think differently.”

      She hurried toward the door to the hallway. She’d had enough of her parents thinking they knew something when they didn’t. Neither one of them had seen her since last Christmas when they’d come to Texas for a few days to celebrate the holidays. “Well, good for you, but I know better. Goodnight, Dad.”

      “Tracy,” he said as she reached the door.

      Against her better judgment she stopped. She drew in a breath and turned. Why had she been raised to obey that particular tone in her father’s voice? She crossed her arms.

      He picked up his cup and her mother’s, and headed for the sink. “So, you’ve made mistakes. But if you’re given a second chance, don’t screw it up.”

      “That’s your advice?” She clamped down on the rest of her retort. Nice that you’re such an expert on my life.

      Her brother’s final words, as he left her on the dance floor, eerily echoed her father’s statement.

      Depositing the mugs in the sink, he shrugged, then strode across the kitchen to her. He patted her on the shoulders and looked her in the eye. How could she be an inch taller than her father, even without her shoes, but still feel insignificant?

      “Yes. I suppose it is, but I also think that advice could be taken for a lot of things. Not just concerning Cartwright. Are you really happy, Tracy Caroline?” Before she could process an answer, he kissed her on the cheek. “All I want is for you to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for both of my children. Sweet dreams, Pixie.”

      She watched him leave through the swinging door into the hallway.

      The last time he’d called her by the pet name had been when she’d clung to him before he boarded a plane headed to the first war in Iraq twenty-two years ago when she was twelve years old.

      * * * *

      Zack pulled the extended cab Ram truck into the two-car garage he’d built onto the log and limestone house. The old homestead had seen six generations of Cartwrights come and go. Cutting the engine, he looked over his shoulder at his daughter sleeping in her booster seat. It wasn’t incredibly late, but she and Tracy’s boy had played long into the evening.

      He got out and opened the back door. After unbuckling the belt over Mandy’s seat, he lifted her into his arms.

      “C’mon, baby girl,” he murmured and held her close to his chest. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

      The house was dark and quiet as he carried Mandy down the hall to her bedroom. He pulled off her sodden shoes, laid her down onto the frilly pink comforter, and left her to fetch a damp washcloth from the bathroom.

      When he returned, he wiped the worst of the grime from her face, arms, and legs. Her black hair tangled around the limp sleeves of her blue dress. The scuffed and wet white patent leather shoes were unsalvageable. He didn’t have much hope for the filthy frilly dress either.

      While the adults had been enjoying traditional dances and the whole garter and flower throwing silliness, Mandy and Bobby had played in the water of the lake at the edge of the front yard. If he hadn’t wanted to escape after he’d caught the blue garter Dylan deliberately tossed to him and after Tracy had caught Charli’s bouquet, he might not have found the two kids to get them the hell out of the water.

      Besides her newfound friendship with Bobby, Mandy had attached herself to Tracy in a way he’d never seen her do with any other woman. Not that Mandy had much opportunity to become close to women outside of his family. Other than her babysitters and Deputy Dawn Madison, Mandy wasn’t around too many females.

      With the worst of the dirt off her and on the washcloth, Mandy awakened enough to help him remove the dress and slip a nightgown over her head. He took her hand and led her into the bathroom across the hall where he helped her brush her teeth, then attempted to untangle her snarled hair with a brush.

      Giving up on the hair, he carried her back to her bed and tucked the blankets around her small body. She yawned and folded her hands over her chest. With her eyes closed, she murmured the age-old bedtime prayer recited by children everywhere. “Now I lay me down to sleep...”

      He sat on the edge of her bed and smiled as she asked God to take care of every member of her family, including her pony and horse.

      “And let Momma know I love her, and me and Daddy miss her.”

      He prepared for the twist in his gut when she asked God to send her mother home soon.

      “And finally, Baby Jesus, keep Miz Tracy and Bobby safe. Amen.” She opened her eyes and smiled lazily up at him.

      He swallowed past the thickness in his throat.

      “I thought I should stop СКАЧАТЬ