Her Texas Hero. Kat Brookes

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СКАЧАТЬ 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.”

      “Please thank your mother for me,” she said with a smile. “She raised a very thoughtful son.”

      His mouth pulled into a grimace. Then he straightened to tower over her. “Afraid I can’t do that,” he said. “We lost her two Christmases ago.”

      “I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said, her heart going out to him. She’d lost both her parents in a boating accident on Lake Michigan the summer after her high school graduation. Maybe if that hadn’t happened she wouldn’t have rushed into marriage, needing to fill the void her parents’ death had left in her life. No, she probably would have married Bradford anyway. Several years older than her, he’d been a good Christian man with a financially stable job who said all the right things. Sent her flowers. She’d loved him and she thought he’d loved her back. And maybe he had. Until the children were born and he was no longer the sole focus of her attention.

      “If your leg starts cramping up again,” her rescuer began, that deep, husky voice pulling her from her troubled musings, “there are a couple of things you can do to try and relieve it. Massage your calf to work the cramp out, or СКАЧАТЬ