want that for herself.
Of course, she couldn’t imagine having some big romance. She was a widowed mother of three young children. That was her life. That was her full-time job, despite her part-time job at the sheriff’s office. How on earth could she even have time for a hot love affair?
“Love is in the air in Rust Creek Falls,” Anne whispered. “If it happened to them, it could happen to us.”
Marissa watched as Travis dipped Brenna for a dramatic kiss, covering their faces with his cowboy hat. Sigh. Had she ever been kissed like that? Even in the brief window when she and Mike had been just a couple and not parents?
“Please,” Marissa said. “They’re TV stars. I’m just regular old me in my jean shorts.”
“Well, someone who’s anyone but ‘regular old me’ sure seems to like those jean shorts,” Anne said, wiggling her eyebrows with a sneaky grin.
“What?” Marissa asked but her gaze slid over toward where Autry Jones was sitting.
He was looking right at her, his expression a mix of warm, friendly and downright...flirtatious.
He raised his glass to her and she smiled, then turned back to the TV. She took another peek, and Autry was deep in conversation with his brother Hudson.
Well, here’s your chance to be a little more adventurous, Marissa told herself, admiring the way his hunter green shirt fit over his broad shoulders. If the man asks you out, you will say yes. It’s just a date. He doesn’t have to want to marry you. He doesn’t have to want to be father to your kids. You’re not looking to get married again, anyway. It’s just dinner and a stroll or a movie, culminating, hopefully, in an amazing kiss. Times twenty-one days, she added. Yes. She decided it right then and there. If Autry asked her out, she’d accept.
But then she glanced up at the sight of Brenna on TV in an ad for next week’s episode, her diamond engagement ring sparkling, talking about how gallant and romantic Travis was even while freeze branding cattle. There was no way a man like Autry—single, as far as she knew; childless, as far as she knew; jet-setter, as far as Anne knew—would want to date a widow with three kids, a demanding part-time job, and parents with eagle eyes and a comment about everything.
Sure was nice to think about, though.
* * *
Well, so much for sticking around the Ace in the Hole to squeeze through the crowd to congratulate Brenna or be tapped on the shoulder by that inhumanly hot Autry Jones and asked out on a date.
Not five minutes after the episode officially ended and the television channels were changed to sports analyses, Marissa’s mother had called. Kiera was convinced there was a monster in her closet and a half hour of trying to make the five-year-old believe otherwise had only exhausted Marissa’s parents. She’d said goodbye to Anne, who was ready to leave herself anyway, and headed home with Abby, who’d talked nonstop on the way about how dreamy Travis was and wasn’t it amazing that he was as dreamy on TV as he was in person and it only proved that Lyle from 2LOVEU was probably a regular nice guy in real life just like Travis was.
Marissa was grateful for the chatterbox beside her as they headed into the house. The more Abby talked and required nods and “Oh yes, I agree” from her mother, the less Marissa could think about a certain six-foot-plus, muscular, gorgeous blond man.
She hadn’t been able to catch his eye as she’d left. All for the best.
And so Marissa had gone upstairs with her monster-blaster super sprayer, which doubled as her spray bottle of water for fixing her hair and ironing clothes. Roberta Rafferty had tried the monster blaster, but apparently only Mommy had the superpower of vanquishing the monster in the closet.
Armed with the spray bottle, Marissa burst into her daughters’ room, tiptoeing so as not to wake Kaylee, who’d managed to sleep through Kiera’s tears and Grandma and Grandpa’s attempts to prove there was no monster.
“Mommy! The monster is going to get me,” Kiera said, holding her pillow in front of her as a shield between herself and the closet on the other side of the room.
Marissa sat down on her middle daughter’s bed. “Sweets, I’m your mother and I’ll always tell you the truth, no matter what. I promise you that even though you believe there’s a monster in the closet, there really isn’t. Sometimes our minds tell us something and scare us, even though it’s not true.”
Kiera tilted her head. “But I saw him! He opened the door and made a mean face at me! He had three eyes!”
“Well, let’s see,” Marissa said. With Kiera biting her lip and looking nervous, holding out her shield-pillow, Marissa walked over the closet. She opened the door. No monster. Just a lot of pink and purple clothing. “There’s no monster, Kiera. I promise.”
“Can you spray inside just to be safe?”
Marissa pumped the water bottle, the fine mist landing on the girls’ suitcases.
Marissa closed the door and walked back over to Kiera’s bed. “There will never be a monster in that closet. You can count on that.”
“I feel better now, Mommy.”
Three seconds later, Kiera was snoring, her arm wrapped around her stuffed orange monkey. Meanwhile, her mother was completely exhausted.
“You’re such a great mom,” came a little whisper.
Marissa whirled around.
Her nine-year-old daughter stood in the doorway, looking like she might cry.
“Abby? Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m just—”
“What?” Marissa asked, her heart squeezing.
“I’m really glad you’re our mom. You always know what to say and do.”
Marissa held out her arms and Abby rushed over. Sometimes she forgot that Abby was just nine, right in the middle of kidhood. She was the eldest Fuller girl and took her role as big sister seriously.
“Thank you, Abby,” Marissa said. “I love you to the moon and back.”
“Me, too, Mom.” With that, Abby got into bed. She said good-night to her poster of 2LOVEU above her bed, then grabbed her own favorite stuffed teddy bear that her father had given her when she was born. Within five minutes, Abby was fast asleep.
Marissa watched her daughter’s chest rise and fall and pulled up the pink comforter, then kissed her cheek and tiptoed over to Kiera to do the same. Kaylee was on her tummy in her big-girl toddler bed. Marissa bent over to kiss her forehead, then sat down on Abby’s desk chair and looked at her girls.
This was her life. And this was everything. Yeah, it might be nice to fantasize about having the attention of a handsome man. A hot man. A gazillionaire, no less. Pure fantasy.
Marissa Fuller had everything she needed and wanted right in this room. Her heart was full and her life was blessed, despite the hardships.
Her head screwed on straight, she got up, said good-night to her parents and thanked them both again for watching the girls while she’d enjoyed a night out with Abby, then went into her bedroom and changed into a T-shirt and yoga pants and finally slid into bed.
Where she immediately thought of Autry Jones. What it would be like to kiss him. To feel his hands on her.
She smiled. Just a fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, right? Their paths would likely not cross while he was in town. Her life was here and work and grocery shopping and taking the girls to the doughnut shop for an occasional treat.
But again, no reason she couldn’t dream about a TV-style romance with Autry Jones in the privacy of her own bedroom.
“Kaylee,