Cowboy Up

"Well, you could check on my plumbing again. You know, just in case it needs to be...snaked."

"I definitely don't want you to have clogged plumbing so perhaps I should do that. Um...where do you propose we check it?"

She took his hand and led him to the bedroom, turned around and said, "This seems to the best place to for checking plumbing. What do you think?"

He kissed her and Jaclyn melted into him. Within minutes they were naked again and making love the way they had just hours before. When they were finished she said wistfully, "I wish there was a way to bottle that and keep you here with me."

He rolled on top of her and said, "Me or just my snake?"

She laughed loudly and said, "Both. I l...really like both of them, Davis."

He looked deeply into her eyes and said, "My snake and I l...really like you too, Jaclyn."

"I'm glad," she said softly.

For the next several weeks, they spent their mornings together at her house when Audrey was in school and she spent hers with them on the weekends. As much as she loved being with Davis, Jaclyn looked forward to spending time with Audrey just as much. She was the sweetest, kindest, most sincere girl she'd ever known and it was getting harder by the day to keep saying she just really liked her father.

She was in love with him and had been for some time but there was no way she was going to say it first. Her dream required him to be the one to tell her he loved her and it didn't matter how silly or impractical that was. She'd given up so much to find this kind of love and if she needed this one storybook aspect to it, then so be it. But she ached to hear him say it and each day he didn't, it hurt just a little bit more.

It was around noon on Saturday and they'd all gone to the Dallas zoo in the morning and had a wonderful time looking at the exhibits, seeing the creatures of the wild, and just being together. When they got home, Davis said, "I have a little surprise."

"Surprise?" Jaclyn said. She looked at Audrey then said, "We like surprises!"

"Well, I have an evening off so how about we all have dinner at The French Room tonight?"

"Audrey? Did you just hear what I heard?" Jaclyn said.

"I think so," she replied tentatively. "But maybe not. What did we just hear?"

"I distinctly heard your father say you and I need to spend the afternoon at the mall buying new outfits, getting our hair and makeup done, and spending a bunch of money. Did you not hear that, too?"

Audrey almost came unglued. "Seriously? You and I are going to the mall to go shopping together?"

She smiled at Davis who didn't have to nod as she knew it was okay. "Um, yeah! Grab your purse because we're gonna rock the mall, girl!" She offered Audrey a high five and got her slap and then a huge hug.

"I love you SO much, Jaclyn," Audrey said trying not to cry.

"Hey, it's okay, sweetie. This is going to be fun. Don't cry!"

"I'm not. I mean, I am but I'm not sad. I...I just really love you." She dried her eyes with her sleeves and said, "You're like the coolest mom ever."

Audrey's words hit Jaclyn hard and she was speechless for a moment. "Hey...I love you too, sweetheart. Come here." Davis watched them hug again as Audrey clung to Jaclyn.

"Come on, let's get ready to go. We're burning daylight and the mall awaits. There are dresses with our names on them so let's go find them!"

It was twenty minutes later before they emerged from Audrey's room and Davis wondered what was going on. No one said anything other than Audrey telling her dad she'd see him later. She smiled when she watched him kiss Jaclyn goodbye. She knew they were 'seeing each other' and they kissed all the time now. She wasn't sure, but she thought they were probably 'doing it' even though she wasn't exactly sure what that meant.

Four hours later, the girls came home carrying more bags than Davis thought possible. "Did you guys leave anything at the mall?" he asked.

"Oh, these are just Audrey's things," Jaclyn announced. "We still have to bring mine in."

"What?" he said standing up. "All this is...hers?"

"Come here," Jaclyn said. She took him to Audrey's bedroom where all of her things had been removed from the closet. "When's the last time you took your daughter shopping, Cowboy? She can barely fit into any of these and they're all so...two years ago. Someone's gotta look out for her, right?"

Audrey was standing there waiting to see his reaction. Normally, Davis would have been deeply hurt that anyone, even a beautiful woman, had spent so much money on his child without discussing it let alone correctly pointing out he never took her shopping. Rather than be angry he just said, "This is why I love you, Jaclyn."

Jaclyn froze in her tracks. Audrey gasped and put her hands over her mouth. "I don't think it's any great secret, but...I do love you," he told her as he put his hands on her shoulders. He looked at Audrey and said, "Odd loves you, too."

His daughter walked over and put her arms both of them. "I do you love you, Jaclyn. I love you so much." She looked at her dad and said, "I love you too, Daddy. More than anything."

Jaclyn was so overwhelmed she started to cry. "And I love both of you with all my heart." She turned to Audrey and told her, "I really do love you. You're the daughter I never had, honey." Then she turned to Davis and said, "And I love you too, Cowboy. With all my heart I love you."

"Wait right here, okay?" he said. The girls looked at each other and the bags laying everywhere along with her old clothes on the bed.

"Where's my dad going?" she asked.

"I have no idea, honey," Jaclyn said truthfully.

Davis came back into Audrey's room and said, "Ladies? Can you sit down please?" He sat Jaclyn in the middle of the near end of Audrey's bed and asked her to sit next to Jaclyn.

He took a deep breath and said, "I was going to wait until this evening, but sometimes...opportunities present themselves and we have to be prepared for when they do."

Jaclyn smiled at the reference to her definition of luck, but also felt herself begin to tremble inside.

"The two people I love more than anyone on earth are right here in front of me. My beautiful, funny, smart, best-friend-of-a-daughter, Audrey, and the new love of my life, Dr. Jaclyn Vincent. I love you both more than life itself."

He looked into Jaclyn's eyes and said, "Jaclyn? I knew you were special the first time I um...sort of saw you even though it was through a haze of morphine. You not only saved my life physically, you saved it emotionally, as well." He pulled something out of his pocket then knelt on one knee before her.

Audrey screamed as Jaclyn covered her mouth with her shaking hands as he opened the white leather box. "Jaclyn—sweetheart. I have never loved anyone the way I love you. You make me want to be the best man I can be every day. You make me very happy and you inspire me. I can't imagine living another day without you in my..." He looked at Audrey, "In..our lives. Jaclyn Vincent? Will you marry me?"

Audrey was standing up and her feet were moving up and down a mile a minute waiting to hear Jaclyn's answer. They both saw her head nodding as she tried to speak. "Yes! Yes, yes, YES! I will marry you, you big, dumb, handsome Cowboy! What took you so long?"

He slipped the big diamond ring on her finger then helped her stand. As she threw her arms around Davis, he opened one of his for Audrey to rejoin them. "This is the best day of my whole life!" Audrey said. She was now crying harder than Jaclyn and Davis stepped back to let the most important people in his life hug each other for all they were worth.

"I love you so much, Audrey!" Jaclyn said through her tears.

Davis felt himself tearing up then lost it when he heard Audrey say as she hugged Jaclyn, "I love you so much too...Mom."

"Get back in here, Cowboy!" Jaclyn said. Everyone was crying and hugging.

After a good long while of just holding each other, Audrey stepped back and said, "Show me your ring! I wanna see it!"

Jaclyn held it out and showed her new daughter-to-be and took her first real, long look at it, too. "It's so beautiful," Audrey said. "Just like you."

"Stop!" Jaclyn said. "I'll never stop crying if you keep being so sweet!" She hugged Audrey again and told her she loved her.

"I guess my work here is done," Davis said feigning smugness. "Looks like you two have still got a lot to do so I'll just mosey on out and go have another cup of coffee."

"Oh, no you don't!" Jaclyn said. "This is all your fault, Cowboy." She picked up a pair of Audrey's old jeans and threw them in his chest. "Here. You get to carry all this stuff out to the car so we can drop it off at Good Will."

"Okay, okay," Davis said holding his arms the best he could without letting the jeans fall. "Jeez, give a new fiancee a break, would ya?"

Everyone laughed as Dad carried out the old while 'Mom and daughter' put away the new.

That night after a wonderfully romantic and pleasant dinner, when the two adults were finally alone Davis said, "I love that you took Audrey shopping today, honey, but I want you to know I have no interest in your money."

"But Davis, it's our money. Not mine." She looked hurt and Davis tried to explain.

"I know. Legally, it'll be ours. But I don't care about your money. I'm in love with you and I don't care if you're rich or dead broke." He had no idea how much money Jaclyn had truly didn't care. He just needed her to know it made no difference to him. "I'm even happy to sign a pre-nup if..."

"You'll do no such thing!" she insisted. "I've waited my whole life for this...for you...to come along and I want us to share everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All of it. Okay?"

"Okay," he said giving in. "So...where are we going to live?"

It didn't take long to make the easy, obvious choice. They sold Davis's home and moved in with Jaclyn giving Audrey a much larger, much nicer room of her own.

Three months later they were married in a very nice, very intimate ceremony involving their closest friends and some of the other doctors with whom Jaclyn had worked.

For the next year, she devoted herself to being the best mother and friend she could to her new daughter before telling Davis she was ready to start a family of their own. Just ten weeks later she was thrilled to learn she was pregnant with their first child and Audrey couldn't wait to have a baby brother or sister.

It took Jaclyn quite a while to persuade him, but she finally convinced Davis to use a good chunk of their money to make an offer on the restaurant, something he'd always wanted. Just after the birth of their son, Peter Martin the Second or 'Deuce' as Grandpa Pete called him, Davis Martin became the proud new owner of The French Room along with his beautiful wife, Jaclyn Vincent-Martin.

No relationship or marriage is perfect, but Jaclyn couldn't imagine life being any better or more full than hers. She was surrounded by love on all sides. She had a beautiful new daughter, a gorgeous baby boy, and the most handsome cowboy God ever put on his green earth and Jaclyn considered herself to be the 'luckiest' woman on earth.