The Texas Rancher's New Family by Allie Pleiter

Author:Allie Pleiter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Cooper and Sophie arrived later that afternoon and the “kitten extravaganza”—as Audie, who was delighted to have that Monday off from school, put it—was going well. This second visit to the Blue Thorn Ranch was going much better than the first, and Tess couldn’t remember when she’d felt so happy and satisfied. Sophie was over the moon about finally getting to take Rainbow Sparkle home for good, and Tess hoped the present in the box she held would double the little girl’s joy.

“Here, Sophie, I’ve got a surprise for you.” She set the large cardboard box down on the living room floor while several of the family members and Cooper looked on.

“For me? But I already got a kitty.”

“I know, but this is something special I could do for you.”

Cooper crouched down beside his daughter. “Surely you want to wait and open this at home,” he teased.

Sophie clutched at the box. “No! I wanna open it right now. Can I? Can I, please?”

Sophie began tearing at the outer wrapping to reveal a brightly striped inner box. Tess watched her pull apart the tissue and gasp in wonder when the face of a doll smiled up from under the plastic window.

“Daddy!” Sophie nearly squealed. “A doll! And her hair is my color. And her eyes, too!”

The doll did resemble Sophie with her eyes and bouncy strawberry-blond curls. But Tess knew it also resembled Sophie in the way that truly mattered. She watched Cooper’s amazed expression, feeling Sophie’s wonder in the pit of her own stomach as her father helped her lift off the lid of the box.

Tess could see and feel the moment when Sophie realized the doll had a prosthetic leg. A very pink, very girly, prosthetic leg. Sophie went quiet, awestruck even, and slowly reached out to touch the artificial limb. Would Sophie love it or hate it? Suddenly all Tess’s certainty that this had been the right thing to do vanished under the fear that she’d made a terrible mistake. She’d overstepped and overloved, again.

Sophie turned to Cooper, her eyes wide in shock. Wonder? Or horror? “She’s just like me,” Sophie whispered. “Daddy, she’s just like me.”

Gran sniffed, and Ruby, Luke’s physical therapist fiancée who had asked to come see the special gift, put a hand on Tess’s shoulder. Tess thought she would puddle up in relief right there on the spot. Cooper’s eyes were filled with astonishment and gratitude and a million other things as he looked at Tess—a look that shot through her like lightning.

Sophie picked up the doll and held her up as if to show the whole world. “She’s just like me,” she repeated, grinning at the whole room of onlookers. “Look at her pink leg, Daddy. Look at it.” She ran her hand down the admittedly space-age-looking prosthesis and the matching bright pink tennis shoes.

When she hugged the doll, eyes shut tight in tiny six-year-old delight, Tess saw Cooper choke back tears. “There’s some other stuff in here,” he said thickly, needing something to do to cover the surge of emotion felt by everyone in the room.

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