LITMIR.BIZ

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managed a tired smile. “Why don’t we wash up, then take a ride into town to get something to eat?”

      Her daughter’s eyes lit up. “Can we get a big dog?”

      The big dog her daughter was referring to was the hot-dog shop they had passed by in town when they’d arrived in Braxton. A place called Big Dog’s. She had to admit it wasn’t exactly the healthiest choice for their overly late dinner, but her daughter had worked hard. If Lily wanted a hot dog for dinner, she was going to have one.

      “Go down and wake your brother. Tell him to come inside and wash his face and change his shirt before we go.”

      “Okay!” Lily sprang to her feet and raced from the room.

      “You, too!” she called after her.

      Moments later, the front screen door creaked open and then banged shut. Mason had volunteered to carry the trash bucket downstairs whenever it got full and out to the two battered aluminum garbage cans they’d found out back. He was exhausted as well and had curled up on the porch swing some forty minutes or so earlier, falling fast asleep.

      Audra bent to grab on to the handle of the scrub bucket, carrying it and the mop she’d been using into the bathroom. Her arms ached. Her back ached. And this was only the beginning. The thought of everything that needed to be done was emotionally overwhelming. Her children deserved so much better than this. If only she had known what they would be getting into. But she hadn’t. Just as she hadn’t known the man she’d pledged her love to years before would walk away from the faith they had shared, the love they had shared, the family they had shared.

      Had shared, because Bradford had chosen to give up all legal rights to Mason and Lily. No, he had insisted, been determined to free himself from the... How had he put it? The baggage he’d saddled himself with? That was how Bradford Marshall regarded the family he had created. As baggage. He’d given them all up without an ounce of regret. And for what? Another woman. One who, like Bradford, didn’t want to be tied down with the responsibilities of being a parent.

      In the end, the decision had been up to Audra as to whether or not she would release him from his parental rights, which in their case was nothing more than the financial support Bradford was required to give to her children after the divorce. Payments he failed to make, leaving Audra to provide sole financial support for their children. So after many hours spent in prayer and some very tear-filled visits with their preacher, she came to the decision to allow Bradford to cut all ties with her children. Forcing him to stay a part of their lives would only make him more resentful toward Mason and Lily. They would have been forced to endure more of Bradford’s constant criticism, his unprovoked anger and, worst of all, his icy indifference.

      Audra swiped at her dirt-smudged cheek to brush away the telltale trail of moisture, not wanting her children to see her crying. Her heart ached. Not for the loss of her marriage. That had ended long before anything had been finalized legally. But for her children. They deserved a father who would cherish them. What they had gotten was a man who had considered them hindrances to the life he wanted to live.

      “Lily said we’re going for hot dogs.”

      She turned to find a sleepy-eyed Mason standing in the bathroom doorway. “As soon as we get cleaned up,” she said, forcing herself to pull it together. She looked past her son. “Where’s your sister?”

      “Waiting in the van,” he replied with a yawn.

      Rolling her eyes, she started for the door. “Scrub your face while I go get Lily. And be sure to change into a clean shirt.” She headed outside to get her daughter. She understood Lily’s need for a real meal. The snacks they’d eaten while taking breaks from their cleaning had helped to tide them over, but only temporarily. But Audra wasn’t about to take either of her children into town looking like ragamuffins. She’d already made a very poor first impression on one of Braxton’s residents.

      The memory of Carter Cooper’s “masked” face managed to bring a smile to her own. But only for a moment, before she remembered he was the kind of man she needed to steer clear of. Kind and charming, and from what she could see of his face, quite handsome, as well. All of the things Bradford had been, and look where that led her.

      Pushing all thoughts of her ex and Carter Cooper from her mind, Audra made her way out to the van, where Lily sat buckled in the backseat, door open while she waited for them to join her.

      “I’m ready to go,” Lily whined.

      “Honey, I know you’re hungry,” she said sympathetically. “We all are. But you need to go back inside and wash up before can we go.”

      Her daughter frowned. “Can’t I wash up there?”

      “Most restaurants prefer their diners to come in somewhat clean,” she explained. “Not with bits of cobweb clinging to their clothes and dirt smudged on their faces.”

      Lily looked down at her shirt and gave a tiny sigh as she released the belt securing her in the seat. “Okay.”

      Smiling, Audra followed her back into the house.

      Twenty minutes later, looking far more presentable, they pulled into one of the empty parking spaces in front of Big Dog’s. Of which there were plenty. Considering it was nearly eight o’clock at night, the mostly empty street didn’t surprise her.

      Audra’s gaze zeroed in on the restaurant-hours sign in the door and relief swept through her. Big Dog’s was open until 10:00 p.m. Lily would have been so disappointed if they’d had to go somewhere else and she’d already disappointed her children enough. Not that they’d ever voiced any such thing, but it was how she felt inside.

      Her children were out of the van and waiting at the entrance to the restaurant before Audra had even shut off the engine.

      “Hurry up, Mommy!” Lily called out, dancing around in excitement.

      Where had that burst of energy come from? Audra wondered. She certainly had none left in her. Smiling, she reached for her purse and then stepped from the van, locking it behind her.

      Mason was standing in front of one of the large plate glass windows, peering in.

      “Honey, it’s not polite to stare in the window like that,” she told him as she joined them on the sidewalk. “People are trying to eat.”

      “No one’s in there,” he told her as he moved toward the door.

      “Still,” she said, “we don’t do that.” Audra pulled open the door, holding it as her children scampered excitedly inside. A young waitress came over to greet them.

      “Welcome to Big Dog’s,” she said with a warm smile. “Sit anywhere you like and I’ll go grab some menus.”

      “Over here,” Lily said, hurrying toward a booth by the window, two away from the door.

      Mason took a seat on the opposite side of the table while Audra slid in next to her daughter.

      The waitress, a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties with long strawberry-blond hair and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheeks, returned carrying three glasses of ice water and menus, which she promptly handed out. Then she held up two smaller menus. “I brought along a couple of children’s menus just in case. The hot dogs on the main menu are for those wanting really big hot dogs. The ones on the kids menu are regular size.”

      “Thank you,” Audra said. “But something tells me we’ll all be ordering from the regular menu tonight.”

      “’Cause we’re starving,” Lily informed her in dramatic fashion.

      The younger woman laughed at her daughter’s antics. “You are, are you?”

      “We missed dinner tonight,” Audra explained. “We just moved into the Harris place and had some cleaning to do. It took a little longer than we thought it would.”

      “The Harris place?” the waitress repeated, her expression

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