Her Heart for the Asking (Book 1 - TEXAS HEARTS) by Lisa Mondello Page A

time it is."
    "I will.  Thank you so much Rich."
    His heart is like a timebomb.
    Beau's ears were still ringing with Dr.
Cookman's words when he left Hank's room later that evening. 
If Mandy couldn't convince Hank to have the surgery, he was going
to lose his friend, a good man who had been like a father to
him.
    And Mandy would lose so much more.
    * * *
    The house had grown quiet now that all the
hands were back at the bunkhouse.
    "Let me help you with the dishes, Aunt
Corrine," Mandy said.  She needed something to do, something
to keep her busy.  But she suspected her aunt needed it
more. 
    She came up from behind and wrapped her arms
around her aunt and felt her shoulders shudder.  After a few
moments, Corrine sobbed, "When I was lying in bed with him earlier
I thought, 'Lord, how many more times am I going to be able to have
him here in my arms like this?'  I thought we were going to
lose him today for sure."
    "I know.  I should have been here."
    "No, you can't stop your life just because
he's being so stubborn.  None of us can."
    "I wish..."
    "What, doll?"
    She slumped down into a kitchen chair and
mindlessly twirled an empty glass between her fingers.  "I
should have come more often."
    "Oh, don't go there again.  You have a
life of your own.  No one expects you to give it up."
    Mandy chuckled wryly.  "I wish my
mother would say that."
    Her aunt looked down at the soapsuds and
stilled.  "I didn't want to call your mother and tell her
about Hank.  In fact, he asked me not to.  Was quite
cross with me for doing it."
    Mandy closed her eyes and shook her
head.  "He's such a..."  She paused, searching for the
right word.  Then looking up at her aunt, they both said in
tandem, "cowboy." 
    "I'm glad you made that call. 
Otherwise, I may have never known until it was too late.  For
that I'm sorry.  Some niece I turned out to be."
    "You're wonderful for him.  We both
love you so very much."
    "Can I ask you something personal?"
    "Anything."
    "How come you and Uncle Hank never had
children?  You'd both make wonderful parents."
    Corrine didn't answer right away and
immediately Mandy wondered if it were too painful a subject for her
aunt.  Her hands stilled in the dishwater.
    "I would have loved to have had a child with
Hank," she said quietly.  "It wasn't in God's plan, I
guess."
    "You could have adopted.  I can just
see Hank and a string of young cowboys out in the barnyard. 
He was always so great with me, always encouraged me and made me
feel like I could do anything.  You'd make a terrific mother,
too.  I remember so many nights when I first came to the
Double T I'd cry myself to sleep and you always stayed by my
side.  You and Hank are like a second set of parents to
me."
    Corrine was quiet and Mandy was afraid she'd
hurt her aunt’s feelings.  But then she turned and smiled at
Mandy, her eyes filled with tears.
    "We didn't need to adopt a child.  We
were blessed with you." 
    Mandy swallowed the lump in her
throat.  She was well loved by the people in her life. 
How many people could say that?  And yet, she thought back to
what Beau had asked her over again about being happy.  Was
she?
    "And you both were happy?"
    "We have each other.  You could drive
yourself crazy with what-would-have-beens if you let it get to
you.  But yes, I've always been happy.  And I think up
until lately Hank's been happy, too."
    Mandy pushed herself out of her chair. 
"I don't doubt it.  If Uncle Hank doesn't care about himself,
he can't be happy about what this is doing to everyone else."
    Her aunt's shoulders slumped.  "He has
his reasons, not that I agree with him.  But they are his
own."
    "Why don't you tell me what they are?"
    Corrine turned to her, unshed tears still
clinging to her eyelids.  "You need to ask him that yourself,
doll.  Only he can tell you."
    Mandy picked up a dishtowel and started
wiping one of the dishes her aunt set to dry in the wrack. 
Her aunt quickly stilled her