In the kitchen, she was surprised to find a few much-needed fortifications to their makeshift pens. Hay bales now formed a sturdier wall for the chickens, and a tent had been made from purple-striped disposable tablecloths left over from LeeAnn’s last birthday. She peeked under to find Barry and his harem still sleeping.
“How are you?” she asked the tiny calf, stroking the top of his soft head.
He also had a new hay bale enclosure, and while the width made the kitchen feel smaller, she was glad to know there wouldn’t soon be a stampede.
When had Cooper done all of this? He’d never been so conscientious as a teen.
“You probably need a bottle, huh? It’s been a while since your last feeding.” For optimum health, he’d need to be fed every twelve hours for the next three months. How many changes would’ve happened by then? Would Clint be walking or talking? Would the new chicken coop be done? Would she feel comfortable being in the same space as her brother-in-law? “Hard to believe it’ll be almost Easter when we get you back with the herd.”
He looked up at her with his big, dark eyes, and she melted.
“How could your mother not love you?”
She rubbed his nose, smiling when his warm exhalations tickled her palm.
By the time she finished warming the calf’s milk and feeding him his bottle, the chickens were waking with throaty gurgles. She was just about to launch a search for feed in the coop’s ruin when she noticed the bag leaning against the wall. The scoop was even inside.
Cooper had thought of everything. Right down to bringing in the water and feeder bowls—she’d made do with a paper plate and plastic mixing bowl.
She should be grateful toward him, so why the flash of resentment?
Since Clint’s stroke, she’d single-handedly cared for the house and ranch. In her head she knew her brother-in-law was a godsend, but her heart told another story. For her, his mere presence was an admission that she couldn’t cope. Which honestly? Okay, was true. But her stubborn streak didn’t want to admit it—especially to of all people, Cooper.
Scowling, she bypassed coffee in favor of her private cookie stash.
In the dark living room, guided by moonlight reflecting off snow, she took her bag to the sofa. Only just as she was about to sit, something beneath the afghan moved!
Chapter Eight
“Unless you want things to get awkward real fast,” Cooper said from the sofa, “you might want to sit somewhere else.”
“There you go again...” Breathing heavy, Millie clutched her cookie bag to her chest. In the pale moonlight, she looked fragile. Still pretty, but dangerously thin and pale. “Skulking.”
Groaning, he rubbed his hands over his whisker-stubbled face. “You try sitting on me, and yet I’m the bad guy?”
“I didn’t say—” she dropped one of her contraband half-eaten cookies back in the bag “—never mind. What’re you even doing here? Why weren’t you sleeping in your old room?”
“Funny...” He eased upright. It’d been a long time since he’d done manual labor, and his body felt every hay bale and feed sack he’d lifted. Back on base, he worked out religiously, but lifting weights and swimming had nothing on the whole ranch routine. He felt every one of his thirty years and then some. “Ever since setting foot back on this land, I’ve worked my ass off to make things easier on you, but all you’ve done is complain. If you don’t want me here, why did you ask me to come?”
“Point of fact?” She sat on his dad’s recliner, but far from leaning back to relax, she remained as straight and unwelcoming as a fence post. “I wasn’t the one asking you to come home. That was your sister.”
“Want me to leave?”
Yes!
“No. Of course not. I just... Well, maybe we could establish a few ground rules as to where you’ll be and when?”
“Ground rules?” Had she lost her ever-lovin’ mind? “As in, I shouldn’t leave my room between the hours of 6:00 p.m and 6:00 a.m.?”
“Exactly.” He’d meant the question to be sarcastic, but judging by her eager nod, she’d totally missed his point. “The less time you spend with the kids and me, the better. I thought we could somehow recapture our old
happy family
vibe, but...” She shook her head. “Your dad’s expected to make a full recovery, so once he’s back on his horse, you should—”
“Climb back on mine and ride the hell out of town?”
She blanched. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ll bite. Go ahead, Mill, explain to me how else you—”
“Mommy?”
Cooper glanced over his shoulder to find sleepy, messy-haired J.J. The kid was crazy cute. Smart. Jim would be damned proud.
“Hey, hon.” She went to her son, pulling him against her for a hug. “You’re up early.”
“I know. I was excited to see if we have another snow day.”
“Gosh, I forgot to check. Let’s turn on the TV and see.”
She scooped up her little boy and carried him to the recliner, settling him on her lap.
J.J. took the remote from a side table and soon had the room filled with a cooking segment on making snow ice cream. School closings scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
How many mornings had Cooper sat in that same chair, holding his breath with his fingers crossed to see Wilmington Public Schools.
The scroll restarted with the statement that
Aurora Public Schools will be in session.
Wilmington hadn’t been listed.
“Aw, man...” Wearing a mighty pout, J.J. crossed his arms. “I wanted to help build the new chicken coop.”
“Trust me,” Cooper said, “probably for the next week or even two, I’ll need plenty of help.”
“Okay...” He scrambled from his mom’s lap. “Guess I’ll eat cereal and pet the calf.”
“Sounds like a great plan,” Millie said.
“I like him...” Cooper hadn’t meant to give the thought voice, and now that he had, in light of his sister-in-law flat out telling him she didn’t want him being around her kids, he couldn’t figure out why. What would forging a relationship with them hurt? Especially with their father gone.
He looked up to find Millie staring.
For a split second, their gazes locked, but then she turned away. “Think about what I said. I don’t mean you should literally stay in your room whenever the kids are home, but you might think about heading out to the barn or maybe looking up old friends.”
When a clang and growl erupted from his father’s room, Millie bolted toward that direction.
Cooper leaned forward, cradling his face in his hands. Why was he even here? He wasn’t wanted.
But you are clearly needed.
For now, that would have to be enough. He’d spent his entire adult life helping others in need, and he wasn’t about to stop now—no matter what Millie said.
*
“R
ELAX
. C
LINT
WILL
be fine.”
Millie hugged her longtime friend and neighbor, Lynette, whispering in her ear, “It’s not him I’m worried about. How am I going to last an entire day being alone with Cooper?”
After checking to make sure Cooper was outside, Lynette said, “Sweetie, only in my dreams am I alone with a man as fine as him. Zane and I have been together so long, I feel like we’ve grown relationship barnacles.”
“Oh, stop. You two are adorable.” Like Jim and her, they’d met in high school and married right after graduating.
“He’s so boring. And have you seen his beer belly? He looks fifteen months pregnant. Now, if I had a man like Coop...” She whistled. “What I could do alone with him in a closet for five minutes.”
“Lynette!”
Millie laughed, but couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of her friend. Zane might’ve gained a few pounds, but at least he was alive.
“All I’m saying is that Jim’s been gone awhile. If you and Coop gravitated together, well—”
“Stop right there.”
“Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Mack Walker’s planning a big shindig at his bar. My mom said he’s trying to impress Wilma. There’s even going to be champagne and a chocolate fountain. Doesn’t get much fancier than that.”
“I suppose not...” Would Cooper even go? If he did, what kind of woman would he take?
Speaking of the cowboy devil, he honked his truck’s horn.
An hour earlier, the kids had gotten on the school bus. While she’d fed and bathed Clint, her brother-in-law had checked the horses and driven out for a quick look at the cattle.
“You know—” Lynette tapped her chin “—back in the day, wouldn’t propriety have demanded Cooper not only watch over you, but marry you? Pretty sure it’s even in the Bible.”
“You’re being ridiculous—not about the Bible—but your matchmaking.” Millie shrugged on her red wool coat. “I don’t even like Cooper.”
“But even you have to admit he’s as hot as July sun?”
Or possibly hotter.
Cooper again honked the horn.
Millie gave her friend one last hug and kissed her cheek. “Thanks for watching Clint. Hopefully, we’ll be back before the kids get home.”
“Go ahead and ignore me,” Lynette shouted behind her as she walked out the door. “Mark my words, despite your sourpuss expression, the two of you are going to have a great day together!”
“Buh-bye!”
Millie gave her well-intentioned but delusional friend a backward wave.
*
T
WENTY
MINUTES
INTO
the supply trip to Denver, Cooper had had just about all he could take of Millie’s silent treatment. He got it. She wasn’t buying what he was selling—only to his way of thinking, he wasn’t offering her anything other than hard work and friendship.
“Warm enough?” He nudged the heat higher. Though the cold was still brutal, the wind had died and the sun shone.
“Sure.”
“I felt bad for J.J. Poor little guy. Nothing worse than not getting a snow day you’re expecting.”
“Uh-huh.” She stared out the passenger window as if the view was as riveting as a UFO landing.
“LeeAnn, on the other hand, looked happy about getting to school.”
Millie sighed.
Cooper didn’t care. They’d once been close. He might not deserve her forgiveness, but for some unfathomable reason, he craved it. And so if his chitchat already had him in hot water, he figured what did he have to lose by jumping right into a roiling-hot sulphur spring? “I’ve got a confession to make.”
“Oh?”
“Or maybe not? You might already know.” He glanced her way to find her gaze now tightly focused on the straight, lonely road ahead. The high plains landscape was gorgeous in its simplicity. The snow-peaked front range rose in front of them like a majestic dream. “Jim said he wouldn’t tell you, but you two were probably close enough that he told you everything, huh?”
“Oh, for pity’s sake...”
“What?” He hazarded another glance in her direction, only to lock head-on with her sparkling sky-blue gaze.
“Spit it out already.”
“Okay...” He forced a deep breath. “Remember when Jim went hunting for a week in Wyoming?”
“What about it? He went hunting all the time.”
“Yeah, well, that week he wasn’t hunting, but with me.”
“In Wyoming?” Her eyes widened.
“Norfolk. He crashed at my apartment. Seeing him again...” Cooper’s throat knotted. Seeing his brother again had been surreal. And bittersweet. Jim had left with essentially nothing having been fixed. His little brother had told him to man up and make the first move toward repairing his relationship with his father. Cooper promised he would—soon. Just not soon enough, as Jim died two months later. If he had gone back then, would he have prevented both his dad’s stroke and Jim’s death? “Seeing him again was nice.”
“Nice?”
Millie’s voice had taken on a shrill tone. “How very Cooper of you to drop a bomb like this then leave it sitting between us undetonated. You’re such an ass.”
“I’m not trying to be. I thought you’d want to know.”
“That my husband lied to me? Apparently didn’t trust me enough to tell me he was going to see his brother? Why would he lie about something like that when he knew no one pushed for a reconciliation for all of you harder than me?
Argh!
” She slammed the side window with the heel of her fist.
“Look, the last thing I wanted was to get you all riled up.” The silent tears streaming down her cheeks made him feel all the more helpless, so he focused on the road and driving—apparently the only thing he could do without royally screwing it up. “I thought knowing might somehow help.”
“Shut up, Cooper. I wish you’d never come home.”
Me, too....
*
M
ILLIE
’
S
FURY
WAS
the only thing keeping her upright during the endless day of errands needing to be run. Story of her life. Putting out fires with never enough water—meaning, cash.
In this case, she and Cooper were at Lowe’s, standing side by side while looking at ready-to-assemble shed kits that could be used to replace the chicken coop.
“These are so far out my budget,” Millie mumbled, shrugging deeper into her coat to ward off the wind’s bite. “I might as well be buying a chicken Taj Mahal.”
“Then let me take care of it,” Cooper offered. “And since I’m not up on my Indian architecture, would you settle for a nice Victorian?”
Teeth chattering, she shot him a sideways glare.
He tossed her his keys. “See that Red Lobster?”
Maybe a couple hundred yards away in the next parking lot over sat the restaurant Millie hadn’t before noticed. “Yeah. What about it?”
“Grab us a table. I’ll make arrangements to get what we need delivered and meet you there.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you know how much lunch out would cost? If you’re hungry, I’ve got granola bars in my purse.”
His jaw hardened—which should’ve made her dislike him all the more for growing impatient with her. But that steely determination he’d wielded at the farm supply store and now here, only made him more disgustingly attractive. Did he have any idea how much she hated conceding even that one point to him? That even with his whisker-stubbled cheeks ruddy from wind, he was still one of the finest-looking men she’d ever known? “You do realize that every second you keep us out here arguing is only making us both colder?”
Lord, how she hated to admit it, but he had a point. And it’d literally been years since she’d had buttery seafood. What the heck? If he was buying... After the bombshell he’d dropped on her that morning, the very least he owed her was a free meal.
“Fine,” she said from between gritted teeth—they were chattering from the cold. “Want me to get you anything to drink?”
“Spiked coffee.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Millie sat in a toasty booth, sipping from her own sinfully rich Bailey’s and coffee. If only for a moment, she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled.
Everything would be okay.
She wasn’t sure how, but she’d come too far to give up now. She and the kids and Clint had survived—even if not thrived, exactly—on their own, and despite Cooper’s presence, she’d continue the tradition. She was a strong, capable woman and—
From the restaurant’s entry, she watched Cooper approach.
Her mouth went dry and her pulse raced.
For a man to look so good ought to be criminal. Beneath his battered cowboy hat, even with his lips pressed into a thin, cranky line, he looked just as good back when she’d worshipped him in their high school cafeteria as he did now.
“Damn...” He eased into the booth and took off his hat to set beside him. “I’ll bet the temp dropped twenty degrees just in the time it took me to walk across the parking lot. This mine?” He eyed his still-steaming mug.
She nodded.
He took a sip and groaned. The way he’d arched his head back and closed his eyes left her squirming. Did he have to make plain old coffee-drinking look obscene?
The waitress came and went, and while Cooper ate his weight in Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Millie picked at her Caesar salad.
“Something wrong with your food?”
“Not at all.” Unless she paid attention to how much female consideration her brother-in-law unwittingly garnished. While he focused on food, at least a dozen hungry-eyed ladies apparently craved him! A fact that shouldn’t have even bothered her, but did. Chalk it up to just one more reason why the sooner Cooper returned to his self-imposed exile, the better off they’d all be.
After a fortifying sip of her coffee, she picked up where they’d last left off on their meaningful conversation. “Did Jim tell you why?”