Page 22 of This Time Around
Nine
Rebecca
My stomach churned and in my throat, I tasted a knot of unease that made swallowing difficult.Despite my earlier summoned desire to start living again, that fled as soon as I opened the door for Cooper.
He was wearing jeans and a navy blue T-shirt that fit him so well they could have been painted on him.I scarcely had the time to take in the sandy blond wig he was wearing under his blue KU hat before I forced myself to look away from him.
Even the ridiculous wig made him look good and it wasn’t the first time I noticed he was attractive, it was just the first time I had difficulty forgetting it.
“Hey,” I practically croaked.“Ready?”
His gaze dipped down the length of my body and quickly lifted.A trail of heat flickered down my spine at his quick perusal.
My hands shook as I grabbed my keys from my purse.
He cleared his throat.“I am.You okay?”
There was no honest answer I could give him.
No.I didn’t think I was okay in the slightest and only part of the butterflies swarming my stomach had anything to do with what I was about to face once we stepped into The Tavern.
I barely remembered the drive into town, the tunes from the country station filtering through the radio, and the lights of the street giving me a path I could drive with my eyes closed.
Nope.I was swarmed with the strange, hot sensation of Cooper next to me in my truck.His tanned, strong hands thumping to the beat of the songs on his thigh that occasionally bounced up and down.His cologne or aftershave or whatever he used smelled so good I continued fighting against taking a deep inhale just to soak that scent into my veins.
None of it felt right in the least, so by the time I managed to throw the gear shift into park after I pulled into a parking spot, I was one-half second away from throwing it back into reverse and peeling out of there.
One second, my hands were wrapped around the keys still in the ignition, and the next moment, a blast of heat covered my hand, twisted it and pulled it back.
The heat evaporated, my hand fell lamely to my lap, and my head twisted.“What was that for?”
Cooper dangled the keys in the air and flipped them into his fist.“Go.I’ll come back and get you later, but you’re obviously uncomfortable with walking into that bar with me and I’m not going to press it anymore.”
Oh, damn.That was nice of him.“That’s not what I was thinking.”Not fully anyway.
“Then what is it?And don’t say nothing,” he said when I opened my mouth to speak.“You’ve barely said three words to me since I stopped by your place and those were mostly mumbles.Talk to me.”
“Everyone will look at us, and I’m not lying when I say everyone, and part of that problem is that Joseph was really loved in this town, and my family…well, not everyone liked my family, Mom in particular.And since they passed, there’s been a lot of people who want my land to become their land.”It was the most I could give him, and yet it was only half-truth, but I still wasn’t lying.The Jeffersons had been after my land, trying to get me to sell it to them since Mom and Dad died, but they’d been forceful since Joseph.They were causing headaches I didn’t have the headspace for, and I knew without one single shred of doubt, that Gavin Jefferson would be inside The Tavern, huddled around a pool table, thinking he owned everything in Carlton like he’d been doing since he was old enough to be in that bar.
We had two hundred acres.They had three, and they wanted three to become five by taking my land and my ranch.I more than suspected some of the issues I had this year came from them.
I hadn’t even thought of most of that until I pulled in and caught a glimpse of Gavin’s Dodge Ram, mostly because I’d been so consumed with ignoring how good it felt to be heading into town with Cooper.
I shook my head, tried forcing outallmy thoughts of Cooper and turned to him.In the dark of the truck, the only light came in through the parking lot lights shining through my windshield, his eyes were mostly shaded over, hidden by the bill of his hat.
“Plus there’s everything I gave you earlier, about the gossip.I just have a lot on my mind, Cooper.”And no one to unload it on who’d be able to do anything about it.
“Okay.So, we go in there, you get as drunk as you need to so you can get through this.You and I hang out with Brooke, you tell her whatever you need to about me.I trust you to do whatever you think is best with that.I’ll drive you home, and then later,” he leaned in, and good gracious he smelled good.Minty, clean, that waft of delicious spice from his cologne or body wash, and I almost missed what he said next because his voice was quiet and my brain was clouded.“Tomorrow, you’ll tell me everything about how there’s even a chance you’re going to lose your land, and we’ll figure it out.”
We’ll figure it out.
He sounded so confident, looked so serious, I couldn’t think of an argument.
“Okay.”
His lips lifted and the cloudiness in my brain fizzled down my spine.“Good.Ready?”
“Yeah.”
