Chapter 5
Chapter Five
She had run from him like she was afraid of him. And that really sucked.
He hadn’t intended on getting into a compromising position with Eliana, that had been accidental. He didn’t think crystals had anything to do with it, however. He shoved his hand into his pocket.
He had given it a couple of days to breathe.
He moved his hand away from the crystals. It was stupid that they were still there. Stupid that he was hanging onto them like a talisman.
But…
God damn.
That girl was something. She was really something.
He’d lied to her that night at the ranch. He remembered when the horses had gotten out, and she’d helped him track them down. He remembered standing with her as the sun went down and looking right into her eyes, and wanting.
He’d wanted to kiss her. He very nearly had.
It was only thinking about what he could offer her after – nothing – that had stopped him.
And she had him… Twisted up.
The problem was, she’d had him that way for way too long. God. If Marcus had any idea…
The real trouble was, he’d dreamed of her the night that he’d caught her in the wagon.
And it had been a hot dream.
She’d been begging him to break the curse.
With his… magic wand.
He made a short, sharp sound in the back of his throat and then looked down in the straw. He frowned when he saw something glimmering there. He bent down and lifted a necklace that was partially obscured by dirt and straw.
It was Eliana’s. She must have lost it getting into the wagon the other night.
He had it held up in the light when he heard footsteps and turned to see his brother walking toward him.
Great. He really didn’t want to deal with Hank right now.
“Hey. What’s… that?”
“It’s Eliana’s necklace, she must have lost it here the other night.”
Hank looked way too interested in that. “Oh?”
His brother was far too insightful about all of this, and it bothered him. He was committed to not reacting because if he didn’t react, then Hank couldn’t know for sure if Cooper had feelings for her.
It was just that Hank seemed to be maniacally certain, and that was just annoying.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”
“I was thinking that you were just being kind and returning the necklace to her,” he said, his tone innocent.
Cooper narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Yeah, I’m known for that. Almost as much as you are.”
“I’m very nice. Haven’t you heard? It’s part of my lore. I’m the nicest man in town.” He forced a wide smile, and his brother rocked back on his heels and laughed so hard that Cooper thought he was going to burst a blood vessel.
“Careful, old man,” he said. “You’re liable to tip a tractor over onto yourself.”
“Coop,” Hank said. “I’m not going to die until I’m at least the age Dad was. So. Next year.”
That was sobering. They often used dark humor to cope with the difficulties in their life, but realizing that his brother was coming up on the same age that their dad had been when he died made him feel… A lot. Just a lot of things.
And he chose not to hyperfocus on it. Not now.
“I’m doing this for us,” he said.
“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with you doing it for you,” Hank pointed out. Cooper stopped. “What do you mean by that?”
“It’s just you, Coop. Everything you do seems to have to serve some kind of greater good. Or you have to be doing it right, or all for the best, and what if you were just doing it because you like her? Because you think she’s pretty.”
“I… I can’t do anything about it.”
“Is your penis broken?”
Cooper stared at his brother, slack-jawed. “No, thank you. Works just fine. I used it about a month ago.”
Hank pulled a face. “A month. Damn, buddy.”
“Self-serve doesn’t count.”
“Okay,” Hank said. “I’m not asking for a dissertation on the history of your orgasms. But, I am saying, if you like her, you could do something about it.”
“No. I can’t, because I don’t intend on getting married or having a family or anything like that.”
“What does that have to do with having a good time?”
“I cannot have a good time with my best friend’s little sister.”
Who is a virgin. Who thinks she’s cursed. He didn’t finish that sentence.
“Why not?”
“You know perfectly well why not. What would you do if one of your friends hooked up with Lindsay?”
Hank scowled. “Well. One of my friends, I’d murder, because they’re ten years older than her.”
“Fair.”
“You’re not ten years older than Eliana. And you hang out with her more than you hang out with Marcus anymore. She’s practically your friend.”
“Yeah. Fair enough. But that doesn’t make her any more of a reasonable hook-up.”
“Because?”
“Because, what’s the point of wrecking a good relationship with sex?”
“Again, is your penis broken?”
“Stop saying penis.”
“I don’t see why it would ruin the relationship if she knew exactly what you were doing. There’s nothing wrong with just having fun, that’s actually my point, that’s the point I’m trying to make, and I can make it without saying penis, I guess.”
“You just said it again.”
“Have fun, Cooper. Kiss a girl because you think she’s pretty. Not because you think it contributes to some greater good.”
“You should talk, Hank. The only thing you do is stuff that might benefit the ranch.”
“You don’t know what I do in my spare time.”
That rocked him. He stared at his older brother. They pretty much lived on top of each other, so he always had the feeling that he knew exactly what Hank was up to at any given time.
The idea that he might not was… Well. He didn’t like it. He really didn’t like it.
“What do I not know about you?”
“Don’t worry about it. Worry a lot more about doing something that I don’t know about. Little brother, you’ve gotten boring.”
“I’m not… What?”
“I love you. But, come on. You need to get your life together. And if Eliana Sanderson is into you, then maybe you should see where that goes.”
“I already told you–”
“Yeah. I know. Cooper, there’s always a million reasons not to do something, and oftentimes a tractor accident that you didn’t know was going to happen coming your way. So I think in the end, you have to decide… what kind of life do you want to live?”
“One where I’m not killed by a tractor.”
Hank chuckled. “All right. That’s fair enough. I’ll be honest with you, though, I don’t think you would be. You’re a good guy. A lot of women would be lucky to have you.”
“That’s almost nice, Hank, and a little unnerving.”
“I’m nice.”
Cooper shook his head, and got up into the truck. “I’ll see you later.”
He didn’t like that his attraction to Eliana was so obvious to Hank, but he had to hope that Hank was the only person it was obvious to.
Of course, driving her necklace directly into town the minute he found it as an excuse to make contact with her after that awkward moment the other night didn’t really make a case against that attraction.
He did his best to keep his thoughts tightly collected while he drove down to town.
He parked his truck at the curb near the path to The Water Witch, then walked down the path and into the shop, where he heard Eliana talking enthusiastically to a customer.
It took him a second to realize that she was actually doing a tarot reading back in her fortune-telling room.
“I know The Tower is a really confronting card, but a lot of times we get it when our life is filled with things that aren’t serving us.
And sometimes it can feel really destabilizing, because we were living in The Tower, but nothing falls away that we were meant to keep. ”
He could hear the stress in the other woman’s voice, and the relentless calm in Eliana’s.
He wondered if she really believed that.
Not just what she was saying about The Tower, and about things in your life falling away that you didn’t need, but if she really believed that the cards had something to tell her.
He looked around the room, at all the color-coordinated displays. Crystals and tarot decks, plants and bundles of herbs he couldn’t identify.
It was packed, but cheery. Maximalist and beautiful. Somehow very Eliana.
The women who had been in the reading walked out of the room, then out of the store, before Eliana popped out behind them and watched them leave. She had a surprised look on her face. “Oh. What are you doing here?”
“You left something at the ranch.”
“I did?”
“Yeah.” He was reaching into his pocket for the necklace as he continued speaking. “Didn’t sound like a very fun reading.”
“Eh. It wasn’t the cheeriest. I’ve gotten to the point where pulling big cards doesn’t really scare me, but then, I pull them a lot, so the thing about doing a daily draw is The Tower can mean your to-do list isn’t going to get done, you know?
But when you’re doing sort of bigger questions, The Tower can have more intense implications. ”
“And do you really believe in all that?”
“Generally speaking. Although I think the cards are about following your own intuition.”
“Not like communing with the spirit?”
“Me personally? No. I think it’s me tapping into a feeling about what’s happening in the universe.
In the world around me. And that’s where that knowing comes in.
And I can do it for other people, too. But it’s all infinite probabilities and possibilities, because somebody could make the decision to change their whole life tomorrow, and it wouldn’t necessarily be because I pulled The Tower card for them.
Though it might be, it might be because it made them think about the things in their life that needed to fall away.
You always have agency, that’s the thing. ”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“But, whenever somebody wants a reading to make them feel better – and doesn’t everybody want one for that reason? – I really hate having to navigate around sticky cards. Some people are ready for it. And some people really aren’t.”
“You said that only the things you don’t need fall away. Do you really believe that?”