Chapter 3
3
Isla
SHE MIGHT HAVE overreacted a little to the hoof trimming. May have been just a tiny bit dramatic in her accusations—both the ones she voiced and the ones she kept to herself.
No toes were cut off and—as promised—the goats didn’t even seem to notice the hoof trimming. They just dangled from the sling, looking confused over how they came to be hovering mid-air as she gave them their pedicures.
“Great job.” Cooper watched as she finished with the last of the herd, trimming the slight overgrowth before nipping any excess off the front edge. “You’re a natural.”
She tried not to preen under his praise, but gosh it was hard not to let it go to her head. Eric hadn’t been one to dish out compliments. She’d always chalked it up to how stressed and exhausted he was from the pressures of medical school. Now she knew it was because he simply didn’t think she was that great.
That discovery knocked her self-esteem down a few pegs, so having a man like Cooper—someone grown and gorgeous—offering up positive reinforcement was pretty darn affecting.
In lots of ways.
“Thanks.” Isla kept her eyes on her task, hoping he attributed her flushed cheeks to the work they were doing instead of his proximity and approval.
She chewed her lower lip, trying to think of something to say to him. She’d never been one to flirt. It was one of many skills she—obviously—lacked.
Not that she was planning to flirt with Cooper. That would be ridiculous. Men like him—with careers and dimples and adult lives—wouldn’t have any interest in someone like her. Heck, the man probably had a wife and children at home.
Her eyes went to his left hand, lingering a second on his bare ring finger.
So maybe not a wife, but a girlfriend. Someone surely locked him down long ago. Grabbed on and held tight with both hands.
Someone educated. Someone driven. Someone sexy.
Someone the opposite of her.
“Well done.” Cooper gave her shoulder a gentle slap as she finished—the kind he’d give Grady—then he went to work lowering the last of the goats. “And no one tried to bite you.”
Her eyes widened. “Do they normally bite when you do this?”
“I guess it depends on the goat.” He opened the gate on the enclosure, letting the last victim out to join the rest of the herd. “And who’s doing the trimming.” He gave her a wink that made her belly flip. “I bet I would have ended up with a few teeth marks I’d have a hard time explaining.”
Her already warm cheeks flamed. Because she was a dirty, dirty girl with more pent up sexual frustration than she knew what to do with. “I can see how that could be a problem.”
It was sure a problem for her right now.
Cooper laughed, the sound deep and rich as he collected the sharps container and empty vials and exited the small enclosure. “To be fair, in my line of work I get bit a little more regularly than most people.”
She followed behind him, bringing along the trimmers. “What is it you do?”
“I work with Grady.” He led her back the way they’d come, going into the main portion of the barn where the horse stalls and tack room were. “Keeping the troublemakers of Moss Creek in line.” His gray eyes came her way, sparking with humor. “I’m a little surprised our paths haven’t crossed before.”
She couldn’t help laughing. Even though he was teasing, it was still hilarious. “I’ve never been in trouble in my life.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration. In school she’d never so much as had detention. She’d never been written up at a job. Never been lectured by her parents. She wasn’t a rebel or a risk taker, and she didn’t buck authority or rock the boat. She just did what she was supposed to. Made plans and schedules and did her best to color within the lines.
“I wasn’t talking about you.” He tucked the red container of used syringes into a large black tote bag then turned to face her. “I figured by now you’d been conned into driving around the Bridge Bitches for their weekly girls’ night at The Creekery.”
Her cheeks flushed again, eyes dropping to the dirt floor. “Umm.” She shouldn’t care what Cooper thought of her. It’s not like it mattered. But admitting one of her many lacks to him was almost painful. “I actually can’t drive.”
She braced, expecting him to laugh at her. Maybe make a thinly-veiled jab at her failure to claim a right of passage most people couldn’t wait to reach.
But Cooper didn’t seem fazed by her admission. “Makes sense considering where you lived before coming here. Probably didn’t need to drive.”
She blinked, just as confused by his reaction as she was the reason for it. “How do you know where I lived before coming here?”
Cooper stilled for a second before going back to the task of packing his bag of tools. “Grady mentioned it.”
“Oh.” That made sense. They were friends and worked together. No doubt they talked about lots of irrelevant things. “Yeah. I pretty much lived in either a college town or the city, so I could normally walk wherever I wanted to go.”
Or Eric would drive her.
For some reason she didn’t want to mention her ex-almost-fiancé to Cooper. Didn’t want him to know how stupid she’d been. How clueless she was about the man she thought would be in her life forever.
“I thought since I’d be living downtown, I’d still be fine. But it’s not quite as convenient as I expected.”
She’d been holding that admission in since her second week in town. After facing so many bad decisions, dealing with yet another one had been more than she could handle. Her brain compensated by simply deciding to pretend everything was fine. That it wasn’t a big deal to have Grady pick her up in the mornings and Evelyn drive her back in the evenings. And it wasn’t.
But the weekends were getting real freaking long.
“I would guess downtown Moss Creek doesn’t have quite as much going on as New York.” Cooper’s tone remained neutral, but the flash of a dimple gave away his sarcasm.
“I mean…” She tucked both hands into the front pocket of her hoodie to stop herself from fidgeting. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between them.” She held her breath, hoping he might laugh. The sound of it was a little addicting. Almost as much as being the one to make it happen.
He didn’t disappoint her.
Cooper’s chuckle rippled through her insides, warming them up like a hot cup of coffee. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”
Her eyes accidentally dipped, taking in the bulk of the grown man in front of her. He was older than her—by how much she couldn’t begin to guess—so it was easy to assume he had his life together. Had experienced all kinds of things she hadn’t. But maybe that wasn’t entirely true. “You’ve never been to New York?”
“No.” He clicked his tongue. “Don’t really have a burning desire to go either.”
“Not interested in becoming a city boy?” She honestly couldn’t really picture him as one. She didn’t know him well—at all really—but Cooper seemed to fit perfectly into this world of horses and barns and Wranglers with boots.
“Not even a little.” Cooper’s focus came to her, zeroing in. “What about you, Miss Isla? Are you still a city girl at heart, or is this place growing on you?”
She got a little flustered at having all his attention on her, and it made her brain stall out. Sent his question falling right out of her head. “Umm.”
Luckily Cooper didn’t seem worried about getting an answer. He continued on, “I’m going to make a prediction.” He finally turned away, giving her the chance to breathe while he zipped up his bag. “I bet in three months time you’ll decide to stay here permanently.”
Three months? “That’s pretty fast.”
Cooper picked up his bag, slinging it over one shoulder. “When something’s right, the timing doesn’t really matter.”
He was talking about her decision to stay in Moss Creek, but the words applied to other areas of her life too. She could have used that advice years ago. “I’ll remember that.”
“Good.” He reached up to tip the bill of his ball cap. “It was nice meeting you, Isla.”
Again, her brain stumbled. No man had ever said her name the way he did. The drawl he spoke with seemed to get a little tangled on the Is- bit at the beginning, dragging it out almost seductively. Funny, considering how unseductive the rest of her was. Reportedly.
“It was nice to meet you, Cooper.” She held out one hand, because that’s what people did in a situation like this, right? They shook hands. It was expected. Polite.
And not at all done so she could find out if her guesses about the rough warmth of his fingers were correct or not.
Cooper’s eyes dipped to her offering, holding for a second before he shifted on his feet, coming closer as his large hand enveloped hers.
Cheeses on ice, she was right. No soft, slightly sweaty palms on this man. Cooper’s grip was strong but careful. The rasp of his calluses hinted at how willing and capable he was of putting in the hard work living in Moss Creek could require, but the smoothness of his skin made her think he wasn’t above moisturizing.
And that was intriguing. A lot about him was.
“Let me know if there’s ever anything I can do for you.” Cooper slowly pulled his hand from hers, the tips of his fingers dragging across the sensitive skin of her palm as they went. “I’m always happy to help.”
“Oh.” She licked her lips, feeling a little embarrassed as she realized once again she’d been staring at him. “I will. And thank you.”
Her feet stayed frozen in place as he left, giving her a wink before passing out the main door, leaving her alone in the space to think about what she’d done.
“Oh, God.” Dropping down to sit on the same bench Cooper set her on after the goats took her down, Isla caught her head in her hands. He had to think she was ridiculous after the way she acted. The way she stared.
And she probably was. Cooper wasn’t in her league. Hell, they probably weren’t even playing the same freaking game. Even if they were, she was stuck in a time out for the foreseeable future. The rules of play had changed and she didn’t have a clue which end she was running for.
“Fuck my life.” Standing up, she gave her messy bun another tug and headed for the house, cringing a little when she saw the car parked in the driveway. Facing Griselda wasn’t going to make this day any better, but she still had work to do, so it was a necessary evil.
Quietly stepping in the back door just in case Hudson was still sleeping, she slid off her boots and peeled away the bulky hoodie she’d have to wash as soon as she got home.
Tiptoeing through the kitchen, she made her way to Grady and Evelyn’s laundry room since she wasn’t the only one with barn clothes that needed to be cleaned. After changing the load of baby items she’d started that morning to the dryer, Isla filled the washer with the basket of darks Evelyn sorted. She was unendingly grateful that task didn’t fall on her shoulders. Digging through Grady’s underwear would likely make them both a little uncomfortable. As it was, all she had to do was dump and go, never forced to discover if her boss was a boxer man or a brief sort of guy.
She did wonder about Cooper though. Because she was a curious person in addition to being a horny one.
Sex with Eric had never been great, but it was consistently better than the nothing she’d been getting for the past six months. Only slightly, but still. At least she’d gotten some sort of physical contact. Even if she’d been responsible for her own finish ninety-nine percent of the time.
“There you are.”
Isla’s spine straightened at the unexpected voice behind her. Spinning away from the controls of the washing machine, she guiltily met Griselda’s cool gaze, hoping the woman couldn’t tell she’d just been mentally lamenting the loss of a mostly mediocre sex life. “Griselda.” She forced on a smile. “Evelyn said you were coming into town today.”
“I thought it would be nice to get in another visit before the weather started to cool down.” Griselda’s expression remained placid. “I see I waited too long.”
“It does seem to get colder earlier here.” She’d been a little surprised herself when the temperature started dropping the second October hit, dipping down to freezing levels at night. “I’m not sure what to expect for the winter.”
Griselda’s thin lips pressed into a frown. “Expect to be miserable unless you learn to drive. It’s not as easy to get around on foot when it’s below zero.” The older woman poked her right in the sore spot she’d been nursing for years.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to learn to drive. There just hadn’t been a reason for it. Eric had gotten his license when they were sophomores and he always took her wherever she wanted to go while they were in high school. Then he went to college and she followed, working while he took classes. There wasn’t enough money for them to afford two cars anyway, so?—
“I’ll teach you.” Griselda said it like it was a done deal. “There’s no reason for Evelyn and Grady to be driving you around all the time.”
Isla skipped right over the rudeness of the second part of her comment—Grady and Evelyn didn’t mind driving her, and it was none of Griselda’s business even if they did—and went right for the shocking first bit. “You know how to drive?”
Griselda’s spine straightened, her chin tipping high. “Of course I know how to drive.” She looked down her nose at Isla. “And so should you.” She straightened the collar of her blouse before smoothing back her sleek gray hair. “I’ll be at your apartment tomorrow morning at eight sharp.” She turned to walk out, pausing to give Isla a stern look. “Make sure you have everything you need. If we’re not in line for my mocha by eight fifteen, I won’t be happy.”
Her mouth was still hanging open as Griselda disappeared around the corner. She’d been working up the balls to start the process of getting her license. Had even studied for the test she had to take to get her temps. But pulling the trigger on it was more difficult than she expected. Part of her was terrified she’d fail the test and make a total fool of herself yet again.
The other part of her was also terrified she’d fail the test and make a fool of herself yet again.
And now she was going to have to do it in front of the world’s least empathetic woman. At least she’d get a free coffee out of it.
Because Griselda was absolutely paying.