Epilogue One
Isla
“PUT THE CANE down.” Isla gave Muriel a stern glare. “You promised.”
Muriel scowled at the ranch hand dancing beside their table, a local woman in his arms. “That one looks familiar.”
“I don’t care.” Isla kept her voice calm but firm. “No assault tonight.”
Muriel huffed out an indignant grunt. “Shoulda never made that promise.”
“Probably not, but it’s too late now.” Cooper tipped back a sip of his beer, eyes moving around the bar. “Seems busier in here than usual.”
“It always seems busy here.” Isla scooted a little closer to Cooper as the dance floor overflow encroached on their corner of The Creekery. She still wasn’t a huge fan of going out—she much preferred evenings on the couch with her husband—but it was tolerable.
As long as Cooper came along. Her days of going without him were over. Especially when she was on Bridge Bitch sitting duty, like she was tonight.
The girls put their heads together, voices going low as they discussed God only knew what. Probably some scheme that would end up cutting their night short. Cooper never needed much of an excuse to drag everyone home.
Because he loved snuggling on the couch as much as she did.
“How are you doing, Princess?” He brushed her hair back, leaning in to press a kiss just below her ear. “You hanging in there?”
“I’m okay.” She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Just tired. It’s past my bedtime.”
She’d gotten as used to being married to a cop as anyone ever could, but the hours Cooper worked would still take some adjustment. He took on fewer extra shifts, but he’d worked varied shifts for so long, he was used to it. They decided he might as well stick with them until there was a reason to try to change.
And considering Grady just snagged the most recent first shift opening, they probably had to wait anyway.
“That’s what happens when I come home to you looking so irresistible.” Cooper pulled her as close as she could get without ending up in his lap. “We end up staying up way too late.”
She snorted out a laugh. “I was in sweatpants and a ratty T-shirt with unwashed hair.”
“Like I said.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Irresistible.”
It was almost wild to remember a time when she felt less than desirable. Unsexy and unappealing. In the six months they’d been together, there wasn’t a single day that she wondered if Cooper found her attractive. Wasn’t a single moment she could think of when he wouldn’t take any opportunity to ask her the age-old question…
Hands or mouth?
She’d become a fan of both.
“I know that look.” Cooper’s voice was a deep rumble as he leaned into her ear, one hand sliding along her thigh, creeping higher. “Should we sneak out to my truck for a few minutes? I’m sure the girls will survive alone while I?—”
“Don’t you think we don’t know who you are.” Gertrude was the one glaring at the cowboy from earlier now. “You’ve got some balls showing your face in this town again.”
Cooper sighed, his shoulders dropping a little as he stood. “I got it.”
Rounding the table, he put himself between Gertrude and the ranch hand, backing the younger man away as the girls continued hurling insults at him. With all of them going, they managed to simultaneously question the size of his manhood, infer he couldn’t identify female anatomy, suggest he lacked the skill set to tell the difference between a hole in the ground and his anus, and offer to stick a barstool up his butt.
Not that he’d see it coming since they claimed he didn’t know where it was anyway.
Cooper turned as he ushered the man away, giving them a stern look.
Muriel slouched down in her seat, a frowning pout pinching her mouth. “Shoulda hit him when I had the chance.” She pointed at Isla. “I’m not making you promises any more.”
She sighed, taking a drink of her cola as she watched the man walk away. The girls seemed to think they knew who he was, but she’d never seen him before. He wasn’t bad looking. He was no Cooper, but lots of women probably found him appealing. Especially in Wranglers and a hat. “Who is that guy?”
The girls exchanged a look. Eventually Betty piped up. “He screwed over a friend of ours.”
“Literally.” Helen looked down at her empty glass. “How much trouble do you think I’d get in with Paige if I threw this at him?”
“You’d get in trouble with me if you missed him and hit Cooper.” Isla’s voice was sharp. A little threatening.
And it had all the eyes at the table swinging her way.
“Damn.” Helen lifted her brows. “I was just asking.”
“Then keep it just asking.” Isla loved the girls—that’s the only reason she was there—but no one fucked with Cooper. He’d been through so much. Still struggled with everything that happened that night she could have lost him. No way would she let anyone hurt him.
That’s part of why she was keeping her eyes on him and that cowboy. She might not know who he was, but the girls’ dislike of him had her feeling uneasy. “I’m going to go make sure everything’s okay.”
Sliding off her stool, Isla cut through the crowd, watching Cooper so intently she didn’t notice someone else was working their way to the same spot.
She was closing in on where her husband stood, when someone cut her off. Someone tall.
Someone loud.
“You motherfucking piece of shit.” Janie Peters screamed at the top of her lungs as she went at the ranch hand, catching him fully off-guard.
He wasn’t the only one surprised. Cooper’s expression was filled with shock as his friend’s wife swung on the cowboy he’d been trying to coax out of the bar. Her fist wasn’t big, but the woman packed one hell of a punch. When it connected, the ranch hand’s face snapped to the side. He went down like a sack of potatoes, hitting the sticky floor with a heavy thump that seemed to echo through the suddenly quiet bar.
Janie stood over him, a smug look of satisfaction on her face. “That’s for Mariah, you dick.”
Who in the world was Mariah and how was she connected to this guy?
“Yeah,” Murial butted in, joining Janie in taunting the man as he groaned on the ground. “Shoulda kept that needle dick in your jeans.” She lifted her head and her voice, announcing to the crowd, “I have on good authority he has a tiny dick, ladies.”
Betty bumped in beside her, yelling at the top of her lungs, “And he doesn’t know where the clit is.”
“What in the hell is going on?” Leland pushed through, stopping short just before stepping on the downed ranch hand. His eyes went to Janie. “What did you do?”
“Wasn’t her.” Gertrude lifted her chin, shoulders squaring. “It was me. I confess.”
Cooper scrubbed one hand down his face. “There’s a whole bar full of witnesses who saw what happened. You can’t make a false confession.”
“It’s not false,” Gertrude argued back. “I decked that sucker right in his dumb face.”
“No she didn’t.” Betty held both hands out. “It was me. I did it.” She gave Leland a wink. “Cuff me.”
How did she ever think coming to Moss Creek would be calmer than living in New York? Because it was wild here.
Devon Peters was the next police officer to arrive. His eyes landed on where his wife stood.
“You’re too late. She already got her swing in.” Cooper crouched down as the ranch hand tried to sit up, offering support to keep him upright.
“I’m not here to stop her.” He turned to Leland. “I’m here to bail her out once you do what you need to do.”
“Fucking hell.” Leland blew out an aggravated sigh as he turned to Janie. “Why’d you have to pull this shit on my shift?”
Janie started to respond, but Gertrude cut her off. “She doesn’t know what you’re talking about because she didn’t do anything.” She gave Janie a pointed look. Like she genuinely thought they could get her out of this.
Janie didn’t seem to worried about it. Heck, from what she’d heard it sounded like she’d warned her husband. And the smile on Janie’s face as the cowboy’s face started to swell made it seem like she thought it was worth it.
And maybe it was.
As expected, Leland had to arrest Janie. He didn’t cuff her—she went more than willingly—but he did have a hell of a time wrangling the girls. When they’d realized they couldn’t spare Janie a trip to the station, they’d started fighting over who got to be her ‘bail money bitch’.
Apparently that was a position of great prestige.
On the plus side, the whole thing meant everyone decided to go home early. And after dropping the girls off at the station so they could pay for Janie’s release, she finally managed to be piled up in her pajamas next to her husband on the giant couch in their living room.
Curling up next to him as he started their most recent series obsession, Love on the Spectrum , Isla sighed. “I think we’re going to have to tap out of taking the girls to the bar.”
“Agreed.” Cooper tucked her closer. “They don’t need a designated driver.” He flashed her a dimpled grin. “They need a bouncer.”