Chapter 3
Chapter Three
“ U ncle Coop? Uncle Coop? I need a Band-Aid!” Little Mina ran in, her finger held in the air.
“What did you do, girl?” He pulled the My Little Pony bandages out of the first aid cabinet. He also had Hulk ones, Spiderman ones, and neon-colored-y ones. He’d learned about the importance of options.
“Johnny bited me.”
“Bit.”
“Johnny bit-ted me.”
“John Whitehead, get your butt in here.” He didn’t allow hitting, biting, spitting, or pinching. It was a thing. He checked the toothmarks on the little finger, finding he hadn’t even broken the skin. Still, the bandage wouldn’t hurt anything, so he’d just put it on.
“Uncle! I didn’t mean to—” Where Mina was dark-headed, Johnny was about as tow-headed as they came, dark eyes shining.
He held one hand up, cutting the little boy off. “What does the sign say?”
He pointed to the sign on the wall, the words big and bold.
Johnny sighed dramatically. “No biting. No hitting. No spitting. No pinching. No lying.”
Coop had been forced to reprint the sign twice in the last six months. He’d learned that he had to be super specific for the under-thirteen set.
Sometimes he had to be super clear with the over-thirteen set.
“Apologize to your sister.”
“Sorry, Mina.”
“Good job. Your homework done?” Johnny was his good boy, on that front, and he knew it. In fact, he’d skipped two grades and was in the same grade as Mason. Thank the Lord there were enough students for two classes, at least for the most part.
Mason was way more of a hammer than a nail.
“Yes, sir! I am ready for robotics!”
He nodded. “Ricky’s fixin’ to take you to that, Lucy to 4-H, and he’s going to guitar. I’m going to take Mason to football practice and Mina to?—”
“Girl Scouts!” she cheered.
“Yes.” The Girl Scouts met at the Methodist church down by the football field, but 4-H, robotics, and guitar were all at the school. “Y’all all get ready so we can go.”
He heard the clomping of crutches, as he closed the cabinet door, and he nodded to Benji.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Uncle. How’s it going? How can I help?” Benji always looked just about wiped after physical therapy, but Coop could tell it was doing a lot of good.
“I don’t know. You feel up to fixin’ supper? We’ll all be home about six thirty, and I’d love to come home to food.” He was trying hard to help Benji find ways to be useful, and he wanted the kid to learn some basic skills—cooking, cleaning, leatherworking.
Anything.
“I can do that. Hashbrown casserole and chicken sausages?”
He nodded. “Add a can of green beans and that’ll work.”
Benji rolled his eyes. “You and your green vegetables.”
“Nutrition is important.” He didn’t question that a bit. A body needed good things to keep it going. Hash brown casserole was yummy, but it wasn’t particularly healthy, even with a can of green chile in half of it for him and Benji and Ricky.
“Yeah, yeah.” Benji chuckled. “Green beans it is. Two cans, since there are so many of us.”
“Right.” Lord, these kids could go through some food. His days of eating green beans out of the can with a grocery store container of sushi were gone. “Come on, guys. We need to mount up!” He taped a Band-Aid around Mina’s finger, and kids came flying in from everywhere.
Which was when he heard a pickup truck pulling up out in the yard, gravel crunching. Shit. He didn’t have time for this.
“Ricky! Get moving with your bunch.”
“Yessir.”
He went to the door to run off whoever it was until supper, or ask them to hang out with Benji, but it was a brand-new truck that looked like a rental, judging from the sticker on the windshield, and he didn’t know the guy who stepped out of the driver’s side.
He knew it wasn’t social services at least, since Jen was the one who worked their county.
So he headed out onto the porch, staring. “Can I help you?”
“Coop?” The guy had on sunglasses, but there was something familiar about him. “Cooper Adams? ”
“That’s me.” He squinted, trying to see better, which was stupid. Sunglasses.
The man took them off, those dark-as-sin Whitehead eyes staring at him. “Hey. Brooks Whitehead. We met at nationals a couple of times.”
If his teeth hadn’t been attached, they would have fallen right out of his mouth.
“What the—” Coop cleared his throat. “Well—” He had to hop to one side when Ricky thundered out, followed by Johnny, and Lucy.
“See you in a bit, Uncle Coop.”
“You drive safe, you hear me?”
“Yessir!” Ricky nodded at Brooks Whitehead as if he didn’t know him, then got the other two into the ratty old ranch truck and headed off.
“Uncle Coop!” Mina skipped out, holding her backpack. “I’m ready to go to Girl Scouts!”
“Sorry, Uncle Coop, but now I found my shoes.” Mason scurried out.
Both kids looked curiously at Brooks Whitehead. “Who is this?” Mina asked.
“I’m gonna have to take these two to activities. Benji is inside. Go easy.” He jerked his chin toward the kitchen door behind him. “Come on, kids.”
“Wait, that wasn’t Benji? Where is everyone going?” Brooks asked.
“Ricky, Johnny, and Lucy are going to the school to do activities. I’m dropping this one off for Girl Scouts and that one for football. See you for supper at six thirty. You can help Benji cook.” He walked away, because otherwise he was gonna deck this guy.
Six months. Six months this guy had taken to show up when Benji had been hurt so bad all he could do was lie in bed and moan and these kids had lost their parents and? —
He took a deep breath, getting Mina in her car seat.
“Is that a friend of yours, Uncle Coop?”
“He’s a friend of the family.” He would let Benji explain to them when it was time. But for now, the kids needed to go have fun and not worry about this shit.
He popped in one of his earphones as soon as he was in the truck and started it up.
Then he dialed Kase. Ryder tended to be out and about on the ranch, but Kase was the one who did the work in the office.
It was early enough that they wouldn’t be closing down for supper or anything quite yet.
It was still homework and organizing for all the kids.
“Coop. ’Sup.” Kase chuckled. “Hold up. No, sir. You pass that math test tomorrow, then you can talk about going to the football game Friday night. Not before. Sorry, I’m back. What you need?”
“I got company over to the house. I’m having to run the kids out and about, so Benji’s alone with him.”
“‘Him’?” Kase must have gone into another room, because it got quiet.
“Brooks Whitehead.”
“Oh boy.”
“Yeah, I know?—”
“Uncle Coop, my last name is Whitehead!” Mina crowed.
“Is he a relative?” Mason looked over at him, eyes dancing with curiosity. “I don’t know him.”
“Yeah. Yeah, family friend. It’s no big, I’m just letting Mr. Kase get caught up on the gossip.” Not to mention they ought to figure out if he needed to go over there and check on Benji, who was still on crutches and needed help, and Coop had to get these kids moving.
Mason wasn’t allowed to miss too many practices, or he didn’t get to play in his little junior league team, and God knew if Mina missed Girl Scouts then she wasn’t going to get to go to the Halloween party.
The world might end, and he would kill someone if that little girl didn’t get to go to her damn Halloween party.
They’d been planning during meetings for a month.
“You want me to go over and check on them? I can totally step in just so I can take them some salad or a pie. Would you like a pie?”
He huffed out a relieved breath. “That would be a blessing. I can pick Nell up and take her to Girl Scouts and bring her home so you don’t have to.”
“Nell! My best friend!” Mina bounced in her little chair.
“No problem.”
“That would be an honest blessing, and it would help me out a lot.”
“That works for me. Nell! Mr. Coop’s taking you to Daisies”
He heard her squeal. “With Mina?”
“With Mina. Get your vest on. I see his truck. I’ll grab your car seat.”
God, there were so many moving parts to this whole…parent thing. Coop had hit the ground running, and thank God Ryder and Kase had been there to help or he’d have drowned under the sheer weight of paperwork.
He pulled in front of the main house, put the truck in park.
“Am I going to be on time, Uncle?” Mason asked, and he nodded.
“I got this. I’ll drop you off first.”
He hopped out to help get Nell’s car seat in. “Thanks for this, Kase.”
“No problem, no problem. Just remember, you’re good. You got this. Benji managed just fine for damn near a year.”
“Uh-huh.” That kid had figured out how not to manage for another for six months now, and he was itching to get back to being a normal nineteen-year-old guy out on the road.
It was burning his butt that he had to wait until the spring.
“Come on, Miss Nell.” He found a smile for Kase.
“I got to drop everybody off, and then I have an hour before I start the picking-up process, then I’ll bring her home. ”
Kase clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, why don’t you spend that hour getting a cup of coffee.
Just think, you could be by yourself, all alone.
It’ll do you some good. You went from zero to ten thousand in about one night, so why don’t you go get yourself a cup of coffee and breathe?
I’ll go take a pie and a salad over to the house and check on your oldest.”
“I’d appreciate the heck out of that, sir. Honest to God. I’ll get her to Girl Scouts and get her home.”
“Thanks. Tell Miss Carrie that she can use our building for the Halloween party, if she wants.”
“Will do. Does Dani need a ride to 4-H?”
“She went with Naomi, but thanks.”
“Good deal.” He hopped back in the truck. “Football practice, ho!”
“Hooray!” the little girls cheered, and he shook his head.
Maybe he ought to stop and get him that coffee.