Chapter 4
Chapter Four
B rooks walked into a front room full of chaos.
There were art supplies and stacks of folded clothes. Dogs who were howling and barking at him. A big screen TV playing loud YouTube videos.
And a very grown-up looking Benji standing there, crutches under his arms, mouth wide open. Staring at him.
“Hey, Benji. You remember me? I’m your Uncle Brooks.”
“Brooks?” Benji’s eyes widened, so like his own. “Wow. I—Wow.”
“You want to sit down?” Benji looked like he might fall.
“Thanks.” Benji clumped to the recliner, which he would bet was Coop’s.
“Yeah.” He studied his nephew, who he remembered being a…tween, maybe? “So I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I was in Australia, and I guess no one had my forwarding address.”
“Yeah.” Benji stared at the floor, ears red.
“I heard about your folks from—” He had to stop and swallow, because Andy was gone. Just gone. “A rodeo buddy.”
“Sorry. ”
“You don’t need to apologize to me. I had no idea you kids were on your own or I would have been here right away. And now you’re hurt.”
“Oh, I’m way better.” Benji chuckled. “Though I’m surprised Coop hasn’t killed me.”
“Has he been ugly?”
“No. No, he’d been fab.” Benji looked fierce all of a sudden. “He helped me when I was in the hospital, and he took the kids in, and he’s keeping them when I go back to work.”
“Whoa, whoa, what?” He stared hard at Benji.
Benji lifted his chin in the air. “I’m their legal guardian, and this is my home of record. So they can stay here with Coop.”
“But they don’t need to. I’m here now, Benji.”
“Ben,” Benji snapped.
“Huh?”
“You,” Benji said, leveling a finger at him, “can call me Ben.”
“Okay. Ben.” Jesus. Brooks took a deep breath. “Look, I want to help.”
“That’s nice. Send the kids presents.” That lizard stare shocked him.
“Knock-knock!”
“I’ll get that,” Benji said, heaving up to his crutches.
“I can?—”
“It’s not your house!”
He sank down to sit on the couch, his chest tight. Okay, he was about to get his mad on. Shit, he knew he hadn’t been Johnny-on-the-spot, but he was here, dammit. And he wanted to help. Benji had no cause to be a dick, did he?
Maybe he did, but it still rankled all to hell.
“Hey! How you feeling, Benji?” A cowboy who looked familiar breezed into the house holding a pie in his hands .
“I’m doing good, Mr. Kase. What’s this?”
“Pie. I thought y’all could use one. Well, damn. Brooks Whitehead. Look what the cat dragged in.”
He squinted, and then his eyes went wide. “Kase?”
“Yeah. Good to see you.” Kase went to the kitchen to set down the pie, then came to shake hands. Benji looked on, lips tight, but didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry as hell about Andy and Nora.”
Jesus. It was like a blow to the chest again. “Thanks.”
“What do you care? When was the last time you talked to them?” Benji spat out.
He leveled a finger at Benji. “Don’t you yell at me. You don’t know shit, so you don’t get to holler.”
“I know you didn’t even know! Did you ever even meet Mina?”
“No matter what you might think, kid, I loved my brother. We weren’t always easy, and God knows Nora thought I was a bad influence, but you just?—”
“Hey, now.” Kase held up a hand in both their directions like a traffic cop. “I think you both need to breathe. Who wants something to drink? You want a cup of coffee, Brooks?”
He stared at Benji, who wouldn’t look at him, and blew out a sigh. “If that’s okay with Ben.”
“Sure.” Benji shrugged. “I’ll get a glass of milk.”
“You sit. I’ll get it,” Kase said.
“Okay.” Benji eased back down and glared up at the ceiling. God, he was such a kid still.
Brooks needed to remember that. He had a good twenty years on the guy. It was up to him to be the grown-up.
“Thanks, Kase,” he said when the coffee was handed to him. It had a splash of cream, and he thought back to a hundred crappy truck stops where Kase had seen him open a creamer and pour it into a lousy cup of coffee.
“Sure, man. Anytime.” Kase offered him a smile that was mild as milk.
“So what the fuck are you doing here?” Brooks asked.
“Uh…” Kase shrugged at him, looking confused. “I live here.”
Now it was his turn to be confused. “Are you working for the rodeo?”
“Dude, he owns the rodeo. He’s a Chiara.” Benji rolled his eyes. “Do they not have gossip in Australia?”
“Australia is literally a world away, kid.” And he wasn’t all that into technology. He was a horseman. “And you’re what?”
“It’s a long story, but in short, yeah. I’m married to Ryder.
” Kase grinned and shrugged, and Brooks blinked.
Ryder Vittor was rodeo royalty. Antonia Chiara owned half the damned world, and her ranch and rodeo company were legendary.
“We have four kids that we’ve adopted. We have a bunch of foster kids.
Uh, right now we have six, in fact, all teenagers.
It’s a wild and hairy bunch, but we’re making it work.
So, yeah… Ryder and I are running the ranch, the rodeo company. We’ve partnered with Antonia and Alba.”
Brooks felt a bit like he’d been hit in the head. Maybe he’d been kicked, and he was dead, and he just was making shit up on his way to heaven. More likely he was in a coma.
Because the world had sure as shit changed altogether too much in the last seventy-two hours.
He wasn’t into this.
“Okay.” Brooks tried to keep up. “You have six foster kids, ten kids in your house?”
“No, I’ve got one at USC, my oldest. So there’s only nine right now—Elijah, Dani, Nell, and my six teens.”
His head hurt. “I’m fairly sure that I have lost the thread here.”
Kase gave him the concerned face, all hound dog and sympathy. “It’s probably jet lag. ”
Benji took a deep breath, interrupting. “Look, we’re fine. I’ve talked to Uncle Coop. He’s gonna watch the kids when I’m at work. I really appreciate you coming to make sure that we’re cool, and we are. We’re totally cool. Coop and I have an arrangement.”
Brooks arched an eyebrow at Kase. That sounded like someone was getting screwed, and it had better not be his little nephew. “An arrangement? He’s a guy in his mid-thirties. This kid is eighteen?—”
Benji scowled at him. “Don’t be nasty. I’m nineteen, and I’m not fucking Uncle Coop.”
“You watch your mouth.” Kase stared at Benji with a gaze sharp as scissors. “You might be an adult, but this is Coop’s house, and he doesn’t go for that.”
Benji blew out a hard breath. “I’m sorry. It’s just, that’s nasty. I’m not sleeping with Coop. He’s my friend; he’s my family. He’s the one who’s been here for me. He’s always here for us. He came when I called.”
Oh, now that wasn’t fair. “You didn’t call me.”
Benji leaned forward, the lines around his mouth deepening. “Why would I have called you?”
“I’m your uncle? He was my brother? Does that not count for anything? So we weren’t in each other’s pockets. We grew up together. I loved him.”
“Bullshit! You and he were at each other’s throats all the damn time, the what? Three times you talked in the last eighteen years? You fought when Granny died. You fought about everything. Horses. House. Everything. It isn’t fair.”
“What do you know about fair, kid? That isn’t any of your business!” And if he was ashamed, well that was between him and his God.
“That’s enough.” Kase rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ, you two. You.” He stared at Benji. “You need to watch your mouth and check your attitude. Brooks here just found out he lost his brother. You’ve had time to get used to all of this, so you just watch it, and you?—”
Now Kase turned all that attention onto him.
“—-don’t you start. One, Cooper Adams is one of the best men I’ve ever known.
He would not be inappropriate with any kid, especially not one he’s known since they were wee.
Two, Coop has taken damn good care of these kids and has asked nothing for it.
Not a thing. So maybe you ought to quit being ugly and start being grateful.
And I suggest you do it before Coop gets home.
Now if you two cannot be decent. I will send everybody to a room, and y’all can just wait there and simmer down until Coop gets back. ”
Huh. Kase really must have ten kids.
Brooks drew in a deep breath, then let it out.
He had a temper. He’d always had one. So had Andy.
That was why they’d fought. Anytime there was stress, they’d exploded to get the tension out.
There was no way Benji would know that, though.
He’d been, what? God knew how old the last time Brooks had been around.
So even though it was like rubbing his hands over a cheese grater, he gritted his teeth and apologized. “I’m sorry, Ben. That was out of line. But it surprised me, is all. And I’d like to talk to you and Coop about the situation.”
See him. See him be reasonable.
“Sure.” Kase jumped right in and said it so Benji couldn’t say no. “Of course you would. Coop will be perfectly willing as soon as he’s back from all the kids’ activities.”
“Thanks.” He glanced around and sighed. “I—look, is there someplace close I can go sit for a bit while I wait?”
“It’s fifteen minutes into town,” Benji said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Thanks.” He didn’t need to drink this coffee this late in the afternoon anyway. “I’ll—” He looked at Kase. “Is there a diner?”
“Now, Brooks, you will not go into town and sit at a diner.” Kase gave Benji a hard look. “You want to sit out on the porch with me, well come on, but you don’t have to leave.”
“Thanks.” He should have just stayed his ass in Australia. At least there he’d had a job.
Fuck.
This was starting to seem like a really bad idea.