Chapter 9 #2
“Uncle Kase is going to let me go riding with the horses, probably.” Lucy beamed at him, and Brooks hoped to hell Kase and them didn’t mind.
Johnny shook his head. “I don’t like horses. They’re scary. They bite, and they kick, and they throw you off, and they can trample you and kick you in the head. I don’t like them.”
He started to argue, but Coop was right there. “Oh, now. I don’t know. Do you remember my friend Shirl with one blue eye and one brown one?”
Johnny nodded.
“That man is a horseman, the safety man. He rides the rodeo, he ropes horses, he ropes cattle. He does all the things he needs to do. He’s cowboy protection and worked with me every day that I worked.
He’s still out there doing his job. He’s a good guy, and he can train horses to a treat. Remember, your Uncle Brooks can too.”
“I can. That’s my job, training horses. I bet I can help you learn to like them.” He had no doubt, in fact.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Where’s everybody else?”
“Mason and Ricky and Benji all spent the night over there at the ranch. Mina is still in bed.” Brooks answered. He’d checked on Mason before he’d left, and the boys were eating pizza and playing video games.
“I don’t think I’m old enough to do that. Go spend the night over there in the big place. It’s easy to get lost.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Ryder and Kase would never let anybody get lost. It’s not what they do. They’re the best except for Uncle Coop and Brooks and Benji.”
“Can I go watch cartoons?” Obviously, Johnny was done with that conversation.
Coop snorted softly. “You can. We’re going to have eggs here in a bit.”
“I like eggs. No runny stuff though.”
“I know, kiddo.” Brooks had been explained that fact. Thoroughly.
“I’m going to go jump in the shower. I smell like chocolate chips.” Lucy ran off, leaving him and Coop staring at each other.
“Did you make coffee?”
“Yeah. I can get you a cup.”
Coop stood, shook his head. “No, no, no. I’ll do it. I don’t mind. Did you sleep good last night? You got home safe, obviously.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t drunk or nothing, just toasty.
” It had been fun to hang out and get to know all those guys.
Every one to a man had said the same thing about Coop—he was tough but fair, firm but decent to the bone.
One of the best cowboy protection out there.
It was a little bit weird living with a superhero.
“Nothing wrong about that, huh?” Coop poured them both a cup of coffee, putting milk and sugar in for him before handing it over.
Somehow, weirdly, he’d stopped taking it black again.
“You want your eggs poached?” Brooks asked. He was processing a lot, and he wanted to ponder it while he cooked.
“Uh…”
“I don’t mind. I can cook the kids’ harder.”
“Sure then.”
He glanced at Coop. “So…”
“Spit it out, Brooks. Keeping that shit in is bad for the soul.” Coop never blinked.
He snorted. “You do a great deadpan. I just wanted to make sure I understood the situation. It’s okay if I stay on? Maybe put in a few horses? You’ve got enough acreage.”
Coop shrugged easily, reaching to pick at the edge of the cookie.
He was smooth. No one would know a bite was missing by the time he smoothed it out.
He really did like his chocolate chip cookies.
“Why not? I mean, if you do, I think we ought to maybe get Benji a tiny house or something and give you the extra master suite. I hate the idea of you hauling your ass up to the third floor on a permanent basis.”
His cheeks heated, because for a moment he had a full-on picture of him sharing a master suite with Coop, and where the hell did that come from?
He studied Coop again, and yeah, okay, it came from that silver-shot black hair, the green eyes, and the broad shoulders and chest. He’d never had time to look before. Now he did. Even the birthday cake with candle jammie pants, and Bullfighter U sweatshirt couldn’t take away the pretty .
Brooks cleared his throat. “Um. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good, man. I mean, if you want me to look for a place?—”
“Why?” Coop scoffed, then sipped his coffee.
“I mean, that’s like a divorced couple making the kids have two holidays all the damn time.
You need a place to live and have horses.
I have this great big old house, and I need a day off once in a while, and Benji will be out sowing every wild oat there is on earth.
So, until you get a better offer, hang here. ”
Something in his chest went so tight it was almost hard to breathe, but Brooks couldn’t help it. No one had ever offered him a place to be. Not even his folks or Andy.
Oh, he’d had a ton of jobs that had needed him for his expertise. He’d had a few lovers who had wanted his dick but not his face to wake up to in the morning. His folks had sent him off to the wind at eighteen, saying he needed to get out and work if he wasn’t going to college.
He had an agricultural engineering degree from NC State. He’d gotten it online. But that had come later. And Andy and Nora had wanted him to not judge them for having so many kids and being broke, and he hadn’t been able to do that. So that was on him.
But this was different.
This felt…life-altering. This felt like Cooper Adams was going to let him come home and it made the pit of his belly hurt.
“Thanks. Yeah. I would like that. I’ll have the barns ready in a couple more weeks. And I’d be happy to not have to climb.”
“Lucy will want to move up there soon, I bet. Have more privacy.”
“Sure. I can help build out those rooms. And finish off a tiny house. Hell, I can buy Benji the base model, and we can go from there. They come in kits.”
“Yeah.” Coop stood and moved in closer. Brooks held his breath a little, but Coop just held one hand over the stove. “Damn, it’s cold today.”
“Shit, it was cold last night.” He could smell Coop this close, the leftover Old Spice from yesterday, and the mint from his toothpaste. Dammit. He smelled good, and it was the ridiculous offer to move in full-time had suddenly made Coop ten times hotter and more noticeable.
Coop didn’t mean it that way. But it was still a fine thing. To be asked to stay just because Coop was okay with it.
“Well, we talked days off. And if you want to take today?—”
Coop chuckled, bumping hips with him when he moved to grab a pan. “Nah. You saw Lucy. Birthdays are a big deal to these kids. I’ll spend the day with y’all.”
“Cool.” He pondered what to do about supper. “You want supper here or to run into town and get something?”
“You know what I would murder?”
“What?” He grinned, waiting to see what moved Coop to mayhem.
“Lasagna. There’s a good pizza place in town, and they do good spaghetti and meatballs. Good Mexican place. But no one does lasagna any closer than Taos or Santa Fe.”
“I’ll run to the store and get the stuff after breakfast then.”
“That would be a kindness, but we can all go, and I’ll buy y’all lunch.” Coop beamed at him like he had just bought the man a new beagle.
That reminded him, he needed to see if the kids wanted one card and a big gift card or a bunch of individual cards and smaller gift cards. And what had Benji done for Coop?
“Anytime. Mina’s next, isn’t she?”
“Yessir. She’s wanting a party and a bouncy castle. A big cake. Balloons.” Coop winked at him. “But first, make with the birthday hollandaise sauce.”