Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
B rooks woke up in Coop’s bed and stretched, yawning. Oh, man, it was warm. Good. Coop’s comforter was so much nicer than his. And the three dog night effect was kind of stunning.
He was okay with that. And with Coop still naked next to him.
Of course, when he opened his eyes, Mina and Johnny stood at the foot of the bed, staring at them, unblinking.
“Is it time to open presents?” Brooks croaked, his voice still rusty from the night.
“It’s only Christmas Eve,” Johnny said.
“Oh.” Hmm. Well, the dogs were in with them, so he must have let them out and in and come back to bed with Coop and not locked the door…
Which, the only unusual thing there was that he’d come back to Coop’s bed, not his own.
“Is it time for breakfast?” Brooks asked, trying the next thing to get them to maybe say something or smile or…move.
“Benji made us cereal. ”
“Oh.” Brooks felt like he was saying that a lot, but if Benji was up… “Coop? I think we overslept.” He nudged Coop.
“Huh?” Coop snorted and flailed and Suki jumped off the bed, padding off into the hall.
“I think Mina and Johnny would like to talk to you.”
Coop sat up, then grabbed the blanket as it started to slide, yanking it back up like a virgin in a Longarm novel. “Sh-oot. Hey, guys.”
“Coop, why is Uncle Brooks having a sleepover in your room?” Mina asked.
“Because I asked him to,” Coop said. “Y’all need breakfast?”
Johnny pursed his lips. “Benji made us cereal,” he repeated.
“Oh, well, I reckon we’ll have something special for lunch or supper.”
“And make cookies?” Mina climbed up on the bed, making Thor roll right into her, legs in the air, begging a belly rub.
“Yep,” Brooks murmured. “We still need to make frosted sugar cookies and fudge.” They’d made biscochitos and Toll House yesterday.
“Cool.”
Johnny hadn’t moved, and his stare was basilisk-level.
“Johnny, buddy? You got a worry?”
“Is this going to make things weird?” he asked. “Are you gonna fight? Sometimes Mom and Dad fought.”
“But not all that often, right?” Brooks asked.
“No, but if you stay in different rooms, maybe you won’t at all.” His lower lip quivered. “I don’t want either of you to leave.”
Shit. Brooks smiled, and if it didn’t hold its center completely, well, that was okay. “We won’t, kiddo. Can you go take Mina to the kitchen? We need to get dressed, and I need to feed the horses, but then we’ll come make cookies.”
Johnny heaved a sigh. “Okay. Come on, Mina. Come on, Loki and Thor. I’ll take you out.”
Loki howled, and then the beagles were off and running, the kids following.
“Harsh.” Coop gave him a wry grin.
“He’s still hurting bad.”
“He is.”
They climbed out of bed, washed up, and dressed. He could shave later. This was more important. “Come on,” Brooks said. “You can make sure there’s coffee while I feed.”
“You got it, honey.”
Hey, he was back to honey . He’d progressed.
“Thank you, babe.” He thought he’d try that babe out, see how it felt in his teeth.
He did like that grin it earned him, yessir.
He tugged on a pair of Wranglers, stomped into his boots. Then he added a long-sleeved henley along with his heavy outer shirt before he headed out to grab his coat. Mornings were bitter right now.
Mason was stomping snow off his boots when he got to the back door.
“What’s going on?”
Mason shrugged. “Sister and I were feeding. It’s cold outside, and she thought they would be hungry.”
Part of him wanted to kind of snarl because these kids didn’t know exactly how the horses needed to be fed and what was what.
But on the other hand, he was proud of them for taking the initiative and making sure that the animals were cared for.
Sometimes being a parent sucked. No wonder he hadn’t had kids.
He went with, “Thanks. Where’s your sister? ”
“She’s still out there. I got cold, so she said to come in and she’d holler if she needed us.”
Dammit. “All right, well, I’ll head out. You get some hot cocoa or something, and we’ll be back in a few. It’s cookie day today.”
“Dude, I love to make cookies—well, I like to eat cookies, and you know I’ll help decorate and stuff if you want.”
“Talk to Coop, but yeah, we’re on it.” He stomped out into the snow, grumbling under his breath about forgetting to lock the door and to having sex late into the night so they slept in, and those meddling kids…
By the time he got to the barn he was laughing at himself, his mood vastly improved. “Hey, Lucy, it’s me. What’s up?”
She beamed at him. “I was just brushing everybody. I gave them both a can of sweet feed, and I made sure everybody had water. Now I’m brushing, and they’re telling me all their secrets.” She was bundled up, but her lips were about blue.
“Are they now?”
“They are. I love to just be with them, you know?”
Of course she did. She was a cowgirl. “Well, you’re a good girl.
Thank you. I appreciate it. How’s everybody looking?
” He surreptitiously checked feed and hay and gave everybody some extra pellets to warm them up.
The horses weren’t locked in the barns, so they could come and go at will.
These weren’t high-dollar horses. These were his auction babies.
There were four now, but that was just fine. They needed homes.
“Did I do okay?” she asked, chewing her bottom lip. “I know that you normally get up and feed earlier, but I like to visit with them, and you and Uncle Coop were, um, tired.” She wouldn’t quite look at him.
His cheeks were going to set on fire. “Yeah. Well, we were. It was a late night. We were up talking.”
She rolled her eyes like thrown dice. “Yeah, I know about, you know, S-E-X and stuff.”
Oh God. Don’t talk about sex. He didn’t want to talk about sex. No, no, no, no, no, no. He wasn’t sure he was supposed to lie either. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to say anything. “I like your Uncle Coop a lot.”
“Yeah, Benji said that y’all were like…close. It’s okay. I know what gay is too.” She met his eyes. “And I’m not a bigot. None of us are, because we were raised right.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. That doesn’t surprise me at all that you guys were raised right. Your folks were good people.” Please God, let the floor open up and let it take him.
“Are we making cookies today?”
Thank God. “We are! Sugar cookies with all the trimmings and more.” He winked. “And I’ll need help setting up the cinnamon rolls and part of Christmas dinner for tomorrow.” That was far safer to talk about.
Lucy very carefully stowed all the grooming tools, the brush and curry comb, and he was relieved to see she hadn’t pulled out the hoof pick. “Are we having roast beast?” she asked.
“We are.” A beef roast was traditional in the Whitehead family, and Coop had been fine with that as long as they had beans and greens for New Year’s and a ham for Easter.
“Do you like Christmas?”
“Of course I do. I know you guys do too. I can tell you’ve been really good sports all season.” Even when they were all ramped up and frustrated.
Lucy shrugged. “Last year was bad. I mean, Uncle Coop had us come stay with him just for the weekend—all of us—so that we weren’t sad because we couldn’t fit a tree.
And he gave us all iPads, all of us. Can you believe it?
Like every single one of us? It was really cool.
He didn’t know about making roasts though, so we had to go over to the Chiaras and have the big meal with everybody.
They make turkey and lots and lots of tamales and posole.
That’s really hot.” Lucy didn’t look particularly enthused about that part.
“Well, everybody’s got different traditions. I don’t guess anybody’s asked Uncle Coop what his are, huh?” That would suck.
“I know that his parents go on a big boat, and then I think everybody else works. But Uncle Coop pukes if he gets on a boat. So he can’t go on the Christmas boat.”
How funny was that? “He does, does he?”
“Uh-huh. He says that’s why he lives in the desert, so that he doesn’t have to have any boats.”
“Well, I should ask him what he likes to do, huh?”
“Yep.” She beamed at him when he offered her his hand, ready to walk her back to the house. “Can we check on the kittens?”
“Sure, kiddo.” Momma cat had gained weight and was looking good. The kittens were all healthy and adorable, and so far, all still there in the barn, waiting to be fed. In another month or so, they could go to homes. Nell wanted at least two for the Chiara place.
They dropped in, and he gave them all a can of cat food, putting it on the wee plates they had around. They couldn’t keep dry food out all the time, because of mice, but they got a bit of dry when he would do the morning feed to keep their kidneys going.
“Uncle Coop doesn’t tell us stuff like that unless we ask,” she told him, which made him blink a little, because there had been a pretty good gap in the conversation.
“Well, I asked him for Thanksgiving, but we were busy in between. So, I’ll talk with him today.”
“Cool. I made him a scarf. It’s a little lopsided, but I crocheted it myself. Do you think he’ll like it? ”
“Sweetie, if you made him something by hand, Coop will be over the moon. He thinks the sun rises and sets by you lot.”
She giggled. “I like when you say stuff like that. And I liked that thing you made last week with the beets.”
“They call it beetroot in Oz, you know.”
“Well, it is a root.”
They walked back into the house to find Mason, Johnny, and Mina in the kitchen. There were cookie sheets lined with parchment already, the oven was pre-heating, and the bowls were sitting out.
“Man, you guys were ready.”
Mina grinned at him. “Uncle Coop helped. But then he went to feed the dogs and stuff.”
“Cool.” His belly rumbled. “Let me make up some eggs and toast. Anyone else want any, or was cereal fine?”
There was a chorus of pleases, so he made a second breakfast for everyone, and a double first for him and Coop, who was back in time to eat it.