Chapter 24 #2
He waited, then slid his hand free, heading out. “Mr. Adams? Can I get you to sit with Coop while I hit the head and grab a bite to bring back up?”
“Of course. Is he asleep?”
“He is.”
“I knew he would once you came. He can relax now.”
“Thanks.” He had no idea what he was thanking the man for, except that he was there for Coop and Coop needed all the help he could get.
He passed Coop’s mom coming back with a cup of coffee. “Leaving so soon?”
“Just to get a cup of that sludge and sandwich or something. Your husband is with him.” He tried a smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m grateful he’s alive. I wish you’d have come home sooner.”
He grimaced. “Me too.”
Her face softened a tiny bit. “Look, son, I’m not going to kick you when you’re down. Much. Now go on and get you something to eat and come back and sit. There’s a little fold-out couch thing that’s super comfy. You can have a nap.”
“That would be a kindness. Sleeping on an international flight is always weird, even in business class.”
“They’re always waking you up.” She scoffed. “Just like in this damn place.”
“Yeah.” He nodded, and so did she, and he headed off to the ground floor again. He’d seen a Starbucks and a Subway…
He was going to be settling in for a while, it looked like.
“Doc, I’m ready to go home.”
“Mmm.” The surgeon, who seemed like maybe he was half Coop’s age, pursed his lips. “I’d like your numbers up a little bit first. Give it another day or two, Mr. Adams.”
“You keep saying that.” Coop looked at Brooks, trying to appeal to him, to get him to help.
Brooks raised an eyebrow and mouthed, “What’s in it for me?”
Oh, butthead.
He scowled. “What is it you’re looking for?”
“White blood cells down, red up. You’re doing really well, but you do live out in the boonies. I just want to make sure you’re good to go.”
“I think that’s wise.” Brooks entered the fray.
“You ain’t any happier here than I am,” Coop snapped.
“Are you kidding?” Brooks grinned. “Hot and cold running salad bar, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives twenty-four-seven? Dry shampoo because I never get a shower. I love it.”
He chuckled, glad that it wasn’t hurtin’ so bad when he did that. Still, he’d been in the damn hospital for over a week. He missed his kids, his bed, and his damn dogs. Even his folks had abandoned him to go up and help at the ranch .
At least he had Brooks. Right there with him where he belonged. And when they got sick of the TV, Brooks read to him.
“I also really want to see you up and around a few more times with therapy before you go.”
He let out a sigh, so fucking frustrated he wanted to scream. “I want to go home.”
That was it. He wanted nothing more than to go home. He wanted real food. His real bed. And he wanted to see his kids.
Hell, he’d missed Ricky’s seventeenth birthday. That was a sad thing, and the fact they were going to celebrate it when he got home didn’t help the matter.
“Give it a couple of days, Mr. Adams. It’s going to be all right.”
Coop waited until the doctor left the room, and then he looked at Brooks, pleading with his cowboy. “If you help me take the IV out, we can be downstairs in ten minutes.” They had elevators. Stairs still hurt like a bitch.
Brooks arched one eyebrow at him. “Yeah, I’m not doing that.”
His lips went tight—and he wasn’t one hundred percent sure if that was from anger or holding back his laughter. “You’re not?”
“Your momma would strip my skin off me and use it to make the kids play clothes.” Brooks didn’t seem like he was joking. “No way I’m risking that.”
“Momma’s not that scary.” This was aggravating as all get-out. “I missed spring break.”
“So? You can have a week off when you get home. I’ll even let Mina and Johnny stay with you. I’m not sure they’re going to let Mason ever come back to school.”
He was pretty damn sure. “They’re going to let Mason go back to school. Mason and Johnny both, if I have to go up there and sit and be the substitute goddamn teacher. Johnny has to learn to be social, and Mason has to learn to control his temper.”
Now Brooks did laugh at him. “Oh, I could see that. ‘All right, children, now Coop’s going to teach you how to lay the smackdown on a bull’.”
“I’ll have you know that I am incredibly good at teaching someone how to lay the smackdown on a bull.” He surprised himself by yawning so wide that his jaw actually cracked.
Brooks stared at him, and he glared. “Don’t you say anything.”
“Nope, not a word. I wouldn’t ever say anything.” Brooks came and sat next to him, hand on his thigh. “Just be patient, please? Better to get this all taken care of now than to drive you all the way home and have to bring you all the way back here. That just slows everything down.”
“I just hate this shit.”
“I know.” Brooks paused, clearly gathering his thoughts. “But they had to take out part of your intestine, Coop.” Brooks’s face screwed up hard. “And my horse did this. Jesus, Coop, I should have been here. I’ll never forgive myself for this.”
Oh, now. That was never gonna do. “It wasn’t your fault. I know better than to get careless around a big animal. And I know horses kick.” Coop sighed. “I just let myself get cornered in that stall, and there was a damn mouse.”
Brooks went wide-eyed. “A mouse. Jesus fuck.”
“You’ve seen it a million damn times, and you know it.”
“I have. We need more barn cats.”
“Yeah.” They couldn’t do poison because of the dogs, and glue traps were just awful.
“You know, we had barn cats until every Chiara child took one. ”
“Well, we’re just going to have to get more.” They lived on ranches, for fuck’s sake.
“I can ask the guys, the cowboys, if they have some they can let us relocate. They just got six more. Because you know Ryder is not going to let those cats be in the house.”
Coop snorted. “Oh, God no. Neither will Mookie.”
That dog was not a fan of the kitties, no matter how much Dani tried to talk her into it.
“You know, we can also ask Tygh.”
“Oh, I’m sure he knows where there are some barn cats that need a warm place with good food and lots of mice.” Brooks rubbed his hand, massaging his fingers.
“Exactly.” Coop’s eyes crossed, the muscles in his hand relaxing. “Oh…that’s a good idea. We should so…uh…do that.”
He didn’t want to fall asleep, so he forced his eyes open wide and looked around the room, which was full of the weirdest shit.
There were a couple of vases full of flowers, sure, but every bullfighter in the entire world must have sent a stuffed bull or a horseshoe or a signed bull rope.
The entire God damn place looked like a rodeo arena.
Every time one of the nurses came in who was new and hadn’t met him yet, they shook their head and frowned and asked if any of this stuff was sanitary.
Of course it was mostly clean, and besides that a man had to have dirt in order to build up his bacteria base.
Not only that, a little bull poop never hurt anybody.
Brooks caught him looking and grinned. “I tell you what, we’re going to have a truck all of your own just to get your shit home. Did you see that there were things from Brazil and Australia, Mexico, Canada. It’s like you’re famous or something.”
“Yep, got kicked by a horse. That’s all it took.” He was going to catch no end of shit for that when everyone figured he wasn’t going to die.
Assholes.
“Yeah, and you still dealt with the kids for days after that.” Brooks shook his head. “You’re my motherfucking hero, babe.”
“As long as I’m yours, that works for me.” Coop had no idea how it had come about, because it just seemed to have happened from one day to the next, but Brooks was his. Brooks had wormed himself into his life like the wonder he was.
His cowboy. His weird sometimes-Aussie. His lover.
And he was all over that.