Page 23 of Not Our First Rodeo
I wince and move past him into the tack room, knowing he’s following closely on my heels. I hadn’t meant to ignore him, but yesterday was overwhelming in so many ways. I needed to decompress after watching Elsie having a panic attack, seeing our baby’s heartbeat, and unexpectedly kissing my wife—the wife who still hasn’t told me she wants me back.
“I told you everything was fine.”
He rolls his eyes. “And then answered none of my follow-up questions.”
He sent approximately a thousand, and I just couldn’t deal with them. Instead, I lay awake in the guest bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to process all the changes that’ve taken place over the last few weeks. I finally gave up around four and came to the ranch early.
“We saw the heartbeat,” I tell him.
A smile lights up his face. “The best feeling,” he says. I could never forget that my brother is a father, but I think I had forgotten that he’s been throughthisbefore.
I rub my palms down my thighs, wiping off the dust clinging to them. I can’t help but let a small smile lift my lips too. “Yeah, it really was. I’m going to tell the family at dinner tonight.”
His brows lift. “Is Elsie going to come?”
I shrug, but his words pierce me. No part of me wants to tell my family this news without Elsie, but I don’t think I can convince her to go. When I mentioned the idea over the weekend, she said she didn’t think it was a good idea, but when I asked her why, she changed the subject. I didn’t push because right now, conversation with her feels like dealing with Sugar. I have to go slow and steady and not do anything to startle her.
Cooper nods, but I can tell he’s not pleased. I want to tell him he doesn’t know everything, thatIdon’t know everything, that Elsie is perhaps much more fragile than I anticipated, but before I can, he asks, “Are you going to tell Morgan first?”
I palm the back of my neck, thinking. “I probably should.”
Morgan is as much a part of our family as any of the rest of us and has become a good friend to Cooper and me. As close as another brother. He’s also a single dad to two little boys, so he also knows what I’m going through.
Cooper smirks. “What about Cheyenne?”
“Oh God,” I groan. I can only imagine the things Cheyenne will have to say. I think I’d rather rip the Band-Aid off and tell her with the rest of the family, even though she will probably skin me alive for it. “I don’t think so.”
He laughs, the sound filling the cold air of the stables. “Good idea.”
Before I can respond, the big barn door slides open and a familiar voice yells, “Cooper Jennings, are you in here? When we have an appointment at seven in the morning, I expect you to be there at seven.”
Cooper rolls his eyes and looks down at his watch. “It’s seven forty-two, Jade,” he calls back.
A minute later, she appears in the doorway to the tack room. “I said I expect you to be there on time. I didn’t say anything about me.”
“You exhaust me,” he responds.
“Just show me which cow I need to shove my hand into before it ends up somewhere else,” she says with a pointed look.
“Well, that’s my cue,” I say, clapping my hands. “Don’t kill each other.”
“No promises,” Jade says, smiling at me with saccharine sweetness.
“Well, spare the animals.”
She responds immediately, eyes serious. “Of course.”
I look between the two of them, my gaze landing on my brother. “Do whatever you need to with Coop.”
“Fuck you,” he says.
Jade lifts a brow. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Cooper smirks, one side of his mouth tipping higher than the other and his dimples carving out little divots in his cheeks. When we were small, those dimples were the only way most people could tell us apart—he has them, I don’t. “Not her, but I could let you have a turn if you ask nicely.”
“You know those statues that people touch over and over for centuries? The ones where the part they touch—a toe or a nose or a hand—rubs off completely?” she asks.
“Mm-hmm,” Cooper says.
