Page 10 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“Apologize to your sister.”
“Sorry, Mina.”
“Good job. Your homework done?” Johnny was his good boy, on that front, and he knew it. In fact, he’d skipped two grades and was in the same grade as Mason. Thank the Lord there were enough students for two classes, at least for the most part.
Mason was way more of a hammer than a nail.
“Yes, sir! I am ready for robotics!”
He nodded. “Ricky’s fixin’ to take you to that, Lucy to 4-H, and he’s going to guitar. I’m going to take Mason to football practice and Mina to?—”
“Girl Scouts!” she cheered.
“Yes.” The Girl Scouts met at the Methodist church down by the football field, but 4-H, robotics, and guitar were all at the school. “Y’all all get ready so we can go.”
He heard the clomping of crutches, as he closed the cabinet door, and he nodded to Benji.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Uncle. How’s it going? How can I help?” Benji always looked just about wiped after physical therapy, but Coop could tell it was doing a lot of good.
“I don’t know. You feel up to fixin’ supper? We’ll all be home about six thirty, and I’d love to come home to food.” He was trying hard to help Benji find ways to be useful, andhe wanted the kid to learn some basic skills—cooking, cleaning, leatherworking.
Anything.
“I can do that. Hashbrown casserole and chicken sausages?”
He nodded. “Add a can of green beans and that’ll work.”
Benji rolled his eyes. “You and your green vegetables.”
“Nutrition is important.” He didn’t question that a bit. A body needed good things to keep it going. Hash brown casserole was yummy, but it wasn’t particularly healthy, even with a can of green chile in half of it for him and Benji and Ricky.
“Yeah, yeah.” Benji chuckled. “Green beans it is. Two cans, since there are so many of us.”
“Right.” Lord, these kids could go through some food. His days of eating green beans out of the can with a grocery store container of sushi were gone. “Come on, guys. We need to mount up!” He taped a Band-Aid around Mina’s finger, and kids came flying in from everywhere.
Which was when he heard a pickup truck pulling up out in the yard, gravel crunching. Shit. He didn’t have time for this.
“Ricky! Get moving with your bunch.”
“Yessir.”
He went to the door to run off whoever it was until supper, or ask them to hang out with Benji, but it was a brand-new truck that looked like a rental, judging from the sticker on the windshield, and he didn’t know the guy who stepped out of the driver’s side.
He knew it wasn’t social services at least, since Jen was the one who worked their county.
So he headed out onto the porch, staring. “Can I help you?”
“Coop?” The guy had on sunglasses, but there was something familiar about him. “Cooper Adams?”
“That’s me.” He squinted, trying to see better, which was stupid. Sunglasses.
The man took them off, those dark-as-sin Whitehead eyes staring at him. “Hey. Brooks Whitehead. We met at nationals a couple of times.”
If his teeth hadn’t been attached, they would have fallen right out of his mouth.
“What the—” Coop cleared his throat. “Well—” He had to hop to one side when Ricky thundered out, followed by Johnny, and Lucy.
