Page 14 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“You sit. I’ll get it,” Kase said.
“Okay.” Benji eased back down and glared up at the ceiling. God, he was such a kid still.
Brooks needed to remember that. He had a good twenty years on the guy. It was up to him to be the grown-up.
“Thanks, Kase,” he said when the coffee was handed to him. It had a splash of cream, and he thought back to a hundred crappy truck stops where Kase had seen him open a creamer and pour it into a lousycup of coffee.
“Sure, man. Anytime.” Kase offered him a smile that was mild as milk.
“So what the fuck are you doing here?” Brooks asked.
“Uh…” Kase shrugged at him, looking confused. “I live here.”
Now it was his turn to be confused. “Are you working for the rodeo?”
“Dude, he owns the rodeo. He’s a Chiara.” Benji rolled his eyes. “Do they not have gossip in Australia?”
“Australia is literally a world away, kid.” And he wasn’t all that into technology. He was a horseman. “And you’re what?”
“It’s a long story, but in short, yeah. I’m married to Ryder.” Kase grinned and shrugged, and Brooks blinked. Ryder Vittor was rodeo royalty. Antonia Chiara owned half the damned world, and her ranch and rodeo company were legendary. “We have four kids that we’ve adopted. We have a bunch of foster kids. Uh, right now we have six, in fact, all teenagers. It’s a wild and hairy bunch, but we’re making it work. So, yeah… Ryder and I are running the ranch, the rodeo company. We’ve partnered with Antonia and Alba.”
Brooks felt a bit like he’d been hit in the head. Maybe he’d been kicked, and he was dead, and he just was making shit up on his way to heaven. More likely he was in a coma.
Because the world had sure as shit changed altogether too much in the last seventy-two hours.
He wasn’t into this.
“Okay.” Brooks tried to keep up. “You have six foster kids, ten kids in your house?”
“No, I’ve got one at USC, my oldest. So there’s only nine right now—Elijah, Dani, Nell, and my six teens.”
His head hurt. “I’m fairly sure that I have lost the thread here.”
Kase gave him the concerned face, all hound dog and sympathy. “It’s probably jet lag.”
Benji took a deep breath, interrupting. “Look, we’re fine. I’ve talked to Uncle Coop. He’s gonna watch the kids when I’m at work. I really appreciate you coming to make sure that we’re cool, and we are. We’re totally cool. Coop and I have an arrangement.”
Brooks arched an eyebrow at Kase. That sounded like someone was getting screwed, and it had better not be his little nephew. “An arrangement? He’s a guy in his mid-thirties. This kid is eighteen?—”
Benji scowled at him. “Don’t be nasty. I’m nineteen, and I’m not fucking Uncle Coop.”
“You watch your mouth.” Kase stared at Benji with a gaze sharp as scissors. “You might be an adult, but this is Coop’s house, and he doesn’t go for that.”
Benji blew out a hard breath. “I’m sorry. It’s just, that’s nasty. I’m not sleeping with Coop. He’s my friend; he’s my family. He’s the one who’s been here for me. He’s always here for us. He came when I called.”
Oh, now that wasn’t fair. “You didn’t call me.”
Benji leaned forward, the lines around his mouth deepening. “Why would I have called you?”
“I’m your uncle? He was my brother? Does that not count for anything? So we weren’t in each other’s pockets. We grew up together. I loved him.”
“Bullshit! You and he were at each other’s throats all the damn time, the what? Three times you talked in the last eighteen years? You fought when Granny died. You fought about everything. Horses. House. Everything. It isn’t fair.”
“What do you know about fair, kid? That isn’t any of your business!” And if he was ashamed, well that was between him and his God.
“That’s enough.” Kase rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ, you two. You.” He stared at Benji. “You need to watch your mouth and check your attitude. Brooks here just found out he lost hisbrother. You’ve had time to get used to all of this, so you just watch it, and you?—”
Now Kase turned all that attention onto him.
