Page 35 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
He got the antenna on again, and he showed it to Johnny. “What do you think?”
“That’s perfect, Uncle Coop. Thank you.”
“You are very welcome, kiddo. Now, let’s go see if everyone else is ready to get moving.”
“Okay. I don’t want to sit by Mason in the car.”
“You don’t have to.” He led Johnny out into the front room. Brooks was there with Mason, who wasn’t red-faced or crying or nothin’, but he did look at Johnny and apologize, so that had to be a good thing, right?
“So, how are we doing on the preparedness front?” he asked Brooks.
“The girls are dressed and are just deciding how they’re gonna divvy up whatever candy they get. Ricky has already headed out to pick up another bunch of kids. Benji is asleep on the couch over there, and I have to go wash up real quick.”
“All right. You going to come in a costume?”
Brooks gave him a glinting grin. “Yep. Aussie stockman.”
“Oh, that’s a cop-out.”
“Hey, I had no time to come up with anything.” Brooks waved a hand at him. “I don’t see you dressed.”
“When have I had time with you hiding in the barns?”
Brooks stopped and blinked, then looked at the kids, who were assembling. “Lucy, don’t let your brothers fight. Coop, you want to come up, and we’ll get you a costume together?”
Damn. He had a feeling he was going to get dressed down. “I got one. You come on to my room when you get dressed, and I’ll get you those boots you asked for.” He was damned if he was going to haul his ass upstairs to get yelled at.
“Sure.” Brooks nodded, then headed up and he went to his room.
So Coop knew he’d been a little snappy. But it had already been a long damn day.
Coop dug his vintage rodeo clown nonsense out of the closet. He hadn’t had to wear it professionally except for throwback shows, not since way back in the day. It shouldn’t scare Mina since he wasn’t a full face clown and she’d seen her share of bullfighters.
But everybody knew the old makeup, and everybody knew the baggy shorts, and besides that, he could wear layers up underneath and wouldn’t freeze to death while he was doingwhatever it was the Chiaras needed him to do or whatever kids needed to be wrangled.
God knew this year he was wrangling five. It didn’t look like Benji was even going to wake up, really though.
Coop had pretty much decided it was time for Benji to start getting himself up off the couch and moving on a regular basis, because nobody could heal if they just sat there on their butts. Bodies were meant to move and meant to do things.
He wasn’t going to have this. Benji was fixing to have to go back to work in two months, and that meant hours of running. Nobody thought about that—but bullfighting was a game of stamina, when it came right down to it. He ran ten miles a day. Six in the morning, two before lunch, and two before he took his shower at night and went to bed.
He’d been doing it since he was eighteen, and it didn’t matter a bit that he was retired. There wasn’t any guarantee that he wouldn’t need to haul himself back into a fire. Cowboying was a tough life, when he got right down to it.
Benji was going to have to learn about that, and quick.
It had been six-plus months since his accident. And eight months was plenty enough time to heal up from this and get back to work.
They were fixing to have a come-to-Jesus meeting. With him being Jesus.
And it was going to be tonight.
Benji could come help with the hayride, along with Ricky.
Ricky needed his big brother keeping an eye on him anyway, the way that boy was going. Ricky was bringing his little girlfriend, and he sure hoped that that little girl’s mama was having the birth control conversation with her, because he’d had it with Ricky.
Twice.
But there was no way Coop was having that talk with a teenage girl who wasn’t someone he was raising. He wasalready going to have to deal with cramps and pads and acne with Lucy. Talking about being on the pill with Bella McCall? That was a bridge too far.
