Page 36 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
He stripped off his jeans and started rolling on the heavy compression socks he wore when he was working. Then he settled on warm shorts, then baggy pants before adding three different shirts, then his sponsor T-shirt, then his rainbow suspenders.
By the time he’d gotten his tennis shoes on, he was exhausted, and he wasn’t sure how he’d managed to do all this every weekend. Hell, he’d done it in the back seat of a pickup more than once.
Now he had to find him some makeup. He didn’t do much, not like the entertainers did. He put on a big blue smiling mouth, and he painted on a diamond around one eye.
And that was good enough.
He was almost done with the diamond on his eye when he heard a knock on the bedroom door. “Come on in.”
He swore to God if Mason had so much as touched Johnny’s costume, he was gonna beat that child to death with a limp spaghetti noodle.
Brooks came in, just about like he was fixin’ to start something. “Don’t you snarl at me in front of those kids.”
Now, one, Coop had forgotten that Brooks was even going to come in and be mad because time had passed.
Two, he had been fixin’ to apologize. Had been being the appropriate words in that sentence.
And three?
Well, three was this was his God damn bedroom, and the only time he expected to have raised voices in here was when he was fighting with kids or he was having wild monkey sex, neither of which were going to happen with Brooks Whitehead.
So.
“Noted. You need anything else?” That was about as polite as he was fixin’ to be. And if Brooks pushed it one more second, he didn’t get to come to Halloween. He would be grounded. He could stay here and talk to Benji about being a little bitch.
“I figure if you need me to help out more here at the house, just ask. I’ve been trying to stay out of the way like everyone seems to want me to. Benji still glares at me sometimes if I even try to say anything to the other kids besides how perfect they are, and I sure don’t want to step on your toes, but dammit, I don’t know what else to do!”
Brooks was working up a real head of steam, but suddenly Coop couldn’t be mad at him all that much. Maybe a touch. But put that way, he reckoned he’d be at sixes and sevens too, just hanging out and not having a real thing for him to be.
Coop paused and took a deep breath. “Okay, cool. Look. I need help, and Benji is sitting on his ass. So if you’re going to stay?—”
Brooks opened his mouth, but he held up his hand.
“—which I told you that you could, then I need some kind of schedule where I get a breath, and you help with the kids. Not that I mind you cooking at all, but I need some time off once in a while. Maybe a couple times a week?” He kept his tone calm, reasonable. Like he would at work with a new bullfighter.
Brooks pondered him for a moment. Then he nodded. “Right. That’s fair. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I just feel…”
“Out of place?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m used to working with horses every day, and cooking. That’s it. But we can sit down tomorrow and make a schedule, hey?” Those black eyes were serious as a heart attack.
“Sounds good.” And it did. He could so use a couple of days to go into town and just get away. Maybe gofishing. “Now, come on and help me get Benji peeled off the couch. I want him to chaperone Ricky and his girl while we wrangle the kids.”
“I’m all set for wrangling,” Brooks said. “And you’re the cowboy protection.” Brooks looked him over. “I like the retro look.”
“Thanks. I prefer my vest and jersey and shorts to actually work, but this is good layers. I’ll be warm.” He let himself grin.
“Cool. I’ve layered up myself. It’s going to be chilly later, I hear.”
“Yep. Okay, so before we go out. Johnny is still a little hysterical about possibly breaking his costume, so be careful. Mason is a butthead and will tease him. Lucy will be very upset if her makeup smears, so we’re carrying the kit. And Mina just wants candy and her friends.”
“And Ricky just wants his girl.”
“Bingo.” Now he really did grin. “You remember that age?”
Brooks scoffed. “Not really. I spent my Ricky years hiding.”
He blinked some. “Hiding what?”
