Page 38 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
Cooper rolled his eyes at Brooks and headed out the door. It was time to get their spooky on.
Chapter Nine
“Uncle Brooks?” There was a tapping at his bedroom door. “I need help.”
He sat up, half dazed. It had been a long night, between the trick or treating and the cold and the bonfires and the beer and candy and…
It had been fun, but damn. Those cowboys could party.
“Come on in. I’m decent.”
Lucy opened his door and peeked in. “Uncle Brooks, I messed up bad.”
“What’s wrong, girl?” What time was it? How could she have possibly messed up already? Shit.
“I’m trying to make Uncle Coop’s birthday cake. It’s his birthday today, and none of us got him anything. I was trying to make him a cake, but it won’t work. It’s all ugly. I want to surprise him so bad.”
Well, damn it. He had forgotten, and the man sure hadn’t mentioned it again. “Okay, no problem. Go downstairs, I’ll be right there.”
“I’m sorry to wake you up, I know it’s really early, but I wanted to do something before he woke up.” She wasfighting her tears for all she was worth, Brooks could hear it in her voice.
“You’re a good girl. I tell you what, we’ll get him a gift certificate to Amazon. How’s that?”
“Oh…” She took a shaky breath. “He’d like that very much. I’ll work to pay back for my part of it. I’m not asking for nothing, I just?—”
“Hey. We’re family. You don’t have to pay me back. This is our gift to Uncle Coop, right?”
He needed to talk to Coop about getting these kids some pin money, just a little for silly shit. They were supposed to have a meeting today anyway. They needed to reckon those sorts of things together.
Lucy went downstairs, and he got dressed real quick, checking the clock. Lord have mercy, it was seven thirty. That meant if she’d already wrecked a cake, she must have been up early.
She was a sweetheart, but honestly? When it came right down to it, they were all good kids.
Even the bundle of hormones who had been aggravated as all get-out his brother was interfering with his ability to get Halloween nookie.
It had been damn good to get Benji out of the house, though. The difference in attitude and energy had been amazing, and Brooks had loved seeing that boy light up when the other cowboys had greeted him. Before the night had gotten started, they were all sharing their no-shit-there-I-was stories and welcoming Benji into their circle.
That had been a great call on Coop’s part.
He put on another sweatshirt because, shit, it was cold. Then he stomped into his house shoes. When he got horses he was going to be out in the early morning doing the feeding, but right now, except for the dogs, he didn’t have much to feed.
He’d have horses soon enough though, he thought.
If they were going to co-parent these babies when Benji left, there were going to have to be horses.
He headed down his two flights of stairs, mind on the barns, which were in increasingly good shape.
The cake was a wreck.
It had fallen.
It was burned up a bit on the outside and raw in the middle.
Damn.
“I think maybe we have to start over.”
Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry. I tried. Uncle Coop said I couldn’t make myself coffee, and I’m so tired…”
