Page 42 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
Somehow, weirdly, he’d stopped taking it black again.
“You want your eggs poached?” Brooks asked. He was processing a lot, and he wanted to ponder it while he cooked.
“Uh…”
“I don’t mind. I can cook the kids’ harder.”
“Sure then.”
He glanced at Coop. “So…”
“Spit it out, Brooks. Keeping that shit in is bad for the soul.” Coop never blinked.
He snorted. “You do a great deadpan. I just wanted to make sure I understood the situation. It’s okay if I stay on? Maybe put in a few horses? You’ve got enough acreage.”
Coop shrugged easily, reaching to pick at the edge of the cookie. He was smooth. No one would know a bite was missing by the time he smoothed it out. He really did like his chocolate chip cookies. “Why not? I mean, if you do, I think we ought to maybe get Benji a tiny house or something and give you the extra master suite. I hate the idea of you hauling your ass up to the third floor on a permanent basis.”
His cheeks heated, because for a moment he had a full-on picture of him sharing a master suite with Coop, and where the hell did that come from?
He studied Coop again, and yeah, okay, it came from that silver-shot black hair, the green eyes, and the broad shoulders and chest. He’d never had time to look before. Now he did. Even the birthday cake with candle jammie pants, and Bullfighter U sweatshirt couldn’t take away the pretty.
Brooks cleared his throat. “Um. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good, man. I mean, if you want me to look for a place?—”
“Why?” Coop scoffed, then sipped his coffee. “I mean, that’s like a divorced couple making the kids have two holidays all the damn time. You need a place to live and have horses. I have this great big old house, and I need a day off once in a while, and Benji will be out sowing every wild oat there is on earth. So, until you get a better offer, hang here.”
Something in his chest went so tight it was almost hard to breathe, but Brooks couldn’t help it. No one had ever offered him a place to be. Not even his folks or Andy.
Oh, he’d had a ton of jobs that had needed him for his expertise. He’d had a few lovers who had wanted his dick but not his face to wake up to in the morning. His folks had sent him off to the wind at eighteen, saying he needed to get out and work if he wasn’t going to college.
He had an agricultural engineering degree from NC State. He’d gotten it online. But that had come later. And Andy and Nora had wanted him to not judge them for having so many kids and being broke, and he hadn’t been able to do that. So that was on him.
But this was different.
This felt…life-altering. This felt like Cooper Adams was going to let him come home and it made the pit of his belly hurt.
“Thanks. Yeah. I would like that. I’ll have the barns ready in a couple more weeks. And I’d be happy to not have to climb.”
“Lucy will want to move up there soon, I bet. Have more privacy.”
“Sure. I can help build out those rooms. And finish off a tiny house. Hell, I can buy Benji the base model, and we can go from there. They come in kits.”
“Yeah.” Coop stood and moved in closer. Brooks held hisbreath a little, but Coop just held one hand over the stove. “Damn, it’s cold today.”
“Shit, it was cold last night.” He could smell Coop this close, the leftover Old Spice from yesterday, and the mint from his toothpaste. Dammit. He smelled good, and it was the ridiculous offer to move in full-time had suddenly made Coop ten times hotter and more noticeable.
Coop didn’t mean it that way. But it was still a fine thing. To be asked to stay just because Coop was okay with it.
“Well, we talked days off. And if you want to take today?—”
Coop chuckled, bumping hips with him when he moved to grab a pan. “Nah. You saw Lucy. Birthdays are a big deal to these kids. I’ll spend the day with y’all.”
“Cool.” He pondered what to do about supper. “You want supper here or to run into town and get something?”
“You know what I would murder?”
“What?” He grinned, waiting to see what moved Coop to mayhem.
“Lasagna. There’s a good pizza place in town, and they do good spaghetti and meatballs. Good Mexican place. But no one does lasagna any closer than Taos or Santa Fe.”
