Page 75 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
He winked at Coop. “For all that you don’t know, you sure did a good job picking them out for me.”
Maybe he would go. It would definitely give him astart. It would give him a great start, but this would be a huge notch in his belt. And he would be back in a trice. There were at least three guys he could think of offhand who would kill for a personal recommendation from him to Pete.
The guy was a dick, but he paid well, and this particular job had a lot of downtime and good money.
“Okay, well, how about we talk to the kids about it?”
Coop beamed at him. “I like that. Thanks for that, Brooks. It means a lot that you want them to have input.”
“I do. And you. I don’t want to leave anyone in the lurch. All of y’all are my most important thing these days.”
That grin just widened, if it were possible. “Well, that sounds damn fine, honey.” Coop reeled him in for a kiss, pulling him up out of the chair. “Wanna go take a shower? We got time.”
“God yes.” Brooks took another kiss, his whole body warming to it. “Come on.”
They headed to the bathroom after Coop closed the paint and set the brushes up to soak.
Pete could wait for a few days.
It would get him an even better offer.
ChapterTwenty
Coop washed the last dinner dish about eleven o’clock at night. He’d spent the time between supper and now helping with homework, making sure baths were done, teeth were brushed, stories were told, and kids were in bed.
Benji had also called, needing a good bit of encouragement after he and his amateur crew had taken a beating at the small stock show they were working.
So once he wiped his hands dry and went to flop on his bed—he still needed to take a shower—he called Brooks. It should be about five o’clock in the afternoon where Brooks was, the next day, for fuck’s sake, and he would be able to talk even if it was a competition day.
Thank God Brooks had gotten the international phone plan.
“Hello, babe.”
“Hey, honey.” Just hearing Brooks’s voice made him smile. He kinda felt like he hadn’t realized how much he’d gotten used to Brooks being there, helping and loving on him, untilthe man had left. But it had been a week now, and Coop was having withdrawal. “How’s it going?”
“Ugh. I swear, I remember now why I was looking for a reason to leave this job a year before I actually did,” Brooks muttered. “This is so damn not cool.” Then Brooks sighed. “How are you, babe?”
“Tired, honey. The kids have been running my ass ragged. But we all thought about you tonight when I pulled out that lasagna you had put in the freezer for me.”
“Yeah? I miss all of you like the proverbial sore tooth. And I can’t sleep. Not even with the station bulldog in my bed.”
“Missed you, did he?”
“Yeah. The cattle dogs give no shits, but Winston is my buddy.”
“You should sneak him home with you.” Speaking of dogs, Suki wandered in, clearly having decided his bed was safer than Lucy’s. She kicked.
And as soon as Suki was up, Thor and Loki came in, nails clicking.
“Yeah, I doubt he would get along. He’s stubborn.”
“And we all know Thor is the undisputed big dog.” That silly beagle thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof.
“Yep. They with you?”
“They just arrived.”
“Ah, so you only now got to bed? Coop, it’s late there.”
