Page 78 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
Brooks chuckled. “Good man. You have your finger on the pulse of things.”
“I’m not sure about that. I think we all need a bit of a shock from the paddles.”
“Coop, I promise, I’ll be home soon.”
“Good.” Coop sighed, and he could almost see the man pinching the bridge of his nose or rubbing the back of his neck. He sounded worn. “We need you, dammit.”
“I need you too.” He did. He’d been lonely for years, and it hadn’t mattered, because he hadn’t thought he had anyone to ease it.
Now he had a family, and he wanted to be with them every day and be part of the ups and downs and their love. He fucking basked in the love he was already getting without having earned it.
He wanted to deserve them.
“Come home, honey. Okay?”
“Okay, Coop. I’m coming. Just don’t give up on me yet.”
“Not yet,” Coop said with a laugh. “Ah, shit, Gotta go. I love you. Bye.”
Stunned, he stood there and stared at his phone. Shit, that was going to bake his noodle until he got home.
Did Coop really mean it, or had he just said it because that was what Coop said when he hung up with family…
Chapter Twenty-One
“Uncle Coop, I need to talk to you.” Ricky and Bella stood there together hand-in-hand, staring at him, and there were tears on the little girl’s face.
He didn’t need this.
Coop didn’t need this right now. There wasn’t a single part of him that didn’t hurt. He’d gotten kicked good and hard right in the hip, and the bruise on his belly was—well, it would have been scary if he hadn’t been kicked ten thousand times before, but damn. There was something about a horse that was so much worse than a bull. Probably those damn hooves.
Not only that, but he’d been working on cutting some molding, and he’d sliced the fuck out of his hand, and supergluing that shit closed had burned like fire.
He’d had to drive up to the school not once, not twice, but three separate times.
One because Mina had had an absolute temper tantrum and peed herself.
Second, because. Johnny had gotten himself beat up at the school, and now he was saying he wasn’t going back. And ofcourse, Mason had gotten suspended for three days because he’d beaten the hell out of the kid who’d beaten up Johnny. He wasn’t even sure how to be mad about that, because wasn’t that what they were supposed to do? Defend their little brother from all-comers?
Finally, and most spectacularly, Lucy had started her first period in kind of a hallway-in-the-Overlook Hotel-from-The Shiningsort of way. Thank God he’d had trash bags in the truck to save his seat.
Who knew there were so many different kinds of things to soak up a woman’s monthlies?
Him.
That was who. He knew.
That basically meant that the only child who had not had some kind of an issue today was the one standing in front of him with a crying girl.
As soon as this conversation was over—no matter what the conversation was—he was getting a beer.
He didn’t sigh. “All right. Shoot.”
“I think we need to sit down.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Coop didn’t want to have any conversation that required sitting down. Not today.
Still, what was he supposed to do, say no? Let’s not sit down. Let’s not talk about whatever it is that was fixing to just change his entire goddamn life, and he somehow knew it.
