Page 91 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“So? You can have a week off when you get home. I’ll even let Mina and Johnny stay with you. I’m not sure they’re going to let Mason ever come back to school.”
He was pretty damn sure. “They’re going to let Mason go back to school. Mason and Johnny both, if I have to go upthere and sit and be the substitute goddamn teacher. Johnny has to learn to be social, and Mason has to learn to control his temper.”
Now Brooks did laugh at him. “Oh, I could see that. ‘All right, children, now Coop’s going to teach you how to lay the smackdown on a bull’.”
“I’ll have you know that I am incredibly good at teaching someone how to lay the smackdown on a bull.” He surprised himself by yawning so wide that his jaw actually cracked.
Brooks stared at him, and he glared. “Don’t you say anything.”
“Nope, not a word. I wouldn’t ever say anything.” Brooks came and sat next to him, hand on his thigh. “Just be patient, please? Better to get this all taken care of now than to drive you all the way home and have to bring you all the way back here. That just slows everything down.”
“I just hate this shit.”
“I know.” Brooks paused, clearly gathering his thoughts. “But they had to take out part of your intestine, Coop.” Brooks’s face screwed up hard. “And my horse did this. Jesus, Coop, I should have been here. I’ll never forgive myself for this.”
Oh, now. That was never gonna do. “It wasn’t your fault. I know better than to get careless around a big animal. And I know horses kick.” Coop sighed. “I just let myself get cornered in that stall, and there was a damn mouse.”
Brooks went wide-eyed. “A mouse. Jesus fuck.”
“You’ve seen it a million damn times, and you know it.”
“I have. We need more barn cats.”
“Yeah.” They couldn’t do poison because of the dogs, and glue traps were just awful.
“You know, we had barn cats until every Chiara child took one.”
“Well, we’re just going to have to get more.” They lived on ranches, for fuck’s sake.
“I can ask the guys, the cowboys, if they have some they can let us relocate. They just got six more. Because you know Ryder is not going to let those cats be in the house.”
Coop snorted. “Oh, God no. Neither will Mookie.”
That dog was not a fan of the kitties, no matter how much Dani tried to talk her into it.
“You know, we can also ask Tygh.”
“Oh, I’m sure he knows where there are some barn cats that need a warm place with good food and lots of mice.” Brooks rubbed his hand, massaging his fingers.
“Exactly.” Coop’s eyes crossed, the muscles in his hand relaxing. “Oh…that’s a good idea. We should so…uh…do that.”
He didn’t want to fall asleep, so he forced his eyes open wide and looked around the room, which was full of the weirdest shit. There were a couple of vases full of flowers, sure, but every bullfighter in the entire world must have sent a stuffed bull or a horseshoe or a signed bull rope. The entire God damn place looked like a rodeo arena.
Every time one of the nurses came in who was new and hadn’t met him yet, they shook their head and frowned and asked if any of this stuff was sanitary.
Of course it was mostly clean, and besides that a man had to have dirt in order to build up his bacteria base.
Not only that, a little bull poop never hurt anybody.
Brooks caught him looking and grinned. “I tell you what, we’re going to have a truck all of your own just to get your shit home. Did you see that there were things from Brazil and Australia, Mexico, Canada. It’s like you’re famous or something.”
“Yep, got kicked by a horse. That’s all it took.” He was going to catch no end of shit for that when everyone figured he wasn’tgoing to die.
Assholes.
“Yeah, and you still dealt with the kids for days after that.” Brooks shook his head. “You’re my motherfucking hero, babe.”
“As long as I’m yours, that works for me.” Coop had no idea how it had come about, because it just seemed to have happened from one day to the next, but Brooks was his. Brooks had wormed himself into his life like the wonder he was.
