Page 92 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
His cowboy. His weird sometimes-Aussie. His lover.
And he was all over that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
God, Brooks was glad to be pulling into the drive with Kase driving and Coop in the backseat, stretched out sideways, finally allowed to come home.
The howl of beagles and Suki’s sharp barking made him smile like the Cheshire Cat. He’d missed them so bad.
In fact, he needed them desperately. He grinned at Kase. “Okay, buddy. Probably going to need to you help ride herd on kids and dogs so Coop can get inside and get pillows all piled around him so no one hurts him.”
“You got it, man.” Kase winked, then looked back over his shoulder. “Coop, you stay put. I got a couple of guys here helping. Let me text them, and we’ll get you inside. Brooks, you go say hey to everyone.”
“You got it.” He glanced at Coop too. “Behave.”
“Mmm.” Coop gave him a drowsy smile and a nod.
The kids had all come down over the weekend to see him, to hug his neck, and to bring presents to Coop. But this? This was coming home.
He hopped out of the truck and he headed for the porch,stopping to love on Thor and Loki and Suki. “Hey, you hairy beasts. I missed you. The cattle dogs at the station aren’t cuddlers, and the hospital was just no bueno.”
“Uncle Brooks!” Mina came pelting at him, running right into his arms. “I missed you!”
“I missed you too, baby doll! Look how pretty you are.” She was wearing a princess dress three sizes too big, at least, a huge string of fake pearls wrapped around her like four times. She also wore lipstick.
Or it was wearing her.
She kissed his cheek, no doubt leaving a huge smear.
“You playing dress-up, huh?”
“Uh-huh. Charlie sent me and Lucy a whole box of stuff from the thrift store where she lives. The makeup is new, though.”
“That’s really cool.” He hugged her tight, and she immediately burst into tears. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“I thoughted you and Uncle Coop went and weren’t coming baaaaaack. He almost died!” Half of the words were a long, drawn-out cry, so he picked her up, hugging on her.
“No, baby girl. We’ll always come home to you if we have to go. And I won’t ever go away as long as that again without all of you.”
“Promise to God? Everything is sad. My heart hurts all the time.”
“I’m so sorry you’re hurting, Miss Mina. I will help all I can. And I cross my heart.” He did just that, giving her a solemn vow.
“Okay, I trust you.” Her tears were killing him.
“Do you even know what that means?” He teased her.
“Uh-huh.” She nodded, so serious. “It means I believe in you like Jesus and Santa and Uncle Coop and Benji.”
Brooks found himself a little misty-eyed. That was somegood damn company—Jesus, Santa, Coop, and her oldest brother. That meant something.
“Let’s go in and see everybody else. Mr. Kase is going to help Uncle Coop in when you all stop jumping around.”
Her eyes went wide. “We don’t want to hurt Uncle Coop. Johnny gotted some big owie on his face. Not as big as Uncle’s Coop’s, which was super icky.”
“It’s way better now, huh? The doc said he was real happy about how he was healing. What about Mason? How’s he doing?”
“He was in a big fight, you know? Mason said that his hand was harder than that kid’s face. And that kid was bad off, and that’s why he had to stay home for three days. Because he got in big trouble.” She stared at him. “He went to the principal’s office.”
