by Linda Kage
Eight. No, he most certainly hadn’t waited long to find himself another woman to impregnate. Jo Ellen’s child would’ve been ten a month ago.
A mother and young girl pushed out of the gymnasium and into the front hall, the woman herding her daughter in the direction the bathrooms. Wanting to question Travis further with more privacy, Jo Ellen touched his arm. “This way.”
With a nod, he followed her around a corner and into a darkened hall lined with old metal lockers. When they reached a quiet nook that led to a pair of classroom doors, she stopped and turned to face him.
* * * *
Cooper ran a nervous hand through his hair only to check his reflection in the rear view mirror of his truck to make sure he hadn’t made a total mess. Sitting parked in front of his old high school, he sucked in a long, invigorating breath.
It was now-or-never time again. He felt a sense of déjà vu, as if ten years had never passed. He might as well be standing in front of Jo Ellen’s parents’ house again with a filled book bag in one hand and his mom’s cookies in the other, ready to confront the girl of his dreams with his feelings before she left town.
It was like this situation just kept repeating itself until he got it right. This time, he refused to mess it up. He didn’t care if he ended up like his father any more, spilling his feelings to a woman, not knowing whether she returned his affections or not.
After talking to his mother last night, he decided his father’s letter had been the most courageous thing he’d ever heard. And he’d always followed tradition, always followed his dad’s footsteps. There was no reason to stop now. Besides, there wasn’t another man alive he’d want to emulate.
Blowing out a breath, he opened his truck door and stepped out. The sound of his boot heels striking the sidewalk sounded lonely and solitary, but he hoped when he exited the school, there’d be another set of footsteps walking beside his. Jo Ellen’s.
When he opened the front doors and stepped into the quiet lobby of the school, he barely caught sight of two people turning down a darkened hallway. Recognizing Jo Ellen anywhere, he paused and focused on the man following her.
Eyes narrowing, he trailed the two from a distance, stepping lightly so his boots wouldn’t alert them to his presence. Reaching the opening of the hall, he paused and leaned forward to peer down the row of lockers. Jo Ellen ducked into a shadowed nook and her companion followed. Though he could barely see both of them, he couldn’t hear anything they said.
Cooper studied the other man a moment longer before he recognized Travis Untermeyer. Jaw clenching, he kept watching, unable to look away as Jo Ellen and her first love began to talk. As his retinas stung from the intense way he stared, Cooper watched Untermeyer reach out and catch Jo Ellen’s hip in a possessive hold. He drew her close to him.
Cooper couldn’t watch them kiss. To avoid it, he slammed his eyes closed and tried to breathe through his nose to keep from exploding.
She’d made her decision, he kept telling himself. She’d chosen Pretty Boy. He needed to leave it alone. Still, he wanted to storm down the hall and kill her perfect, little polished city boy. He wanted to crush and hurt. Instead, he whirled on the heels of his boots and didn’t open his eyes until he’d moved past the opening of the hall.
Storming from the school, he strode to his truck, the sound of his single footfalls making him grit his teeth. Damn it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.
Rubbing at the center of his chest, trying to abate the clawing ache, he opened his door and climbed in. Starting the engine, he didn’t even look back. He drove away.
He wouldn’t mourn, he commanded himself. He didn’t have time. He had crops to harvest.
* * * *
“So?” Jo Ellen licked her dry lips, nervous about what Travis planned to say.
He smiled. “So…”
Her brow puckered with confusion. “Did you…did you want to talk about the baby or what?”
Confusion lined his features and wrinkled at the corners of his eyes. “Baby? What baby?”
Her mouth fell open. She blinked rapidly through the incredulous shock swelling inside her before she hissed from between clenched teeth. “Our baby?”
He stared blankly before his eyes grew wide. Then he glanced around as if to once again make sure they were alone. Then he grasped her hip and led her deeper into the dark nook. “Are you telling me you actually kept it?” he hissed.
“Kept it?” she repeated, totally bewildered. What in the world was he talking about?
“Christ, Jo Ellen. I knew your family was against the idea of abortion, but I thought your parents were at least smart enough to make you give it up for adoption.”
He didn’t know.
Like a punch to her solar plexus, the truth slammed into her. He had no idea her baby had died. She wasn’t sure what upset her more, that he hadn’t even bothered to find out what had happened to his own child or that he assumed it was still alive and with her. He didn’t demand a single detail, like gender, or name, hair color—
Suddenly glad her baby hadn’t been forced to exist with such an uncaring, awful father, she fisted her hands down at her sides and envisioned herself plowing him right in the nose.
“So what did you want to discuss with me in Dallas?” she asked, not even feeling the compulsion to inform him his child hadn’t even survived to birth.
He quirked his brows. “Discuss? Why would I want to talk about anything?”
“Because you said…” Jo Ellen lost a bit of her cool as steam gathered around her collar. If he hadn’t wanted to discuss anything, what the hell had he meant by I want to make amends when he’d said it in Dallas? She had assumed he wanted to apologize.
Damn it, she wanted an apology.
Before she could question him further, a hand curled around her waist in a firm grip just before he slid his palm up the back of her blouse. “Yeah, I said I wanted to meet up with you again.”
“Hey!” She jerked back, surprised. “Wha—”
He prowled after her, his eyes lighting with accomplishment as he leered. “That’s right.” He chuckled. “You prefer a little…coaxing to get into the mood, don’t you? It’s what I miss most about you, Jo. Always a challenge.”
“Actually that was me resisting,” she muttered in a dry tone, slapping his hand away when he reached for her again.
He laughed. “But you could never resist me for long.”
She threw up a little in her mouth. All this time, he still believed her adamant no’s had simply been foreplay.
“No,” she corrected, except he didn’t give her time to explain. He moved in, crowding her against the closed classroom door. When fingers squeezed her breast, she gasped in shock and shoved him back hard.
“How dare you!” She couldn’t decide what insulted her more, the fact he assumed she’d be willing to pick up where they’d left off or that he could so blithely break his marriage vows…with his wife and children somewhere in the same building. “Your wife is—”
“A cold, lifeless bitch. But her daddy’s richer than Midas.” Which is exactly how he’d always described Jo Ellen’s father when they were dating.
Too horrified to respond, she could only feel ill as she realized she’d once dated this person, actually let him into her body. A shiver of revulsion consumed her.
She was so busy reveling in her disgust, she wasn’t paying attention enough to dodge aside as he lunged after her and wrapped his arms around her middle. His bulging belly prodded hers. The intense smell of aftershave and cologne suffocated her.
“Get off,” she demanded, shoving at him again, but this time, she couldn’t break free. “Travis.” She growled his name from between gritted teeth. “I’m warning you.”
The jerk tried to kiss her. When his mouth loomed close, she panicked. Needing immediate freedom, she hiked her knee up, glad her skirt was loose enough to lift a satisfying height to hit her target.
As soon as she cracked him between the legs, h
e choked out a surprised, pained grunt and lurched over, cradling his privates before tipping sideways and pitching to the floor. Curling into the fetal position, he gasped, “You…bitch.”
She sniffed, unimpressed by the insult and began to step over his leg to stride off, but he caught her ankle and nearly sent her sprawling onto her face.
Just as she yelped out her surprise and threw out her arms to catch herself, a strident voice roared from down the hall. “Hey! What’s going on here?”
Cooper, something inside her called. He’d come.
Except, when she lifted her face and tugged her foot free from Travis, losing her sandal in the process, Cooper wasn’t the man charging toward her. She was so disappointed to not see him, she didn’t even recognize her brother-in-law until he caught her arm and steadied her, helping her straighten back to her full height.
“Thank God Em sent me to check on you. Are you okay?”
She tucked her mused hair out of her face. “Yeah. I…I’m fine.” She lifted her face to smile at her savior, but he’d already turned away and was hauling a still-hunched Travis to his feet.
“You messed up, pal,” he said calmly enough before shoving the wounded man against a row of lockers and pinning him there. “Now apologize to my sister.”
Instead of cowering and immediately spitting out an impassioned apology, the idiot blinked at Branson. “Sister?”
“He’s married to Emma Leigh,” Jo Ellen explained vaguely as she tugged at her brother-in-law’s arm. “Bran, let him go—”
Travis spit out a surprised laugh. “You mean someone actually married that rude, mouthy dike twin of yours?”
Branson’s face molted to an immediate and intense, angry scarlet. “What did you call my wife?”
Before Bran could inflict any permanent damage and Travis sued him—which was exactly what he’d do—Jo Ellen tightened her grip and tugged her brother-in-law backward. “Branson. No. He’s not worth it.”
He let her pull him away, but continued to glare at Travis, challenging him with his narrowed eyes to make one wrong move.
“That’s right,” Travis taunted, leering. “Let the little woman lead you around by a leash.”
Branson’s nostrils flared but he kept his cool and refrained from lashing back, even verbally. Jo Ellen relaxed a fraction of an inch until Emma Leigh showed up with a sleeping infant passed out against her.
“Bran, what’s taking so—” She paused when she saw Jo Ellen pressed up against his chest. “What—” She finally turned to spot Travis deeper in the shadows, panting shallowly as he curled his injured body against the wall, and Jo Ellen’s lost sandal as she slipped it back on.
Taking in the scene, she lugged her baby higher on her shoulder and demanded, “Okay, what’d I miss?”
Still not knowing when to shut up, Travis ogled her, focusing his attention on her milk-filled breasts. “Damn, Emma Leigh. Guess I deflowered the wrong sister.”
Branson tensed under Jo Ellen’s restraining hand a split second before he let out a roar. She dodged into his path just as he charged, successfully tripping him up.
As they sprawled against each other, she lifted her voice and called, “Enough!” Latching her arm around Branson’s and keeping him tethered to her, she glared at the other man. “Travis, go back to your family. Now.”
But his family had already found him. “Trav?” The feminine voice from behind the four of them, made everyone turn to not only find his wife and children standing there watching, but half of their high school class gathered around to enjoy the show.
After wiping at his red face, he pointed accusingly at Jo Ellen. “She attacked me. She—”
His wife sighed and rolled her eyes, breaking into his accusation. “Travis, don’t even start with me again.” Grabbing the hands of her two children, she reeled them away and stalked off through a gap where the crowd immediately parted to let her pass.
“Look what you did?” Travis accused, whirling toward Jo Ellen.
She shook her head sadly. “Please tell me you’re not that pathetic.”
“Well, what did you think to accomplish, luring a married man out into a dark, quiet hall?”
She rolled her eyes, “I meant to talk, Travis. Only talk.”
He blinked blankly. “Talk? Talk about what?”
“I just wanted to thank you,” she said with a saccharine smile. “Thank you for showing me what a complete and utter asshole you were ten years ago so I didn’t make the biggest mistake of my life and actually marry you.”
He sputtered, offended, but she lifted a hand. “Why don’t you race after your wife now and try to beg your way back into her forgiveness?”
He glanced at everyone watching him and pushed from the wall, limping as he hastened away.
“Oh, and Travis,” Jo Ellen called after him. When he paused and glanced back warily, she smiled sweetly. “Before you go, I just want to confess…I made out with someone else when you and I were dating, and what’s worse, he was a hundred times better kisser than you were.” When his mouth fell open, she added, “He’s a hundred times the man you are. But that shouldn’t be too hard for you to believe since you were always just so jealous of him.”
Travis’s face filled with awareness as he—and no one else—realized exactly whom she referred to. She smiled with relish when his jaw clamped and eyes narrowed.
Around them, the hall full of old classmates broke out into cheering and clapping. Clearly defeated, Travis ducked his red face and rushed off.
“That was freaking…awesome!” Bran exploded, grabbing her close for a quick supportive hug. His face glowed with pride as he pulled away. “Christ, Jo Ellen. I had no idea you had that kind of spunk in you. You were…you were just like Emma Leigh.”
Jo Ellen laughed and wrapped her arm around her twin as Em squeezed in between them. Tipping her cheek against Em’s, she smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
When she pulled back to look expectantly at her sister, she was relieved to find Em’s eyes glittering with pride. “Wow, Joey. That was….” She shook her head.
“I know. I’m feeling a little wowed myself. I didn’t come here planning to chew him out, but now that I have, I feel…” She shrugged. “Free.”
“Loose ends tied and tucked away,” her twin said.
Jo Ellen’s smile faltered. Her loose ends with Travis were tied, yes. And the outcome there was better than she’d ever imagined. Door definitely closed.
But her outcome with Cooper didn’t feel so satisfying and freeing. She wanted him back.
“Yeah.” She leaned down to kiss the top of still-snoozing Brand’s head. “I think I’ve had enough of this reunion though.”
Emma Leigh’s eyes filled with sympathetic knowledge. “Are you going to go see him now?”
This time, there was no question who he was. “No. I…I’m going home.” And she didn’t mean back to her parents’ place.
She belonged in Dallas. There, at least her work depended on her. Although love definitely wasn’t her forte, she could focus on her job.
As she climbed into her car, unbidden tears rushed to her eyes. She had no idea why she had to start crying now. It was as if her body knew she had needed to hold herself together until she got through the reunion, but now that it was over, the strain was more than she could take. Squinting through the wet blur, she drove back to her parents’ house and packed her bags.
She refused to wait around until Sunday to leave Tommy Creek. If Cooper didn’t love her, then there was nothing here for her.
She’d taken the risk she’d been so afraid to take, and she’d failed. She’d gotten her heart broken and lost an amazing man. But strangely enough, she didn’t regret it. She knew she was better off having spent a week in his arms than never having been with him at all. Instead of crushing her, he’d healed everything Travis had broken.
As she drove out of town, she couldn’t help but pass his farm. Shades firmly planted on her face and her packed
bags securely stowed in her trunk, she gripped her shaking fingers tighter around the steering wheel when she caught sight of his combine slowly trudging across one of his cornfields. Memories of climbing inside the cab with him rocked through her.
She pulled to the side of the road and simply watched him harvest his crops. He was such a hard-working farmer, such an honorable man to fill his father’s spot in order to look after his lonely mother.
Someday, he’d make some lucky woman a devoted husband and become a dedicated, dependable father to her children.
Jo Ellen’s chest hurt just thinking about it, because that woman wouldn’t be her.
She broke into tears all over again. Unable to bear watching him work a moment longer, she sniffed, wiped at her wet eyes and put her car into gear. She cried the entire way back to Dallas.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A month later
Rio’s bar and grill wasn’t very crowded when Cooper pushed his way inside. He’d finally finished the corn harvest this evening.
The year before, Thad had been starting to decline and Coop had done most of the work himself, asking his dad for advice and guidance more often than not. But this year, he’d mucked through without even that.
He’d stood in the middle of the last freshly picked field and waited for that unfailing moment of achievement to fill him. He always experienced it when he finished a long project. He liked looking out over everything he’d accomplished and attaining some satisfaction, a sense of completion.
But today, he’d only felt regret, regret his father hadn’t been around to share any of the glory, regret Jo Ellen was gone and couldn’t celebrate the end of his harvest with him, regret he had no one but a lonely, heart-broken mother left to live with.
After returning home, he’d spent a quiet hour with Loren at the supper table. She made his favorite dessert, chocolate chip cookies. But the fresh pastries had only tasted stale in his mouth. After thanking her for the meal and pressing a quick kiss to her temple, he left her in the living room, watching 48 Hours Mystery.