by Terri Osburn
“You really need to get out more,” Haleigh drawled. “You’ve been cooped up way too much.” She found her own joke hysterical, but Cooper kept a straight face. Barely. “So you’re the only one who gets to play with puns?” she asked. “Fine. Where’s this scratch stuff?”
“I’ll get you a bucket.” After retrieving the treat from behind the coop, he said, “Toss it on the ground in front of you and they’ll come get it.”
“I’ve got this,” she said, a look of determination on her moonlit face. In a moment of sanity, she said, “You’re coming in with me, right? In case they attack me.”
“What am I supposed to do if they attack you?” he asked. He knew exactly what to do, but Haleigh didn’t need to know that.
“They’re your cockamamie birds, Cooper. I don’t know. Yell and wave your arms.”
“They’re chickens, Haleigh, not grizzly bears.”
“Whatever.” As if sneaking up on a sleeping tiger, she tiptoed to the latched door. “Here we go.”
Cooper let Haleigh enter before sliding in behind her. The girls were used to him coming in during the day, but a night visit was unusual. He wasn’t sure how they’d react. “No sudden moves. Start scattering.”
“Wouldn’t scattering be a sudden move?” she asked, backing up against him as the chickens approached. “They don’t look happy to see me.”
“They always look like that.” Though they didn’t usually crowd him into a corner. “Toss the scratch already.”
“I’m tossing,” she said, throwing handfuls of corn and oats on the ground. “They’re getting closer.”
“You dropped the scratch at your feet,” he reminded her. “I told you they’d come and get it.”
Dropping the bucket to the ground, she said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
As he reached for the bucket, Mabel pecked his hand hard enough to draw blood. “Dammit,” Cooper hollered. “Get over to the door.”
The minute Haleigh stepped right, Mabel came off the ground like a raging demon bird. Cooper used his arm to protect Haleigh’s face, careful not to swing at the hen, and prodded the panicking woman along until he could reach the latch. Trixie and Dixie raised a racket, as if cheering Mabel on, while Haleigh’s screeching nearly drowned them out.
The old bird landed another bruising peck on Cooper’s thigh before he swung Haleigh out and latched the door behind them. They stood face-to-face with Haleigh’s back against the run, both struggling for breath, until an unexpected cackle split the night air. For a second, Cooper feared Mabel had gotten out during their escape, only to realize that the sound wasn’t coming from the chickens at all.
It was coming from Haleigh.
Peals of laughter echoed through the trees as breathing turned to wheezing. When her forehead hit Cooper’s chest, the scent of strawberries filled his senses, and he grasped the chicken wire as she pushed against him.
Being attacked by his chickens didn’t strike Cooper as all that funny, but her snickering, punctuated by the occasional snort, proved contagious. Before he knew it, Cooper was chuckling right along with her.
“You’re insane, you know that?” he said. “She could have taken your eye out.”
Haleigh’s hands flapped in the air. “We just got attacked by a freaking chicken,” she said, before succumbing to the hilarity once more. With dancing eyes, she added in a loud whisper, “I thought I was going to pee myself.”
“That’s attractive,” he replied, enjoying the more carefree doctor smiling up at him. “Mabel probably would have taken that as a challenge.”
She squealed at the comment. “I can see the headline now,” she sputtered. “Woman’s death suspected to be fowl play.”
Cooper groaned. “I can’t believe you went there.”
“Oh, come on,” she said, tugging on the front of his shirt. “That’s funny and you know it.”
Sliding the hair off her face, he said, “I like when you laugh. You should do it more often.”
Her shoulders fell with a deep sigh. “I do feel better. Maybe laughter really is the best medicine.”
“It isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a start.” Cooper straightened to bring his body closer to hers. “I’m really glad you came tonight.”
“I am too. But I don’t think—”
“Shhh . . .” he said, dropping a finger over her glossy lips. “For once in your life, Haleigh Rae, don’t think. Just feel.”
When he leaned down, she brushed her nose against his. “Feeling isn’t my forte.”
As their breaths mingled, the tang of barbeque sauce mixed with hops and sweet tea. “Just follow my lead, darling.”
The moment their lips met, Cooper felt as if he’d come home. He tugged at her bottom lip as she pressed against him, her hands sliding up his chest before shoving into his hair. Gripping her hips, he trailed gentle kisses down the column of her neck.
“How does that feel?” he asked, giving her earlobe a quick bite.
Haleigh nodded her head. “Good. Yeah.” On the verge of panting, she mumbled, “Real good.”
“Then let’s make it even better.” Cooper shifted Haleigh to the right until she stood flat against the shed. She protested at the break in contact, tugging hard on the collar of his flannel. To the unspoken plea, he said, “You’ve got it, doc,” before covering her mouth with his.
She took everything he offered, and gave double in return. Hot, wet, and demanding, Haleigh turned kissing into a combat sport, tasting, scratching, and grinding her way to total domination. But Cooper wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet.
Dipping his hands under her bottom, he jerked Haleigh’s feet off the ground as he lifted her high enough to meet him nose to nose. Her eyes were molten whiskey in the glow of the floodlight, her lips red and inviting as she traced a thumb over his lower lip.
As if surprised by the revelation, she whispered, “This feels right.”
He nodded as her legs tightened around his hips. “It’s about time you saw the light,” he said, leaning in to taste her again.
Cooper Ridgeway was one hell of a kisser. And damn sturdy, too. Haleigh had never been swept off her feet, literally, and enjoyed the experience immensely. Of course, the man doing the sweeping had something to do with that.
He tasted like a head rush and felt like a Mack truck. She could hold on to his broad shoulders all night, and considered doing just that. To think, she could have been taking this ride long before now.
As if trying to drive her crazy, Cooper kept slowing the tempo. Sliding from full throttle to idle with annoying control, and drawing her body tighter by the second. Desperate for skin, she tugged hard on the ends of his shirt and heard the satisfying ping of buttons popping. With the shirt open, she explored the hard body beneath the material, dragging a gratifying groan from Cooper’s lips. The sound emanated from deep in his chest, sending dizzying vibrations through her fingertips.
“You’re perfect,” she said, tasting the salt at the base of his throat.
With a tattered breath, he said, “That’s my line.”
She dismissed the inference, as Cooper’s perfection echoed inside and out. Haleigh moved through life in a pretty shell, but the ugliness was always there, close to the surface and clawing to get out.
In Cooper’s arms, she didn’t feel worthless or inadequate or disappointing, which made this exchange all the more dangerous. Haleigh could easily see herself replacing one demon-suppressant for another. Only drowning in Cooper would be way better than losing herself at the bottom of a bottle had ever been.
While that thought circled through her mind, Cooper’s powerful hands drifted up her rib cage, setting tiny fires along her nerve endings. Haleigh clung to him, wanting more but not willing to sacrifice his heat to find a better location to carry on.
When his thumbs found her nipples through thin satin, her body kicked into another gear as she sucked on his tongue, desperate for more.
“What’s going on back here?” a fe
male voice spoke from the trees, followed by at least two gasps and an “Aw, shit.” The expletive came from a man who proceeded to take charge, saying, “Everybody back to the party.”
Cooper slammed his hands on the side of the building, presumably shielding Haleigh from the onlookers. As if he could protect her from the fallout of this colossal mistake.
This is not a mistake! screamed a voice in Haleigh’s head. One she didn’t recognize but wanted to believe.
With his forehead pressed to hers, Cooper said, “I need less nosy friends.”
The joke broke the tension, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “That first voice was Abby’s, wasn’t it?”
“Yep.” Cooper lifted her to the ground as if setting down a priceless piece of crystal. “Afraid so. They must have heard the screaming with the chickens.” Attempting to button his shirt, he looked down in confusion. “When did you do this?”
“Somewhere around the time you slid your tongue in my ear.” Haleigh righted her clothes. “This should make for a fun ride home.”
“Hey,” he said, lifting her face with a finger beneath her chin. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
She managed a halfhearted smile. “For once, I agree with you.”
Dark brows shot up. “Seriously?”
Cupping his face with both hands, Haleigh rose up to her toes to drop a quick kiss on his lips and said, “Seriously.” And then she gave a gentle tap with her left hand. “But that doesn’t mean this is going to happen again.” Knowing the jury was still out, she added, “Maybe.”
“Oh, this will happen again,” he said, confidence brimming. “That was too good not to repeat.”
“Repeating behaviors that make me feel good has led me into more trouble than I can tell you,” she said. “We’re still the same mismatched people we were before . . .” Haleigh waved a hand in the air. “Before whatever that was.”
“That,” Cooper said, pulling her into his arms, “was chemistry. And it’s been brewing for a long time.”
“You’re confusing chemistry with coffee,” she corrected, settling against his body. “And we aren’t the only variables in this equation. I made Abby a promise that I wouldn’t hurt you.”
His arms tightened. “Then don’t.”
As if anything in Haleigh’s life was that easy.
Going for total honesty, she said, “If we follow the road less taken here, I can’t make any guarantees.”
Cooper acknowledged the confession with a nod. “Fair enough. But while we’re putting our cards on the table, you need to know this. I want you. And I’m willing to step out on whatever crazy limb it takes to make you see that. Your good side and your bad. Whatever fatal flaw you think makes you less deserving than the rest of us. That’s what I’m in for. So don’t think I’m going to be easy to spook, because I’m not.”
The speech took Haleigh by surprise. And touched a nerve. Her whole life had been a fight for acceptance and always coming up short. With Cooper, she didn’t have to fight for anything.
Uncomfortable with the abrupt leap from hormone rush to something serious, she attempted to defuse the bomb he’d just dropped in her lap. “That’s a big jump from one make-out session.”
“We both know this thing between us didn’t start with a chicken attack.”
Haleigh couldn’t resist the giggle. “If this works and we have kids someday, I’m totally telling them it started with a chicken attack.”
Taking her hand, he led the way back to the stone path. “And I’m telling them that you ripped all the buttons off my shirt.”
“Don’t you dare,” she ordered, poking him in the ribs. They walked the rest of the way in silence. At the entrance to the clearing, Haleigh tugged on Cooper’s hand until he stopped and turned her way. “You know this is all just kidding around, right?”
By the look on his face, he didn’t know any such thing. “If it makes you feel better, you can believe that. For now. But I meant every word I said back there.”
A knot of apprehension tightened in Haleigh’s chest. Cooper had essentially just handed over his heart on a silver platter. If there was ever a day she wanted not to screw something up, this was it.
“Duly noted,” she said, trying to keep things light. Peeking through the branches, she braced herself. “Time to pay the piper, I guess.”
“No one will say a word,” Cooper assured her, dropping a hand to the small of her back. “And I’ll handle it if they do.”
As they stepped into the yard, Haleigh’s eyes were locked on Cooper’s face. The white knight was in full armor and ready to fight for her honor. Maybe having a hero by your side wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Chapter 17
To say that the drive home was tense was like saying a bonfire is kind of hot.
The moment that Cooper and Haleigh stepped out of the trees, the partygoers had fallen into a collective silence. Except for Jessi and Ian, who were still wrapped up in whatever fascinating conversation they’d been conducting for the last two hours. Though reluctant to leave her alone, Cooper had eventually agreed that there was no reason for Haleigh to accompany him into the house for a new shirt.
As if that wouldn’t make the situation worse at all.
Within minutes, Abby had relayed her desire to leave. No one spoke on the way home, which afforded Haleigh much-needed time to think.
One week ago, she’d been sure that nothing would ever happen between her and Cooper. Even one day ago, Haleigh’s intentions had been in the right place. As her best friend’s brother and an incredibly upstanding guy with everything going for him, Cooper Ridgeway was without a doubt off-limits. Verboten. Absolutely no touchy.
And then she’d touched. And kissed. And felt not only beautiful and desired, but accepted and worthwhile. There were no ulterior motives with Cooper. No judgment and no impossible standards to meet. Bottom line? He liked her. He didn’t want to use her or show her off. He just liked her, and that was a rarity in her world.
Did she deserve Cooper? Of course not. But Haleigh would give anything to feel like that again. Besides, who was to say that Cooper wasn’t right about her? Maybe she wasn’t irredeemable in the grand scheme of things. Haleigh had never sold drugs to kids. Never robbed a liquor store. Heck, she’d never so much as tapped a dog with her bumper. There had been that one raccoon on a late-night drive from Memphis a few years ago, but Haleigh was pretty sure the critter had survived.
The point was, maybe she didn’t deserve him right now, but she could. Eventually. After all, if anyone could make her a better person, it was Cooper.
“I’m going to bed,” Abby said the minute they walked into the house.
“What crawled up her butt?” Jessi asked as she lowered the car seat onto the couch to unbuckle Emma. “And what was up on the way home? I’m surprised the windshield didn’t freeze over.”
Haleigh debated whether or not to spill the dirty details. Since Jessi was likely to hear them eventually, better to take the opportunity to at least let her hear Haleigh’s version first.
“When Cooper took me back to see his chickens—”
“Wait,” Jessi stopped her. “Tell me that’s a euphemism.”
“You want to hear this or not?” Haleigh asked, her patience at an end.
“Fine,” the teenager said, not bothering to hide the eye roll. “Go on.”
Dropping into a chair, Haleigh pinched the bridge of her nose as she continued. “We went into the run to give the chickens some kind of treat, and they weren’t very happy about the intrusion. One in particular scared the crap out of me, and I ended up screaming like an idiot.”
“I didn’t hear any screaming.”
“You didn’t hear anything beyond the sound of Ian’s voice from the moment you wiggled your tail in his face.”
“Excuse me,” Jessi said. “Whatever put your panties in a twist had nothing to do with me.”
Haleigh sighed. “You’re right. That was uncalled for.”
&nb
sp; “Thank you. Now where does Abby come into the chicken story?”
“Unfortunately, she comes into it at the moment that Cooper and I were getting hot and heavy at the side of the coop. The partygoers came to see what the commotion was, and instead of finding our lifeless, chicken-pecked bodies, they stumbled upon something out of a barnyard porno movie.”
Jessi sat down next to the car seat with a sleeping Emma on her shoulder. “First of all, don’t ever use the words barnyard and porno in the same sentence again. Second, why would Abby be ticked about her brother and her best friend getting together? That’s, like, the perfect scenario. Who better to get as a new sister than your best friend?”
The child made an excellent point. Abby’s attitude didn’t say much for their friendship. Not that Haleigh expected her to break into a happy dance, but would it hurt to give her oldest friend the benefit of the doubt?
Considering Haleigh’s history, maybe so.
“One of the perks of being best friends since elementary school is that you know everything about each other. In our case, that’s also a pitfall. I may look like I have my crap together, but Abby knows better.”
Jessi snorted. “You think that’s how you look?”
Really? The single mother was passing judgment?
“I could be sleeping right now,” Haleigh pointed out.
“Come on,” Jessi chimed. “You’re a doctor, but you rent a bedroom from a friend. You work more than anyone I’ve ever met, you don’t date, and I’d bet my Doc Martens that you haven’t gotten laid in, like, forever.”
“It’s only been seven months,” Haleigh defended. “And I rent that bedroom back there because between student loans, credit cards, and a car payment, plus my mother’s mortgage and utilities, I don’t have enough left over to get my own place.” She hadn’t meant to share so much. “Dammit, I don’t need this.”
The minute Haleigh popped out of her seat, Jessi said, “Doc, wait. I’m being a jerk.” Haleigh stood where she was with her arms crossed. She could not take one more hit tonight. “Dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t know all that.”