“Coop’s gonna buy Old Man Deluth’s farm,” Adam said out of the blue and Tessa damn near spilled her coffee in her lap.
What the fuck?
“What do you mean he’s gonna buy it?”
“Just what I said,” Adam answered, one eyebrow cocking as he looked back at her before his gaze transferred to Cooper.
That wasn’t even possible. Cooper could not be buying the Deluth farm because Tessa was buying it. She’d been paying Old Man… er… Jerry Deluth for several years, a little at a time until she had enough for the down payment so she could take over the rest of the payments. It was an agreement they had made a very long time ago, before...
Before Jerry passed away two months ago.
Tessa frowned as she peered at Cooper. She’d still been making the payments like clockwork.
Surely, Adam had to be wrong.
First of all, why would the famous country music star want to live in Devil’s Bend? For some reason that did not sound like a good idea, and Tessa knew it wasn’t just because of her intense attraction to the man.
Hold up… that wasn’t the point. Regardless.
“I wouldn’t say it’s much of a farm anymore,” Cooper added, grinning at Adam. “Maybe one day, but right now, it’s more of a shamble of a house and two hundred forty acres of weeds.”
Tessa smiled despite herself at the way he enunciated the words, sounding very much like he was born and raised in the south. And definitely not from Texas. She wondered if he’d come by his drawl naturally or if it had been developed for his country music persona.
Realizing she wasn’t supposed to be smiling, she forced her attention back to Adam. “When did this happen?”
“Talk to him,” Adam told her. “He’s the one buying the place.”
“But…” Wait. No. Tessa was not going to mention the fact that she had a stake in that place. After all, she’d never told Adam that she was buying it for a reason. And thankfully her brother Jack had kept her secret as well. She wasn’t looking for a hand out, and she knew all too well that Adam would’ve tried to jump to her rescue, especially after Richie died.
There had to be a mistake, and as soon as she got the chance, she was going to call Luanne Deluth Rosenbough and talk to her.
“What do you plan to do with it?” Tessa asked, glancing Cooper’s way briefly. Her throat felt tight and her eyes stung from unshed tears, but she fought them back. She refused to get emotional until she had all the facts.
“It needs some work, and it’ll probably take me some time to build it up, but ultimately I’d like to turn it into a fully functioning farm. As a side venture, I’m looking to build an equestrian center. I’ve always wanted to use horses to work with disabled children and adults.”
Tessa knew her jaw was hanging open, knew she shouldn’t stare at him as though he’d just admitted that his dream was the exact same dream she’d been chasing ever since she was a child, but she couldn’t help it.
“Hey, that’s funny. Tessa wanted to do that when she was a kid,” Adam offered.
She still wanted it, but Adam didn’t know that.
So if Adam hadn’t said anything, then that left… Had Luanne told Cooper what Tessa was planning to do? Was this some kind of joke? Or payback?
Tessa had to force her jaw to relax when she realized she was grinding her teeth together.
“Really?” Cooper sounded as though he was hearing the news for the first time. Didn’t mean she wasn’t still suspicious of what his overall objective was. What were the odds that he came to Devil’s Bend, bought the property she was in the process of buying and planned to build the exact same thing? Something was off here.
“So, what?” Tessa realized she sounded frustrated. “You bring him all the way out here to tell me he wants to run a horse farm?”
Adam frowned down at her, and Tessa bit the inside of her cheek as she turned to stare out into the yard. Yes, it was somewhat of a sore spot that she spent her nights slinging beers in a bar, even if she owned said bar while others were out making their dreams come true. She might not be able to make her dream come true overnight, but she was working on it.
“No, I brought Coop out here because I wanted to know what you thought of him handling the entertainment at The Rusty Nail.”
Tessa stared up at Adam once again, confusion replacing the frustration from moments ago.
“You want him to sing in the bar every night?” Turning to face Cooper, she asked him, “And you’d want to do that? I thought you were a big country star.”
Adam laughed, pulling her attention back to him. “No, I don’t think Coop would be interested in becoming a permanent nightly fixture at The Rusty Nail. He, however, would be good for business.”
“What are you talking about? You handle the entertainment. Why would we need him?” Tessa stared at her brother, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. Or rather what he wasn’t telling her. She knew there was something, but for the life of her she couldn’t put it together. The look on his face told her she wasn’t going to be happy with his news.
“I’m going into the police academy.” Adam’s calm tone sounded as though he were trying to soothe her which meant…
And then his words registered.
Police academy.
Tessa’s heart stopped beating in her chest and she felt faint. Somehow, although her body was hardly cooperating, she managed to put her coffee cup on the railing beside her because she wasn’t interested in wearing what was left of it. Staring up at Adam, she couldn’t get a single word out of her mouth.
“Tessa…” Adam began, sounding as though he were going to start explaining.
“Don’t,” she demanded harshly. “Don’t. I… I don’t even know what to say.”
Pushing to her feet, Tessa forced her legs to move, forced herself to go inside before she lost every ounce of her decorum right there on her front porch in front of God and everyone.
And Cooper Krenshaw.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
So maybe Cooper wasn’t the smartest man on the planet, but he knew immediately that what Adam just announced to his sister was not a good thing. As for why, he had no idea.
“Shit,” Adam said, pulling his ball cap down low on his head before taking it off altogether and turning to face the yard.
“I’m going to take a wild guess on this one, but I don’t think she took that well.” Cooper’s statement was met with silence, and he allowed it to settle around them for a few minutes.
Not only was he uncomfortable being there, Cooper was confused as to why he was there and the answers didn’t appear to be forthcoming. Did Adam think that bringing him along would lessen the sting of that blow? If he did, it damn sure didn’t work.
“Richie died in the line of duty,” Adam explained, although Cooper had no idea who Richie was. Not knowing what he was supposed to say to that, Cooper kept his mouth shut.
“Richie was her husband,” Adam finally explained long seconds later.
Oh, shit. Well, that explained it all too well. Adam just informed his sister that he was going to do the exact thing that got her husband killed? Shit.
Cooper wanted to ask Adam why he thought it was a good idea to do this. Or better yet, why Adam thought it was a nifty idea to bring Cooper along when he announced his intentions? How in the hell did he get caught in the middle?
“I need to talk to her,” Adam stated, but he didn’t move from where he stood.
That would probably be a smart idea, Cooper thought to himself. It was a good thing that the filter was back in place because he knew for sure that he shouldn’t get in the middle of this any more than he already was.
Adam suddenly turned and faced Cooper, a pained look on his face. Pulling his ball cap back on, Adam said, “I’ve wanted to do this my whole life. I was actually going to go into the academy with Richie, but when my stepfather got sick, I decided not to go.”
Cooper knew that Adam’s stepfather had been sick several yea
rs back, but he wasn’t aware that his illness had derailed Adam’s future. Nor had he been aware that Adam had a brother-in-law. He knew Adam had a brother and a sister, both younger, knew he had grown up in a small town and that he wasn’t close to either of his parents. Besides the basics of their families, the distance over these last few years hadn’t kept them as close as they had been during those two semesters that they’d roomed together in college.
That was probably mostly Cooper’s fault because when he ventured into the music industry full time, he’d essentially left most of his friends behind. He and Adam talked from time to time, at least once every three or four months, but obviously not enough that Adam felt close enough to share those personal parts of his life. On top of that, Cooper knew Adam well enough to know the man didn’t share much of himself with anyone.
“Do you think she’ll ever be ok with it?” Adam asked, and Cooper merely stared back at him. How would he know? Cooper had never known the type of loss that Tessa had obviously experienced, but he couldn’t imagine it would be easy to deal with.
A second later, the screen door opened, and Tessa joined them on the porch, her eyes red and puffy from crying. Cooper had a sudden need to go to her, to pull her against him and shield her from all of the pains of the world.
He kept his ass planted on the porch swing.
“How about I go take a walk?” Cooper offered when neither sibling spoke.
“No,” Tessa whispered. “Please stay. I’m sorry for…”
When it looked like she was going to cry again, Adam moved toward her and pulled her against his chest, holding her close. “I’m sorry, Sis. I know how hard this is for you, but I need to do this.”
The silence returned for a few minutes, and Cooper was beginning to feel even more uncomfortable sitting there. He was an outsider looking in, and he felt as though he wasn’t invited to witness what was transpiring between the siblings.
When Tessa spoke, Cooper immediately looked away.
“I know you need to do this,” she sobbed against Adam’s chest. “This has been your dream. I get it.”
When Tessa pulled back, the movement caught his attention and Cooper glanced over, noticing the tears once again streaming down her pale cheeks as she continued. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that. Doesn’t mean I won’t be scared every minute of every day.”
Adam sighed and pulled her back against him, leaving Cooper once again sitting on the porch swing feeling like a third wheel who clearly shouldn’t be there.
“When are you going?” she asked, taking a step back and staring at Adam, her hands scrubbing away the wet streaks on her face.
God, the woman did something to him. There was just something about her that made Cooper want to grab her up and ease some of her pain. Even when her eyes were swollen and her nose was red from crying, Tessa Donovan managed to steal his breath.
Forcing himself to look away, he stared out into the yard, watching the dogs napping in the shade of an enormous oak tree as he listened to the conversation.
“The next class starts next week. I’ve been accepted, so I don’t want to wait,” Adam informed her, but then paused.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Tessa asked.
Unable to not look, Cooper glanced over at Adam again. The man appeared as though he had some more unpleasant news to give Tessa and Cooper wished that the damn porch would open up and swallow him whole. He did not want to be there for any more unpleasant news. Hell, he didn’t think he should’ve been there for any part of it at all.
Adam smiled sadly as he looked down at his sister. “I’m going to Dallas.”
“What? Why? Why not Austin?” Tessa questioned him, her eyes wide.
Ok, so Cooper could guess at this one. Austin was obviously closer to Devil’s Bend than Dallas. Like thirty minutes, as opposed to three hours.
“Austin doesn’t have any openings for a while. I’m ready to do this, Tessa,” Adam said, taking her hands as he shifted on his feet. “When and if I make it through the academy, they’ll hire me on. At that point, I’ve got to give it a couple of years, but then I promise, I’ll be back.”
“First of all, there is no if.” Even as Tessa spoke, Cooper could see the tears reforming in her eyes, but somehow she managed to hold them back. “I’ll miss you.”
“I know you will. Which is why I want Coop here to help you out at the bar. He’ll be here permanently, and I know him, he’ll get bored.”
Bored?
Cooper noticed that Tessa didn’t look his way. Not that he expected her to. If she had, she might’ve seen the surprise on his face. At least he understood the reason behind the random questions Adam had fired off earlier at breakfast.
Cooper contemplated what Adam was saying, and he fought the urge to smile. He wasn’t so sure he’d ever get bored with all the work that would have to be done on the house he was in the process of buying, but he got the impression Adam knew that. Instead of interjecting, Cooper sat quietly, continuing to watch the exchange between Tessa and Adam.
There was a series of emotions that played across her extremely expressive features, but Tessa didn’t say another word to Adam. She stood there, her arms crossed over her chest as she regarded her brother for long moments. Cooper wished he knew what was going on in that pretty head of hers.
“So, when do you plan to start?”
Realizing the question was directed at him and that he’d been busted while he was mentally noting every detail of her sweet, lithe body, Cooper glanced up to see Tessa studying him.
“When do you want me to start?” he asked.
He had to admit, it felt a little strange to be accepting a job offer of this sort, especially when his regular life in Nashville was still up in the air. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t looking forward to it.
Whether or not he would admit it to anyone directly, Cooper wasn’t just looking for a place to start over. He was looking for something that was missing from his life. Recent events had changed his course, and he needed something more than what he was currently getting. According to Marcus, happiness came with a price, but it seemed like the more he paid, the less he got.
Stardom had its downside and one of them was the loneliness that came along with it. He wasn’t referring to the women necessarily either. They were a dime a dozen, but that novelty had worn off years ago. No, Cooper was referring to the interaction with other people on a much more intimate level. Unless he was with his parents, Cooper rarely spent time with anyone who actually knew him. And that included his manager, who seemed to think he knew what was best for him, despite Cooper’s frequent disagreements.
“How about tonight?” she asked, glancing back and forth between him and her brother. She was obviously changing the subject and Cooper was grateful for that.
“Tonight’s good.” He was in the process of buying the Deluth farm, which meant he had some time to kill before he could actually move in and get started. Working at the bar would help him to get familiar with the people in town, as well as give him something to do with his spare time. And the added bonus was that Cooper now had an excuse to spend more time with Tessa.
“It’s settled then,” Adam’s smile looked both satisfied and concerned, but Cooper didn’t say anything more.
There would apparently be plenty of time to figure out how this was supposed to work.
Chapter Five
Cooper wasn’t sure what Adam’s idea of settled was, but clearly it wasn’t the same as his, that was for damn sure.
Several hours later, he was sitting on a stool in The Rusty Nail, doing absolutely nothing except talking to anyone who approached him. When he had asked Tessa what it was that he could do to help out, she’d flat out told him to do what he did best. When he simply stared at her, she had followed it up by telling him to find a chair and look pretty.
He’d laughed it off at first. Until he realized she was serious.
The bar was slowly filling up, although he noticed they
didn’t have quite the impressive turnout as the night before. There wasn’t an act on stage, but Cooper’s mind was whirling with possibilities. If he was going to be in charge of the entertainment, he was going to ensure that every Friday and Saturday night had live music. Why the hell shouldn’t they have someone on stage drawing in the crowds? There was plenty of new talent that would love the opportunity to play in front of these people. And he had a few friends who would surely get a kick out of playing in the small town bar.
To his surprise, he’d found out that The Rusty Nail was only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday nights. When he asked Adam for the reason, he was told that they didn’t bring in enough business during the week. Devil’s Bend was a small town, and it was saying something that they managed to draw in a lot of their patrons from the bigger neighboring towns. Based on Adam’s explanation, Tessa liked the part time schedule.
“Hey, handsome,” a sultry voice sounded from behind him and Cooper turned to see a tall, willowy brunette standing within just a few inches of him.
Cooper smiled at her, giving her a slow once over. Before she said another word, he was already predicting how this conversation would go. Had he been just a random cowboy in a bar, he’d at least have the pleasure of going through the preliminaries with a woman, but he doubted this conversation was going to go that way.
When the brunette’s hand quickly trailed up his thigh, he couldn’t hide his grin. Too easy.
“What do ya say we get outta here for a while?” she asked, batting her fake eyelashes and letting her hand wander freely as though he’d actually invited her to touch him.
“Why would I want to do that, ma’am? I just got here.” Considering he had nothing else to do, he figured he might as well indulge her for a few minutes. After all, he didn’t want to be rude. He just wasn’t interested.
Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) Page 4