Chapter 1
Present dayClearview, Texas
Damn, it was a cold one, and it was only November. The worst months had yet to come. Cooper blew warm air onto his hands and rubbed them together as he finished changing the tire on his mother’s car.
“I told you I could get someone to come out and do that,” Betty Owens said from the front step, huddled in a jacket.
He glanced at his mom. “I’m more than capable. There’s no need to waste money when I’m here.”
“But you have a life, Cooper.”
He finished tightening the last lug nut and straightened before he flashed her a smile. “What? You don’t want to see your handsome son?”
“Oh,” she said with a roll of her eyes as she scoffed at him. “Get inside. Your breakfast is getting cold.”
Cooper put away the tools and hurried into the warm house. He watched his mom moving about the tiny kitchen as he removed his coat and washed his hands. It was the same house he’d grown up in. He’d pushed her to make some improvements over the years to keep it up to date, and though she’d put up a fuss, she was also glad when the upgrades were done.
“What happened this time?” He pulled out a chair at the bar and eyed her, knowing his mom.
She shrugged. “It was a nail.”
“I saw it. I’ll take the tire over to have it patched.”
His mother sat beside him and began spreading strawberry jam on her toast. She took a bite and swallowed it before she set it down with a huff. “Fine. Last night, coming home from work, I swerved when an owl flew across the road.”
Just as he’d suspected. He put his hand on her arm. “Mom, I love animals as much as you, but you need to be more careful. If it’s your life or theirs, then I’d rather you be safe.”
“Your father used to tell me the same thing,” she replied with a sad smile. “I’ll be more careful.”
“Thank you.”
Cooper went back to eating, shoveling the eggs and bacon into his mouth. He could cook, but there never seemed to be enough time. More often than not, he stopped off at the café and grabbed his meals. It was just easier that way. But, man, did he miss his mother’s cooking.
He was lucky enough to be close friends with Brice and Caleb Harper, as well as their sister Abby, who was married to Clayton East. The Easts had the largest cattle ranch in the area. Luckily, Abby loved to cook, and there was always food whenever he and Jace dropped by. Which was often.
“Anything new going on in your life?” his mom asked.
It was her not-so-subtle way of asking if he was dating. “Still single. I’ve got too much going on to find time to date.”
“Life is too short, honey. You should use your time more wisely,” she admonished.
He grinned. This wasn’t the first time she’d told him such things. He could throw it back at her that she had been single for over eighteen years now, but he didn’t. His father had been the love of her life. And even though it had been many years since his father’s death, Cooper remembered how good life had been back then.
Being a single mom wasn’t easy, but his mother had never complained. She picked up and carried on. Though she’d cried in her room at night, thinking Cooper hadn’t heard her. He never told her he knew of her suffering, and he never would. She had wanted to carry that alone in silence, and he gave her that.
“If I’m meant to find someone, I will,” Cooper said.
His mother’s green eyes met his. “Son, you’re a good man. There is absolutely someone out there for you.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.” She finished the statement with a nod of her head.
Cooper went back to his meal. He was nearly done when the back door opened, and Jace walked in. The two had met in kindergarten and had become immediate best friends. The friendship had lasted through high school, college, and even the military before they both returned to the small Texas town and their two other best friends, Caleb and Brice Harper.
“Mornin’,” Jace said and flashed Cooper’s mom a bright smile.
Her face lit up at the sight of him. “Jace. I’ve fixed plenty, so you should have enough to eat.”
It was a well-known fact that Jace ate everything in sight. He was always eating.
Jace gave her a kiss on the cheek before he grabbed a plate and piled it high with food. Then, he sat and jerked his chin to Cooper. “Hey.”
Cooper swallowed his bite and lifted a brow. “Well?”
Betty’s eyes widened. “Well, what? I know that tone from Coop,” she said with a pointed look at Jace. “Does that mean you had a date last night?”
Jace shrugged and began shoveling food into his mouth.
“It does,” Cooper said with a sigh.
Betty smiled. “That’s great. Did it go well?”
Again, Jace shrugged—which was code for I don’t want to talk about it.
Cooper drank down his orange juice and reached for the coffee. “Mom swerved to miss an owl last night. I’ve got to take the tire in to be patched. This is the second one in four months. At this rate, I should just buy stock.”
“Sounds like it,” Jace said with a chuckle.
Cooper looked into his friend’s hazel eyes that crinkled in the corners. Jace had been down of late, and no amount of prodding made him give anything up. Cooper was really worried about him, but if Jace didn’t want to talk, Cooper could do nothing but be there when his friend needed him.
Jace pushed his clean plate away and poured himself some coffee, dumping copious amounts of sugar in. “You know what today is, right?”
“I do,” Cooper replied.
Betty perked up. “Is it today? I must have gotten my dates mixed up. I thought it was tomorrow.”
“Nope,” Cooper said with a smile. “It’s today. You going out to the Rockin’ H later? Or would you rather I pick you up?”
Betty rolled her eyes and got to her feet. “I don’t need to be driven around. Not yet, at least,” she stated with a wink. “And, of course, I’m going to the ranch. After everything Brice and Naomi have endured, I’m happy to celebrate with them.”
Cooper and Jace shared a look. They’d both been with Brice and Caleb last night. Brice was excited but more nervous about the possibility of the adoption falling through. His and Naomi’s attempt to have their own children hadn’t worked out, but they still wanted to bring a child into their lives.
“Are you going there now?” Betty asked.
Cooper nodded as he rose and rinsed off his plate to put in the dishwasher. “Brice and Naomi already left, but Jace and I are going to help get the house ready for them.”
“Isn’t the baby’s room finished? I thought the girls went shopping already?” Betty asked.
Jace choked on his coffee. “If you call what they did shopping. I didn’t realize women could buy so much in one day.”
Betty chuckled and shook her head as she leaned back in her chair. “You boys have a lot to learn about women.”
“I know all I need to know,” Jace stated and quickly got to his feet.
The uncharacteristic anger from his friend caught Cooper’s attention. He shrugged when his mother gave him a questioning look because he had no idea what was going on with Jace. Surely, it wasn’t about Jace’s ex. That had been over for some time now. By all accounts, Jace had moved past that, but this comment made Cooper rethink things.
“You boys leave the dishes,” Betty said when Jace began cleaning. “I’ve got a couple of hours before I open the salon. I can clean.”
Jace shot Betty one of his bright smiles. “If my momma taught me anything, she taught me that I always help clean after someone fixes me a meal.”
“One of the many reasons I love your mother,” Betty replied.
Cooper joined Jace. Before long, the kitchen was cleaned. He wiped his hands on a towel to dry them and then looked at his mom. Betty Owens was the strongest woman he knew. But he worried about her. He didn’t like her living alone. His father might have been her soul mate, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t find someone else to love.
“See you tonight,” Cooper told her before kissing her on the cheek.
Jace followed with a kiss on the other cheek. “Bye, Mom.”
It was a running joke that they had been friends so long that it was like having two sets of parents. Cooper even called Jace’s parents Mom and Dad. They were all that close.
“Be safe, boys,” Betty called as they walked out.
Jace was still smiling while walking to their trucks. “You’ve got a great mom.”
“So do you.”
“Oh, I know, but Betty is truly something special. She handled both of us on her own when my parents sometimes didn’t know what to do.”
Cooper laughed as he recalled some of their rowdier antics. “That’s true. But we also gave your parents more of a hard time because there were two of them.”
They reached their vehicles. Instead of getting in, Jace smiled, a faraway look in his eyes. “The world was so simple back then.”
“It stopped being simple a long time ago,” Cooper stated.
Jace shrugged. “I suppose so.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Of course,” Jace said, shrugging off the question. “I’ll follow you to the Rockin’ H.”
Cooper wanted to say more, but when Jace decided to clam up, there was no getting him to talk—about anything. Cooper got into his truck and started the engine. He waited for Jace, then he backed out of his mother’s drive before heading down the road.
He glanced to the side and looked at his mother’s house. After the work accident that had killed his father at the sawmill, the company had given Betty a large sum of money. That, along with the life insurance, had left them sitting very pretty. She could’ve moved into a bigger house, one the size of the Easts’, but she had chosen to remain here.
She had paid off bills, settled the mortgages on the house and the hair salon she owned, and began investing. Cooper had always known things were good for her financially, but he hadn’t realized how good until a few years ago when he resigned his commission in the Air Force and returned home. That’s when his mom had transferred most of the investments into his name. Cooper had gotten a look at just how good his mother was. She had tripled the money.
It meant that neither she nor Cooper ever had to work again. That knowledge relieved a lot of Cooper’s worry about his mom. If nothing else, she would never have to be concerned about money.
He drove down the road toward the Rockin’ H horse ranch that Brice and Caleb owned together. Brice had an eye for picking horses, and Caleb could train any equine. It was a match that brought in a ton of business for the brothers.
They, along with Cooper and Jace, had spent years on the rodeo circuit. Brice and Caleb did team roping, while Jace had chosen steer wrestling, and Cooper calf roping. They had all been very good at their chosen sports. Even after Brice and Caleb walked away to open their ranch, Cooper and Jace had continued.
But Cooper was ready to hang it up. Not that he didn’t enjoy it, but it didn’t satisfy him like it used to. Nothing did anymore, if he were honest. He worked jobs at the East Ranch and helped Caleb and Brice when they needed it. Hell, a year ago, he helped Danny Oldman, the sheriff, out with a sticky situation.
Cooper needed to find his direction. He just wasn’t sure where that might lead. He was finished with the military, and he was done with the rodeo. He enjoyed helping his friends, but there had to be more.
A FOR SALE sign caught his attention. The overgrown pasture had been on the market for years. And this was the fourth time it had caught Cooper’s attention. If he told his mom, she’d say that it was a sign he should look into it.
Maybe she was right.
Once at the Rockin’ H, Cooper parked and turned off his truck, but he didn’t get out. Instead, he grabbed his cell phone and called the realty company. As he spoke to someone on the phone, giving the location, he watched as Caleb handed Jace a handful of ribbons attached to balloons. There were so many, Cooper was surprised that Jace didn’t float away.
It took both men to get the balloons into the house. Cooper pulled the phone away from his ear, put the call on speaker, and recorded the hilarity of the situation. It was like watching a silent movie between two of the Three Stooges. Cooper kept his laughter silent as he got the information from the realty company and stopped filming.
He watched the video again. This time, laughing out loud.
Copyright © 2020 by Donna Grant.
