Cowboy 12 Pack
Page 33
Emma and the Jacobs’ brothers brought the fact home that he didn’t.
Hell, he didn’t have anything that counted.
To the Jacobs, things could be replaced, family was forever.
Not for the first time in his life, Cooper wished for a family.
Chapter Eight
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DAWN HAD YET to come when Emma woke to Nelson’s tongue scraping across her cheek. She turned away her face, a crick in her neck causing her to flinch. “Get off the bed,” she muttered.
Nelson licked her again and jumped to his feet, toenails clicking across wooden floors.
Emma opened her eyes, the gray haze of pre-dawn illuminating the fact she’d slept on the floor. Photos and memorabilia scattered as she sat up. The dog tags she’d gone to sleep clutching jangled against her fingers.
She pressed a kiss to the cold hard metal and pushed to a standing position. With a sigh, she carefully placed all the items back in the box and closed the lid, feeling for the first time like she was closing the box containing her old life. Frowning, she lifted the cardboard container and hiked it up onto the shelf in her closet, next to her high school scrapbook and an old doll her mother had given her when she was six.
What made her move the box from beneath her bed to her closet, Emma didn’t know. She just felt the time was right, and that thought made her sad. After closing the closet door, she entered the bathroom, brushed her teeth, pulled her hair back in a low ponytail and slipped out of the clothes she’d been wearing the night before, when Cooper had kissed her.
Another glance in the mirror proved she was still Emma. The same woman who’d gone to the bar last night had come back unchanged in physical appearance. But inside a nervous, restless twitchiness forced her out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom where she flung on clean jeans, boots and an old T-shirt.
Before the sun came up, Emma was in the barn, mucking stalls and feeding horses. As the golden orb peeked over the horizon, she sat astride her palomino mare, riding across the pasture, away from the house and the prying eyes and minds of her well-meaning brothers. She had a lot to do today. A gate needed mending, a fence on the north forty needed to be restretched and the pasture near the creek needed mowing. But for now, she rode hard, letting Daisy have her head, the cool morning air giving them both the lift and vibrancy they needed to face the day.
When she returned to the house, she ducked into the kitchen. Her brothers had yet to make an appearance. Probably stayed out too late at the Ugly Stick. Maybe nursing hangovers. Just as well.
Emma couldn’t face the inquisition. Not yet. Not after the kiss that had rocked her world and awakened desires she thought had died with Marcus.
Working quietly, she slapped together a quick sandwich out of leftover ham, grabbed her hat and slipped back outside.
A working ranch with over two thousand head of cattle and a herd of thirty horses, the Rockin’ J Ranch bred Angus cattle and trained both thoroughbred and quarter horses. With several hired hands. Emma didn’t have to lift a finger and the work got done. That wasn’t her style. Emma pitched in on the evenings and weekends when she wasn’t working at the T-Bar-M Ranch.
She’d never let her family’s money influence her behavior, preferring the hard work of a rancher, over that of a pampered princess. With money, employees and animals, came responsibility. Emma dreamed of the day when she could afford a house of her own, built with the money she’d earned. Oh sure, she could have taken money from the family coffers, and built a home worthy of the Southern Living magazine by now, but doing so wouldn’t have felt like she’d earned it. Now she had almost enough to buy the little one-hundred and fifty-acre farm down by Willow Creek. Old Man Rausch said he’d let her know if someone showed interest in the property before he sold it, to give her a chance to make an offer first.
She planned to meet with him by the end of the week and start the paperwork. Soon, she’d be the owner of her own place, free and clear of her brothers and her family’s wealth. Only then would she feel like she could make her own way.
Marcus had been less than enthusiastic about the Willow Creek place. He’d argued that when they married, she’d follow him around from post to post, finding work wherever she could.
Young and in love, Emma would have done anything to please Marcus and she would have been happy doing it, as long as she was with him. Now that she was so close to owning her own place, she looked forward to rolling up her sleeves and making it her own.
Too bad, she wouldn’t have anyone to share it with.
As soon as that thought surfaced, another followed with an image of Cooper tossing hay bales onto the back of a trailer, shirtless and coated in a shiny layer of sweat.
The heat of the sun had nothing to do with the flames bursting inside Emma. She grabbed the post-hole diggers and tossed them into the back of the work truck, then loaded several wood posts and a come-along and wire cutters. She was headed for the stack of T-posts when Jared Kramer, the youngest of the ranch hands, trotted up alongside her.
“Let me get those, Miss Emma.”
“I can do it,” she said, reaching for three posts.
“I know you can, but I feel better if I do it for you.” Jared smiled. “My mamma taught me to be a gentleman.”
Emma grinned. “She did a good job.”
The eighteen-year-old grabbed a bundle of ten, flung it up on his shoulder like the load was nothing and carried it to the back of the waiting truck. He returned to the barn for a roll of field fence, then again for a roll of barbed wire, while Emma searched for twist ties, fence staples and a hammer.
Jared grabbed the chainsaw, a jug of gas and a file and tossed them in with the fencing supplies. “That ought to do it. Reckon you’ll need a hand with that fence.” The teen hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and rocked back on his dusty dingo boots. “Are you driving or am I?”
Emma frowned. She’d wanted to mend the fence to have time by herself to think through what was happening in her life and what she wanted to do about it. But the job wasn’t a one-man or one-woman job. “I’ll drive.”
Jared climbed into the passenger seat and sat in silence throughout the fifteen-minute drive to the far corner of the property. Without being told, he climbed down from the truck and opened gates, closing them behind the truck when she’d gone through.
They spent the day, cutting the downed tree, removing the old fence and snapped posts and digging holes and setting the new poles. Once all the posts were in place, Emma hooked the come-along to the fence puller. While Jared held the field fence off the ground, she cranked the winch until the wire stretched taut.
Jared grabbed the hammer and a pocket full of fence staples and tacked the fence to a wooden pole.
Emma twist-tied the wire to the steel posts in between the wooden posts. When the fence was secure, she let off the tension on the come-along and the fence stood straight and tight, with shiny new wire.
The sun dipped toward the horizon as Jared and Emma loaded the truck with the old fence and the supplies and headed back to the barn.
A four-wheeler met them halfway back. Brand pulled up beside the truck, a frown marring his brow. “Do you realize how late it is?”
“No.” Emma frowned. “The clock on the truck doesn’t work.”
“You have exactly twenty minutes to get ready for your date.”
Emma’s gut clenched. Working alongside the quiet, yet efficient, Jared all day long, she’d let the strain of her muscles push the stress of her life to the side. Now, thanks to Brand’s reminder, the worries all came rushing back like a tsunami on the beach, undermining her confidence. “I’ll call and cancel.”
“You can’t. He will have left his house by now. You know, cell phone reception is spotty between towns.”
“Damn. I still have to unload the truck.”
“Here, take the four-wheeler.” Brand climbed off the ATV, opened the door to the truck. “Jared and I can unload the truck. You need a shower, you smell.”
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br /> “Love you too, brother.” With Brand waiting and twenty minutes to repair the damage of a day’s work in the field, Emma didn’t have time to waste. She hopped on the back of the four-wheeler.
“And do something nice with your hair,” Brand called out. “Don’t worry about the gates. We’ll close them.”
Emma raced ahead of the truck, blowing through the gates Brand had left open on his ride out to get her. When she reached the ranch house, she skidded to a stop in the gravel and jumped off.
Ace, Colton and Dillon leaped off the porch.
“Holy hell, Emma, you’re a wreck.” Ace gripped her elbow and hurried her toward the house.
Dillon hooked her other arm and between the two of them, they practically carried her up the steps to the porch.
“Put me down. I’ve been working all day, which is more than I can say for you all.”
“We’ve been working. But you’re the one with the date. You better get moving, or you’ll be in your altogether when he gets here.”
Colton grabbed for the screen door and held it open, waggling his eyebrows. “Unless that was the plan all along. Maybe move this relationship along a little faster that way.”
Emma punched his arm as she crossed the threshold, glaring. “Enough. You’re my brothers, for crissakes. You’re supposed to pummel his ass for even thinking of me naked.”
“Grow up, little sis.” Dillon shook his head. “We’re all adults here.” He marched her down the hallway and shoved her through her bathroom door. “Get in there and scrub the horse manure off at the very least. Sheesh.”
Ace and Colton stood in her doorway, laughing.
With all the anger she could muster in her tired body, Emma slammed shut the door between them. “Brothers! Who needs enemies when you have family to railroad your life?” Despite her ire, she flipped on the shower and stripped her dirty cloths, stirring up a mist of Texas dust floating in the air.
When she stepped into the shower, the cool water washed the rest of the dust down her body in muddy rivulets, pooling at her feet. No wonder they’d been upset. She could plant a garden in the amount of dirt she’d acquired on her skin during the long, hot day.
With a heaping dollop of herbal shampoo, she scrubbed the sweat and dirt from her hair and face. Then with a washcloth, she attacked her body, leaving it glowing pink and clean and a dark ring of dirt clinging to the tub.
With a sigh, she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping her hair turban-style in a clean, dry towel and another twisted around her body. Careful not to step into the dust around her discarded clothing, Emma made quick work of brushing the tangles from her hair, hitting it with a blow dryer until it lay in soft waves around her shoulders. A quick wand of mascara on her lashes and she was done. The sun had done the job of making her cheeks pink and her skin glowed.
Pounding on her bedroom door made her jump.
“He’s driving up. Are you about ready?”
“Hell no,” she yelled. “But I will be.”
Emma raced through her bedroom to her closet and flung open the door, her gaze skimming across the array of blouses and jeans and landing on a pale yellow sundress she’d purchased a month ago and never worn. She hadn’t felt like dressing up or going out for so long, she didn’t know why she’d bought it in the first place. But the garment had been hanging in the window of a little store on Main Street in Temptation. When she’d walked by, the dress caught her attention and she’d bought it without thinking too hard.
With no time to spare, she grabbed it off the hanger, dropped her towel, clipped on a bra, slipped the dress over her head and her feet into lacy panties and then a pair of simple sandals.
“There. Not too dressy and not too fancy. It’ll have to do for our last date.” The wind blew out of her sails as she stepped out of her bedroom. Tonight would be the last time she saw Cooper.
“Coop, how’s it going?” Ace’s voice carried down the hallway from the front porch.
Emma sucked in a deep breath and hurried to the door.
When she stepped out into the bright sunshine, she blinked twice before she could focus on Cooper.
He wore dark slacks, a crisply pressed white, long-sleeved shirt and a red tie. In his hands, he carried a loose bunch of daisies. And his smile made Emma’s knees wobble.
His eyes widened and his gaze traveled from the tip of her head to her sandals. “Wow. You look incredible.”
The butterflies in her stomach rose in a flutter. “You’re not bad, for a desk jockey.”
He executed a half-bow.
“You look a lot better than you did fifteen minutes ago.” Ace pressed a kiss to Emma’s forehead. “The girl can clean up.”
“Are those for me?” she asked, indicating the flowers.
“Well, if not for you, I’m not taking them.” Brand laughed. “Seriously, sis. You weren’t born yesterday.”
Emma’s lips twitched. “Shut up, Brand.”
Cooper handed her the daisies. “I went to pick up roses, but when I saw these, they reminded me of you.”
Emma took the flowers and held them close, struggling to breathe past the lump in her throat.
Marcus had always given her red roses. Now that he was gone, they reminded her more of death than of love.
“I hope you don’t mind the daisies.”
“They’re perfect.” She stared down at the flowers, fighting to keep tears from falling. “I’ll just put these in water.” Before he could stop her, Emma spun and hurried back into the house, headed for the kitchen where she stopped in front of the sink, clutching the flowers like a lifeline. Footsteps behind her let her know she wasn’t alone.
“You okay?” Dillon reached up beside her and retrieved a Mason jar, filled it with water and set it on the counter.
“Yeah, sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. Your face looked like it does when you’re about to cry.” Dillon took the flowers from her hands and arranged them in the water-filled jar. “You don’t have to go out with him if you don’t want to.”
Emma swiped at an errant tear sliding down her cheek. “No. It’s okay. I just thought the daisies were sweet.”
Dillon gripped her arms and forced her to face him. “You still miss Marcus that much?”
She leaned into her brother’s chest, shaking her head. “That’s just it. I don’t.”
He set her away and frowned down. “I don’t get it. If you’re not missing Marcus, what’s the problem?”
“Marcus was so much a part of my life, even after he died, not having him to cling to scares the crap out of me.”
Dillon scraped the next tear from her cheek. “You’ll be okay.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re one of us. Jacobs don’t crack under pressure. We rise like cream to the top.” He grinned. “Now, smile and get out there. Cooper’s a good guy. But if he’s not the one for you, that’s okay too. Just do us a favor, will ya?”
Emma sniffed and forced a smile. “What’s that?”
“Don’t crawl back into your shell. You’re too pretty to be hiding.” He kissed her forehead, spun her around and smacked her butt. “Now go get ’em.”
Emma walked slowly through the house, her steps lightening as she went. Her brothers were right. She needed to get on with her life. Marcus would have wanted her to.
But damn, the idea was scary.
Cooper leaned against a post on the porch, a lock of his dark hair hanging over his forehead. He laughed at something Colton was saying, the sparkle in his eye still evident as Emma stepped out.
Her breath caught and held as she wavered on the doorstep.
“Ready?” He held out his hand.
Emma stared at it a moment, sucked in a deep breath and took it. “I’m ready.”
“Y’all have a great time.” Ace clapped Cooper on the back, then squeezed the man’s shoulder. “But not too good a time. I’d hate to ride shotgun to your wedding.”
Her oldest brother held up his hands. “Just sayin’.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Brand said. “He’s all stuffy and full of himself, thinkin’ he has to play daddy and polish his guns. Just have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” Brand winked and chucked her beneath her chin.
Ace glared. “Which doesn’t leave out anything.”
“Exactly.” Brand caught Emma’s hand with one of his own, while fishing in his pocket with the other. He pulled out a dark foil packet and slapped it into her palm. “Just be careful.”
“Brand!” Her face hot to the tips of her ears, Emma ducked her head. “I can’t believe you did that.” She curled her hand around the packet and shoved it into her sundress pocket. “Let’s go.” With her other hand still in Cooper’s, she led the way down the steps and half-dragged the man to his truck.
He held the door open, a smile tugging at his lips.
Emma’s lips pressed together. “Don’t say a thing.”
Cooper’s eyes widened. “I wouldn’t dare.”
COOPER DIDN’T MENTION Brand’s gift, but he couldn’t have wiped the grin off his face if he’d had a gun pressed to his temple. He backed out, swung around and headed down the long drive and through the arched gate of the Rockin’ J Ranch. “I thought we’d head into Dallas for dinner.”
Emma leaned back against the seat, her eyes closed. “Couldn’t we just catch a movie in Temptation? I’m afraid I worked too hard today and wouldn’t be much company on the long drive to and from Dallas.” She stared across the seat at Cooper, the sun glinting off her hair, casting a halo around her face.
Cooper swallowed hard. She was so beautiful and she didn’t seem to know that simple fact. Such a change from the women who chased after him once they knew he was loaded. “I’m game for a movie. Wanna catch dinner first?”
“Are you hungry now, or could you wait until after the movie?”
“I can wait. I ate a late lunch.”
“Good, I just want to relax.”
Cooper pulled up to the only theater in Temptation and sat behind the wheel staring up at the posters. “Looks like we have two choices. An action flick or a romance. What’s your poison?” He glanced sideways at Emma.