Cooper's Wife

by Jillian Hart

  “I think a meal is just what we all need.” The doctor rose from Katie’s bedside. “Still no change,” he answered her silent question. “That beef stew smells excellent.”

  Anna blushed at the kind praise. “I just want to keep you happy. Katie’s pretty special to us.”

  “I know.” Warmth shone in those intelligent eyes. The doctor was a good man. Anna knew beyond doubt he would do everything he could for Katie. “Cooper, I suggest you keep your energy up. Likely as not, that girl of yours is going to open her eyes and you’ll need your energy to chase after her.”

  “After I hang her from a tree for jumping her pony over that high fence.”

  “Poor tree,” Anna teased as she set the tray on the low chest of drawers between the two beds. She unloaded the steaming bowls of stew, the plates of warm biscuits and fresh butter.

  Cooper’s hand caught her wrist, his touch heavy with need. “I’m glad you’re here to watch over us.”

  Her vision blurred. Anna ducked her head and hurried from the room.

  The day slowly bled away without improvement. The doctor remained, worried about Katie’s head injury. If she did not awaken soon, he feared the worst. Cooper rubbed his face with his hands. She was so pale, so still. The day faded to dusk, then to the first shades of night.

  Before he heard the light pad of her step, Cooper felt her presence, like the veiled starlight dusting the quiet room.

  “You’re still here?”

  “Where do you think I would go? I care about Katie. There’s no way I could go home. Not now.” She moved in the shadows. He heard the clink of enamelware, smelled the rich aroma of fresh coffee. “Laura has taken Mandy and Maisie home with her for the night, so we can concentrate on Katie.”

  His joints ached from long hours in the hard-backed chair. He’d hardly touched the food she’d made, but the notion of coffee, hot and soothing, felt just right.

  Anna set the tray on the little chest of drawers. She brushed close to him, the sweet rose scent of her tickling his nose, the hem of her skirts rustling past his thigh.

  He couldn’t remember the last time someone had brought him coffee before he could ask for it.

  “I heard the doc leave. What did he say?” Quiet fear in those words.

  “A head injury is bad news. I’ve tried to be positive, I’ve tried not to picture her just fading away, never waking up.”

  “You can’t think that. You can’t begin to allow such a possibility. Katie will be fine.” But despite her brave words, fear shook in her voice.

  “I have to be practical, Anna.”

  “Life is too hard to be practical all the time.” She sat down in the brush of starshine across Maisie’s empty bed. “Sometimes a person has to make wishes and keep a tight hold on them.”

  “Is that what you do?”

  “I’ve made a lot of wishes in my life, on the first star of the night and the last of morning, on rainbows and waterfalls and full moons.”

  “Does it work?” He sat down beside her.

  He watched Anna’s gaze fall to the child tucked in bed. “Sometimes.”

  Sorrow vibrated in her voice, quietly as if she were trying to hide it. Why hadn’t he realized it before? Anna had journeyed here intent on loving his girls from the very start. Back home, had she made starlight wishes for their future together?

  She met his gaze, direct and honest. “It will work this time. See that star, the bright one right through the trees?”

  “The shimmering one.” Just like her. He leaned close, breathed in all her gentle goodness and light.

  “When I make a wish on that star, it always comes true.”

  “But you just said—”

  “This is a special star.” Soft poetry that voice, spinning a tale he wanted to believe. “It’s Sirius, the Dog Star. He guides the great warrior Orion across the night skies and protects him.”

  “And little girls, too?”

  “Especially little girls.” Like magic, she smiled.

  “Then I guess we’d better make a wish.”

  He was tired of being alone. Tired of standing tall without anyone to lean on. The doc’s warning had scared him more than anything had. He didn’t want to be alone, stand tough, be strong. He needed her.

  She’d stayed at his side and gone without sleep to care for his girl. Anna could have left for her hotel room and a snug night’s sleep because Katie wasn’t her daughter, wasn’t her responsibility. But she’d stayed, knowing they needed her. Knowing Katie needed her.

  “There. Wish made.” Anna opened her eyes. “I always read to Mandy when she’s ill. Let me do the same for Katie. Maybe she’ll hear my voice and wak, up.”

  “If anyone’s voice can reach her, yours will.” Grim, Cooper watched his daughter sleep. If she didn’t wake by morning’s light, the doctor feared... Well, the possibility was too dreadful to think about.

  “Let me choose a book from the shelf. Would you pour me a cup of coffee?” Anna knelt to study the titles.

  His hand shook, rattling the pot as he poured. Silver light dusted through the window, illuminating his movements. Remembering her story, his throat filled with unspoken fear.

  What would he do if he lost his Katie?

  “I bet this is her favorite.” Anna sat down by Katie’s side, as she did not long ago for her own daughter, and tilted the book to read by starlight—a dime novel called Captives of the Wild Frontier.

  Anna closed the book. Cooper returned to the room with a new pot of coffee and a plate of oatmeal cookies.

  He faced her, his dark eyes empty and shielded. “I can’t lose her.”

  “I know.” Anna could see the pain beneath, and she knew from experience how much it hurt. She ached to comfort him, to be comforted by him. To know the shelter of his arms, to lean against the iron-hard breadth of his chest. To find some comfort from all this fear.

  “It’s my fault. I never should have agreed to that damn pony.” He rubbed his hands over his face.

  “But a girl needs a pet to heap her affections on.”

  “I thought I was enough, that I could be what Katie needed in place of a mother. I was arrogant enough to think that no matter what happened, my love could fix it.”

  “And it can. You’re a good father, Cooper. The best one I’ve ever seen.” And she ought to know. Affection burned in her heart. Affection for him. For the courage in his soul, the love so deep for his daughter.

  “I suppose I should pay you extra for that compliment,” he teased, but that brief sparkle of humor quickly extinguished. “Compliments can’t change the truth. I’m not enough, and I’ve known it for a while. I haven’t given my daughters the one thing they needed most of all. Now look what’s happened.”

  “It does no good to blame yourself.” Anna wished she knew how to make everything better for him and for Katie. “A parent can’t be everything to a child, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good your intentions.”

  “But you realized your daughter needed a new father, and you tried to find her one.” He reached out, and his hand caught hers. “What happened to your husband?”

  “Cooper, this isn’t the time. Katie is hurt.”

  “And she might never come back to me.” His heated hand gripped her more tightly, his skin rough and male-textured. His big fingers threaded through hers. “Please, I want to know.”

  But what would he think of her? His free hand brushed her cheek, blazed fire across her skin, and desire consumed her like flame. Brilliant, intense, immediate. Her whole body trembled, aching to know more of his touches. To lay her hand against his whiskery jaw, to explore the ridge of muscle across his wide chest. Anna trembled. She’d never known the power of such want.

  “Did you lose him in the war?”

  She accepted the cup he offered. “Yes, James died in battle.” She winced against the memories, raw and sharp. But she could not lie to this man she cared for so much. “James came from a very fine family, and they refused to let him ma
rry an immigrant farmer’s daughter like me.”

  How it hurt to remember. “We were engaged and we tried to elope. They found us and stopped the ceremony. They sent him off to the war and I—”

  She stopped, lowering her gaze so she wouldn’t have to see the disapproval in his eyes. “I found out too late that I was pregnant. James died before I could write to him.”

  “And you lied about it to all of us.” Incredibly, his voice wasn’t filled with more than surprise.

  “Yes.” Her hand trembled. She sipped the coffee before she spilled it. “I wanted to protect Mandy. I wanted to give her a new start where she wasn’t an illegitimate child no little girl would play with. I have to be honest. I wanted the same thing for myself.”

  He let out a shaky sigh. He was silent a long while. “It hasn’t been easy for you.”

  She looked up. No blame marked his face. Just understanding. “How can you act as if I’m—” She couldn’t say the words. “How can you be so accepting?”

  “I have my mistakes, too. My failures.”

  “You? Why, you’re a big strong sheriff who never fails anyone.” And a compassionate man. Inside, she sparkled with unending affection.

  But his face was shadowed. “You have no idea how wrong you are about me.”

  Anna met his gaze and saw eyes filled with doubts. But she had none, not about him. “A dishonorable man doesn’t love his daughters the way you do. Or protect a town from murderous outlaws. Or help a woman alone with an injured child.”

  “I’m not what you think—”

  “Anna?” Katie’s voice, scratchy and low.

  Thank God. Anna set down her coffee and knelt beside the bed. Cooper was already there. Their hands brushed. Their arms met. She felt the hot length of him from shoulder to hip.

  “Where’s Bob?” Katie tried to sit up.

  Anna pressed her back...and so did Cooper. His big hand covered hers as together they forced the girl into her pillows.

  “I want you to rest, tiger.” His voice vibrated through Anna, quivering along her nerve endings, tingling in her fingertips.

  “P-papa, is B-bob all right?”

  “She looks fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “My head hurts.”

  “And it’s no wonder, trying to jump that damn fence.” Anger, relief and love tangled in his words.

  Katie began to cry. “You ain’t gonna take Bob, are you, Papa? Anna, don’t let him.”

  “Little girls shouldn’t be racing around on the backs of animals.”

  “Cooper.” Anna took Katie’s hand. “I had a pony when I was young.”

  “You did?” The touch of the girl’s fingers to hers, needy and trusting, released a flood of emotion. Affection for this child rushed through her, feelings she didn’t have the right to.

  “This isn’t helping my cause,” Cooper whispered. His words tickled Anna’s ear, and she fought the slicker of want rushing into her blood. “Maybe you could mention how you learned to sew at that age.”

  Anna laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m on Katie’s side.”

  Although weak and in pain, the girl would be fine. She gripped Anna’s hand with such force, such deliberate, unveiled need. And Anna knew with a certainty, as Katie closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep, she couldn’t be what Katie needed. Staying would only make matters worse.

  The lamp on the chest burned steadily, fighting against the darkness of night.

  Anna pushed open the door. The lamp on the bureau tossed a glow across Katie’s bed. “Here’s your chocolate.”

  “Ain’t Papa comin’?”

  “He’s downstairs making more coffee. I think he’s awful tired from being so worried about you.” Anna set the tray on the chest between the beds.

  “Were you?”

  “Absolutely.” She sat down on the edge of the mattress tick. “Just because a girl acts tough, she can still be hurt or scared.”

  “Are you tough, too?”

  “I sure try to be.” Anna reached for one mug and tested the temperature. “Here, drink up.”

  Katie pulled a book from the edge of the table. “Chocolate tastes better with a story.”

  “Always.” She scooted closer and opened the book. Katie nestled against her, and sweetness filled Anna up. Leaning back into the extra pillows, she began to read.

  The light at the end of the hall drew Cooper’s gaze. His body heated at the sight of her. Brushed by a single lamplight’s glow, she stood beside the bed, smoothing the covers beneath the girl’s chin.

  Anna’s blond curls tumbled over her shoulders, glinting in the gentle light. He could see the soft roundness of her breasts, the flare of her hips. What would it be like to have her beside him in his bed? He felt a hardening, a thickening in his grom.

  “She’s finally asleep.” Her whisper shivered over him, warm and alluring. “She fought to keep her eyes open.”

  “She’s always wanted a mother to fuss over her.” Cooper tried to sound normal, but his pulse was racing through his veins. He could face dangerous outlaws without a flicker of fear, but the very idea of getting Katie a mother terrified him.

  “What little girl doesn’t want to be cherished?” Anna leaned one slim shoulder against the door frame.

  “You’ve certainly treated her as if she’s your own.” He choked on the emotion that flooded his chest and constricted his breathing. “No one has sver cared for her the way you have. There are some things you can’t buy, can’t pay a housekeeper to do for a child.”

  “I’m not just any housekeeper.”

  “You sure aren’t.”

  “I’m a housekeeper who owes you my daughter’s life. And you’ve shown me a kindness I know I can never repay.”

  “Not a kindness.” He wanted to break his word again, to hold her against his chest, love her as if his heart had never been hurt, find comfort when he’d denied that for himself for so long.

  He needed her. He’d never needed anyone so much. But how could he take the risk?

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You have company.” Mr. Briggs knocked on her door. “That sister-in-law of yours.”

  “I don’t have a sister-in-law.” Anna tugged open her door to see the kindly man standing in the hallway.

  “Well, you’ll be married to her brother soon enough.” His eyes laughed at her. “I’d send her up, but she said she’s in a hurry. Want me to watch over Mandy?”

  The little girl looked up from her play. A brand-new tea party set of her own, bought with Anna’s tip money. “Can you play tea party, Mr. Briggs?”

  “I’ve been invited to a few over the years.” The gentle man winked at Anna. “Does Harry Bunny mind if I have some tea, too?”

  Anna’s chest warmed. She wasn’t alone. She had made friends, and had found people to care about here in Flint Creek. She found Laura in the lobby, seated in a plush wing-back chair by the window.

  “How’s Katie?” She accepted Laura’s hug, glad too for her friendship. “I wanted to drop by the house and check, but it’s Sunday. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “You are part of the family, Anna. Goodness.” Laura’s hand squeezed hers. “Katie spent the morning sitting quiet in the parlor. She’s got quite a headache, but she’s going to be fine. Cooper had a talk with her this morning, and she wants me and Larry to marry.”

  “Katie wants you to be married?”

  “We’ve rescheduled the wedding. Which reminds me why I came.” Laura knelt down and handed Anna a paper sack. “I gave each of my nieces a gift, a goodbye gift, I guess. I wanted Mandy to have one, too. It’s a veil, and it matches Maisie’s exactly. Now both little girls can play bride together.”

  Anna reached into the bag and tugged out the sheer veil. “Laura, how can I begin to thank you?”

  “You already have. By coming to Flint Creek. By being the mother Katie and Maisie need.”

  “Laura, I’m not their mother. Cooper and I aren’t—”

  �
�Oh, I know.” Laura gave her a quick hug. “But you will be. And it has made all the difference in their lives. I’ll see you at the wedding.”

  Laura swept from the lobby, leaving Anna with a full heart.

  He watched dawn come, almost as slowly as his resolve. His decision hadn’t been easy, but it was the right one for his girls. Laura was there, she’d insisted on staying until Katie was stronger. He heard her clinking in the kitchen, making breakfast for them all.

  She was getting married today, her ceremony rescheduled at Katie’s request. His talk with the girl and the promise he made weighed heavily on his shoulders. It was the right thing to do. He knew it, deep down.

  “Papa, do outlaws get married?” Maisie hopped out onto the porch to ask, wearing the veil Laura had given her. And the play holsters and hat, too.

  “I suppose some do.” He knew full well there would be an outlaw bride in the tree later today. “Are you going to get dressed up for church? Or are you going to go rob all the wedding guests?”

  Maisie giggled. “Outlaws don’t go to church, Papa.”

  “Then go dress up like a little girl. We don’t want to be late.”

  “I am a little girl, Papa. I don’t gotta pretend.” Laughing, she dashed off.

  He listened to the footsteps fade. Then he stood and went upstairs to get dressed himself. His sister was getting married today. And he would be giving away the bride.

  “Is Anna here yet?” Katie fidgeted in the scratchy lace dress.

  Cooper glanced around the church. It was half full of people and cheerful anticipation of the wedding to come. “I don’t see her.”

  “There she is!” Katie pointed toward the vestibule.

  “Anna! Anna!” Maisie dashed down the crowded aisle and flung herself at Anna’s knees. Anna hugged the child gently. He froze stone solid at the sight of her. She was beyond beautiful, like a rainbow after a storm. Gold curls framed her face and a soft blue dress hugged her slim shape.

  Then she smiled. Her eyes shone bright, just before she dipped her chin. He found himself walking toward her without consciously thinking of it.