“He’s a dog,” Boone pointed out, not bothered in the least. “He doesn’t understand what’s being asked of him. There’s no reason to get worked up about it. You’re already wet and it’s just water.”
“We should’ve asked Tyler to bring down extra clothes for you,” Hannah lamented, wiping the back of her hand over her face. “You guys have to be uncomfortable.”
“Totally,” Lindsey agreed.
“We’re fine,” Boone countered. “We’re only here long enough to eat dinner and then we’re heading home. Lindsey is grounded and I want to lock her in her room like a proper tyrant so she has something worthwhile to complain about.”
Hannah pressed her lips together and turned away quickly so Lindsey wouldn’t see the amusement on her features. She figured the girl might turn shrill if she thought people were laughing at her.
“Did you get all the goats?” Cooper asked as Tyler returned.
“We did,” he replied, handing over the towels first. “You guys take care of yourselves and I’ll handle Jinx.”
“He already sprayed us,” Lindsey muttered.
Boone shot her a quelling look. “If you could go five minutes without complaining, that would be great. I know it’s difficult, but I have faith you can pull it off.”
Lindsey let loose an exaggerated eye roll. “Ha, ha, ha.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
Hannah ignored the potential fight and focused on Tyler. “Did you find all your animals?”
“There are a few chickens missing. There’s not much we can do about it, though. I’m hopeful they’ll head back to the coop on their own during the night. If they don’t ... well ... the coyotes are going to have an excellent dinner.”
Hannah made a face. “That’s horrible.”
“That’s the circle of life. There’s nothing I can do about it. It is what it is.”
“Well, it sucks.” Hannah carried her fresh clothes into the bathroom to change, leaving Cooper to move behind the counter. Since Lindsey was safely ensconced at the table, he didn’t think anything of it when he stripped his shirt and pants off. She couldn’t see anything below the waist.
“So, I don’t know if now is the time to drop this bomb, but Hannah wasn’t the one who found Jinx. Astra was. Apparently he ran to the creek and she found him there and brought him to Hannah ... across the wards.”
“What?” Boone’s mouth dropped open. “How?”
“I have no idea. She wasn’t the only one who managed it, though. Stormy was there, too, and Hannah says they got into a big fight.”
“I don’t understand.” Boone was so fixated on the new development that he almost didn’t notice the way Lindsey was staring at Cooper’s bare chest. She’d completely forgotten about her dinner and was wholly focused on her crush. “Knock that off.” He flicked her ear, causing her to screech. “You’re going to give him a complex if you keep staring like that.”
Cooper jerked up his head, frowning when he realized what the father-and-daughter duo was talking about. “Can we not take it to a weird place? I’ve had a really long day and I just want to heat up my dinner and then crawl into bed.”
“I think you’re looking at this all wrong,” Tyler countered as he ran the towel over Jinx a third time. “What guy doesn’t want to be the object of affection for teenage girls the world over?”
Cooper was incredulous. “Um, me.”
Tyler snorted. “Oh, you know you always dreamed about having a centerfold in those teeny-bopper magazines the girls loved so much back in the day, something they could hang up over their beds and drool over. What? Just me?”
“Just you,” Cooper agreed.
“It’s not natural for a chest to be that smooth,” Boone explained to Lindsey, inclining his head toward Cooper. “Men are supposed to have hair. That’s manly. What he’s got going on there is like something straight out of a horror movie. It’s completely impractical ... and weird. It’s totally weird.”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. “It’s called manscaping and all the guys do it. It’s completely normal ... and expected.”
“That is not normal,” Boone countered. “He looks like a hairless rat.”
Hannah walked out of the restroom in time to hear the last statement, and when she looked toward Cooper and realized he was the subject of the conversation, she snorted out an unladylike laugh. “Oh, that’s pretty funny.”
“Laugh it up,” Cooper warned. “I’m not going to let you snuggle with the hairless rat tonight when your feet are twenty degrees colder than the rest of your body. We’ll see how you like it then.”
Hannah didn’t immediately say anything. When it became apparent Cooper wasn’t going to pick up on his unintended double entendre, she decided to do the heavy lifting for him. “You’re not going to let me snuggle with the hairless rat, huh? That sounds ... terrible.”
“What?” Cooper furrowed his brow as he looked up. “What did you say?”
“Think about it,” Tyler prodded as he reclaimed his chair.
“Oh, don’t be gross,” Cooper complained when realization dawned. “I’ve had a freaking long day.”
“Fine.” Hannah held up her hands in defeat before moving to the table to collect her food container. She grabbed Cooper’s as well, and his was the first one she popped into the microwave. “I don’t think you look like a hairless rat,” she whispered as he pulled a shirt over his head. “You’re way too hot to be a rat.”
“Thank you, baby.” He gave her a soft kiss before looking over her shoulder and catching a scowling Lindsey’s dark gaze. “Don’t you give me grief either.”
“Definitely not,” Boone agreed. “I want to go back to what happened with Stormy and Astra. I don’t understand how they were on the property. I thought Jackie and the other members of the coven made it so she couldn’t cross the creek.”
“Jackie is a witch, too?” Lindsey looked befuddled. “That is so weird ... although it kind of makes sense. I just don’t get it, though. Suddenly up is down and left is right. Just tell me that giant spiders aren’t real. I won’t be able to live in a world with giant mutant spiders.”
“I’m right there with you,” Hannah offered as she retrieved Cooper’s food and handed it to him. “Dig in. I’ll be over in a second.”
“You cooked mine first?” For some reason, that made him go soft all over. “That’s really sweet. You shouldn’t have done that, though. You had the bigger adventure. You need your food more than I need mine.”
“And I will have it in exactly two minutes. It’s not as if I cured cancer or anything.”
“Still, you can cuddle with the hairless rat later if you want.” He frowned before he finished the sentence. “Yup, I definitely heard it that time.”
Hannah chuckled as Cooper shuffled to the table.
“I don’t know what to do about Astra and Stormy,” Cooper volunteered. “From what Hannah told me, it sounds like Stormy is more dangerous than Astra ... and Astra knows it.” He related the story to the others, leaving nothing out, and by the time he was finished, Hannah was joining him at the table.
“Wait, she didn’t have the dog and yet she pretended she did?” Boone found he was more bothered by that than anything else. “What kind of sicko uses a dog as leverage?”
“I’m more interested in the fact that she really seemed to think I would just hand over the deed to Casper Creek for Jinx,” Hannah noted. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I would’ve fought her to the death to save Jinx. I wouldn’t ever give her Casper Creek, though. Now that I know the sort of magic that’s contained here, there’s no way I would risk someone like her or Astra getting their hands on it.”
“Abigail was very specific,” Cooper supplied. “She set up a line of succession that completely cut Astra out of ever being able to lay claim to the property. You should probably do the same.”
Hannah was caught off guard. “Do you expect me to die soon or something?”
The notion chilled Cooper’s blo
od until it was practically ice. “No, I don’t ever expect you to die. That’s not what I was saying at all. If you set up a line of succession that can never be breached by Astra or anyone else, you’ll make less of an enticing target. They won’t want some random person coming in and risk being cut off from the property because someone decides to build a mega-mansion up here ... or some expensive condos or something. That’s the last thing either of them would want.”
“I hadn’t considered that.” Thoughtful, Hannah tugged on her ear. “What would I have to do to make sure Casper Creek is safe?”
“You need to pick an heir and stipulate the land can never be given or sold with the express purpose of development. I mean, it’s more technical than that but that’s the basic gist of it.”
“Okay.” Hannah bobbed her head. “I’ll get on that early next week. We don’t want Astra killing me and then magically sliding in and taking over Abigail’s property.”
Cooper leaned closer, his hand moving to the back of her neck and rubbing lightly. “You’re not going to die,” he whispered. “You’re going to be around a really long time. I promise. This just makes you less of a target.”
“You’re right.” She flashed a genuine smile. “I was caught off guard by what you said. You don’t have to worry. I’m not planning on dying or anything.”
“That would be great.” He gave her a quick kiss and then turned back to his dinner, frowning at the wistful look on Lindsey’s face as she watched him dote on his girlfriend. “Can you please not do that? It makes me distinctly uncomfortable.”
“Me, too,” Boone intoned. “Whenever she looks at you like that, all I want to do is press a cheese grater to your face and go to town making a pizza.”
Tyler choked on a fry, coughing hard as Boone absently thumped him on the back.
“Let’s go back to talking about Astra and Stormy,” Cooper said brightly. “I have no idea what they were doing out here. I have no idea what their plans are. The story about the battling sisters forming the nexus makes me think that’s what they want. In fact, I think that’s what she’s always wanted. She thinks she can tap into the nexus and drain it.”
“That much power would destroy her,” Hannah noted. “It’s too much for anybody to absorb.”
“She obviously doesn’t believe that. It doesn’t matter, though. We’re not going to let her get her hands on the nexus. I’ll call Jackie before bed and tell her what happened. Hopefully she and Danielle will be able to fix the wards tomorrow so we don’t have to worry about Stormy and Astra sneaking around on the property.”
“And what if they can’t fix the wards?” Hannah asked.
Cooper held her gaze for a long time and then shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to play it by ear. I just don’t know. We’ll figure it out, though. We always do.”
Because she had faith in him — more than anybody she’d ever met before or since — she nodded. “Okay, let’s just focus on dinner for now. I need to think about what all this means. Angel is still out there and she needs us. It’s possible Stormy or Astra has her, but she would make a lot stronger leverage for a deed trade than Jinx, no matter how much I love him.”
“That there’s a point,” Boone agreed. “Them being here might have nothing to do with what happened to Angel, though. I think we need to break things down again and look at it from every angle. We might be missing something.”
“Then that’s the plan for tonight,” Cooper said. “We’ll break everything down, look at it with fresh eyes, and come up with a new plan tomorrow. That’s honestly all we can do.”
16
Sixteen
Hannah and Cooper took a long bath together to shake off the chill from the storm. Since she didn’t want to sleep with her hair wet, Cooper had a moment to sit with Jinx in the bedroom as he waited for her to dry her hair in the bathroom.
“You scared your mother,” he supplied.
Jinx, curled up in his fluffy bed, only bothered to open one eye.
“She loves you more than anything. You know that, right?” Cooper thought he would feel weird having an entire conversation with a dog. It turned out he was wrong.
Jinx didn’t bother blinking.
“I know you think I’m trying to steal her from you, but I’m not. We both love you.”
Jinx offered up a tiny tail thump, which had Cooper smiling.
“You can’t run off like that again, though. She could’ve been hurt. Heck, you could’ve been hurt. What would’ve happened if Astra decided to take you?” And that, he realized, was one of his greatest fears. Despite her bravado, Hannah would do whatever was necessary to protect the dog. And rightly so, he told himself. The dog was flesh and bone. He had a soul and he loved Hannah with his whole heart. He would die for her, and her for him. “You just need to stick close to her, even when you’re afraid.”
He reached over and stroked the dog’s head, blowing out a sigh. “You’re a good boy. She needs you to be safe, though, and I need her to be safe. We have to come to a compromise.”
Jinx rolled over on his back and showed Cooper his belly, which had the security chief laughing.
“Oh, is this a negotiation?” He rubbed the dog’s stomach, enjoying the way that Jinx’s butt twitched as he enjoyed the vigorous stroking. “Okay, I promise to rub your belly every single day, for as long as you want, if you don’t do that again.”
Jinx’s tongue lolled out of his mouth.
“I also promise to love her forever, and protect both of you, if you’ll just give me a chance. I know she’s your mom and you loved her first, but I’m not going anywhere ... even if you crap on every pair of shoes I own.”
Jinx continued wiggling his butt to encourage Cooper’s enthusiastic rubbing.
“I want the three of us to be a family. Not only will I promise to make sure you guys get special time alone together each day, but I’ll spend time with you, too.”
Jinx stopped wiggling and stared at him.
“Or not if you would prefer otherwise.”
Jinx continued to stare a moment and then rolled so he was on his feet. Cooper wasn’t certain what was going to happen until the dog leaned closer to him and licked his cheek. It wasn’t an exuberant kiss like the ones he reserved for Hannah, but it was full of warmth ... and a lot of saliva.
“Does that mean we’ve come to an understanding?”
Jinx wagged his tail, allowing Cooper to pull him close for a hug.
From the doorway, Hannah found she was choked up at the scene. She cleared her throat to get their attention and smiled. “Are you guys bonding without me?”
“Never,” Cooper replied, fondling Jinx’s ears. “We were just coming to a meeting of the minds.”
“Oh, really?”
He nodded as he got to his feet. “We’re both going to love you and even try liking one another.”
“I thought you already liked him.”
Cooper leaned forward and offered up a conspiratorial whisper. “I’m not the problem. Just FYI.”
She laughed in delight and gave him a one-armed hug, her free hand landing on Jinx’s head so she could pet him at the same time. “I’m glad you guys have decided to bury the hatchet.”
“Me, too.” Cooper planted a small kiss at the corner of her mouth. “In fact, I’m feeling so magnanimous, I’m thinking the three of us should sleep in the bed tonight.”
Hannah couldn’t hide her surprise. “I thought you hated it when he slept with us.”
“I don’t hate it. He just takes up half the bed, which leaves you and me to have to sleep on top of each other on the other side. Believe it or not, I’m fine with that tonight. Given what happened, I think we’ll all sleep better together.”
“Jinx gets hot sometimes,” she warned. “He might not last the entire night. He likes his own bed.”
“Well, he can start on the bed with us.”
“I think that sounds like a great idea.” She gave him another squeeze before releasing him and patting the
bed. “What do you say, boy? Do you want to cuddle with us tonight?”
Jinx looked excited at the prospect and immediately jumped onto the bed. He was already settled, his head on the pillow, when Hannah and Cooper crawled in on the other side.
“Look at this,” Hannah noted as she got comfortable between the dog and Cooper. “I’m protected on both sides.”
“Fancy that.”
She smirked. “I know what you’re doing. You just want to make sure I’m completely covered in case somebody — like maybe an evil witch — breaks in. You don’t have anything to worry about, though. I’ve got everything under control. I’m not afraid of them.”
“Good. I don’t ever want you to be afraid.” Cooper hit the switch on the lamp next to the bed and tugged until her head rested on his chest. “Despite that, I think it’s good to be wary of both of them. They can’t be trusted.”
“I know that.”
“I’m just making sure. I think Astra delivering Jinx to you might’ve softened your stance on her.”
Hannah opened her mouth to deny the charge and then thought better of it. “I was relieved to see him. The thing is, I don’t believe Astra would hurt him. She seems to like him. Don’t get me wrong, I know she probably uses other animals in her spells — and I really try not to spend too much time thinking about that — but I don’t think she would kill a dog.”
“I don’t think it would be her first choice,” Cooper agreed. “If she thought it would get her what she wanted, though, I wouldn’t put anything past her. Honestly, though, she’s not the one I’m most worried about. Stormy is the wildcard.”
“I agree with you there. I think Astra is starting to figure that out herself, too. She knows Stormy is a detriment to whatever she has planned.”
“And what do you think she has planned?”
“She wants to tap into the nexus.”
“I think she’s wanted that since she landed in Casper Creek.”
“Me, too. I’m thankful she hasn’t found a way to do it yet. That doesn’t mean she won’t keep trying. The thing is, I don’t think she wants to kill to get what she feels she deserves. Stormy, however, would happily snap my neck if it meant getting one over on Astra and me.”
Dances With Witches (A Hannah Hickok Witchy Mystery Book 5) Page 16
