The Bull Rider's Baby

by Brenda Minton

  “That’s pretty high for a little girl.” The nurse cuddled Lucy, now stripped down to just a diaper. “And some diarrhea, too?”

  From the looks of that diaper, the answer to that would be a yes. The nurse handed Lucy to Sophie. And Sophie shot him a look. He shrugged and smiled at her. When he held out his arms to take Lucy, Sophie shook her head and reached for the diaper bag. She reached inside for a diaper and wipes and put Lucy on the exam table to change her.

  “I’ll give you a minute.” The nurse slipped out of the room.

  Keeton stepped back, kind of glad someone else had taken this one. He’d been changing them for two days. Even now, without looking, his stomach twisted a little. He’d seen a lot of disgusting things in his life and never thought he’d be the guy with the weak stomach, but diapers were a whole new ballgame.

  “I should have let you change this.” Sophie sniffed and turned her head away as she tossed the offending diaper in the plastic bag the nurse walked through the door with. “Blech.”

  Keeton picked up his daughter. Sophie moved to the sink to wash her hands.

  “Thanks, Soph.”

  The nurse’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not the mom.”

  Sophie shook her head, drying her hands on a paper towel and then reaching for antibacterial lotion on the shelf. “No, just a friend of the father.”

  “Only a real friend would change a diaper like that.” The nurse laughed and picked up her clipboard. “If you’ll follow me, we’ll get you in a room and have a doctor in there as soon as possible.”

  Ten minutes later it was Jesse Alvarez Cooper who walked through the curtains that separated Lucy’s cubicle from the others in the small E.R. He glanced up, looked at his clipboard and then shot his sister a look. “You have a baby?”

  “Keeton’s.” She flared her nostrils at Jesse and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t mess with me, little brother.”

  “Right.” Jesse reached for Lucy and placed her on the bed. “Any difficulty breathing?”

  He held a stethoscope to her chest and looked at Keeton as though he should have answers.

  “Not that I’ve noticed. I know that your mom said to get her to the emergency room.” Keeton watched as Jesse continued to examine his daughter. Lucy dozed a little in his arms.

  Jesse held Lucy with ease and checked her ears and nose. “My mom would be the one to trust. Any coughing?”

  Keeton could answer that with confidence. “Yeah, last night she coughed quite a bit.”

  “Hmm.” He leaned the baby forward and placed the stethoscope on her back. “We’ll get X-ray down here and get a picture of these lungs.”

  “What’s wrong?” Keeton stood, ignoring Sophie’s light squeeze on his arms.

  “I think it’s possible she has a light case of pneumonia. And she’s definitely in need of some fluids. We’ll get the X-ray and then move her to a room where she can rest. IV fluids and antibiotics, Keeton. She’ll be fine in a few days.”

  “She’s going to be okay?”

  Jesse lifted Lucy and held her close. “She’s going to be better than okay.”

  Keeton believed Jesse but it didn’t feel so great, watching his baby girl go through X-rays, then having an IV attached to her little arm. She squirmed and cried a weak cry, wriggling in his arms as they pushed the needle in place. The nurse smiled a gentle smile and brushed fingers through Lucy’s strawberry-blond curls.

  “There we go. Now let’s get her down to a room.” The nurse in teddy-bear scrubs and soft-soled shoes smiled at them, easing them through the situation.

  Keeton had kind of arrived late to the dad game, but this was what it was all about. Holding Lucy, walking down the hall with her in his arms, whispering that everything would be okay. He held his little girl close, because he had a lifetime of this, of keeping her safe.

  The only thing not certain to be in his future was the woman walking next to him. And the more time Sophie spent with him, the more he wanted her in his life.

  Chapter Six

  Sophie watched as Keeton dozed in a vinyl hospital recliner, his jean-clad legs stretched in front of him. The chair didn’t quite match his cowboy frame and he had angled himself sideways. Lucy slept in his arms, a pillow propping her up. Her little hand touched his cheek and he moved, tilting his head closer to his daughter.

  After a few minutes Keeton blinked and opened his eyes. “I thought you’d be gone.”

  “No, but I do need to leave pretty soon.”

  He sat up a little, still cradling Lucy in his arms. “I appreciate you coming with us.”

  “I’m glad I could be here.” For the most part. And then a part of her knew she’d made a mistake. She kept walking further and further into his life. Her heart couldn’t keep up. It needed gradual training, not diving right into all of this emotion.

  Emotion was messy. It left marks. Scars. Lots of scars.

  She stood up, holding her purse on her shoulder, unsure of how to make her exit without looking like a woman on the run. Keeton smiled, as if he knew. He didn’t move from the recliner, not with his sleeping baby girl attached to an IV. Instead he winked.

  “Sophie, I know you need to go. We’ll be fine. But you might need to come back for us tomorrow.”

  “I can do that.” Or get someone to do it for her.

  “Will you?” His voice had a husky tone, sleepy and kind of sweet.

  “I will.” She stopped at the door. She considered kissing him goodbye. And then she didn’t. He was clutter.

  She enjoyed a neat, orderly life. She and her sister Heather were a lot alike in that area. They liked their personal space. They liked a certain amount of calm. It probably came from sharing a bedroom with Mia. Or Messy Mia, as they’d called her growing up.

  Mia loved clutter. She loved loud music. She wanted to someday own a coffee shop.

  Walking down the hall, her heels clicking on tile floors, Sophie relished that she had nothing in common with Mia. Chaos didn’t suit her.

  As she drove away from the hospital she wondered if that were true, about chaos and clutter. By starting this housing project, hadn’t she cluttered her life a little? Maybe she’d needed something in her life to keep her from getting in the rut of sameness? Yes, at thirty-five she’d become a stodgy spinster. She went to her job at Cooper Properties at the same time every day. She ate the same lunch, fixed the same dinner. She’d had two cars in seven years, both the same, right down to the color. The only difference this time was that she’d splurged for satellite radio.

  She’d started the housing project because a young woman in her office had mentioned wishing she could stay in Dawson but there weren’t many rental houses and she couldn’t afford to buy.

  It didn’t matter. The housing development and Keeton were two different things. Keeton reminded her too much of what she’d lost. The housing development gave her something of her own.

  She turned on the radio to drown thoughts that bordered on chaos. As she drove along the quiet paved road toward her house she slowed to look in her rearview mirror. She could hear sirens, she just didn’t know where they were coming from, but suddenly she saw smoke. Billowing smoke. Her heart raced ahead of her thoughts, because it came from the vicinity of her house. And the subdivision.

  The sirens grew louder. She glanced in her mirror again, and then pulled to the side of the road so the fire truck could go around her. After a few minutes, to make sure nothing else might be coming down the road, she pulled out and followed the truck.

  To Keeton’s.

  She pulled across from Keeton’s burning home and parked. After a few minutes she got out of her car and stood, watching. Volunteers scurried, pulling hose, spraying, some watched.

  The little house billowed and blazed. As she wat
ched, it collapsed in on itself. The volunteer firemen from Dawson jumped back from the blaze but continued to spray a steady stream of water at the burning house. Smoke filled the air, acrid and thick, burning her nostrils.

  As she watched from the edge of the drive, Jackson turned, saw her and raised a hand. He walked toward her in his gray-and-yellow suit. When he got close he pulled off his protective helmet and brushed a hand through his hair.

  “It went fast.” He swiped his arm across his perspiration-covered brow.

  Smoke burned her eyes. She blinked to clear her vision and watched as the little house, so long a fixture in her memories, burned to the ground. “What happened?”

  “From the looks of things, arson. We’ll leave that up to the investigators, but I’d say the gas can we found tossed by the barn is a good indicator. They probably meant to torch the barn but maybe lost their nerve, or thought someone was coming.”

  “Who would want to burn his house down?” She choked the words out and her eyes watered from smoke, from sadness.

  “Good question. Another one is, why? One of the guys said he saw a truck across the street messing around the houses being built. When he pulled over to see who it was, they took off. He said he hasn’t seen that truck around here before.”

  “Was anything damaged over there?”

  “You mean at the mystery subdivision.” Jackson leaned against her car, smelling of smoke and perspiration.

  “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

  “Why would you care?”

  “Because those are people’s homes and lives. I care. And because I live just down the road.”

  “And you own that land?” Jackson smiled a tight smile as he pulled off the heavy fireproof jacket.

  “Jackson.”

  “I’m not going to tell anyone.” He leaned in again. “I’m curious, though. What are you up to, sis?”

  “Do I have to share everything?”

  “No, but sometimes it helps us to work things out if we share. We Coopers might interfere a lot, but we can be pretty helpful, too.”

  “I want to do this. I want to accomplish this on my own, without family coming to the rescue. I’m thirty-five. I need something of my own.”

  “I get that, but is it so bad, having us butting in?”

  “It isn’t bad, but it can be suffocating.”

  A police car eased up the driveway. Jackson waved at the officer, and then turned back to face her. Sophie had kind of hoped the arrival of the local deputy would be her out. Not so lucky.

  “Go ahead with your project, Soph. But stay safe, and if there’s something going on, you need to let me know.”

  “What about Keeton?”

  He shrugged. “What about him? He isn’t my problem. Is he yours?”

  “No, but someone needs to tell him about his house. He’ll need somewhere to go with the baby.”

  “I have it on good authority that he has a nice place on the outskirts of Broken Arrow. Why are you suddenly so concerned with Keeton West’s welfare?”

  “I’m not.” Yes, she was. Jackson gave her a look that said he knew better.

  “I suppose you know where he is?”

  “At the hospital with his little girl.”

  “Then I guess you can be the one to tell him about his house.” Jackson pulled his jacket and then the gloves back on. “Remember when you caught the bouquet at my wedding?”

  “You’re not funny. And I don’t believe God plans our lives based on who catches a bouquet.”

  “I’m just having fun with you.”

  “Thanks, it was fun for me, too.”

  Jackson held his hat and glanced from the fire to her. Sophie shifted her focus to the remains of the house.

  “Sophie, do me a favor and be careful. Call if you see anything unusual.”

  “I will.” She sighed. “I guess I’ll go give Keeton the news.”

  “I can do it later.”

  She shook her head and Jackson opened her car door. After a quick hug she climbed in and he closed the door behind her. She backed into a clearing and turned her car around.

  When she got to the intersection she turned toward Grove and she thought about how to tell Keeton this news.

  * * *

  When Sophie had walked back into the hospital room just over an hour after leaving, Keeton had been pleased and then worried. She hadn’t smiled as she walked through the door. Instead she’d told him something had happened and she was sorry. Tears had trickled down her cheeks and she’d wiped them away as she explained to him about his house.

  He’d driven her car while she stayed with Lucy. As he’d pulled up the driveway, Jackson had stepped away from a group of men. He’d watched as Keeton got out of Sophie’s car, and he hadn’t said anything. Yet.

  For now the two stood side by side looking at the charred, still-smoldering remains of the house. Keeton shook his head. Someone had burned his house to the ground. At least he’d been gone. Lucy hadn’t been sleeping in the bed that had disappeared among the smoldering, blackened wood and siding. Even the cat had escaped. It was sitting on a fence post, licking its paws.

  “This is crazy.” He shook his head and walked around the smoldering heap of remains. “Who did this?”

  “I don’t know.” Jackson walked up and stopped next to him.

  Keeton turned from the house to Jackson. “Did anyone see anything?”

  Jackson frowned and walked toward the porch where they thought the fire started. “A truck has been lurking around the area. Someone saw it parked in front of Sophie’s this morning, early.”

  “Yeah, she mentioned that.”

  Jackson tossed the stick he’d been holding. The cat mewed and ran back to the barn. “And you didn’t think her family should know?”

  “Jackson, let me remind you of something, Sophie is a grown woman.” Keeton took a step toward Jackson and kept his voice down. People were cleaning up the area and a few turned to watch. “I know you want to protect her. Do it. But don’t think you have to protect her from me. And I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want you to storm into her life, taking charge of something she thinks she has handled.”

  Jackson squared his shoulders, his jaw clenched. “Sophie knows how to put together a business deal, Keeton. She knows how to make a project run efficiently. She’s never dealt with something like this.”

  “That’s probably true, but I think if you try to tell her she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she might get a little upset with you.”

  “So how do you think we should handle this?”

  Keeton turned to face what had been his future but now lay in ashes. “I guess maybe involve her instead of taking over.”

  “Then you see what you can come up with. And in the meantime, you can move yourself into her guesthouse and keep an eye on her.”

  Keeton turned to face Jackson again. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re planning to rebuild, right?”

  “Of course I am.”

  “Sophie has a guesthouse above her garage. It was the old caretaker’s apartment from when the garage was a carriage house.”

  “You want me to move into Sophie’s guesthouse?”

  “Seems like the perfect plan to me.”

  Jackson had to be losing his mind. Keeton thought about explaining that to him. But the fact that it didn’t seem like a bad idea had him kind of convinced maybe he wasn’t too far behind Jackson.

  “I don’t think I’m going to move myself onto Sophie’s property, and then tell her we decided it was for the best.”

  “Chicken.” Jackson grinned and then he laughed. He pounded Keeton on the back. “I always thought you had more guts than that. Maybe you’re all
show.”

  “I think there’s more to it than that. I think she wouldn’t appreciate us trying to take over. If you haven’t noticed, Sophie really is able to take care of herself.”

  “Maybe so, but in this instance, her family is going to make sure she’s safe.”

  Keeton had no intention of telling Jackson he might be clueless when it came to his sister. Then again, maybe someone needed to say something.

  “I know you want to make sure she’s safe but Sophie’s been fighting you guys for freedom her whole life.” And that’s all he planned on saying. Let them figure it out the way he had, by talking to her.

  “Fighting us how?”

  “Jackson, she’s building a subdivision and none of you knew.”

  Jackson pushed his hat back and turned to look across the road. A slow grin spread across his face and he laughed a little.

  “Yeah, I guess you have a point. But for the time being, she needs someone on her side, keeping her safe. For whatever reason, she’s allowed you closer than the rest of us.”

  “Because I let her change her own flat tires.” Yeah, it sounded like a joke but he hoped Jackson got that he was serious.

  Jackson shrugged it off. “I know she can change a flat.”

  “But would you let her?”

  “No, she’s my sister.”

  “That’s my point.”

  Jackson stopped smiling and watched as they returned the hoses and other equipment to the trucks. “Keeton, this whole situation with those houses and now this fire, has me worried.”

  “Me, too,” Keeton admitted.

  “I think this land deal of hers has stirred some people up and I’m not sure why.”

  Keeton didn’t know what to say. Sophie had asked him to keep her secret. He’d promised. But keeping secrets could only go so far if it meant keeping her in danger. For the time being, though, he’d keep his mouth shut. He’d let her deal with Jackson and the rest of the Coopers.

  When he walked through the door of the hospital room twenty minutes later a smile was pulled from him, and he thought smiling would be the last thing he wanted to do. Sophie had curled up in the chair with Lucy. The two were awake. And Lucy had the prettiest baby smile on her face as she looked up at Sophie.