The Cowboy's Healing Ways (Cooper Creek) (11 page)

“There you are.” Angie Cooper smiled big as they walked into the kitchen with its many windows and early evening sun casting everything in a yellow light. She left the sink of dishwater and hugged Laura.

“What’s up?” Jesse grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and Laura took the one he handed her.

“I made a few calls.” Angie’s smile faded. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Before Laura could answer, an older man walked into the kitchen. She knew immediately that he had to be Tim Cooper, the father of the brood of Cooper children. His brown hair was touched with gray and his eyes were kind in his weathered but still-handsome face. He shot Laura a smile and shook his head.

“She isn’t sorry she meddled.” He walked to the sink and turned on water to wash his hands.

Angie smiled at him but then turned back to Laura.

“I called a friend and managed to pull a few strings. Laura, you won’t have to make any more trips to Tulsa to see Abigail. They’re going to move her here.”

“Here? To Dawson?” Laura’s heart tilted sideways. Her mind had a difficult time wrapping around what Angie Cooper had just told her.

“She’s coming to Cooper Creek. We’re a licensed foster home and so they’ll place Abigail with us while the caseworker does a home study on your new place. I know this isn’t the same as having her with you, but you’ll be able to see her. You’ll have weekend visits with her. I’m hoping that in the next month or two she will be back with you on a permanent basis.”

Laura’s throat tightened and tears flooded her eyes. She blinked quickly, trying to stop them. From a few feet away, Jesse smiled. Angie moved close to her side.

“Laura, I hope this is okay with you. I know I tend to overstep my bounds, but I wanted to help you.”

Laura sobbed into her hands, embarrassed by the flood of emotion. “I’m so sorry. Yes, of course I’m glad you made that call. I’m just...” She shook her head and wiped at her eyes. “Your family has overwhelmed me with support. It’s been so long since I’ve had this.”

From across the kitchen Jesse smiled and then he turned to stir the soup. She had to force herself to focus on Angie, but her gaze kept drifting back to Jesse, to the way he distanced himself. She wondered if he thought she was using his family. He’d given her a job. Now this.

Conversation continued and she got rolled along in it, giving the right answers but worrying the entire time about what Jesse was thinking. She pushed it aside because in the end it didn’t matter. He had given her a job and she would do that job.

Most important, she would get Abigail back. Her daughter meant everything to her. If all of this got taken away, it wouldn’t matter. She would go on.

If she lost Abigail...

She couldn’t think about that. Instead she smiled and said a silent thank-you to God for the doors He had opened and for Angie Cooper.

She even thanked him for Myrna because without Myrna, she might not have stayed in Dawson.

After supper Jesse got a phone call. He excused himself and left the table. Laura watched him walk away, the phone to his ear.

“Laura, is there anything you need for Abigail or to help you get started in your new home?”

Laura glanced up from her plate and smiled at Angie. “No, I think we’re good. I’m sure once Abigail gets here we’ll find things she needs.”

Angie covered Laura’s hand with hers. “He’s used to emergency calls. It’s usually a resident at the nursing home. Sometimes they need him at the E.R. if they get slammed with patients.”

Laura realized she had followed Jesse’s departure with her eyes. “Oh, of course. I’m sorry, I just got distracted.”

“That happens.” Angie stood and started clearing dishes. Laura jumped up to help and Angie shook her head. “I can do this.”

“I want to help.”

Laura was at the sink when Jesse walked back into the kitchen. She glanced at him and then returned to the pan she’d been scrubbing.

“Problem?” Angie loaded the last plate in the dishwasher.

Jesse shrugged one shoulder and reached for his water. “No, not really. Isaac needs me to make a decision a little sooner. He has another doctor that’s interested in going to the Honduras. He wants me to go with him to a culture-and-language school in a few weeks.”

“Wow, he is moving fast, isn’t he?” Angie leaned against the counter, a dish towel in her hands. “Don’t let him rush you into this. Sometimes people in their excitement try to push...”

He kissed his mom on the cheek. “I know and thank you. It’ll be my decision, not Isaac’s.”

Angie smiled up at her son. “I just worry.”

Laura stepped away. “I’m going to peek at the puppies Mr. Cooper told me about.”

Angie reached for her. “Call him Tim, and you don’t have to leave. We’re not a private family.”

Jesse laughed. “Understatement of the year. There is absolutely
no
privacy in this family.”

“I’m not sure why that bothers you kids.” Angie smiled a sweet smile and Laura remembered her mom, the two of them having conversations that ended with laughter and teasing. There had been few of those moments in the years after Laura’s father’s death but she cherished the memories.

“I’m not sure why it bothers us.” Jesse stepped away from his mother. “I’m going to take Laura back to her place. She looks pretty wiped out.”

“Don’t use Laura’s health as an escape route. But you’re right, she does still look pale.” Angie leaned toward her son. “But never tell a woman she doesn’t look good.”

Laura got it now. There was no privacy in the Cooper family. Even for non-Coopers.

* * *

On the way home Jesse kept quiet because he knew that anything he said at that moment would come out all wrong. He didn’t want to apologize for a kiss he wasn’t at all sorry about. He didn’t want to think about leaving. But he would leave. That had been his plan for years.

A day that had some pretty decent moments had turned itself inside out on him.

“Your family is in Honduras, aren’t they?” Laura asked, breaking the silence.

Jesse glanced her way. In the dark cab of the truck, illuminated only with the dash lights and the occasional security light in a passing yard, he couldn’t make out her features.

“As far as I know, my mother and sister are still alive.”

“I’m really very sorry. I know that must be difficult.”

Difficult. Yeah, that was one word for it. Not knowing, also not easy. Over the years he’d spent a lot of time coming to terms with his life and how he had ended up here, so far from the life he’d been born into. He guessed he was in good company. Moses and Joseph were good examples. God had seen a reason to remove them from their families. He’d had a purpose for Moses in the home of Pharaoh and a purpose for Joseph in Egypt.

They were driving through Dawson. He pulled into the Convenience Counts convenience store and parked.

“I have a family, Laura. The Coopers are in every single way my family. I don’t want to find my birth mother because I need a mother. I have one. There are just spaces in my life. I remember my little sister and I wonder what happened to her. I worry about the lives they’ve lived while I’ve been here, being a Cooper.”

“I’m sorry.” She shrugged as she said the words and he knew it was because there wasn’t any more she could say. He got that.

“I’m going to run in and get us a couple of colas. Do you want anything else?”

“No, I’m good.”

He got out and walked up the sidewalk lit with bright fluorescent lighting. Bugs swarmed. At the edge of the parking lot a few kids had parked their cars and trucks and were sitting on the tailgates of the trucks and talking. Country music played on one of the stereos, a George Strait song.

Jesse didn’t need a cola, he needed a minute to get his head on straight. He grabbed the colas and a couple of chocolate bars. Fortunately the girl working the register wasn’t talkative. Instead she kept peeking out at her peers who seemed to be having a good time while she worked.

When Jesse walked back to his truck, Laura looked up, her eyes bright and her smile soft. He couldn’t not think about that kiss. And that bugged him. He wasn’t a teenager with his first crush. He was a grown man who knew a thing or two about women. He got in and handed her a can of soda and a candy bar.

“Here you go—just what the doctor ordered.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, turning sideways in her seat to face him. “I would ask if this is a first date, but I don’t know if you could handle that joke right now.”

He laughed. “Well, since you just said it.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She unwrapped the candy. “I know it isn’t a first date. It’s a distraction because you don’t want to think right now.”

“Very astute.” He leaned back in the seat and he couldn’t help but look in the rearview mirror. The teens were laughing and joking. One of the girls had plopped down next to a boy he knew and they were arm in arm, falling in love. Not that it was really love, he guessed. More like chemistry. Maybe they’d get married and have a few babies. Maybe they’d end up brokenhearted. More likely they’d figure it out in a few years and find the right person.

He’d been waiting for the right person for a long time.

“Let me tell you about being a Cooper.”

She crumpled her empty wrapper. “I thought you didn’t want to talk.”

He grinned and shook his head. “You’re not as nice as I thought.”

They both laughed and he thought back to being one of those kids on the tailgate of a truck. Those days had never been easy, not as easy as people pretended.

“I’m nice,” she said after a few minutes. “You’re just used to me being quiet. But tonight I think I got the best gift ever and I’m in the best mood ever.”

“Abigail?”

“Yes.” She touched his arm. “Did you think I meant the kiss in the barn?”

“No, of course not. See, that’s the trouble growing up Cooper.”

“Being the boy, the guy, the man that every girl dreams about?”

“You’re not giving me a break, are you?”

“Not at all.”

“Okay. Yes, you’re right. I’m just trying to tell you this without sounding arrogant.”

Her smile faded. “You aren’t arrogant.”

“The name Cooper means something in Dawson. And as a teenager it meant a lot of things. It meant people expected certain behavior from the Coopers. They expected certain actions. There’s some pressure to being a Cooper.”

“And?”

“And there is the other side of the coin. My brothers and I learned at an early age that girls like Cooper guys.”

“I’ve met a few now, so I can understand that. You’re good-looking men. You’re also very kind.”

“Among other things.” He didn’t want to go into it. The money, the ranch, the rodeo and the name.

“I do understand.” She smiled again, but this time he noticed a definite sadness in the look and it lingered in her eyes as the smile dissolved. “I lived on the opposite side of the coin. I was never quite good enough. I wasn’t a cheerleader or an athlete. I didn’t have the right last name. I studied hard, made good grades, had a few close friends and got ignored by the boys in my high school.”

“The moral of the story is to give people a chance to be who they are and not who the world says they should be.” Jesse started the truck. He glanced back and she followed the look, smiling at what he saw—teenagers in the middle of the courting ritual.

“Dating is a lot of work, isn’t it?” Laura sighed. “I remember being in my early teens and what I thought about dating. It was all about finding someone to love me forever. Someone to take me away from my situation. Girls are wired differently.”

“I learned that the hard way.”

Laura leaned across the truck and kissed his cheek. “I know this is none of my business, but let yourself off the hook. And I promise, one kiss doesn’t mean I’m going to start buying wedding magazines. We shared a very sweet moment, that’s all. I don’t want it to come between us. I don’t want it to become awkward.”

“Because you need a job and I need a housekeeper?”

“Exactly. It’s as simple as that.” Her voice grew soft at the end of the sentence and she turned to look out the window.

“Yeah, of course.” It was as simple as that.

Chapter Ten

A
few days after Angie Cooper moved mountains, Laura was walking down the paved driveway from Jesse’s house to hers, dreaming of the day when Abigail would be here with her. Jesse had left early that morning to drive to Tulsa and visit Gayla. Laura had cleaned his house, finished his laundry and now she had her own chores to finish. And she was planting a garden. Her very first.

As she walked up the sidewalk to her front door, the phone beeped, telling her someone was at the gate. She loved gadgets, but it still shocked her each time it buzzed to announce a visitor. She asked who it was and the person responded.

“Jolynn Smith. I’m here to see Laura White.”

“I’ll let you in. It’s the white house on the left.”

So when they said they would be around in a few days for a home visit, these caseworkers meant it! Laura rushed inside to put away dirty clothes, wash her face and slip into a clean shirt. She’d barely finished when the caseworker knocked on the front door. Breathless, Laura rushed to the door and swung it open to a fresh-faced young woman in dress slacks and a pretty blouse.

“Hello.” Laura opened the door and motioned the caseworker in.

“You didn’t have to kill yourself trying to make it spic and span for me.” Jolynn smiled a “gotcha” smile that was friendly, not accusing. “Really, get a drink of water. Make that two, and we’ll talk. Laura, this isn’t about finding a speck of dust on your furniture.”

“Just a meth lab in my kitchen?”

Jolynn, probably close to Laura’s age, blushed a little. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Laura let out a sigh and led Jolynn into the kitchen. “I’ve been a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never been a drug addict. But now, that’s what people think I am. Yesterday I got called in by my probation officer for a random drug test.”

“Which came back clean, by the way.” Jolynn, with her cute hairstyle and office attire, took the glass of water Laura offered her.

“The tests are always clean.” Laura closed her eyes and waited for the wave of anger and desperation to pass. Futile, hopeless, out of control. She wanted a day when she didn’t feel as though these were the words that described her life.