“Yeah!” His supersize grin faded. “But I need to build the chicken fence first. Can you wait?”
“I’ll do you one better—while you work on the fence, I’ll grab some plywood and straw from the barn. We’ll use it to protect your mom’s floor until we rig a heat lamp in the barn.”
“Okay!” J.J. dashed outside for more wood.
“Cooper...” Millie’s mind reeled. Too much was happening too fast. LeeAnn making her promise to never love another man besides Jim. Chickens in her kitchen. J.J.’s instant connection with his uncle. LeeAnn’s instant hatred of him. Toss Clint and way too much snow into the mix and Millie’s plate wasn’t just full, but spilling over onto her now filthy kitchen floor. “Do you think it’s wise to take J.J. out to check the cattle?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? He’s already bundled up. I assume he can ride?”
“Well, sure. Jim had him on horseback practically since he learned to walk.”
Cooper sighed. “Then what’s the problem?”
Where did she start? Her son was beyond precious to her. Along with his sister, the duo had been her reason for living ever since Jim died. As much as one part of her appreciated Cooper riding in on his white horse disguised as a ratty old pickup, another part of her resented his very presence. She and Clint had managed on their own for all these years and didn’t need Cooper showing up, thinking he had all the answers. Only the joke was on her, because at the moment, as overwhelmed as she was—he did.
A fact that scared her to her core.
Because Cooper might be a dependable, stand-up guy in the Navy. But when it came to his track record on being around when his family needed him most? His stats were an abysmal 1-288-0. A single, early-morning chicken rescue hardly made him a trustworthy man.
Chapter Six
Cooper gritted his teeth against the icy assault that had him pulling his hat brim lower and his coat collar higher. Clouds may have cleared, making way for blinding sun, but the wind had only grown stronger, driving the dry twelve inches of snow into an otherworldly landscape of towering drifts and bare earth.
“Sorry, girl.” He leaned forward, stroking Sassy’s mane.
It was a good thing he hadn’t dragged his nephew out here—though if the kid planned on making his living off the land he would soon enough have to learn how much fun it was working in less than ideal conditions.
Cooper would’ve given his left nut for his SEAL cold-weather gear right about now. He was a damn fool for thinking Jim’s duster and his straw hat could handle what had to be a wind chill well into negative digits.
A thirty-minute ride landed him in the heart of the herd. They’d strayed a good mile from the feed station, so after driving them all in that direction, he broke the stock tank’s ice, then headed back to the barn.
With the wind at his back, the trek wasn’t quite as miserable, but damn near close.
He got Sassy settled in her stall then loaded his truck bed with hay bales and range cubes before heading back out to the herd. He considered himself a die-hard traditionalist, much preferring to check cattle on horseback, but years and missions had battered his body, and the cold combined with being back in a saddle made him ache in places he’d forgotten he had.
With the heater blasting and staticky Hank Williams playing on the radio, Cooper’s mind was no longer preoccupied with the cold, but considering he now had the luxury of allowing his mind to wander while zigzagging between drifts, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
When he refused to think about his cantankerous old man, or the laser beams of hate his niece blasted him with, his thoughts drifted to the forbidden—Millie in her robe. The way it’d hung open at her throat, showing far too much collarbone than he’d been comfortable seeing.
He’d always had a thing for that particular spot on a woman. But Millie wasn’t just any woman. Their shared history made his most complex missions look like a cakewalk. She’d been his brother’s wife, for God’s sake. Some things were sacred between brothers and that was one.
Thou shall not covet thy brother’s wife.
Didn’t matter that Jim was long gone.
It was a matter of principle.
Cooper had thankfully reached the herd, squelching the whole issue by busting up hay bales then spreading range cubes. Bellows and snorts accompanied his surprisingly satisfying work.
Though Cooper was usually outside, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been around animals. He’d missed it. The work’s simple grace. No one shot at him. No one’s life was at stake if he forgot any of a mission’s minutiae. Don’t get him wrong—he loved his job, but this...
He breathed deeply of the lung-searing cold air, but instead of it bothering him, he found it invigorating. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this place. How much this land was still a part of him.
Like Millie?
Yeah... He wasn’t going there.
He finished counting cattle, only to come up one short of the seventy-six Peg had told him they had.
Shit.
Considering that this stretch of the family land was pancake flat for as far as the eye could see, and the Black Angus contrasted sharply against the winter grass and snow, this meant the stray was hidden behind a drift, either lost or hurt.
It took an hour of meandering through the drifts, but he finally found her, only to have his stomach knot with concern. Why hadn’t Millie or Peg told him they had a momma due to deliver a winter calf? Never failed, they always somehow managed to come in a storm.
The cow had found a slight dip in the land, and in the few minutes he’d been watching, she’d already gotten up and down only to get back up again. Judging by the half-frozen fluid on her hind legs, her water sack had recently broken, only her teats were slick and shiny—usually an indication that she’d already had her calf and it had fed. Most cows safely delivered their calves without incident, and they usually didn’t appreciate a crowd. Judging by the momma’s level of agitation, it looked like this was the case here.
Despite this fact, with the temps so low, he’d feel a lot better at least seeing the calf to make sure it seemed healthy.
He approached the cow nice and slow, only to get a surprise. “I’ll be damned...” Tucked in between drifts was one cleaned, contented-looking calf and another looking forlorn and shivering. “Looks like someone had twins.”
Didn’t happen often, but when it did, one of the calves ran the risk of being rejected.
Cooper removed his coat, wrapped it around the shivering calf, then settled it in the truck bed. His hope was that the cow would see her calf and follow with the other, but no such luck. Just as he’d feared, she’d rejected her second born, which meant it would be up to Cooper to bottle feed it milk and colostrum.
Back when he’d helped out on a daily basis, Cooper remembered Clint having kept some frozen—just in case. If not, Cooper would put in a call to the vet.
He looked back to find the cow’s firstborn on her feet and nursing—a great sign that all was well where they were concerned. But the little one he moved to the truck’s front seat wasn’t yet out of the woods.
“Let’s get you warmed up.”
The poor little thing still shivered.
Cooper revved the engine, then turned the heater knob to high.
Since he knew the way through the snowdrift maze, the trip to the barn took under ten minutes—only now that the calf had stopped shivering, Cooper was reluctant to put the little darlin’ back outside without a heat lamp.
What would Millie say about having chickens and a calf in her kitchen? The thought of her pretty face all scrunched into a frown made him smile. But what really warmed him through and through was the certainty that even though she might temporarily be caught off guard by their houseguest, she’d care for it as well as she did every other creature in the house.
He admired the hell out of her. She understandably didn’t think much of him. Would that ever change? Would she ever again think of herself not just as his sister-in-law, but as his friend?
*
“S
ORRY
, P
EG
,
BUT
I’ve gotta go.” Millie pressed the off button on the phone then stared at Cooper and what he’d brought through the back door. “
Really?
Helga couldn’t have held on a little longer?” For a split second, Millie indulged in feeling sorry for herself at having a calf added to her kitchen menagerie, but then she surged into action. The only guarantee her life had ever come with was that what could go wrong, would. This was just another one of those occasions.
“Helga?” Cooper shifted his weight from one leg to the other. The calf was woefully small, but Millie guessed him to still weigh between sixty and seventy pounds. “You couldn’t have come up with a better name?”
“Cool!” J.J. bounded into the kitchen. “Does this mean we have a pet cow?”
“Only until we get a heating lamp rigged in the barn.” Millie tugged Cooper by his coat sleeve to follow her onto the heated back porch. She fit the drain plug in the oversize utility sink, then ran warm water. “Let’s get him clean and warmed up.”
Cooper gingerly nestled the calf into the big sink. It was a tight squeeze—probably the bathtub would’ve been a better fit—but for now, this would do.
What wouldn’t do? The awkward awareness stemming from working alongside Cooper—especially when every so often his elbow accidentally grazed her breasts. In an effort to keep her mind on the calf’s welfare, as opposed to her jittery hands and inability to even hold the mild pet shampoo, she asked, “I’m assuming the little guy’s momma rejected him. Got any clue why?”
“
Helga
had twins. Her firstborn’s fat and happy. My guess is she was as surprised by this one as we are.”
“Twins... Never saw that coming.” With her hands sudsy, Millie nudged hair from her cheek with her shoulder, but that only landed the escaped curl on her mouth.
“Let me help...” Cooper swept the lock over her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. His finger was warm and wet and blazed a trail she could feel, but didn’t want to.
“Thanks—not just for that, but you know...bringing in this guy.”
He nodded, but then graced her with a slow grin that did funny things to her stomach. “No problem. I’m not a total deadbeat, you know.”
“Yeah...”
I do.
Time slowed as she drank him in, remembering the many good times she and Jim and Cooper had shared. But she couldn’t just flip a switch and make all those years she’d hated and resented him for not being there go away. Even before they’d been in-laws, they’d been friends. Good, lifelong friends. She’d never known her dad, and her mom had virtually abandoned her to be raised by her maternal grandparents. The Hansens had been like a second family to her. It’d been inconceivable how Cooper had lived with himself for not having come home.
But he’s home now.
Shouldn’t that count for something?
“Dad still keep colostrum in the deep freeze?”
“There should be some in there.”
“Good. When we finish, I’ll make a bottle.”
“Thanks. I’ll find you the powdered formula.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
What changed? Why the stilted formality?
She finished scrubbing the calf then let the water drain before rinsing him with the sprayer. Under Cooper’s appraisal, her every movement felt stiff and labored—as if she were under water.
A growl followed by metallic clanking came from the general direction of Clint’s room.
“Want me to check on Grandpa?” The whole time Millie had stood hyperaware of Cooper, LeeAnn and J.J. had hovered near the kitchen pass-through. What did that say about her state of mind that she hadn’t even noticed her kids had been in the room?
“I’ll do it,” she said.
Cooper asked, “What do you want me to do about this guy?”
“Lee, please grab a couple of old quilts—you know, the ones I put over the garden for frost?”
The girl nodded.
“Pile them in the corner by the fridge. It should be nice and warm.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“J.J.—” Millie knelt to his level “—I need you to run down to the basement and get the feeder bottles we used when we had those two calves with scours. They should be somewhere on the shelves by my flowerpots.”
“Okay.” Her son bit his lower lip while his eyes filled with tears. “Is the baby going to be all right? He’s so tiny.”
She pulled J.J. into a hug. Her son had already witnessed too many hardships during his short life. She couldn’t bear for him to have one more. “He will if I have anything to say about it.”
*
W
ITH
THE
CALF
nestled in a cozy quilt nest, Cooper ducked his head while taking the ninety-degree turn on the basement stairs. He’d conked his head on the damned rafter so many times as a gangly teen that even his long absence couldn’t make him forget.
J.J. clomped behind him as they descended into the cool, damp cavernous space. “Did you know my dad?”
“Sure did.” Cooper swept aside a low-hanging cobweb.
“Are you like him?”
Not really.
Jim had always been the better of the two of them. Kinder. The sort who volunteered to stay home from a weekend bender to help an elderly neighbor plant her garden. “I suppose we looked a little alike. He was my brother.”
“Like Lee’s my sister?”
“Right.” Cooper opened the freezer lid, welcoming the blast of cold air on his heated cheeks. Made him uncomfortable thinking about what a selfish prick he used to be.
The kid took a scooter that’d been leaned against a wall and rode it across the stone floor. “I’d rather have a brother. Lee’s grumpy all the time. And did you know she talks to
boys?
”
Cooper looked up from the freezer. “How old is she?”
“She’s in fifth grade. My friend Cayden said he saw her kiss a kid who’s in sixth grade. Isn’t that gross?”
Actually, yes.
Just a guess, but Cooper didn’t think his brother would be on board with this kind of information. As the girl’s uncle, had he been there for her since Jim’s death, Cooper would’ve felt right at home giving her a stern lecture on staying the hell away from boys until she was thirty.
“Do you know what sex is? Cayden said his biggest brother got caught having sex on their couch.”
Though Cooper already had the colostrum, he stuck his head back in the chest-style freezer just to escape the kid’s questioning stare.
“Well?” J.J. unfortunately persisted. “Do you know what sex is?”
Cooper coughed. What kind of kids was Millie raising? “Actually, I do know what it is—bad. Very, very bad, and it’s not anything you need to be talking about till you’re thirty.”
Would that fall under the
do as I say, not as I do
form of parenting?
Cooper lost his virginity at sixteen to a nineteen-year-old dental hygienist in the bed of her truck.
“Oh.” J.J. stopped riding. “Okay, well, I won’t do it, then.”
“Excellent. Glad to hear it.”
“Do you remember what I was s’posed to be getting?”
“These?” Cooper had spied three plastic feeder bottles exactly where Millie had described and grabbed them.
“Yeah! Bottles!”
Eager to not only escape the gloomy basement, but also his nephew’s questions, Cooper headed back up the stairs, figuring the kid would follow. Only he didn’t. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Do you want me to?”
“I guess.” Cooper furrowed his eyebrows. What did that mean? Was this some kind of trick question? “I mean, your mom told you to help, right?”
He nodded.
“Okay, then, come on...” He pressed against the wall, urging J.J. to pass him on the stairs.
“Cool!” The kid bolted as if he was on springs. “Do you think the calf’s gonna live or die like my dad?”
Cooper inwardly groaned. If having rugrats always involved this many awkward questions, he wanted no part of ever having a child of his own.