The Cowboy's Healing Ways (Cooper Creek) (12 page)

A hand touched her arm. “I grew up in foster care. My parents were drug addicts.”

Laura didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I got a great deal. I had amazing foster parents. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. Now we’re going to do the best thing for your daughter. We’re going to do our best to get her here in time to help you harvest those tomatoes growing in your garden.”

Laura’s eyes overflowed and Jolynn rummaged in her purse and pulled out a tissue that she pushed into Laura’s hand.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s take a look around this very pretty and very clean house of yours, and then we’ll have a talk about what’s going to happen.”

Laura led Jolynn through the house. They inspected the bedrooms, the closets, the safety of the bathroom cabinets. Laura then led her out the back door to the beautiful deck with the porch swing.

“How did you find this place?” Jolynn sat on the swing and her feet didn’t touch the ground. Laura smiled because she’d never had that trouble. If anything she’d always felt too tall. In high school she had stooped a lot so that she wouldn’t tower over boys who hadn’t had their growth spurt yet.

“It’s an amazing story.” Laura watched as a rabbit hopped slowly into the yard to nibble on clover. “I was coming here, to Dawson, to find an aunt. I couldn’t stay in the halfway house in Tulsa any longer. I couldn’t get a job that paid enough to rent a place. And apartment complexes willing to rent to felons are few and far between. I just didn’t see a way to get Abigail back. After a lot of prayer, I headed this way.”

She recounted the rest of the story, the crash, the Coopers.

“God does work in mysterious ways. And tomorrow, Abigail is being delivered to the Coopers.” Jolynn turned to face Laura, her expression now serious, professional. “You may visit her at any time as long as the Coopers are there and you do not leave with her. This weekend you’ll have your first home visit. I’ll bring her here on Friday afternoon and she has to go back to the Coopers on Sunday.”

“This weekend?”

Jolynn’s smile returned. “Yes, this weekend.”

“I can’t thank you enough. This means everything.”

“I know. And I know I don’t have to tell you to make the right choices. You’ve finished your parenting classes and passed the supervised visitation process. You’re doing great.” Jolynn looked at her watch. “And now I have another appointment to keep and it won’t be as nice as this. Take care of yourself, Laura, and I’ll see you Friday.”

As Jolynn backed out of the drive, Jesse pulled up and parked. He nodded at the social worker and waved as he got out of his truck. Laura danced a little, excitement bubbling out of her. Jesse headed up the sidewalk. Laura barely held back. She wanted to hug someone, dance them in circles and scream.

Poor Jesse made it to the porch and she couldn’t take it any longer. She grabbed him and twirled him in a circle, her arms tight around him. He stared, blinking fast as she laughed and laughed. She hugged him again and his arms loosened and hugged her back.

“I get Abigail this weekend!”

“You should really try and be happy about this.”

“I know!” She hugged him again and then realized what she’d done. “I’m sorry. I just had to hug someone. You were the person who showed up.”

“So I was just the right guy at the right time?”

She wanted to agree. It would have been fine to hug anyone. A stranger. His mom. Myrna. As much as she would have hugged anyone, it was Jesse she wanted to share this moment with. But Jesse was the last person she should be sharing moments with.

“Yes, anyone, of course.” But she couldn’t stop smiling.

“I think we should celebrate.” He held up an envelope. “I got the information on the training course for the mission trip.”

“Wonderful.” But the news brought a sudden seriousness to the celebration. If he decided to go to Honduras, he would be gone soon. “What if I fix you dinner?”

“That sounds great. I need to walk up to the stable. Do you want to come with me?”

“I should. I think the more time I spend with the horses, the less I’ll be afraid when you leave.”

“Probably true. And I arranged for a neighbor kid to come over and exercise the horses a few times a week. The stallion is being sent to Texas. A friend of mine is interested in boarding him for a year.”

“Let me get my shoes.” She walked back into the house. He followed her. “How was Gayla?”

“Not good. I’m not sure what will happen, but I’m glad she’s close to her mom.”

“I’m sure that will be good for them both.”

“I got a call from Jeremy,” Jesse said as they walked out the door.

“And?”

“He’s moving ahead with his idea for a clinic.”

“He doesn’t take no for an answer, does he?”

Jesse walked next to her. “Not at all. That’s the Cooper in him.”

“Maybe when you get back from South America?”

“Maybe. It’s just a matter of blocking all of the voices trying to persuade me to go the way they think I should go.”

Laura kept quiet. She didn’t want to be one more person with an opinion about what she thought he should do. And she was the last person to really have a say in the choices he made.

* * *

Jesse opened the gate to the corral and walked up to the mare he’d been watching the past few days. Heavy with foal she stood in the corner of the white fenced enclosure, her head down, her sides heaving.

“Not much longer, Fancy.” He ran his hand down her side. He didn’t think she’d foal tonight, but she might. He’d moved her to the barn and this corral weeks ago to get her off the new spring grass.

He turned and walked back to the gate. Laura leaned on the top rail of the white vinyl fencing, her gray eyes settled on the mare, not him. He knew where her mind had gone. From that faraway look, he guessed she was thinking about Abigail’s arrival at Cooper Creek and about their first overnight visit this coming weekend.

He stayed inside the enclosure, watching the mare and then turning to look at Laura.

“What?”

He turned back to the mare. “Just thinking that we shouldn’t cook or mess up either house. I’ll take you to the Mad Cow.”

“You don’t have to do that.” She stepped back, allowing him to push the gate open. “I have chicken thawing. I don’t mind cooking.”

“You’ve been cooking for me all week. Let me feed the horses and I’ll take you out.”

“Jesse, really.” She bit down on her bottom lip and then met his gaze. “I don’t think we should. I’m not even sure about dinner.”

“We have to eat.”

“I don’t want to mess up. I want to be able to work here, stay here. More than that, I have to protect Abigail. Once I get her back, I want her to feel safe. I want her to know that I’m here for her and she’s the most important thing in my life. And—” She smiled weakly. “This is embarrassing...”

“Go ahead.”

“I don’t want her to think you’re more than my boss. She’s a little girl and at this foster home, for the first time really in her life, she’s had what she’s always wanted. She’s had a dad.”

He whistled at the revelation that came from left field. He’d expected her to say she wasn’t interested or she didn’t want to be used. But she had a whole other list of reasons not to get tangled in a “going nowhere” relationship. And for the first time in a long, long time, maybe ever, he thought he’d met the kind of woman he would want to go places with.

That was about the last thing he needed to tell her when her eyes were full of doubt.

“I get that.”

He did. He should agree. She was making it easy, the way he’d always liked relationships. Instead he wanted to convince her why dinner together made sense. When he looked at her, he knew that the choices they made now would have a serious impact on both of their lives.

“It’s just dinner, Laura. I know you work for me. I know you need this job. I really get that you want to protect Abigail and that you don’t want her to think there’s something between us.” But what if there was?

She followed him into the feed room.

“Jesse, I don’t want to let myself believe there’s something between us. I’ve got a record. I have a child to raise. I’ve been through a lot and I don’t think I can deal with anything else.”

“What if we go out as friends, no promises, no expectations?”

“My brain says no.”

“What do you say?”

“It’s been a long time, maybe forever, since I’ve had a friend.”

It had been a long time since Jesse had wanted to hold on to a woman the way he wanted to hold on to her. And friendship was only the beginning. But he knew her boundaries and the reasons for them.

Her phone rang as they walked back to her place and his truck. She looked at it and didn’t answer.

“Problem?”

She shook her head but the tense line of her mouth said otherwise.

“Laura?”

“It’s Ryan. He’s still trying to get me to give him money. It isn’t easy, telling him no. He’s my stepbrother, but he was just a little boy when our parents got together and I’ve always felt responsible for him.”

“He’s an adult now and his actions put you in jail.”

“I know.” She stopped at the door of the truck. “I’m afraid of him,” she whispered.

“He isn’t going to touch you here. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Thank you.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.

“No problem.” He pulled the keys out of his pocket. “Dinner in town?”

She nodded and he opened the door of his truck for her to climb in. She stopped short of getting in. “Jesse, don’t hurt us.”

“I won’t.”

* * *

When they got to the Mad Cow, it looked as if half the town had decided to let Vera cook for them. He spotted his brother Reese’s truck. He and Cheyenne must have decided to eat out. And Blake was there, too.

No backing out now. He’d deal with his siblings and the town.

“Second thoughts?” Laura paused with her hand on her seat belt.

“We should be prepared for the looks, the speculation and the inevitable gossip.”

“You mean it hasn’t started yet?”

He pulled the keys from the ignition. “Not even close. At least two of my brothers are here.”

“We can handle it.”

When they walked through the door all conversation seemed to halt. Jesse knew it had to be his imagination. Laura stepped close, nearly shrinking into his side. Yeah, not his imagination. A few people greeted them, two or three smiled knowing smiles and a few went ahead with the gossip.

In a booth on the back wall, Cheyenne nudged Reese and whispered something. Reese turned, his dark glasses covering his sightless eyes. He smiled and raised a hand in greeting.

“Sit with us?” Cheyenne moved the baby’s seat off one of the chairs and put it next to her in the booth.

“Yeah, Jesse, join us. We need to catch up.” Reese grinned like a cat with a mouse cornered in the barn. “I haven’t talked to you in weeks.”

“Last Sunday at church,” Jesse corrected. “And you aren’t going to talk to me now. We’re going to have dinner without a game of twenty questions.”

“We?”

Jesse held Laura’s hand. “Laura White, my brother Reese and his wife, Cheyenne.”

“Laura, good to meet you.”

Reese reached for her hand. “Jesse, maybe give me a call soon. We should at least get together before you leave the country.”

“I will.” Jesse led Laura to a corner booth that had just been vacated by a young couple. He didn’t see Blake.

“You should have let me fix the chicken,” Laura leaned to whisper after they were seated and the table had been cleared.

“I’m starting to think that might have been smarter. But Dawson gets kind of boring and people need something to keep them entertained. Eventually they’ll figure out we’re just friends.”

“I have a feeling you typically aren’t the Cooper they’re talking about.”

“I do try to fly under the radar.”

“Which will make this even more interesting for them.”

He started to reach for her hand but knew that would be a mistake in this crowded room. “It will.”

They were eating fried chicken when Jeremy walked through the door and straight to their table.

“I’ve been trying to call you.” Jeremy pulled up a seat and sat at the end of the booth. He reached for one of the rolls still in the basket. “Man, I’m starving.”

“Help yourself.” Jesse handed him a leftover chicken leg. “No, really, I’m done.”

Jeremy grinned and took the leg. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

Jesse felt his pocket and shrugged. “Left it in my truck, I guess. What’s up?”

“Two things. I have a building going up and donors for a clinic. I think we could do one day a week and not overwork you. Right?”

“Jeremy, I’m not committing to something I might not be here to do.”

“Right, yeah, I know.” Jeremy put the chicken leg on a napkin. “Listen, you have to do what you have to do. But I really feel like this is something
I
have to do. If it works out that you can be involved, then that’s even better.”

“I get that. I can check around and see who might be able to help. You might be able to find more than one doctor, maybe even a physician’s assistant, and that would mean being open more than one day a week. Or alternating doctors so one guy isn’t pulling the whole load.”

“Right, good idea. And while we’re on the subject...”

Jesse interrupted his half brother, who had taken a bite of chicken and reached for a napkin. “Were we on the subject? Because the last time I checked, I was having dinner with a beautiful woman and you were interrupting.”

Jeremy smiled at Laura and then smirked at Jesse. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize this was a date. I thought maybe this was a business meeting.”

Behind them a few people chuckled.

Jesse leaned toward Jeremy. “I’m going to take you outside and...”

Jeremy, not at all offended, leaned in and whispered, “And lose your Christian witness?”

“Yeah.”

Jeremy wiped his hands on a napkin and stood. “I have a kid at Back Street with some pretty nasty poison ivy.”

Jesse glanced from his brother to Laura and she gave a slight nod.

“Let me pay for our dinner and we’ll be up in five minutes. Are you happy?”