A Fallow Heart (35 page)

“Bran, what’s taking so—” She paused when she saw Jo Ellen pressed up against his chest. “What—” She finally turned to spot Travis deeper in the shadows, panting shallowly as he curled his injured body against the wall, and Jo Ellen’s lost sandal as she slipped it back on.

Taking in the scene, she lugged her baby higher on her shoulder and demanded, “Okay, what’d I miss?”

Still not knowing when to shut up, Travis ogled her, focusing his attention on her milk-filled breasts. “Damn, Emma Leigh. Guess I deflowered the wrong sister.”

Branson tensed under Jo Ellen’s restraining hand a split second before he let out a roar. She dodged into his path just as he charged, successfully tripping him up.

As they sprawled against each other, she lifted her voice and called, “
Enough
!” Latching her arm around Branson’s and keeping him tethered to her, she glared at the other man. “Travis, go back to your family.
Now
.”

But his family had already found him. “Trav?” The feminine voice from behind the four of them, made everyone turn to not only find his wife and children standing there watching, but half of their high school class gathered around to enjoy the show.

After wiping at his red face, he pointed accusingly at Jo Ellen. “She attacked me. She—”

His wife sighed and rolled her eyes, breaking into his accusation. “Travis, don’t even start with me again.” Grabbing the hands of her two children, she reeled them away and stalked off through a gap where the crowd immediately parted to let her pass.

“Look what you did?” Travis accused, whirling toward Jo Ellen.

She shook her head sadly. “Please tell me you’re not that pathetic.”

“Well, what did you think to accomplish, luring a married man out into a dark, quiet hall?”

She rolled her eyes, “I meant to talk, Travis. Only talk.”

He blinked blankly. “Talk? Talk about
what
?”

“I just wanted to thank you,” she said with a saccharine smile. “Thank you for showing me what a complete and utter asshole you were ten
years
ago so I didn’t make the biggest mistake of my life and actually marry you.”

He sputtered, offended, but she lifted a hand. “Why don’t you race after your wife now and try to beg your way back into her forgiveness?”

He glanced at everyone watching him and pushed from the wall, limping as he hastened away.

“Oh, and Travis,” Jo Ellen called after him. When he paused and glanced back warily, she smiled sweetly. “Before you go, I just want to confess…I made out with someone else when you and I were dating, and what’s worse, he was a hundred times better kisser than you were.” When his mouth fell open, she added, “He’s a hundred times the man you are. But that shouldn’t be too hard for you to believe since you were always just so
jealous
of him.”

Travis’s face filled with awareness as he—and no one else—realized exactly whom she referred to. She smiled with relish when his jaw clamped and eyes narrowed.

Around them, the hall full of old classmates broke out into cheering and clapping. Clearly defeated, Travis ducked his red face and rushed off.

“That was freaking…awesome!” Bran exploded, grabbing her close for a quick supportive hug. His face glowed with pride as he pulled away. “Christ, Jo Ellen. I had no idea you had that kind of spunk in you. You were…you were just like Emma Leigh.”

Jo Ellen laughed and wrapped her arm around her twin as Em squeezed in between them. Tipping her cheek against Em’s, she smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

When she pulled back to look expectantly at her sister, she was relieved to find Em’s eyes glittering with pride. “Wow, Joey. That was….” She shook her head.

“I know. I’m feeling a little wowed myself. I didn’t come here planning to chew him out, but now that I have, I feel…” She shrugged. “Free.”

“Loose ends tied and tucked away,” her twin said.

Jo Ellen’s smile faltered. Her loose ends with Travis were tied, yes. And the outcome there was better than she’d ever imagined. Door definitely closed.

But her outcome with Cooper didn’t feel so satisfying and freeing. She wanted him back.

“Yeah.” She leaned down to kiss the top of still-snoozing Brand’s head. “I think I’ve had enough of this reunion though.”

Emma Leigh’s eyes filled with sympathetic knowledge. “Are you going to go see him now?”

This time, there was no question who
he
was. “No. I…I’m going home.” And she didn’t mean back to her parents’ place.

She belonged in Dallas. There, at least her work depended on her. Although love definitely wasn’t her forte, she could focus on her job.

As she climbed into her car, unbidden tears rushed to her eyes. She had no idea why she had to start crying now. It was as if her body knew she had needed to hold herself together until she got through the reunion, but now that it was over, the strain was more than she could take. Squinting through the wet blur, she drove back to her parents’ house and packed her bags.

She refused to wait around until Sunday to leave Tommy Creek. If Cooper didn’t love her, then there was nothing here for her.

She’d taken the risk she’d been so afraid to take, and she’d failed. She’d gotten her heart broken and lost an amazing man. But strangely enough, she didn’t regret it. She knew she was better off having spent a week in his arms than never having been with him at all. Instead of crushing her, he’d healed everything Travis had broken.

As she drove out of town, she couldn’t help but pass his farm. Shades firmly planted on her face and her packed bags securely stowed in her trunk, she gripped her shaking fingers tighter around the steering wheel when she caught sight of his combine slowly trudging across one of his cornfields. Memories of climbing inside the cab with him rocked through her.

She pulled to the side of the road and simply watched him harvest his crops. He was such a hard-working farmer, such an honorable man to fill his father’s spot in order to look after his lonely mother.

Someday, he’d make some lucky woman a devoted husband and become a dedicated, dependable father to her children.

Jo Ellen’s chest hurt just thinking about it, because that woman wouldn’t be her.

She broke into tears all over again. Unable to bear watching him work a moment longer, she sniffed, wiped at her wet eyes and put her car into gear. She cried the entire way back to Dallas.

Chapter Twenty-Two

A month later

Rio’s bar and grill wasn’t very crowded when Cooper pushed his way inside. He’d finally finished the corn harvest this evening.

The year before, Thad had been starting to decline and Coop had done most of the work himself, asking his dad for advice and guidance more often than not. But this year, he’d mucked through without even that.

He’d stood in the middle of the last freshly picked field and waited for that unfailing moment of achievement to fill him. He always experienced it when he finished a long project. He liked looking out over everything he’d accomplished and attaining some satisfaction, a sense of completion.

But today, he’d only felt regret, regret his father hadn’t been around to share any of the glory, regret Jo Ellen was gone and couldn’t celebrate the end of his harvest with him, regret he had no one but a lonely, heart-broken mother left to live with.

After returning home, he’d spent a quiet hour with Loren at the supper table. She made his favorite dessert, chocolate chip cookies. But the fresh pastries had only tasted stale in his mouth. After thanking her for the meal and pressing a quick kiss to her temple, he left her in the living room, watching
48 Hours
Mystery
.

He wanted to get so rip-roaring drunk he forgot about everything depressing in his life, drunk enough he couldn’t picture Jo Ellen’s face in his mind whenever he put his head to a pillow tonight. He just wanted to see the blissful, blank darkness on the insides of his eyelids.

Ignoring the rowdy dart game going on over by the abandoned pool table in full progress when he entered, Coop headed straight to the bar.

“Double bourbon and coke,” he ordered.

As soon as Rio placed the glass in front of him, Coop commenced to chug. One after another.

Above the bar, the television played
48 Hours
Mystery
, and he experienced a niggle of guilt, wondering if he should’ve stayed home with Mama. She was probably lonely as all get out, just like him. He’d been so busy picking corn, leaving the house each morning before daybreak and stumbling in around midnight, she hadn’t even had him to talk to these past few weeks.

But the edgy restlessness inside him drew him out of the house. He just needed a drink. So that’s what he ordered again and again as soon as his previous glass ran dry. He wasn’t sure how many times he re-ordered, but poor Rio had long lost hope of trying to shoot the shit with him. He obviously recognized how much Cooper wanted solitude.

The evening waned on, and his Evan Williams finally started to go to his head, fogging his thoughts into pleasant fuzz. Just a couple more and he’d find that happy, numb void where he could escape from even himself.

“Yo, Coop,” a female voice called across the room. “We’re starting a new game over here. You want in?”

He glanced over and made eye contact with B.J. Gilmore. She stood next to Junkyard Ralphie Smardo and pressed an impatient hand to her hip as she waited for him to answer.

He swiveled his alcohol-pickled gaze toward the dartboard she motioned to, then back, blinking until he saw one B.J., not three. A second later, he instructed his head to give a negative shake.

“No thanks.” He turned away and concentrated on his drink, needing to rest his forearms on the bar to keep himself upright.

Though Rio had been by to refill him only a few minutes ago, the waitress who’d been roaming the room paused by his stool. “Hey there, Cooper. You need another drink, sweetie?”

He nodded and nudged his empty glass across the counter.

She disappeared with it only to reappear in his line of sight with a new one, sloshed full to the rim with ice and that dark amber he craved. He fumbled for his wallet and thrust a bill at her.

“No change,” he slurred.

Her bright red painted lips spread wide. “Why, thank ya, sugar. You’re too good to me, you know that.” She playfully tapped him under the chin with the bill he’d given her and sauntered off.

His brow wrinkled as he wondered just how much he’d tipped her, but he couldn’t drum up the oomph to care.

A moment later, B.J. hopped onto the stool adjacent to his.

After ordering a long neck, she pivoted on her seat to study him. “Coop,” she finally said. “I think this is about the saddest as I’ve ever seen you.”

He blinked, and then managed to greet her. “B.J.”

A couple years behind him in school, B.J. and he had always gotten along. She had to be the biggest tomboy he’d ever met, yet the girl had a heart of pure gold.

“How’s Thad?” she asked after getting her order from Rio and downing a healthy slug.

“’Bout the same.” He let out a weighty sigh. “Mama went to see him today and said he was having some bladder trouble. But that’s it.”

“Your sisters?” she asked next.

He shrugged, hadn’t heard from Stacia or Brendel in a while, though he was sure Loren kept updated fairly often.

“And Loren’s okay?”

“Same as ever.”

“Well, then, what the hell? Did your dog die?”

He finally lifted his attention. “Huh?”

“I’m trying to figure out what’s bothering you. And I’m running on empty here. Give me a hand, will you, and tell me what the trouble is. Your girlfriend break up with you or what?”

Cooper snorted out a bitter sound and ducked his head down to rest his forehead on the edge of the bar. “Don’t you have to actually get the girl before she can break up with you?”

“Ah, so that’s the deal. You done got women trouble, huh?” She leaned back as if she was some kind of voice of experience before taking another drink and letting out a wise sigh. “Yep, women are nothing but a gossiping nest of busybodies who can’t mind their own damn business. I’ve never had much use for them myself.”

Cooper lifted a brow as he glanced at her. “Are you allowed to bash your own gender like that?”

She frowned. “I can do whatever the hell I want.” Then she leaned closer to murmur, “Tell anyone I said that, though, and I’ll have to kick the piss outta you.” She patted him companionably on the back after making her threat, then pulled back and lifted her voice back to normal. “But I ain’t the kind of woman you’re moping on about, neither. No, you men like to get yourselves tangled up with them
girly
girls who don’t know what she wants half the time.”

Coop squinted thoughtfully before slapping his hand to his forehead. “Good God, you’re right. What the hell is wrong with me?”

B.J. sighed sadly. “You’re a man, darling. There’s something sick and twisted inside you, making you relish girly torture. I don’t understand it myself. Never did.”