Some Girls Do (Outback Heat Book 1) (8 page)

“He’s right Ethan,” JJ murmured.

“Of course I am,” Marcus nodded. “But there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t.”

Coop stood his ground as Marcus pulled back his fist. When it landed on his jaw the crack wiped out the noise of Lacey’s horrified gasp.

His head snapped back and Coop went down.

‡

P
ain exploded along
Coop’s jaw and stars swam behind his closed eyes as he hit the floorboards.

Lacey’s horrified, “
Marcus!”
floated down to him, then she was on her knees beside him, one hand on his chest, the other on his forehead. “Coop?
Coop!
Are you okay? Can you open your eyes?”

Coop wasn’t sure. He was struggling to remember his own name at the moment. “
Coop!
”

The urgency in her voice yanked at his gut and he concentrated really hard on prising open his eyelids. And there was her beautiful face, all concerned and tear stained, hovering over the top of his, her ponytail falling forward over her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she whispered through her tears, kissing his forehead and his cheeks and mouth. Briefly, ever so briefly, but still pretty damn cataclysmic to his system.

It had almost been worth it just for that.

Bloody hell.
He must have hit his head as well. He had to be concussed to be thinking such ridiculous thoughts about chaste kisses in front of her family. Her
pissed off
family. Especially compared to this morning’s deep, wet, hungry kisses with a side of cock fondling.

“Marcus!” Lacey’s head turned as she looked up at her brother, the tip of her ponytail brushing her face. “You …
Neanderthal.
What the hell?”

“It’s fine, Lacey,” Coop said, his head clearing as he gently fingered his jaw. “I deserved it.”

“Damn straight you did, asshole,” Ethan said glowering down at him. Coop took a little comfort from the fact Marcus was nursing his hand.

“Okay, okay,” JJ said, her face appearing over the top of him too as she elbowed Ethan aside. “Show’s over. Can you get up?”

JJ was matter-of-fact. Clearly she’d dealt with a lot of fights in her role as publican. Coop grunted. “Yes.” Even though he wasn’t really sure he could.

Lacey fussed around trying to help. Jarrod offered a hand, which he ignored. He raised himself up on his elbow and shut his eyes against a momentary greying of his vision.

“C’mon man, don’t be stupid,” Jarrod said, grasping Coop’s forearm.

Coop knocked it aside and with supreme effort he stood. His vision greyed again for a moment as he finally stood upright, leaning heavily against Lacey, who just happened to be beside him. She was warm and soft and sweet and smelled like his soap and shampoo.

And his shirt.

He thought about this morning again. Her mouth. Her hand.

Things stirred. He clamped down on them. It was completely inappropriate to be thinking of such things in this situation.

Maybe he really was concussed.

He opened his eyes to find Ethan still glowering, Marcus looking pissed and Jarrod eyeing him carefully before reaching into the nearby freezer for a packet of frozen peas and handing them over.

“Thanks,” Coop said, taking the bag and applying it to his throbbing jaw.

“Was there some particular reason you were just sitting there and saying nothing instead of having the balls to come right out and tell us when you first got here?” Ethan demanded.

Coop had to admit that was a fair question that he didn’t really have a good answer to when he’d impulsively backed Lacey up, but that was okay because she was one step ahead of him.

“
I
begged him not to,” Lacey said, standing in front of him trying to protect him from her brothers. “I wanted to handle it my way and have a nice family meal before we got into the … unpleasantries.”

Marcus snorted. “Unpleasantries? Well now isn’t that a nice euphemism for knocked up.”

“Hey!” Lacey said and Coop couldn’t stand the little tremor of hurt he could hear in it.

“That’s enough,” he growled.

He’d been prepared to take the punch but he was done taking any more Weston brother shit. “We get it, you’re pissed. And you’re right, I shouldn’t have let Lacey talk me out of manning up and coming straight out with it. But being insulting isn’t going to solve anything.”

“She’s
thirteen years
younger than you,” Ethan yelled. “I
trusted
you with her.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Lacey snapped. “Stop acting like I was some innocent in all this. He didn’t seduce me.
I
seduced him. I can be pretty damn persuasive when I want to be you know.”

Coop cringed as Ethan, Marcus and Jarrod looked like they needed a can of industrial strength brain bleach.

“Come on, man,” Coop said, looking at the guy who had been his best friend for close to sixteen years. It hurt to talk but the frozen peas had at least started to numb the pain in his jaw. “You know I’m going to support her.”

“
Fucking A
you are,” Marcus said. “You’re going to marry her.”

Coop nodded without hesitation. He hadn’t expected anything less from the Weston brothers and it wasn’t like any of it was real anyway. “Of course I will.”

Lacey swivelled her head to look at him, her expression stunned. For the first time since they’d met he’d actually managed to shock her. Considering she’d been shocking him for a couple of years now it was probably about time.

“What? No!” She turned back to glare at Marcus. “
No.
You hear me?” She stepped away from him and Coop supressed the urge to haul her back by his side. “Everyone just settle down now.” She looked at each of her brother’s in turn. “Nobody’s marrying anybody. This isn’t the freaking Wild West. You can all just put away your shotguns.”

Coop looked at the mutinous expressions on the faces of the Weston brothers. Even Jarrod who had seemed the least aggressive was clearly measuring him up and finding him wanting right now. There was only one thing that was going to satisfy them. As far as they were concerned he’d knocked up their sister and that made him responsible.

Even though he hadn’t.

But
they
didn’t know that. So for now he was going to have to keep up the pretence and do what he would have done if this baby really was his. The thought of it hit him suddenly in the chest.

A baby. With Lacey.

Worse things had happened to him.

“They’re right Lacey,” Coop said, his jaw completely numb now from the cold. “It’s the honourable thing to do.”

She turned to face him. Her eyes telling him in no uncertain terms that they’d all lost their minds. “We will talk about this later.
Privately
.”

Well she had that right at least. She’d be explaining why the hell she felt the need to keep the most important part of her breakdown last night to herself. If he’d known, they could have already dealt with it prior to coming here today and saved a lot of this aggravation.

“Well I don’t know where,” Ethan said, his voice hard, “because Coop’s sure as shit not welcome in this house anymore.”

“What?” Lacey spluttered. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Ethan folded his arms. “I don’t trust him around you.”

Coop took a deep breath and reminded himself that Ethan had just been dealt a huge whammy that he clearly didn’t know how to deal with and he didn’t mean what he’d just said. Because Ethan had always had Coop’s back. And Coop his.

Which was precisely how he came to be here in the middle of this predicament today.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Ethan,” she yelled. “He can’t get me any more pregnant. This is my house too and if he’s not welcome here, then I’m not staying either.”

“That’s fine by me,” Ethan snapped.

Coop glanced at JJ, who appeared unconcerned by the raging argument. She seemed happy to just wait it out like she knew it would eventually run out of steam. Coop hoped so but right now it looked like Ethan was determined to be difficult, so he said the one thing he knew would goad Ethan into changing his mind. “Don’t worry, Lacey. I’ll take you back to Brisbane with me.”

“The hell you will,” Ethan said, “you’re not taking her anywhere and if you think you’re going to skip out on her by going back to Brisbane then you can think again. You got her in this state? You’re going to be here with her every step of the way,
mate
.”

“Old man Campbell at the auto-repair shop reckons his wife’s been bitching about taking their caravan away for a holiday for the last ten years,” Jarrod said. “Reckon he’d be happy to go if we vouched for Coop.”

Marcus nodded. “Perfect,” then pulled out his cell and dialled a number, his eyes never leaving Coop’s face. “Alec, its Marcus Weston. I’ve found you a mechanic who can cover for you while you and your lovely wife take that holiday.” There was silence for a moment before Marcus said, “Oh, Coop can do it ASAP, Alec.”

The phone was handed over to Coop. Alec Campbell’s delight was evident and Coop found himself agreeing to cover for the man for two weeks. He set up a meeting with him tomorrow before handing the phone back to Marcus.

It appeared, regardless of how the Lacey situation played out, he was stuck doing a spot of auto repair in Jumbuck Springs for the immediate future. Apparently this was going to score Alec major bonus points with the wife.

So now the state of the Campbell’s marriage also depended on him.

Luckily he owned his own business and could take off at the drop of a hat.

“You can have one of the rooms at the pub until … other arrangements can be made,” JJ said, finally entering the fray.

“And I’ll go with you,” Lacey announced.

Coop schooled himself to not show the alarm that slid through his system at Lacey’s announcement. Living with her was not high on his must-do list. The degree of temptation alone—pregnant or not—was enough to bring him out in a sweat.

But it would all be moot soon enough. It was a … storm in a teacup. They’d all look back on this in years to come and laugh.

Probably …

If the Weston brothers didn’t take him out in the middle of the night, murder him, then bury him deep in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range.

Marcus folded his arms. “No way.”

Lacey stepped back until she was by his side, her hip and her thigh rubbing his. Coop’s belly stirred at the close contact. “I go where he goes,” she said staring her brother down.

“I thought you wanted to come home?” Jarrod murmured.

She shrugged. “I’m in Jumbuck Springs. That’s enough for now.”

Ethan shook his head. “We should have spoilt you less and spanked you more as a kid.”

“Okey dokey,” JJ said. “I really don’t think anything more is being gained here. I’m going to take Lacey and Coop back to the pub and get them settled and then when
everyone,”
she looked at the three Weston brothers, “has calmed down a little, you can all have a civilised discussion.”

Coop nodded. It suited him just fine. The situation was ridiculously tense and he needed to get Lacey alone.

“Thank you, JJ,” Lacey said. “At least someone around here is acting their age.”

JJ folded her arms in a way Coop suspected few people messed with. “Don’t think spanking you hasn’t crossed my mind either.” Her voice was tinder dry, like the landscape they’d passed on the way into Jumbuck Springs. She pointed to the doorway. “Let’s go.”

A contrite Lacey did exactly as she was told, not bothering with the usual effusive goodbyes. She was smart enough to know there weren’t going to be any of those today.

Coop lagged behind, glancing at Ethan. His friend was shocked and angry. But was the prospect of his best friend and his sister really
that
repugnant? Ethan knew the kind of man Coop was. He ought to know that he’d treat Lacey with respect.

There were a lot worse guys out there.

“Is it really that bad, Ethan? Me and Lacey? Am I that fucking
un
worthy?”

Ethan rubbed his hand over his jaw in defeat. “Shit man … you were supposed to be looking out for her.”

Yeah … Coop nodded. Ethan had him there.

He turned and followed JJ and Lacey out the door.

*     *     *