The Cowboy Lawman (7 page)

“Gran, no.” Mia shook her head. “Not me and Slade.”

“Now, you tell me why not.”

Mia pulled a stool up to the sink and sat down, hoping her grandmother would get the hint. Hair. Shampoo. Wash. Her grandmother didn’t take hints. She stood there, arms crossed, lips pursed.

“Gran, he’s Slade. He was the man Vicki loved.” And Mia had kissed him just a day earlier. She remembered the kiss, how it had shaken her for so many reasons. She hadn’t expected it to change things. She’d expected more guilt and less...whatever.

She groaned and closed her eyes.

“I guess you want me to wash your hair?”

Mia nodded her head and waited.

“Fine. But there’s one thing you can do for that man you call a friend.” Mia opened her eyes and waited. “Help him tell Caleb about his mama. Help him get past whatever he’s holding on to.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

When they’d finished, and walked back into the living room, Slade and Caleb were still sitting on the couch, still had the box of photographs between them. Mia’s grandmother gathered up her purse and the light jacket she’d left hanging near the door.

“I think I’m going to go on home. Winston wanted to see a movie this evening and I think the early show would be better. I hate getting home in the middle of the night.”

“Gran.” Mia shook her head a little, but she knew her grandmother had a plan and she wasn’t going to be convinced to stay.

“You’re fine. If you need something, Slade can either take care of it or he can call me.” Granny Myrna pulled a keychain out of her pocket. Attached to the keychain was a whistle and a small vial of pepper spray. That pepper spray always worried Mia.

“Slade doesn’t have to take care of me.” Mia walked her grandmother to the door. “I love you even if...”

“Even if I care so much I meddle?” Granny Myrna whispered close to her ear. And then she looked past Mia. “Slade, will you be riding that new horse of yours Friday night?”

Slade looked up from the box that sat between him and Caleb. “I hope to, Myrna. He’s a little green but he should be fine.”

“Well, you be careful, you hear? And Caleb, you enjoy those pictures.”

With that she walked out the front door and down the sidewalk to her car. Mia watched until her grandmother was safely behind the wheel.
Safe
possibly being the wrong word for her grandmother behind the wheel. Finally, she turned to face what had to be faced. Slade and Caleb.

“Can I have copies of these for Caleb?” Slade asked, his voice gruff.

“Of course you can. I’ll scan them and put them in an album with explanations, if you’d like.”

“That would be good.”

Caleb looked like a little boy with a lot of questions. Mia knew from her own experience how those questions piled up. She hadn’t been much older than Caleb when a social worker, a stranger, brought her to Cooper Creek and left her with more strangers, telling her this was her new family. She had a new mom, a new dad and new brothers and sisters. She’d had a lot of questions. Fortunately, Angie Cooper had known without Mia asking.

“Cay, maybe we should head home.” Slade started putting the photographs back in the box.

Caleb put his hand over the top of the box. “I thought Mia was watching me today.”

Mia felt her heart get jittery. She was the last person Caleb needed to rely on, to attach himself to.

“I’m taking today off.” Slade gently took the box from his son and finished putting the pictures away. The memories were too much, Mia thought. It felt as if Vicki had walked in on them.

Of course she hadn’t. Mia shook off the ache in her heart. Or tried to.

“Are we going home?” Caleb looked like a kid trying to wrap his mind around what was happening in his always safe and secure world.

“Yeah, Cay, we’re going home.” Slade stood, tall and strong, always strong. Mia wanted to hug herself, protect herself from feeling things for him she shouldn’t feel.

“Remember that I won’t be able to watch Caleb after school tomorrow. I have a doctor’s appointment in Tulsa.”

“Oh, right. Mia, I’m off tomorrow. I planned on driving you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. Caleb can stay with my sister. She’s going to be driving up to help Mom clean her house.”

“You’re sure?”

“I offered, didn’t I?” He set the box on the table and Caleb gave it a last, lingering look.

“Why don’t you take those with you?” Mia picked up the box and held it out to Caleb. “I have more.”

“Really?” Blue eyes lit up as he took the box from her hand.

“Really.” Mia blinked quick and avoided looking at Slade. If she looked at Slade, she’d cry.

“Mia, I have pictures.” Slade took the box from his son. “I put them away because I...”

He didn’t finish. Caleb looked up at him, expecting him to say more, but a five-year-old didn’t need hard lessons about grief. Slade met her gaze and Mia did her best to smile.

“I know.” Mia reached for Caleb, wanting to hug him before he left. The little boy wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” Slade grabbed his hat off the hook by the door on his way out.

“I’ll be ready.” Mia walked with them to the door, down the sidewalk to the truck. She stood there as they got in, buckled up, started the truck. Slade smiled at her and tipped his hat as he shifted and backed down her driveway.

Mia sat on her front porch after they left. There was little traffic but a couple of blocks away she heard trucks at the feed mill. In the distance she heard a tractor. It helped, to sit there and surround herself with what was familiar.

She thought about Caleb and Slade, working through their loss. Caleb would never know his mom. Slade had lost the love of his life. It had been five years, but sometimes grief came back without warning and shook a person all over again.

Being home she was learning something else. Old feelings that had been boxed up and put away, a little like those old photographs, sometimes returned. As an adult, the feelings were different and went past the old schoolgirl crush on the cute boy with the flirty grin.

As a woman, she saw the heart of the man he’d become. And she knew that he was good and kind, someone worth loving.

Could she even think about taking that next step—with him?

Chapter Seven

M
ia pulled up to the Cooper ranch later that afternoon, proud of herself because she’d driven a stick shift left-handed. It had taken some talent to reach across and shift, but she’d managed. Her dad had just walked out of the barn and he shook his head, but grinned, as he headed her way.

She waited for him in the driveway.

It was always good to see Tim Cooper, also known as Dad. He had a steadiness that made her feel grounded. His quietness always reassured her. It had been that way from the beginning. She’d been his tomboy, the girl who loved to sit next to him in the enclosed cab of a tractor, the girl who would get on whatever horse he brought home. Her sisters, Heather and Sophie, both biological Coopers, not that it ever mattered to a Cooper, had interests other than the ranch.

Sophie, now married to Keeton West, helped to run Cooper Holdings. Heather lived in nearby Grove and had an interior decorating business. But lately she’d talked about moving to her section of Cooper land and building a house. Mia had land, too. She leased it to her brother Jackson. She hadn’t needed it, not while she’d spent most of her time in Tulsa and other places she’d just as soon forget.

“Look who defied doctor’s, and more important, her mother’s, orders.” Tim kissed her cheek. “Good to see you, Mia. You’ve been avoiding this old place, haven’t you?”

“No.” She smiled a little. “Well, maybe.”

“So what brought you out today? Did you smell your mom’s spaghetti sauce from three miles away?”

“No, but if I had, I’d have been here sooner.” Mia slipped her left arm around his waist and leaned into him, loving that he smelled of horses, hay and fabric softener. Some things never changed, and she hoped they never would.

“I’m glad you’re here. Jackson and Travis are in the barn trying to get a saddle on a gelding Travis bought at the auction. I’m not sure the animal hadn’t been drugged before they took him in the arena.”

“One of them will end up hurt.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

They had reached the house. Mia stopped because the lure of a horse that might be a little rank always got her attention. “I think I’ll go on out to the barn.”

“You’d better come in first, then you can go show the guys up.”

“Okay.” Mia walked through the door he opened for her.

Stepping into the house, she relived the day she’d been brought here as a foster child. She’d been overwhelmed by the size of the place, the number of people, the love. She’d felt like a scared kitten that everyone wanted to touch, pet. She’d wanted to find a corner and hide.

They’d let her hide at first. But they’d drawn her out with their love. They’d drawn her into their family, making her one of them. She’d gotten used to the size of the house and then felt comforted by its warmth.

These walls were solid. The foundation was solid. As solid as the faith that guided the lives of the Coopers. And she loved them.

And yet, a part of her was missing. As she walked through the house, past family portraits and wall hangings made by various Cooper kids, she was aware of that missing piece of herself. Her sister, Breezy.

“Mia!” Her mom looked up from a cookbook open on the counter in front of her. She was wearing the apron she always wore, with handprints of all the kids when they were younger.

“I heard you were making spaghetti.” Mia kissed Angie Cooper’s cheek.

“I am, and if I’d known that was what it took to get you here, I would have made it days ago.”

“It isn’t the spaghetti, Mom.”

“I know, sweetie.” Angie touched her cheek. “Why the shadows under your eyes? Still not sleeping?”

Mia shrugged and considered avoiding the question. She was good at not answering. But her mom was more determined than most people. Mia could answer now or later, as Angie always said. It was her choice.

“I’m sleeping. A little.”

“And worried a lot? About?”

“Where do you want me to start?”

Angie opened the fridge door and pulled out a pitcher of sweet tea. She poured three glasses and handed one to Mia. “Start at the beginning.”

Mia sat down at the counter. Her mom sat next to her. Tim took his glass of tea and the newspaper on the counter and waved goodbye.

“So?” Angie patted her hand. This was a Cooper family ritual, sweet tea at the counter, Angie listening to whatever trouble had befallen her offspring.

They’d discussed love, lack of love, fights with friends and faith. All at this counter, sitting on these barstools. Mia remembered when Vicki died, sitting here with a box of tissues between them.

“Mom, I’m afraid I won’t be able to work again. I’m worried about Tina. I feel as if I owe her something. I’m here and Butch isn’t.”

“Oh, Mia, you have to let go of that. You didn’t do this. You tried to save him.”

“He has a wife and kids. I’m single. He had someone waiting for him to come home.”

“You have that, too, Mia. Every time you’re gone, I worry nonstop about where you are and what’s happening to you. I think of your being in danger, that I can’t be there to protect you. I have to admit, sometimes I pray you can’t go back to that life.”

“I know.” Mia choked on the words as emotion tightened her throat. “But Butch... I just...when I think of him... He asked me to make sure Tina was okay. I can’t protect her because I don’t know what she’s hiding.”

“Mia, if you think something is going on, you need to tell someone.”

“But I don’t know who to trust.”

“Trust your instincts. Trust God.”

Mia closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m having a hard time trusting either right now. I felt that both let me down that day.”

“God isn’t going to let you down, Mia. He hasn’t let you down. Life isn’t always fair. It isn’t always easy. Sometimes it hurts to be human. That’s when you need God the most. Do you remember the illustration about the cross-stitch? The front is beautiful. The colorful threads design a picture or even a verse that we can frame and hang on the wall. But the back of the cross-stitch?”

“Knots, tangles, loose threads.”

“Nothing beautiful about that, is there? But the finished product is a treasure. Life is a tangled mess, but God makes beauty out of that ugliness. We get past the hard times and we look back and see that He was there. The hardest times of our lives are the times when our faith grew the most, the times when He revealed himself in the most amazing ways.”

“He made me a part of this family.”

“You were a part of this family from the beginning, Mia. I will always believe that each child He brought to us, He knew from the beginning would be a Cooper.” There was a short pause and then Angie patted her hand again. “So what else is bothering you?”

“Vicki.”

“How’s it going, watching Caleb for Slade?”

Mia lifted her glass of sweet tea, swirled the ice and tried to think of the best response. “Mom, Slade put away all of Vicki’s pictures.”

“I see.”

“This morning Caleb found the box of pictures I’d brought out to look at.”

“Oh.”

“I just don’t understand.”

“We all face our grief the best we can, honey. Slade has managed to move on, to raise his son. Don’t be too hard on him.” Angie gave her a careful look. “Mia?”

Mia looked up from the glass of tea she’d been staring into. “Mom?”

“Is there more?”

Mia stood and walked to the sink. She poured the tea down the drain and rinsed the glass. “No, there’s nothing else.”

“If you change your mind, I’m here.” Angie stood, loosening the apron and slipping it over her head. “Are you going out to the barn?”

“I think I will. Dad said the guys are having a hard time getting a saddle on a horse.”

“Don’t show them up too badly.”

Mia’s mood lightened at the thought. “I won’t.”

The newest stray at Cooper Creek joined Mia as she walked down the driveway to the barn. The big, husky-looking dog limped and one ear had a big tear. But he was sweet. Mia had been threatening to take him to her house, which her dad thought was a great idea. There were enough animals at Cooper Creek, he said, and it was about time she got a dog and stayed put in Dawson.

As she drew closer to the barn, which was really half stable and half indoor arena, she noticed a truck that hadn’t been there when she first got to the ranch. She hesitated and considered turning tail and running. She’d never been a chicken. She’d never been a quitter. She wouldn’t start now.

But then, she’d never had to face this much of herself, either. That was the thing about staying busy, it was easier to run from what you felt.

The big doors at the end of the stable were open. She could hear the guys talking, loud. She heard a horse whinny and then the obvious sound of hooves hitting wood. She picked up her pace and the dog at her side gave a low woof.

Inside the barn, the cause of the commotion was obvious. A big horse, dusky tan with a dark mane and tail, stood at an angle, ears back. He looked meaner than spit, but on second look, Mia saw him tremble and his dark eyes dart from man to man.

“What are you guys doing to that horse? You know better.” Mia walked through the doors of the barn and two of her brothers, Jackson and Travis, plus Slade, turned to look at her. Standing a short distance away was Reese with his white cane held loosely in his hands. Dark glasses covered his sightless eyes.

“They think they’re going to ride him today,” Reese explained, taking a cautious step closer to the action.

“Since when do you break a horse by tossing a saddle on his back and bucking him out?” Mia ignored Slade and stopped next to Jackson. But if reasoning was going to be used, she’d have to turn to Reese.

“He was a saddle bronc, Mia,” Travis explained, the bridle still in his hand and the saddle on the ground next to him.

“And you bought him, why?”

“He’s pretty.” Travis said it with a girly voice that did make her smile because of traces of his still-distinguishable Russian accent.

“Shut up.” Mia walked around to the front of the frightened horse. “He’s scared to death.”

“I tried to tell them.” Reese moved a little closer.

“I want him.” Mia spoke softly as she stepped a little closer to the horse.

“Mia, this horse will get you hurt.” Jackson cleared his throat. “I mean...”

“I might break an arm.” She continued to speak softly, getting the horse’s attention. “It’s okay, Jackson, you can say it and I won’t cry.”

“I know, but...”

“But nothing, you guys have this poor horse scared to death. I want him.”

“Mia, you can’t break this horse. He’s been rodeo stock for two years.” Slade spoke with what he probably thought sounded like the voice of reason. To Mia, he sounded like a man who thought a woman needed his advice.

“Then what were you guys going to do with him?”

She glared at Slade. Her best glare, too. He didn’t wither. She’d really hoped he would shrink back, show a little fear. Instead, he shifted into a more relaxed cowboy stance and pushed his hat up a smidge. She allowed herself one good look at the cowboy in his faded jeans and plaid shirt, pretending the look was one of dismissal, not approval.

He grinned and winked. “Care to take another look?”

“Okay, we’re outta here.” Jackson reached for Reese’s arm. “I know that Maddie is going to be expecting me home soon and Cheyenne said Reese should help with the baby tonight so she can clean the shop.”

Mia heard footsteps behind her. Travis escaping without a word.

Brothers. They were no help when a girl needed them.

* * *

So, this is how it went. Slade stood there watching the Cooper trio escape like little girls. And facing him was Mia. She ignored him in favor of the frightened buckskin gelding. She had a soft voice, a soft look. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she must have planned this trip to the ranch. She wore a T-shirt, jeans and boots. She was the cowgirl he had grown up with, not the law enforcement officer she’d been since she graduated from college.

In the distance he could hear an old George Jones song playing on the radio. Travis preferred classic country to the new stuff. The horse snorted again and stomped.

“Mia, we have to get back to who we were.”

She glanced at him but then turned her focus back on the horse. “Who we were when, Slade? Last year, or when we were kids?”

“We kissed, it isn’t the end of the world.”

She looked up, just briefly. “Oh, that.”

She knew what he meant. She was playing with him. He wanted to... He watched her for a minute as she talked softly to the horse and then her hands were on the animal’s face, gentle, soothing.

He wanted to kiss her again. Common sense jeered at him, called him a few names.

“Be careful,” he said, not moving, just watching.

“I know what I’m doing.” Her hand slid down the horse’s neck. She was singing “Jesus Loves Me.”

The horse trembled but his ears were no longer back. She stood at his side, still singing. “That’s enough for today. Let’s put him in his stall with a good memory.”

She unclasped the lead rope from the ring on the wall and Slade opened the stall door. She eased the big horse around and he bolted into the safety of his stall. She took off the lead and stepped back, closing the door of the stall.

“Mia.”

Slade didn’t know what to say.

“Where’s Caleb?” She walked away from the stall and he followed her down the aisle of the stable. She stopped at a door midway down and opened it. It led to the apartment that had once been Travis’s.

“My sister came in earlier this afternoon. She said she wants him for the night.”

“I see.” She flipped on a light switch. “I don’t want to talk to my family right now. I don’t want to deal with anything.”

He followed her into the apartment. He’d crashed here a few times in his life. Coming home late from a rodeo, if he shared a ride with the Coopers, the guys would bunk at Travis’s place.

She knew her way around the apartment. He guessed she’d stayed here a few times herself. His family farm didn’t begin to compare to Cooper Creek. They ran a hundred head of cattle at the Circle M. They raised some good quarter horses and a few goats. He trained cutting horses for extra cash because being a county deputy wasn’t going to do much more than pay the bills.