Nicole Edwards - Chasing Dreams

A group of women were trying desperately to get his attention and Cooper was doing his best to be polite. He’d gotten used to the demand on his time, but he found it difficult to turn his attention away from someone he knew personally for a group who assumed he owed them his undivided attention.

“Why don’t we go to my office?” Adam offered, and Cooper didn’t hesitate before nodding his head in agreement.

Grabbing his beer bottle from the bar, he fell into step behind Adam. Sheer determination was the only thing that got them through the crowd, but once they did, Cooper found himself following his friend up a set of stairs at the far back of the room. Just when he thought they were going to have company, a hulking man insinuated his bulk between the gaggle of women and the cramped stairwell.

“Mr. Krenshaw will be back down shortly, ladies,” he told the group, making Cooper smile.

Mr. Krenshaw. Shit. That was funny. At thirty-one, he certainly didn’t feel like a mister .

At the top of the dimly lit stairwell was a door that read “Private” on a plaque haphazardly glued to the wood. Adam used a key to gain access and Cooper followed him, successfully shutting out the majority of the noise once inside.

“Damn, man. You sure know how to draw a crowd,” Adam stated as he moved across the room to a large window. He twisted a plastic stick and the cheap wood blinds turned, offering them a view of the scene below.

“It’s a curse.” The words tumbled out before he could think better of it.

Ok, so truthfully it was a blessing, but Cooper wasn’t feeling it these days. The words were an honest reflection of his mood, but he’d grown accustomed to keeping a filter on his thoughts until recently. Cooper hoped he sounded as though he was joking, but for some reason he wasn’t all that worried whether Adam knew the truth. He was beginning to feel as though it was a curse.

He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped being grateful for all of the fame that came along with his career, but in recent months, he was finding it harder and harder to want to keep moving forward. Instead, he found himself wanting to sneak out early, disappear on his own and find the solitude that had been lacking in his life for years.

His manager told him it was a phase that he’d be over soon. Cooper wasn’t so sure that was the case. Sure, he was thankful for his success, especially after he’d worked his ass off to get where he was, but Cooper was beginning to feel disconnected. As though he wanted more, but wasn’t sure what that more even was.

Hitting the big time and becoming a country music star might’ve been his original intention when he was a teenager, but he hadn’t known what all it entailed. Somewhere along the way, he felt as though he’d lost a part of himself. And despite all of the fans and the interactions, he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being alone that had started haunting him lately.

Cooper moved up close to the window, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with Adam in the confined space, downing half of his beer as he took in the silence while watching the overabundance of bodies below. His eyes landed on the woman he had glimpsed earlier. She was moving gracefully as she worked behind the bar and he found himself once again staring at her.

She was short, much shorter than most of the people standing around her. He couldn’t see much more than the snug black t-shirt that clung to her rather impressive curves, but he found himself trying to get a glimpse of the rest.

She looked like a country angel with her curly blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, the long strands falling down and over her shoulders. He couldn’t make out much of her features from this distance, but it was her dazzling white smile that captivated him. She was laughing with the man behind the bar, serving up drinks like she was born to run the crowded place.

“You meet my sister yet?” Adam asked, pulling Cooper from his visual assault of the cute bartender’s sultry smile.

“Haven’t met anyone, actually. I got here late, so I had to rush up on stage. The Realtor you referred me to decided tonight was a terrific night to show me another house.”

Adam just nodded his head, his attention once again on the folks below. “What’d you think of it?”

Cooper was beginning to relax again as he watched what was going on down on the main floor. There were still people coming in the door, and he was beginning to wonder just how many people the place could actually hold. He couldn’t imagine they’d be able to squeeze more than a couple hundred people between all four walls, but from the looks of it, they had almost twice that.

“This one is a little worse for wear than the one you mentioned. It needs more work, but I’m definitely interested. Don’t think the price can be beat. Luckily, I’m kinda handy.”

“A fixer-upper, huh?” Adam smiled at him, then returned his gaze to the scene below.

Fixer upper was an understatement, but for the price, Cooper could see himself making some serious progress on the house. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have some extra time on his hands.

And the land…

The property was almost double that of the one Adam had told him about. Hell, the two hundred forty acres were more than worth it. He had plans for the land which was the main draw of the property in the first place.

Movement at the front of the room close to the bar caught Cooper’s attention, and he looked over to see two men going chest to chest.

“Awww, hell. I’ll be right back,” Adam said with a groan, obviously seeing the melee that was about to erupt below.

As much as Cooper wanted to enjoy the solitude for a few more minutes, his instincts told him to follow Adam. The last thing he wanted was for a brawl to break out in his friend’s bar because of him. This happened more often than he wished it did. With this many women around, cowboys often had a hard time controlling themselves. Testosterone was a heady thing.

Dropping his now empty beer bottle in the trash can by the door, Cooper followed Adam, matching his fast pace as they made their way back to the main floor. By the time they reached the group, Cooper realized that the guy and the woman who had been manning the bar earlier were already attempting to break up the fight.

“Not here you don’t!” The sweet Texas twang of the woman’s words pierced something deep inside of Cooper, heard loud and clear over the music battling for attention in the overhead speakers. Cooper watched as the angel in blue jeans stepped right between the two oversized men as though she were six feet tall and bullet proof.

“Fuck off, dickhead!” One of the men shouted to the other over the top of the blonde’s head, ignoring her altogether.

Cooper took a step closer, praying like hell this woman wasn’t about to get knocked out by one of these assholes. His protective instinct suddenly kicked into high gear as he watched her attempt to stay right in the middle.

“Uh-uh. Not in here. This is your last warning, damnit!” The sassy cowgirl’s voice rose even louder, her drawl crystal clear and, despite her irritation, Cooper found he liked the sound of her voice as well as her spirit. A lot.

That’s when the shoving match ensued and, much to Cooper’s dismay, the cowgirl was pushed out of the way. Hard.

As the fists began flying, he watched her stumble backward. Somehow he managed to reach out and grab her before she crash-landed on the concrete floor at his feet. As grunts and groans echoed in the small area, Cooper grabbed the girl, pulling her out of the chaos, trying his best to shield her as the punches landed, neither of the men caring who got in their way.