Nicole Edwards - Chasing Dreams

Hold up… that wasn’t the point. Regardless.

“I wouldn’t say it’s much of a farm anymore,” Cooper added, grinning at Adam. “Maybe one day, but right now, it’s more of a shamble of a house and two hundred forty acres of weeds.”

Tessa smiled despite herself at the way he enunciated the words, sounding very much like he was born and raised in the south. And definitely not from Texas. She wondered if he’d come by his drawl naturally or if it had been developed for his country music persona.

Realizing she wasn’t supposed to be smiling, she forced her attention back to Adam. “When did this happen?”

“Talk to him,” Adam told her. “He’s the one buying the place.”

“But…” Wait. No. Tessa was not going to mention the fact that she had a stake in that place. After all, she’d never told Adam that she was buying it for a reason. And thankfully her brother Jack had kept her secret as well. She wasn’t looking for a hand out, and she knew all too well that Adam would’ve tried to jump to her rescue, especially after Richie died.

There had to be a mistake, and as soon as she got the chance, she was going to call Luanne Deluth Rosenbough and talk to her.

“What do you plan to do with it?” Tessa asked, glancing Cooper’s way briefly. Her throat felt tight and her eyes stung from unshed tears, but she fought them back. She refused to get emotional until she had all the facts.

“It needs some work, and it’ll probably take me some time to build it up, but ultimately I’d like to turn it into a fully functioning farm. As a side venture, I’m looking to build an equestrian center. I’ve always wanted to use horses to work with disabled children and adults.”

Tessa knew her jaw was hanging open, knew she shouldn’t stare at him as though he’d just admitted that his dream was the exact same dream she’d been chasing ever since she was a child, but she couldn’t help it.

“Hey, that’s funny. Tessa wanted to do that when she was a kid,” Adam offered.

She still wanted it, but Adam didn’t know that.

So if Adam hadn’t said anything, then that left… Had Luanne told Cooper what Tessa was planning to do? Was this some kind of joke? Or payback?

Tessa had to force her jaw to relax when she realized she was grinding her teeth together.

“Really?” Cooper sounded as though he was hearing the news for the first time. Didn’t mean she wasn’t still suspicious of what his overall objective was. What were the odds that he came to Devil’s Bend, bought the property she was in the process of buying and planned to build the exact same thing? Something was off here.

“So, what ?” Tessa realized she sounded frustrated. “You bring him all the way out here to tell me he wants to run a horse farm?”

Adam frowned down at her, and Tessa bit the inside of her cheek as she turned to stare out into the yard. Yes, it was somewhat of a sore spot that she spent her nights slinging beers in a bar, even if she owned said bar while others were out making their dreams come true. She might not be able to make her dream come true overnight, but she was working on it.

“No, I brought Coop out here because I wanted to know what you thought of him handling the entertainment at The Rusty Nail .”

Tessa stared up at Adam once again, confusion replacing the frustration from moments ago.

“You want him to sing in the bar every night?” Turning to face Cooper, she asked him, “And you’d want to do that? I thought you were a big country star.”

Adam laughed, pulling her attention back to him. “No, I don’t think Coop would be interested in becoming a permanent nightly fixture at The Rusty Nail . He, however, would be good for business.”

“What are you talking about? You handle the entertainment. Why would we need him?” Tessa stared at her brother, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. Or rather what he wasn’t telling her. She knew there was something, but for the life of her she couldn’t put it together. The look on his face told her she wasn’t going to be happy with his news.

“I’m going into the police academy.” Adam’s calm tone sounded as though he were trying to soothe her which meant…

And then his words registered.

Police academy.

Tessa’s heart stopped beating in her chest and she felt faint. Somehow, although her body was hardly cooperating, she managed to put her coffee cup on the railing beside her because she wasn’t interested in wearing what was left of it. Staring up at Adam, she couldn’t get a single word out of her mouth.

“Tessa…” Adam began, sounding as though he were going to start explaining.

“Don’t,” she demanded harshly. “Don’t. I… I don’t even know what to say.”

Pushing to her feet, Tessa forced her legs to move, forced herself to go inside before she lost every ounce of her decorum right there on her front porch in front of God and everyone.

And Cooper Krenshaw.

So maybe Cooper wasn’t the smartest man on the planet, but he knew immediately that what Adam just announced to his sister was not a good thing. As for why, he had no idea.

“Shit,” Adam said, pulling his ball cap down low on his head before taking it off altogether and turning to face the yard.

“I’m going to take a wild guess on this one, but I don’t think she took that well.” Cooper’s statement was met with silence, and he allowed it to settle around them for a few minutes.

Not only was he uncomfortable being there, Cooper was confused as to why he was there and the answers didn’t appear to be forthcoming. Did Adam think that bringing him along would lessen the sting of that blow? If he did, it damn sure didn’t work.

“Richie died in the line of duty,” Adam explained, although Cooper had no idea who Richie was. Not knowing what he was supposed to say to that, Cooper kept his mouth shut.

“Richie was her husband,” Adam finally explained long seconds later.

Oh, shit. Well, that explained it all too well. Adam just informed his sister that he was going to do the exact thing that got her husband killed? Shit.

Cooper wanted to ask Adam why he thought it was a good idea to do this. Or better yet, why Adam thought it was a nifty idea to bring Cooper along when he announced his intentions? How in the hell did he get caught in the middle?

“I need to talk to her,” Adam stated, but he didn’t move from where he stood.

That would probably be a smart idea , Cooper thought to himself. It was a good thing that the filter was back in place because he knew for sure that he shouldn’t get in the middle of this any more than he already was.

Adam suddenly turned and faced Cooper, a pained look on his face. Pulling his ball cap back on, Adam said, “I’ve wanted to do this my whole life. I was actually going to go into the academy with Richie, but when my stepfather got sick, I decided not to go.”

Cooper knew that Adam’s stepfather had been sick several years back, but he wasn’t aware that his illness had derailed Adam’s future. Nor had he been aware that Adam had a brother-in-law. He knew Adam had a brother and a sister, both younger, knew he had grown up in a small town and that he wasn’t close to either of his parents. Besides the basics of their families, the distance over these last few years hadn’t kept them as close as they had been during those two semesters that they’d roomed together in college.

That was probably mostly Cooper’s fault because when he ventured into the music industry full time, he’d essentially left most of his friends behind. He and Adam talked from time to time, at least once every three or four months, but obviously not enough that Adam felt close enough to share those personal parts of his life. On top of that, Cooper knew Adam well enough to know the man didn’t share much of himself with anyone.