Free The Cowboy's Healing Ways (Cooper Creek) by Brenda Minton Page A

it to Laura and she took it, more for the warmth it offered than anything else. “He’s making her feel like her daughter might be in danger.”
    “Where is your daughter, Laura?”
    “In a foster home in Tulsa.” Laura’s voice felt weak, shaky. “I’m sure Ryan won’t hurt her.”
    “Are you?” Angie Cooper stepped close, putting a hand on Laura’s back. “Because you look like a mom who’s scared to death for her child.”
    “I’m...”
    Angie took the coffee cup from Laura’s hands and set it on the counter before enveloping her in a hug. “Don’t you worry—we’ll help you.”
    It was a strange feeling for Laura, being in this house, with these people, a family of strangers. Angie Cooper stood next to her and Jesse leaned his hip against the counter. Laura refocused on Angie.
    “I’m not sure what we can do.” Laura looked out the window, mesmerized by the glimmering waters of the pool. “The system isn’t going to change its policy for one person. And I don’t know that she’d be any safer with me. Or even that he’d hurt her.”
    “I know a thing or two about how this system works.” Angie smiled and patted her arm. “I’m very good at pulling strings and moving mountains.”
    Laura stepped back, wiping her eyes again. She reminded herself that once, a long time ago, her mother had made promises that everything would be better. She wanted to crush the old negativity, the voices telling her not to trust.
    Her stepbrother had said he would get a job and help pay the rent on her apartment in Tulsa.
    Her stepfather had promised more than once to quit drinking, to quit abusing, to get a job. He’d never done any of those things for more than a week.
    As much as she wanted to believe people were really as good as the Coopers, Laura knew she’d have to fight a lifetime of being let down in order to trust.
    She looked up to find Jesse watching her. His expression said he understood. She wondered how he could.
    He pushed away from the counter, standing tall again, making her feel small in comparison. It wasn’t so much his height as his presence. The doctor she’d met just days ago had morphed into a cowboy, the son of a rancher. His jeans were worn and his boots were scuffed. He had held her and made her feel safer than she’d felt in years.
    “I’m going to take Laura out and show her the stable.”
    His mom shot him a look, her eyes narrowing as she glanced from Jesse to Laura. And Laura felt heat slide up her cheeks. Because that look implied something that Laura wanted to openly deny. But how desperate would it be to open her mouth and tell Angie Cooper that there was nothing between Jesse and herself?
    Angie’s smile returned, easing the worried lines that had creased her brow. “Don’t saddle Willie. He’s had a tendon problem that Jackson is doctoring.”
    “Thanks.” He kissed his mom’s cheek, then nodded toward the door. “Let’s go. And, Mom, when Dad gets back, tell him we need to talk about Gran. I’m worried about her.”
    “Okay, Jesse.”
    Laura smiled back at Angie Cooper, hoping it wasn’t worry that she saw in that woman’s eyes. Because to Laura, worry equaled a woman not wanting her son to get involved with the wrong person.
    They walked out a back door into sunshine and the sound of bees buzzing around clover in the grass. Jesse walked with an easy stride, comfortable in his own skin and his place in this world.
    “If you stay tense like that, you’ll make yourself sick.” He smiled as he made the comment and Laura managed a deep breath that she let out slowly, hoping to relax.
    “I’m not tense.”
    “Enough to snap.” He touched her back only briefly and then dropped his hands to his sides.
    “Your mom is great.” Laura let her gaze travel over the ranch, the rolling hills, the white fences, cattle grazing in the distance and horses in a nearby field.
    Ahead of them lay the stable, a huge building with several paddocks or corrals attached. A