Free The Cowboy SEAL by Laura Marie Altom Page B

sofa. Only just as she was about to sit, something beneath the afghan moved!
     

Chapter Eight
    “Unless you want things to get awkward real fast,” Cooper said from the sofa, “you might want to sit somewhere else.”
    “There you go again...” Breathing heavy, Millie clutched her cookie bag to her chest. In the pale moonlight, she looked fragile. Still pretty, but dangerously thin and pale. “Skulking.”
    Groaning, he rubbed his hands over his whisker-stubbled face. “You try sitting on me, and yet I’m the bad guy?”
    “I didn’t say—” she dropped one of her contraband half-eaten cookies back in the bag “—never mind. What’re you even doing here? Why weren’t you sleeping in your old room?”
    “Funny...” He eased upright. It’d been a long time since he’d done manual labor, and his body felt every hay bale and feed sack he’d lifted. Back on base, he worked out religiously, but lifting weights and swimming had nothing on the whole ranch routine. He felt every one of his thirty years and then some. “Ever since setting foot back on this land, I’ve worked my ass off to make things easier on you, but all you’ve done is complain. If you don’t want me here, why did you ask me to come?”
    “Point of fact?” She sat on his dad’s recliner, but far from leaning back to relax, she remained as straight and unwelcoming as a fence post. “I wasn’t the one asking you to come home. That was your sister.”
    “Want me to leave?”
    Yes!
“No. Of course not. I just... Well, maybe we could establish a few ground rules as to where you’ll be and when?”
    “Ground rules?” Had she lost her ever-lovin’ mind? “As in, I shouldn’t leave my room between the hours of 6:00 p.m and 6:00 a.m.?”
    “Exactly.” He’d meant the question to be sarcastic, but judging by her eager nod, she’d totally missed his point. “The less time you spend with the kids and me, the better. I thought we could somehow recapture our old
happy family
vibe, but...” She shook her head. “Your dad’s expected to make a full recovery, so once he’s back on his horse, you should—”
    “Climb back on mine and ride the hell out of town?”
    She blanched. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
    He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ll bite. Go ahead, Mill, explain to me how else you—”
    “Mommy?”
    Cooper glanced over his shoulder to find sleepy, messy-haired J.J. The kid was crazy cute. Smart. Jim would be damned proud.
    “Hey, hon.” She went to her son, pulling him against her for a hug. “You’re up early.”
    “I know. I was excited to see if we have another snow day.”
    “Gosh, I forgot to check. Let’s turn on the TV and see.”
    She scooped up her little boy and carried him to the recliner, settling him on her lap.
    J.J. took the remote from a side table and soon had the room filled with a cooking segment on making snow ice cream. School closings scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
    How many mornings had Cooper sat in that same chair, holding his breath with his fingers crossed to see Wilmington Public Schools.
    The scroll restarted with the statement that
Aurora Public Schools will be in session.
Wilmington hadn’t been listed.
    “Aw, man...” Wearing a mighty pout, J.J. crossed his arms. “I wanted to help build the new chicken coop.”
    “Trust me,” Cooper said, “probably for the next week or even two, I’ll need plenty of help.”
    “Okay...” He scrambled from his mom’s lap. “Guess I’ll eat cereal and pet the calf.”
    “Sounds like a great plan,” Millie said.
    “I like him...” Cooper hadn’t meant to give the thought voice, and now that he had, in light of his sister-in-law flat out telling him she didn’t want him being around her kids, he couldn’t figure out why. What would forging a relationship with them hurt? Especially with their father gone.
    He looked up to find Millie staring.
    For a split second, their gazes locked, but then