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Mark shook his head on a chuckle. “You need to settle down, Cooper. Ladies know a wild rouser when they meet one. She’s a smart one, she seems. Bet she sees right through all that charm of yours.”
Cooper arched his brow and smiled. “So she does, Mark. So she does.”
Mission accomplished. He could go home and stop feeling so fucking guilty because he had almost made little Sair cry. Shit. Since when had he grown a conscience?
Sarah’s next stop was the post office, where Maggie Fallon just happened to be as well. The other woman lived near Sarah, and she had rarely talked to her. But today, she kept her at the post office boxes for nearly twenty minutes, talking. Just talking.
And something inside Sarah had eased. She wasn’t certain what it was, and she knew the other woman had loosened up only because of Cooper’s teasing. But after Maggie finished talking to her, several other women spoke; the postmaster actually asked her how she was doing, and while she posted Sarah’s packages, talked about an upcoming summer festival in the town.
Sarah left the post office with a warm glow. She had lived here for more than two years, and finally, she felt as though there might be a chance she could fit in.
She returned home, put her groceries away, and then moved to the front room as she heard Cooper’s truck pull into the drive beside her own. From behind the shelter of her curtains she watched him look toward her house as he got out of his truck, then he was loping to his porch and out of sight.
She should thank him, she thought, biting at her lip. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That was the hospitable thing to do, or so her uncle Martin had always told her.
She wiped her damp palms down the skirt of her dress and left her house, gripping her keys in her hand, and moved across her drive. A six-foot wedge of grass separated her asphalt driveway from her neighbor’s.
She stepped up on the porch and moved to the door before knocking with a quick, decisive rap of her knuckles. And she waited. Holding the keys tight in her hand, one sharp point ready if need be. She jerked a little as he opened the door and stared back at her in surprise.
“Miss Sair,” he drawled, leaning against the door frame. “What can I do for you?” The amber highlights in his eyes seemed to spark, flare.
“I wanted to thank you.” She refused to twitch or stutter. “For what you did at the store.”
His expression tightened as he lifted himself from the door frame and stood back. “Come on in.”
“But I just wanted…”
He reached out, gripped her wrist, and pulled her in before closing the door behind her.
She never once thought to defend herself. She stood in the small foyer, a frown tugging at her brow at the thought. Had she forgotten how dangerous even innocent things could seem? She must have, because she wasn’t frightened of the large, dark man looming over her.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said, turning away from her. “Come on out back. I was just putting lunch on the grill. You can share it with me.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose.” But she did, she really did want to impose.
“Get your butt back here.” His voice held a thread of command that had her following him slowly.
He stopped at the fridge in the kitchen, reached in, and pulled out a thick, raw steak before adding it to the platter on the table. There were vegetable kabobs, steaks, and shrimp kabobs.
“Are you expecting company?” There was a lot of food there.
“Nope. Just me.” The ever-present T-shirt shifted over the hard muscles of his chest, shoulders, and biceps. The action made her mouth water, made her sex swell and come into agonizing contact with the little curved bell that pierced the hood of her clit. “Grab yourself a beer and come on out. I have to get the grill heated up before I can put on this stuff.” He paused as he covered the platter and set it back in the fridge. “Or, the whisky is in the cabinet.” He grinned. “Whichever you prefer.”
She chose the beer, though she would have preferred the whisky, and followed him out to the deck.
The wide wooden deck matched her own. One half was covered, the other open. Cooper moved to the large grill in the uncovered corner and set the flame to it before lowering the lid and turning back to her.
She held the beer in both hands, watching him. Watched as he picked up his beer from the wooden table beside him and took a long drink, staring at her, his gaze heavy-lidded, thick black lashes framing his hazel and amber eyes.
“Are there rules in a small town?” she asked him then, for a lack of anything better to say. “No one wanted to talk to me until you made them.”
He grimaced at that. “I checked around. The no-touch policy in my bar got kind of mixed up.” He shrugged. “That happens sometimes. People were just a little wary, uncertain of what was going on. In little towns like this, everyone tends to watch newcomers suspiciously for a while, anyway. The twist in the order in the bar making its way around town just snowballed. I’m sorry about that.”
“You must have a lot of power in town then.” She frowned. She hadn’t realized a small town had a power base. Rather like society. It didn’t matter how much others liked you; if a prominent figure didn’t, you could be ostracized immediately.
Cooper grimaced again. “I don’t have a lot of power, Sair. I told you, others know what you don’t about me. I’m not a nice guy.”
“Maggie liked you. And children are incredibly astute. Little Kyle reached up for you several times. And the store owner seemed to like you.”
