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Emma sniffed. “Do you honestly think my parents are going to let him out of their sight for a minute while we’re visiting? He’s their first and only grandbaby. As soon as we showed up, they kidnapped him and have been spoiling him rotten ever since. We’ve hardly gotten to see him.”
Their only grandkid, huh? Jo Ellen must not have a gaggle of babies then. Instantly, he winced, guilty for the relief he experienced.
“…Thank goodness we decided to come down for the whole week,” Emma Leigh rambled on. “The new grandparents probably would’ve hog-tied us and trapped us in the basement if we’d tried to make this a single-day trip. I coaxed Joey into coming down from Dallas for the entire week, too; she’s only seen Brand once since he was born.”
“Dallas?” Coop repeated, his attention whooshing into focus. “She’s living in Dallas?”
“Yep. And Caine’s in Fort Worth if you can believe that. He’s a big time photographer these days. And barely twenty-four, to boot.”
“Wow.” Cooper made the right sounds, even though his mind returned to Dallas.
She was in Dallas.
It made sense. She’d always been so polished and chic as if she had belonged in a big city from birth.
“You should really check out his website. Even for my annoying little brother, the damn boy has talent.”
Cooper nodded politely. But Dallas? How long has she been in Dallas?
“So you said you’d moved back home, huh,” Emma said, changing the subject abruptly. Scrambling to catch up with the switch in conversation, Cooper gave her plenty of time to add, “When’d you do that? And when’d you move out in the first place?”
“Uh…I bought a place straight out of college and started my own agricultural business, spraying, and fertilizing, and such. But…” He let out a soul-weighing sigh as he added the miserable part; “I sold my house and moved back to the farm about a year before we had to put Dad in a nursing home.”
“Oh my God.” Emma’s mouth dropped open as she set her hand on Cooper’s arm. “You had to put Thad in a home? He must hate that.”
Coop stared at her hand, trying to calm the panic and misery eating at him whenever he thought of his father. “When he remembers who he is, yeah, he’s raring to get out of there. But…” The words died in his throat as his voice failed him.
Jesus, he hated it when he had to explain what had become of his dad.
“Remembers who he is?” Emma repeated, shaking her head. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with him?”
Cooper swallowed down the lump in his throat. “He has Dementia.”
Pressing her hand to her mouth, Em gasped and studied Coop with enough pity to just about unravel him.
His dad had always been larger than life in his eyes. Steady, dependable, hard-working. Now, he was a shell of a man. It rattled Cooper every time he visited the nursing home.
Before he could stop himself, he spilled out the whole story. When he and his mother recognized what was happening, Coop had moved home to help with the daily chores. But as his father declined, Coop’s responsibilities doubled. Finally, he dropped his spraying business and took over his father’s job full time. Thad might’ve forgotten most everything, but he hadn’t forgotten he was a farmer. Every day, he’d tried to climb onto a tractor and start it.
For a couple months, they’d hidden all the keys from him. Then he’d fallen off when trying to climb onto one and bruised his hip so bad it was a miracle he hadn’t broken it. That’s when Loren and Coop decided he needed to go to a nursing home, where he couldn’t wander off and hurt himself.
Thad’s mind had only decayed from there. Most days, Thad didn’t recognize Cooper’s face. To top everything, Cooper had found that damn, incriminating letter a month ago when he’d been helping his mother clear out all of Thad’s old clothes. He hadn’t been able to look her in the eye since, too confused and strangely upset. His entire foundation where his parents were concerned felt rocked and no longer stable. It was almost as if he didn’t even know who he was himself any longer.
“Poor Loren,” Em cooed, making him grit his teeth to keep from blurting out his new awkwardness with his mother. “She must be miserable; used to having Thad around all the time.”
Coop managed a tight nod. “Stacia keeps trying to get her to move in with her and her boys, but…”
“Is Stacia your wife,” Branson butted in, sounding hopeful.
Coop managed to hide a grin as he shook his head. “No. My sister. She lives about five hours away and has three kids. All boys. But Mom says she refuses to leave Dad here by himself.”
It took all he had not to sound sarcastic. But his whole life, he’d adored his mother and everyone knew that. To suddenly show any kind of disapproval toward her in public would only produce a bunch of questions he really didn’t want to answer. So, if his mother wanted to pretend she really missed his father, he’d go along with that story. Sure.
He didn’t know what to do about either of his parents. The helpless frustration he’d felt since moving Thad to the nursing home to this new knowledge he’d gained about Loren made it hard for him to breathe, burning his windpipe.
As if realizing he needed some kind of diversion before he disgraced himself and broke down, the door quivered open, stirring warm outdoor air into the bar. Cooper had no idea what possessed him to look; it was as if he sensed her or something. Drawn like a magnet, he lifted his gaze and froze, unable to even breathe as Jo Ellen Rawlings appeared between the scarred old doors and swept inside.
Suddenly very alert, he continued to hold motionless while every nerve ending in his body twitched like a live wire, ready to electrocute the first thing he touched.
