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“Well, what the hell?” he demanded. “I didn’t know I was going to be roped into playing cupid. Give me a little warning next time. What was that all about anyway?”
She shrugged. “Aww, nothing really. He’s been complaining about wanting a woman lately. I was getting tired of hearing him yap about it, so I thought I’d try shoving those two together.” With a rueful grin, she added, “Hey, who knows. Maybe they’ll hit it off and he’ll see some motorboat action between her boobies tonight, huh?”
As she nudged him with a knowing smirk, someone coughed out a surprised kind of choking sound behind them.
B.J. whirled to see who’d overheard her comment and promptly stumbled into Cooper, her smile dropping flat when she focused on the interloper’s face.
“Grady Rawlings?” Her suddenly pale features filled with shock as she blinked. “What’re you doing here?”
Hearing Jo Ellen’s brother’s name, Cooper lifted his head and focused on Grady who, he noted, also seemed surprised to see Gilmore had a decent rack under all her man-clothes.
Rio approached them and hefted a filled brown paper sack onto the bar. “Hey, Grady. Here’s your order of ribs to go.”
“Amy was craving barbeque.” Flushing, Grady jerked his attention away from B.J.’s tank top and lurched around her to sidle up to the counter and pay for his supper.
Cooper cleared his throat. “Heard she was pregnant,” he offered, wondering how he could shift the conversation to make Grady mention Jo Ellen’s name because he sure as hell refused to ask about her.
“What?” B.J. squawked. “Amy’s pregnant again?”
Grady narrowed his gaze on her with an unreadable inspection that made the tomboy who never backed away from anyone or anything in Cooper’s experience edge closer to him as if seeking safety.
“She is,” Grady confirmed quietly.
B.J. blinked then grinned. “Well, congratulations, slim. Give her my best.”
His face softened. “Will do.” Grabbing his take-out, he tipped his head toward Cooper. “Gerhardt.”
“Yeah. See ya.” Coop managed to lift his hand in farewell.
But as Grady turned away, Coop panicked, tempted to holler after him and demand to know how Jo Ellen was.
Somehow managing to hold his tongue, he watched Grady leave the bar without a word about his sister’s welfare. With a groan, he let his head fall forward to thump against the surface of the bar. God, he was so messed up. Why couldn’t he just get her out of his system already?
“Well, hell.” B.J. bumped his elbow. “Even
Tommy Creek’s golden boy and the ultimate image of purity and perfection, Grady freaking Rawlings, knows what a motorboat is.”
She obviously hadn’t caught golden boy checking out her boobies then, Coop decided, or she’d probably be going off about that too.
“Damn,” she grumbled. “Now I really feel like an ignorant, dumbass schoolgirl. Why didn’t you tell me what a motorboat was years ago, Coop?” When he didn’t answer, she slapped his shoulder. “Hey. I’m talking to you.”
“Humph?”
“That’s it,” she said, grasping his bicep hard and hauling him upright. “You’re too drunk to stick around here. Looks like it’s time I give you a lift home.”
He shook his head. “No. Don’t wanna go home. Might worry Mama if I come stumbling in like this.”
With a sigh, she nudged him off the barstool anyway. “Then, I guess you can crash on my couch. It’s not like I’ve never had a plastered brother roll in during the middle of the night to sleep off a drunken stupor before.”
“Rudy?” Coop guessed. He didn’t think anyone in Tommy Creek drank the way B.J.’s youngest brother did.
B.J. shrugged her plaid shirt back on. “Who else?”
“Hey, you don’t have to cover those up,” he complained, frowning when she went as far as to button the shirt together.
“Too bad. Show’s over, bud. Let’s get you settled in for the night.”
He grumbled but tripped after her. “Honestly, Gilmore. You should go around like that more often.” He squinted his eyes as he tried to focus on her back, but the view kept blurring. “I bet if you tucked your shirts in every once in a while, we’d be able to see if you had a nice ass too.”
