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Chapter Seventeen
Ablack cloud followed Travis Cooper as he left the milk parlor. He didn’t mind helping Rissa in the morning with her milk pulls. He didn’t mind interacting with customers. He didn’t even mind getting up at the first signs of dawn. Heck, he’d been doing that since the age of five, when he’d first started going to work around the farm with Daddy.
Travis Cooper wastired.
He was tired of living with Will, the next oldest Cooper brother, who left his socks all over the house and didn’t seem to have a clue how to put a bowl in the dishwasher.
He was tired of eating with his family every night. He loved his brothers, his parents, and Rissa. He did. He was glad he had the relationships with them that he did. He didn’t want to be like some of the cowboys that worked at Sweet Water Falls—alone in the world, without family or a place to belong.
Travis had that, and he was grateful for it.
“Help me be grateful for things,” he muttered to himself as he stomped toward his truck.
He was simply tired of trying to find a woman that would fit into the madness of his life. He knew he worked a lot; he didn’t need precious Belinda Felton to tell him that.
He knew he’d never leave Sweet Water Falls. She taught at the elementary school in town, for crying out loud. Where did she thinkshewas going?
She wanted to travel the world. He could still see her with her arms open, twirling through the park, as she’d said that. He’d grinned, and he’d wanted to take her on all of those trips.
“You fell too fast,” he told himself as he started the engine and got moving for the day. The sun had barely started to light the sky, and he’d already put an hour in at the parlor, making sure the milking for that morning had gotten off to a good start. Or a start at all, as they were operating their massive dairy operation without the usual assistance of two cowboys who’d quit last week.
Daddy pushed his men hard; Travis knew that. They’d argued about it in the past. If he would just back down one degree, they’d be able to keep people at the farm for longer. Lee didn’t seem to get it either, and Travis didn’t see anything changing.
If it were up to him, he’d pay more and give more time off. His cowboys would stay longer, which would reduce the workload on everyone, cost less over time, and improve performance. Why Daddy and Lee couldn’t see that only made Travis that much angrier.
“No,” he told himself. “Belinda said cross.”
Of course he was cross. She’d been kissing him for a couple of weeks now, but when he’d asked about the festivities on the Fourth, she’ddeclinedto go with him to the fairs, the festivals, or the fireworks.
Declined.It was a fancy word forrejected.
She’drejectedhim, and Travis’s pulse hopped around like a rabbit on hot coals. He hated this feeling, because he didn’t know how to release the nerves. When he was a kid, he’d taken medication to help him focus, but he didn’t like the way the world muted with the pills. He hadn’t taken them for a long time, and he managed just fine.
He’d be just fine without blasted Belinda Felton too.
Travis made a right turn and kept going. He had plenty of work to do in the corrals and pastures, as he worked directly with the veterinarians that came to Cooper & Co. He himself wasn’t a vet, but he’d taken a few classes to become a vet tech, though he hadn’t finished.
As the last son in the family, no one cared if he was educated or not. It was Lee who got to go to college. Lee who needed to stick to Daddy’s side and learn everything. Lee who had to carry all of the burden of running the thirty-thousand-acre dairy farm, with the ten thousand cows, the acres and acres of fields, the outbuildings, the cabins, the deliveries and pick-ups, and all the personnel.
Travis was tired just thinking about it.
He made a left turn and headed up the hill to the highway. If he turned right, he’d head toward Sweet Water Falls, where he did his grocery shopping, church attendance, and the way to the beach he liked best.
Today, he went left, because he didn’t want to see anyone he knew. He didn’t need eggs, and he didn’t need to sit on a bench and beg God to help him find someone who could put up with his insane work schedule, grumpy attitude, and the scent of milk mixed with manure that seemed to hover around him all the time.
“My word,” he said, his tires running smoothly on the asphalt as he picked up speed. “You’re going to die alone.”
He thought about Mama and Daddy, and they’d gotten married young. Daddy had joked for decades about how he’d proposed fast so Mama wouldn’t know what she was really getting into, but Travis actually thought that was a good idea.
He’d keep what he did for a living a secret until after the wedding.
He shook his head, knowing he’d never do that. He seemed to be in a perpetual bad mood, but he wasn’t devious. He drove, because a drive through the Texas countryside did more to soothe his soul than anything. His mind started to quiet, but that only let the desperation and disappointment in, where the anger held those negative emotions at bay.
A sigh flowed from his mouth, and he rounded a corner a bit too fast, so he eased up on the accelerator. It would do no one any good if he drove his truck off the road. Then he’d have to call Will to come get him, and everyone would be behind on the day’s work. If possible, Will had a worse attitude about his schedule than Travis did, and Travis was tired of dealing with his brother too.
He realized how slow he was going at the same time he saw a red SUV off the side of the road ahead. The driver’s door opened, and Travis applied the brakes to slow even further. A woman stepped out of the vehicle, and she turned toward him, seemingly unconcerned about his approach.
In fact, she lifted both arms above her head and waved them. She wore a pair of shiny black leggings that hugged her legs from ankle to waist, as well as a form-fitting jacket in bright yellow. That color only made her dark-as-night hair stand out to Travis, and he determined he was going to stop.
