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“Oh, hi.” Jess put down the glazed bakery donut she’d grabbed after arriving home and changing into her comfy sweats. Something about his voice made her heart race, but she was a sensible woman, she told herself. The reaction meant nothing.
“Sorry to bother you at home,” he said. “I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time. But you invited me to call you if I had a concern, and I actually do.”
“Not at all.” She remembered what she’d seen earlier at school. “In fact, I would have called, myself, if there’d been a way to reach you.” She paused. “Since you brought up a concern, you go first.”
“All right. I don’t know where you grew up, but do you know what a snipe hunt is?”
She chuckled at the long-forgotten memory. “Heavens, yes! Doesn’t everybody?”
“Not quite, I’m afraid. Trevor came home all excited because these two ninth-grade boys had invited him to go snipe hunting. I set him straight, but I could tell he was hurt that they’d tried to play a trick on him. The reason I’m calling is to find out more about those boys.”
“Skip McCoy and Cody LeFevre, right? I saw him in the hall with them today.”
“I take it they’re bad news.”
“Not the best, I’m afraid. They’ve been written up at school for bullying and truancy and hauled in by the sheriff for underage drinking. Trevor needs to make some different friends.”
“That’s easier said than done. At least he knows that the boys were planning to prank him. But that doesn’t mean he’s learned his lesson, or that they’ll leave him alone.” She heard him take a breath. “Do you have time to talk? We could get coffee or something.”
Jess’s pulse skipped. He wasn’t really asking for a date. Or was he? And how should she handle it?
“For coffee there’s only Buckaroo’s, and it’s noisy at this hour,” she said. “You could come here, but my housemate will be making dinner for her boyfriend. I know you don’t want to wait, but—”
“Hear me out—I’ve got another suggestion,” he said. “There’s a property for sale south of town. I’ve been wanting to drive by and check it out. You could come with me for the ride. That would give us a chance to talk on the way. It’s not far, and the drive won’t take long, but if we go, it’ll need to be soon while it’s still light. Would that work for you?”
Jess hesitated. She could always say no. But she cared about Trevor and the father who was worried enough to ask for her help.
Was this a ploy to ask her out? She dismissed the thought. He sounded too concerned for that. Turning him down because she was on her own time would be insensitive, even cruel.
“That would be fine,” she said and gave him directions. “I hope you don’t mind seeing me in sweats and sneakers.”
“I wouldn’t mind a bit.”Sweats, sneakers, or less, maybe a lot less.Cooper banished the inappropriate thought from his mind. They were meeting to discuss his son, nothing more.
He drove to the address she’d given him, a small frame home with a dead cottonwood tree in the front yard. When he rang the bell, the door opened to reveal a petite blond woman with a face that reminded him of a blooming pink rose. Delicious aromas wafted from the kitchen behind her.
“Hi,” she said, greeting him with a grin. “I’m Wynette. And I know you’re Cooper. Come on in and have a seat. Jess will be out in a jiffy.”
“So you’re the bride-to-be,” Cooper said. “Whatever you’re cooking in there tells me your groom will be a lucky man.”
“He’d be a lucky man even if I couldn’t boil water.” She gave him a saucy grin. “Jess is a good cook, too, when she has time—just in case you’re wondering.” With a wink, she turned away and vanished into the kitchen.
Seconds later Jess emerged from the hallway. Black sweats, with a denim jacket, her long, dark hair caught back with a scrunchie. She looked fresh, relaxed, and damned sexy. But again the sense of déjà vu slammed him. He’d seen that haunting face somewhere before—unless she had a twin.
But that wasn’t why he’d called her.
“How’s your son?” she asked as he opened the door of the SUV and lent a hand to help her climb onto the high passenger seat.
“All right for now. He’ll be at Grace and Sam’s watching a basketball game for a while. They’ve been good to him. And little Maggie is determined to be his friend, even though he thinks she’s a pest.”
“Maggie’s a jewel. And she’s not one to give up. She’ll win him over.”
She settled back and fastened her seat belt as Cooper pulled the vehicle away from the curb. “These boys I told you about,” he said. “I gather you know them pretty well.”
“I’m afraid so. Neither of them has a good home life—Skip especially. His father has been arrested countless times for beating up his wife. Every time it happens, Ruth comes in the next day and refuses to press charges. He’s broken her nose, blackened her eye, dislocated her shoulder, and the bruises . . .” She shook her head. “Skip’s her son by her first husband, who died. He has two little sisters. You can imagine what seeing that kind of brutality could do to a young boy.”
“And the other one, Cody?”
“It’s just him and his mother. The father’s long gone. They live up in that trailer park on the last street in town. She takes in boyfriends. They stay for a while and then there’s a new one. Again, you can understand why the boy gets in trouble.”
