Will nodded again and said, “Thanks, Trav.” He let his brother hang up, and he made the rest of the drive to Gretchen’s as fast as he could.

  His heart sank when he came around the corner and her van already sat in the driveway. “Doesn’t matter,” he told himself, though he definitely could’ve stopped for flowers. And pizza. He suddenly couldn’t show up without food, and yet, he turned into her driveway and parked behind her.

  He picked up the bag and took the ring box out of it. “It’s just me and you,” he said, hoping the pair of them together would be enough. He flipped open the box and gazed at the ring he’d chosen. It said Gretchen to him the moment he’d seen it, and he smiled softly at the bright gold band which flourished up to hold the diamond.

  It was actually shaped like a diamond, and two more tiny gems sat along each of the four sides. They were pink diamonds, and for some reason, Will thought of Gretchen when he looked at the ring.

  Somehow, his booted feet took him up to her porch. He swept his cowboy hat off his head one more time and knocked. Elvis meowed behind the closed door, and Gretchen’s female voice shushed him.

  A couple of moments later, she cracked the door.

  “Just me,” he said, holding his hat against his chest with one hand, the ring box concealed behind it.

  A smile bloomed on her face. “Hey.” She opened the door even further. “I wasn’t expecting you until later.” She licked the corner of her mouth. “I was just having a snack.”

  He grinned at her. “One of Jon’s haystacks?”

  She giggled and backed up so he could come in. “How did you know?”

  “I can smell the chocolate on your breath,” he said, entering the house and closing the door so Elvis couldn’t make one of his feline escapes. Gretchen retreated into the kitchen and plucked another haystack from the box on the counter.

  Faced with her, Will wasn’t nervous at all. He lowered his cowboy hat and dropped it on her loveseat as he passed. He couldn’t look away from her. “Gretchen,” he said, and she looked at him, half a haystack in her hand, the other half in her mouth.

  He held up the ring box, and she froze.

  He grinned at her. “That day at the drug store last year changed my life. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. I love you.” He opened the box with strong, sure fingers and turned it toward her. “Will you marry me?”

  Her eyes widened as she looked at the ring. She shook her head, which made Will’s chest cave in.

  “No way,” she said. “You’re not down on one knee.”

  “Are you kidding right now?”

  She hastily set down her uneaten haystack and dusted her hands. “I’m wearing the ugliest shirt I own.”

  “So what?” Will couldn’t believe this. Travis had said none of this would matter.

  Then that teasing glint came into Gretchen’s eyes. She flung herself into his arms, and he dang near dropped the diamond that had carved a hole in his bank account. “I’m kidding, Will Cooper. I love you, and of course I want to marry you.”

  She kissed him while relief ran through him, and it took Will a couple of seconds to catch up to the situation. “Not funny,” he murmured in the moment he pulled away. Then he kissed her again—a real kiss this time, with both of them aware of what was happening.

  When he finally had the decency to pull away, Gretchen grinned at him with glassy eyes. “This is how we are, Will. Things are little hectic. Cats run away. Caramel gets burned. You seem to have it all over you at the most inopportune times.” She held out her left hand. “We’re awkward, and I love that about us.”

  “Mm.” He slid the ring on her finger, and they both gazed at it for several long seconds. He looked up at her again and found love streaming from her. “What are you thinking?” he asked. “Like August? Or are we waiting until December?”

  She put her arms around his shoulders and clasped her hands at the back of his neck. “Oh, we can’t wait until December.”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” he said, already sliding his mouth along her jawline.

  “I don’t need very long,” she said. “I’ll look into a venue, and then get a dress. It won’t be hard.”

  “So…maybe next month?” Will asked, pulling back and grinning at her.

  Gretchen giggled and said, “Listen,” in her stern-Will-Cooper voice. “We’re not getting married in the same month as Trav and Shay. They deserve their own spotlight.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Will said.

  “But maybe June or July…” She tilted her head to the side. “I’ll check the calendar and talk to my brothers.”

  Just as he’d known she would. “I’ll talk to Mama,” he said. “Do you want a venue? We can get married here. At the farm. At your dad’s place. His backyard is beautiful.”

  Gretchen’s face lit up on the last one, and Will knew they’d be getting married in Short Tail. “Could we get married at Daddy’s?”

  “Of course,” Will said, leaning down to kiss her again. “Whatever you want.”

  “I love you, Will Cooper,” Gretchen whispered.

  “Love you too,” Will said just before kissing his fiancée.

  Keep reading for the next book in the Sweet Water Falls Farm series, SURLY COWBOY, which features the last Cooper brother, Lee!

  Surly Cowboy

  Book 3

  1

  Lee Cooper pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it in the general direction of his bed. It landed short and fell to the floor, but he didn’t bother going to retrieve it. As frenzied as his mind was, the one thought he landed on was No wonder Ford is a slob. It’s genetic.

  He ripped open the closet doors, everything inside blurring for some reason. Probably because he hadn’t taken a proper breath in the past minute. Maybe two. Fine, ten.

  Lee closed his eyes and slowed down. He dropped his hands to his sides and took a long breath in through his nose. He watched a morning affirmation channel online every day, and the woman who led the group did breathing exercises like this.

  In through the nose, he heard in her voice. Hold it. Longer. Really take a moment and slow down your mind. Your heart. Release those muscles. Okay, out with me.

  Five, four, three, two one, zero.

  Lee opened his eyes when he got to zero, and the shirts took on individual form in the closet. “Okay,” he said. “You’re fine. Ford is fine. His teacher just wants to talk to both you and Martha on a weekday evening. It’s not a big deal.”

  He’d gotten off the phone with his ex-wife ten minutes ago, and he’d hurried to finish an email that had to go out today. Then he’d dashed home, and he wasn’t any worse off by taking twenty seconds to center himself again.

  With a bright red shirt covering his upper half and a peanut butter sandwich in one hand, Lee dashed back out the front door of his cabin and down the steps to his truck. The old girl had started to show her age, with rust wearing through around the wheels and the engine chugging to life like it would rather not.

  Lee knew how she felt, and he patted the dashboard. “I’ll let you retire soon, okay? But Ford needs us tonight.”

  He had no intentions of buying another truck, though he had plenty of money to do so. Lee rather liked this one, and he saw no reason to spend money on something when he already had one that worked.

  The drive to Sweet Water Falls passed in a flash, and Lee had no idea where his mind had wandered. He blinked, and the dark-haired image of Rosalie Reynolds flashed in his mind. Ah, so he’d gone down that path again.

  He hadn’t been brave enough to drop by the woman’s office, even when she was expecting him to. He’d sent Will instead. Begged was a better word. The proper word. Familiar loathing and disgust built within Lee, and it was all directed at himself.

  His heart pounded right now, though Rosalie wasn’t anywhere near him physically. He wasn’t sure why she affected him so thoroughly, only that she did. They’d only met the one time. He’d only spoken to her twice, once in person and once on the phone. He’d looked at her picture plenty of times on her website, and he was taking that knowledge with him to the grave.

  He didn’t need to add “stalker” to the list of names he’d been called over the years. Grumpy, sure, he could own that. Short-tempered, yes. What Cooper man wasn’t? He could hardly be blamed for that one. It was genetically inbred in him to get angry or frustrated at the drop of a bale of hay or the first sign of oil leaking from a tractor.

  Meticulous, he actually counted as a compliment. Anal-retentive was a bit of a stretch, but Lee didn’t even mind that one. He worked with a lot of papers that held a lot of numbers, and someone had to be detail-oriented and obsessive about checking them to make sure things got done correctly.

  Money in, money out—Lee took care of that.

  Paychecks due, new orders received—Lee took care of that.

  New clients and their contracts, established accounts and their renewals—Lee took care of that.

  Lee ran Cooper & Co almost single-handedly these days, and most of the time, he let an inch of pride into his heart at how proud Daddy was of him. At how much Daddy trusted him to take over the generational operation that had been supplying milk to the people in Southern Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas for over a century.

  He pulled into a spot at the elementary school, spying Martha’s car a few spaces over. She and Ford weren’t in it, which meant Lee was late. His ex-wife would give him the stink-eye for that, but he’d come as soon as he’d been notified of tonight’s meeting.

  As he jogged toward the entrance of the building, he tucked in his shirt and he dang near pulled off the door as he opened it.

  “Dad,” Ford said, jumping to his feet from a cement bench across from the entrance.

  Lee’s whole face lit up, and he couldn’t be mad at his son no matter what. He opened his arms to him, glad when Ford flew into his embrace. He always wanted Ford to be able to come to him for help, for the good, the bad, the anything.

  “Hey, buddy,” he said. “What am I doin’ here tonight, huh?”

  “Your son got in a fight,” Martha said, and Lee looked over Ford’s head to meet her eye. She didn’t look too terribly upset, and Lee kept hold of Ford in one arm as he leaned forward to touch his lips to Martha’s cheek.

  He settled awkwardly back on his feet, even putting another few inches between them. “I got here as fast as I could.”

  “We’ve got five minutes still,” she said, nodding down the hall. The three of them started that way at a much slower pace than Lee had used coming inside. He’d loved Martha once-upon-a-time, and sometimes when he looked at her, he only saw the good things they’d experienced together.

  It didn’t take long for him to remember the things that had driven them apart, and he certainly wasn’t interested in getting back together with her. Lee simply took a long time to forgive—himself and others—and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get over infidelity.

  Something about it just cut him right to the core, and even now, he worked against the feelings of betrayal and mistrust of all women.

  Ford’s teacher—a Miss Bair who was easily a decade younger than Lee—stepped into the hall. She smiled at Ford and then Lee and Martha. Lee didn’t want to be in her shoes, and he gave her a smile back so she’d know they were going to agree with her.

  Lee was, anyway.

  “Evenin’,” he said when no one else spoke. “I hope you weren’t waiting long for me. I live pretty far out.”

  “Not at all,” Miss Bair said. “Come on in.”

  Martha went first, then Ford, and Lee held the door for the teacher and entered last. She’d set up some chairs around her desk, and he sat in the last one.

  “Did Ford tell you what happened today?”

  “I heard most of it,” Martha said. “Lee hasn’t gotten much information. I didn’t find the note or hear the message you left until about forty minutes ago.”

  “Ford?” Miss Bair prompted.

  The boy squirmed in his seat, and Lee put his arm around his son. “Hey,” he said real quietly. “Remember the roof? And the stars?”

  Ford looked up at him, his innocent eyes so wide and so beautiful. He nodded, and Lee smiled at him. “Go on then.” He ignored Martha’s questioning gaze and glanced at Miss Bair.

  She smiled at him, but Lee felt no spark of attraction to her. She had dark hair too—his preferred type—and nothing. Absolutely nothing like what he felt when he looked at Rosalie.

  He had to call her again. Stop by her office. Something.

  Travis’s wedding was in ten days. Could he ask Rosalie to go with him? Maybe he could offer to pay her, or pay for her dress, or something.

  Nope, he told himself. You’re not paying a woman to go out with you. Either she’d say yes or she wouldn’t.

  But not if you don’t ask.

  “…so I told Simon to leave her alone,” Ford said.

  “Wait,” Lee said, coming back to the conversation at hand. He really couldn’t let his mind wander in situations like this. “Simon Alvarez?”

  “Yes.”

  Lee glared at Ford and then Miss Bair. “I thought Simon and Ford weren’t going to be allowed to be together.”

  “It was lunch recess, Dad.”

  “I don’t care,” Lee barked. “You’re not supposed to be near him.”

  “He was teasing Lily,” Ford said, his eyes welling with tears. “He had her up against the kindergarten fence, and I helped her.”

  Lee opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked at Martha, and she stroked Ford’s hair off his forehead. “But you hit someone, baby. That’s not how you solve problems.”

  “Your mother’s right,” Lee said, swallowing afterward.

  “But it got Simon to leave Lily alone,” Ford said, looking from him to Martha and back. “And then I was able to help Lily to the office. She was having a panic attack.”

  “Whoa,” Lee said. “What?” He looked at Miss Bair, who wore a look of sympathy on her face. “Is she okay?”

  “She’s asthmatic,” Miss Bair said, giving Ford a maternal smile too. She wasn’t mad at him, Lee realized, though she certainly couldn’t condone him hitting another student. “Once the nurse got her inhaler, she calmed right down.”

  Lee nodded, suddenly so tense. “So now what?”

  Miss Bair leaned forward and put her fingertips on Ford’s knee. “What did we decide, Ford?”

  “That I won’t hit people,” he muttered. “Whether it’s to help someone or not.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “Instead?”

  “Instead, I try to get Lily away from Simon, or I start yelling for help from the sixth grade aides or the recess monitors.” He hung his head, as if this option was the worst thing imaginable.

  “Simon won’t have lunch recess for three school days,” Miss Bair said, pulling her hand back. “Unfortunately, I have to do the same to Ford.”

  “No suspension?” Martha asked.

  Miss Bair shook her head. “I can’t do that,” she said, and while she couldn’t say more, Lee heard it all. She actually agreed with Ford, and she’d do what she could to protect him. She looked from Martha to Lee. “Any questions?”

  “No, ma’am,” Ford and Lee said together, and they looked at one another and laughed.

  “I think that covers it,” Martha said, and the three of them stood. Lee took his son’s hand in his as they left the classroom, but he waited until he was all the way outside before he crouched down in front of his eight-year-old.

  “I don’t think you should hit people, bud,” he said. “But I’m so, so proud of you for standing up for Lily.” He grinned at Ford and nodded once. “Okay?”

  Ford nodded and reached out to touch Lee’s cowboy hat. “I don’t want to tattle to the recess monitors.”

  “Just stay away from Simon.”

  “But what if he’s hurting someone?”

  “Ford,” Martha said, kneeling down in front of him too. “You’ll get suspended next time, I promise. You can’t hit other children.”

  He nodded again, his chin so low.

  “Hey,” Lee said. “Chin up, son. Look at me.”

  Ford did, and he seemed so lost and looking for Lee to guide him. “Do you want the other kids to think of you as a bully?”

  “No.”

  “You can’t hit other kids, not even if you’re standing up for someone.” He smiled and tapped Ford’s nose. “Plus, if you get suspended, I’ll work you like a dog on the farm. Is that what you want?”

  Ford grinned too. “Can Queenie come with me?”

  Lee laughed, realizing that his “punishment” for his son getting suspended wasn’t a punishment at all. He exchanged a glance with Martha.

  “Come on, Ford,” she said. “Give your daddy a hug. We have to get going.”

  Ford wrapped his skinny arms around Lee, and he held his son just as tightly. He whispered, “I love you, son. You be good for your momma, and you obey your teacher.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ford said.

  Lee stood and watched Ford link his hand in Martha’s. She met Lee’s eyes, and so much was said between them. Then they went to their car, and Lee went to his truck.

  He drove back to the farm alone. He made dinner for himself, and he ate it alone. He hated being alone, and he wanted to do everything in his power to change his single status.

  He got out his phone and let his thumb hover over the icon for the dating app he’d once used. He couldn’t tap on it; he just couldn’t.

  He only wanted to go out with one woman, and she was Rosalie Reynolds.

  Therefore, the following afternoon, Lee went through a similar routine as the previous night.

  He changed his shirt. He washed his hands. He loaded himself into his truck. He drove to town.

  Everything blurred around him, because when Lee focused on something, it was all he could see. All he could think about. All he could taste. And right now, that was a certain curly-haired brunette with gorgeous eyes. She’d rendered him mute once, and he was determined not to let that happen today.