Single Dad Cowboy

The horse wasn’t coming out of the trailer. Dylan backed up and whistled. The poor animal stood his ground, trembling. Harmony stepped a little closer and spoke softly. The horse listened, his ears twitching and his head moving just the slightest bit to look at her.

“I’m not sure exactly why we need a truce,” Dylan said as he stepped up into the trailer and reached for the gelding’s tail. “Come on, Beau, head on out of there.”

“His name is Beau?”

Dylan nodded, stepping back and pulling a little on the scraggly black tail. The gelding backed out of the trailer, his hooves clanking on the floor. When he hit firm ground he turned and trotted across the corral. He might have kept going but he noticed the green grass and immediately lowered his head and started to graze. He would pull at a mouthful of grass, and then look around at his new surroundings, ears twitching.

“He’ll settle in.” Dylan closed the back of the trailer and then the gate. “You understand you can’t ride him.”

“You understand that I’m very aware of what I can and can’t do.”

“Is that your idea of a truce?” He shook his head and exhaled loudly with obvious impatience. “I don’t mean to tell you what you physically can and can’t do. I’m telling you, that horse can’t be ridden.”

“Why?”

“Why are you so defensive?” he countered.

She watched the horse for a minute. From inside the truck she heard the lilting voice of the little girl, her Texas accent a welcome distraction.

“Well?” He pushed for an answer.

“Because I’m here to get away from people who feel I need to be told at every turn what I can and can’t do. Since I got home from the Tanners’, I’ve had three phone calls. One from your mother, one from my mother and one from my older brother. I’ve been warned three times that I have to be careful with the horse.”

“So what you’re saying is, you’ve had all of the advice you can handle for a lifetime?” He smiled. “I guess we have more in common than you’d like to admit.”

She didn’t want common ground. “So, about this horse...”

“He was a saddle bronc horse that Terry bought from a stock contractor. Terry had ideas that this horse was special.”

They both looked at the dark horse with the white splotch on his rump and little to recommend him other than a pretty-shaped head and nice eyes, even if they were a little wild at the moment.

“Well, whatever the reason he bought Beau, I’m glad he did. Beau might not be all that special, but I think we need each other.”

“It happens that way sometimes.” He glanced at his watch and then there was a cry from his truck. “I have to go.”

“What are their names?” She should have let him leave but she followed him to the truck. There was something about his situation that gave them a bond.

“Callie, she’s four. Cash is almost two.” He looked in the window at the two kids in the backseat.

Harmony stepped close to his side to get a better view. Cash smiled past the thumb in his mouth. Callie gave her a seriously angry look. The little girl still held that kitten from Bill and Doris Tanner’s. Both kids watched them with big blue eyes. They were sweet, perfectly sweet.

And he was raising them. Alone.

“I’m sure your family is a lot of help.” She meant it as a good thing. He gave her a serious look.

“I don’t know, do you consider your family trying to help a good thing?”

She shrugged and her attention refocused on the two kids in the back of his truck. “It can be. And sometimes it’s overwhelming.”

“Yeah, exactly. I know they mean well, but sometimes a person needs to be able to breathe and think about their next step.”

Maybe they had more in common than she’d realized. “That’s why I came to Dawson,” she admitted, “but it seems I can’t escape, because even here there’s a steady stream of people knocking on my door.”

Not that she didn’t appreciate the offers. She really did.

Dylan reached for the door of his truck but paused, his hand dropping to his side. He smiled and she didn’t know what to think. His smile worried her. And it shifted her off balance. All at the same time.

She needed all the balance she could get these days.

“We could throw them off our scent, you know.”

“What does that mean?” She really shouldn’t have asked. She knew Dylan. As a kid she’d gotten in trouble more than once because she’d gone along with his crazy schemes.

“We could team up. If they think we’re in each other’s lives, helping each other out, they might back off.”

It took her a minute to really get the meaning of his plan, then she shook her head. “You must really think I’m desperate if you think I’m going to pretend we’re in a relationship.”

“I don’t think you’re desperate, Princess.” He used the old nickname and winked. “I just think that you’d like a little peace and quiet to get your life together. Like me. I’ve been taking care of Cash and Callie by myself for a year, but now that I’m back in town, people think I don’t know one end of a diaper from the other.”

“I have to admit I wouldn’t think you knew that.”

He laughed easily, something that she envied. “I’m a Cooper, Harmony. I have eleven siblings. Our home has been the stopping point for more foster children than I can count and I have tons of nieces and nephews. Of course I can change a diaper. My mom never believed in separate duties for the males and females in our family. She’s an equal-opportunity chore giver.”

There was a lot to admire about Angie Cooper, a lady who could command a family as large as hers with love and grace. Harmony’s own mother was just as loving, but a family of three children had seemed tiny compared to the Coopers.

“So?” Dylan nudged her arm.

“No. There is no way I’m going to ‘team up’ with you.” There was no way she could handle Dylan in her life. Her heart couldn’t handle it if she let him down. Or those two children. She’d hurt too many people already. The other reason would make more sense to him. “Dylan, I’m working hard to be a recovering addict. And one of the goals for myself is no lying.”

“I’m not asking you to lie. I’m offering an exchange of services. I’ll be here to help you out when you need me. And you help me out from time to time. Everyone is satisfied. And I’ll no longer be pegged as the bachelor in town most in need of a wife.”

“I think the answer is still no.”

He sniffed his shirt. “But why? I don’t smell bad.”

“You’re nothing but trouble, Dylan Cooper.”

“I promise, no one is going to ground us.” He reached for the truck door again. “Think about it. We don’t have to lie. We just have to team up. We’ve already called a truce, right? So if we help each other out, that’s a handy excuse when someone calls to check on us. You can say Dylan has it covered. I can say you’re helping with the kids.”

“And I’m still saying no. I’m here if you need me, but needing space is about needing space.”

He climbed up inside the beat-up old truck cab and started the engine. “I’ll see you around then, Princess.”

She stepped back and watched him drive off. No, she wouldn’t see him around. She was going to hibernate here on the ranch and give herself time to find her life again. She wasn’t in Dawson to get involved in the lives of the people she’d once known. The last thing she needed in her current condition was a distraction.

Dylan Cooper, with his hazel eyes and bad-boy smile was just that, a distraction. His dark, curly hair was a distraction. His swagger, all cowboy with faded jeans, also a distraction.

She walked back to the corral, proud of the way she’d made it through the day. Each day got easier. She used the cane less. She cried less. More and more she believed she might survive. Today she’d managed to smile more. She’d even laughed.