Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) (11 page)

For
long seconds, Cooper just stared at her. Long enough that Tessa’s stomach
started to churn. Just when she pulled her hand back, Cooper’s deep, rumbling
laugh echoed through the entire restaurant and Tessa responded with a laugh of
her own.

“I’m
just glad this isn’t really a date,” Cooper said when he settled.

“Why’s
that?”

“Because
you still owe me one date,” he replied smoothly.

Well,
damn. Now he got her on a technicality.

Sneaky
bastard.

By
the time Tuesday evening rolled around, Cooper was giddier than a teenage boy
on prom night hoping to get laid for the first time. And despite his body’s
desperate ache, he found he longed to spend some uninterrupted time with Tessa.
Maybe a chance to talk like they had at breakfast, although he would certainly
ensure he didn’t pick the wrong topics this time.

Suffice
it to say, he was more interested in talking as opposed to just the possibility
of sex. He wanted to say that as far as the sex was concerned, he could take it
or leave it. However, if it were actually a multiple choice question, he would
absolutely pick sex. No questions asked.

Either
way, he just wanted to see Tessa again.

He
hadn’t bothered to tell her anything about where they were going, so when she
called him at three o’clock to ask about what she should wear, his anxiety
level had ratcheted up at least one hundred notches. Luckily, he managed to
keep a firm grip on his man card by not running straight to her house, and he’d
gone over to his new house –
new to him
, which was certainly the only
thing new about it – to take care of a few things.

With
electricity and water on, he had opted to head back to the motel and pack up
his things, followed by a trip to the big box department store just outside of
town. He wouldn’t have any furniture until the movers delivered his things on
Thursday, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to rough it for a night or two.

Now
that he was pulling up to Tessa’s house, the rest of his concerns and
priorities flew right out the window. The only thing he could focus on was
seeing her.

He
was greeted in her front yard by her two dogs. The ones he’d seen the last time
he was there, but neither of them seemed any more worried that he was walking
up to the house this time than they had last time, so he took that as a good
sign. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to butter them up a little, he squatted down on
his haunches and gave them each a rub when they sauntered his way.

The
front door was only a few steps away, but for him, it seemed like a mile. In
all honesty, aside from their impromptu breakfast at IHOP last Friday, Cooper
hadn’t been on a real date in longer than he could remember. He’d had his fair
share of women over the years, but much to his dismay, he never had to work for
it. They were generally waiting for him, some of them even managing to sneak on
his tour bus a time or two. And weren’t those just fun times waiting to happen.
No challenge whatsoever.

But
with Tessa, he didn’t have to worry. The woman was undoubtedly a challenge, and
he loved that about her.

As
he watched the stunning woman through the screen door as she made her way
toward him, all of the women from his past faded away, and he felt like a damn
virgin standing naked – even though he was fully dressed – in front of a woman
for the first time. Then she smiled at him, and he thought he was going to have
to sit down.

“Hey,”
he greeted, realizing he didn’t sound all that sure of himself, but shit, he
could barely form coherent thoughts, much less words.

The
cowgirl was standing not three feet in front of him in a white cotton sundress,
her sexy, tan legs beneath the hem that rested just above her knees. Her pink
toenails peeked out from her sandals, and all of a sudden, his entire body went
hard. Lord have mercy, he wanted to know what she had on under that damn dress.

“You
ready?”

Tessa
nodded, but her smile didn’t fade, so Cooper accepted that she was still
speechless after their phone call earlier. Not only had he told her what she
should wear, he also told her what he'd
like
for her to be wearing –
which had consisted of absolutely nothing. Needless to say, the conversation
after that was laced with enough sexual innuendos that he worried he wouldn’t
be able to sit down for a couple of hours.

He
pulled open the screen door and waited while she locked up the house and then
he followed her with his hand pressed firmly on her lower back. When they
reached his truck, Cooper opened her door and then waited while she climbed
inside, shutting the door behind her. He took his time walking around the
truck, trying not to seem too excited, but if the smile on his face was
anything to go by, then Tessa clearly knew he was anxious for this night.

“Where’re
we going?” she asked as they were backing out of her driveway a minute later.

“Well,
if I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?”

“You
didn’t say anything about surprises,” she retorted as she leaned casually
against the door, the weight of her gaze heavy on him as he drove.

“I
meant to.”

Her
throaty chuckle lit him up from the inside, and Cooper suddenly wondered
whether what he had in mind was actually a smart idea or not. Taking her to a public
restaurant probably made more sense than taking her to a secluded place where
he didn’t have to worry about anything other than enjoying her company.

♥
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

“What’s
that smell?” Tessa asked, turning toward the backseat where the delicious aroma
seemed to be coming from. “Is that food?”

“I
sure hope so because I’m starved,” he said, not taking his eyes off the road.

“So
you aren’t taking me to dinner?”

“I
thought I’d bring dinner to you,” he answered easily.

Tessa
turned back around, peering out the window to see where they were going. She
knew the town like the back of her own hand considering she’d lived there her
entire life. It was clear based on the landmarks that they were headed south
toward the Deluth farm, better known as Cooper’s new house.

Tessa
wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about that. She was having a hard time
convincing herself that she should be upset that Cooper had upended her dreams
so easily. In fact, she feared she was actually starting to like the guy more
than she should.

For
the better part of the afternoon, she had ridiculed herself for her reaction to
him the other night when they were at the bar. Had he not shown the type of
restraint that she obviously didn’t even possess, she would’ve had sex right
there in the middle of her bar with Cooper Krenshaw and this date would
probably not even be happening.

And
then she had risked sending him running in the opposite direction by opening up
to him when he had asked about her mother. That hadn’t been her smartest move.
Tessa, as a rule, did not open up to people, so she didn’t know what had
happened between them that night. Thankfully, she had her thoughts back under
control, locked up safe and sound, which meant she didn’t have to worry about
tonight.

So
this morning, once she had finally talked herself back off the ledge and
decided she wasn’t going to cancel on him, she had primped in front of the
mirror more times than she was willing to admit. To find out that he wasn’t
even taking her out, she was a tad bit disappointed, but oddly relieved at the
same time.

Was
he expecting her to sleep with him?
Was
she going to sleep with him? If
the other night was any indicator, it was highly likely that she would take him
right there in the bed of his truck if he just kissed her once. Except now in
the bright light of the day, that option didn’t seem so simple anymore.

For
the last several hours, she had thought of nothing else except this man, and
she’d come to a conclusion. She was far more attracted to Cooper than for just
his incredible body or his country charm. Or his deep, soothing voice.

There
was something else about him that appealed to her on many levels, the least of
them being sex. Although, she wouldn’t deny that they could probably create one
hell of a science project just by the chemical reaction the two of them created
when they were together.

For
the last two weeks, he’d been the perfect gentleman and she’d been a hot,
ogling mess. Ever since the first night he walked into her bar, put his arms
around her in order to keep her on her feet, Tessa had to admit that she was
seriously intrigued by the man – despite her many reasons not to be.

At
first, there was no doubt that it had all been based on physical attraction.
However, that appeared to be morphing into something deeper. Sure, she would’ve
preferred to keep her interest on a more superficial level, but Tessa knew
ultimately, she wasn’t built that way. And the more she learned about him
through their various conversations during slow times, the more she found herself
liking him. In the same sense, he was somehow getting her to open up to him
about things she didn’t talk to anyone about. And yet he wasn’t running away.

Cooper
turned the truck down the dirt driveway that led to the farmhouse sitting
several acres off the road, and that’s when the butterflies erupted in her
stomach. Tessa wasn’t sure what she was so nervous about, but whatever it was,
the closer they got to his house, the worse it got.

“Now,
don’t go panickin’ on me, darlin’.” Cooper’s voice was gentle, and Tessa
wondered whether he could feel her apprehension in the congested confines of
the truck cab.

“What
are you talking about?” she asked, trying to appear unaffected. She wasn’t sure
she succeeded, but thankfully Cooper opted not to challenge her. Figuring she
should keep the conversation going so that she had less time to think about
what it actually meant to be alone with him, she asked, “When do you plan to
move into the house?”

“Already
done.”

Tessa
snapped her head in his direction, trying to determine whether he was serious
or not. “You just closed on the house yesterday. How’d you manage that?”

“Technically,
I don’t have anything in the house. I just brought the things I had with me.
The movers will be here on Thursday with the rest of my stuff.”

“You
know, I never did ask, but where’d you live before this?” Tessa realized there
were a lot of things she didn’t know about this man.

“About
twenty minutes outside of Nashville.” When Cooper didn’t elaborate, Tessa
realized they’d parked in front of his house. She stopped asking questions so
she could help get the items from the backseat.

They
didn’t say anything more until they were walking up onto the front porch, each
of them carrying a large plastic sack filled with small containers of food.

“If
your furniture isn’t here, where do you plan on eating?”

“I
was thinking on the porch if you don’t mind. If I had my way, it’s where I’d have
supper every night. Come on, I want to show you the view from the back.”

Tessa
slowed, staring at Cooper’s back as he continued to lead her toward the rear of
the house. She admired how his muscles flexed and bunched as he moved while she
was still processing what he’d said. Was she being overly sensitive or was it
just too coincidental how much they had in common?

Shrugging
off the thought, she followed Cooper around the wood planked wraparound porch,
noticing the areas that were in desperate need of patching. Much of the wood
was rotting and some of the planks were broken in half. Her heart ached at the
memory of her time spent there with Mr. Deluth. Over the last year, she’d spent
more and more time with him, trying to convince him to let her help fix the
worst of what was broken, but he always seemed more content just to spend their
time talking.

“Watch
your step. I think this’ll be my first project, trying to get this thing back
to its original glory.”

Tessa
wasn’t sure this old farmhouse was ever really glorious, but she certainly
understood its appeal. She had always loved old country farmhouses and actually
had hoped one day to own this particular one. In the meantime, she was renting
her current house from her brother Jack. Considering Deluth’s land had been the
prime location for what she’d spent her life dreaming about, she knew finding
something else wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

But
tonight she didn’t want to think about that.

When
they arrived at the back of the house, their apparent destination, Tessa
noticed that there were two plastic chairs and a diminutive plastic table
sitting in the middle of the porch.

“I
have to admit, I’m jealous of this porch, Krenshaw,” Tessa said, going for
casual.

At
the moment, she was feeling anything but, and she wasn’t sure why that was.
Just being with him, alone like this, was so incredibly intimate, she wasn’t
sure she was going to be able to eat with all her nerves churning in her belly.

“Yeah?
It’s a little on the neglected side, but the promise of what it could be was
what appealed to me.”

“I
know exactly what you mean,” she mumbled, hoping he didn’t hear her. For as
long as she could remember, she’d loved this old house. Especially the solitude
to be found on the property.

Taking
the bag from her hand, Cooper set up the food on the table after signaling for
her to take the opposite chair. She noticed the chair was new, even having the
stickers attached to it, and she smiled.

“I
tried to think of everything. I don’t have any furniture on the inside, so I
figured this would do. Not that I need anything more than that porch swing over
there. It seems more than adequate for a bed if you ask me.”