Page 151 of We Redeemed the Rain

“Couldn’t sleep.”

He quietly chuckled. “You’ve barely been in the house twenty minutes.”

I scoffed, annoyed he might have seen Bea and I go in together. “You standin’ watch or something?”

“No. Just been up a while myself.”

“Alright, well, I’m gonna check on the foal.”

I continued past him, but stopped abruptly when he spoke again. “You’re gonna regret what you’re doing, Sammy.”

Gravel crunched as I spun toward him. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“Her.”

Ice flowed through my veins, my movements slowing. Had he said anything else, I would’ve been able to keep walking. But I stopped, needing to hear what he had to say.

Before I could respond, he kept on. “It’s fun to pretend we have something in common with them, but we don’t. Not just her. All of them.” He took a draw of his cigarette. “Those people don’t know what it’s like to be us.”

“They’re not bad people.”

He huffed a laugh. “I didn’t say that.”

“What are you sayin’ then? I don’t get it.”

“I’m sayingwe’rethe bad people.”

My throat tightened. “I’m not the one with a court date in a few months.”

Cooper just shrugged. “We were sitting there on the porch, laughing, stuffing ourselves to the gills, listening to Bea play—damn she’s good, by the way—and you know what it reminded me of?”

My jaw clenched, worried about where he was going with this. “What?”

“The whole time, I kept thinking about that night we had burgers and Sl?—”

“Stop.” I cussed and jammed a hand into my hair. We didn’t talk about that. We never talked about what happened. How could he even bring it up? I hissed, “Don’t say another word.”

He laughed like it was funny to him. “I didn’t know you were still in denial.”

“I’m not in denial, but if you utter that name I’m gonna beat the shit out of you.” Immediately, I was shaking. How could Cooper broach the topic so casually? I wanted him out of here, off my ranch if he was going to be an idiot.

“Afraid a mere mention is going to conjure him up?” He chuckled again. “That’s pathetic.”

My fists clenched by my side.

“You need to let me finish, because I got something to say about Bea.”

My jaw tightened.

“Tonight reminded me of that night. Everything we felt was a lie. Except…this time…we’re the ones who are going to ruin lives.”

“Howcould you say that?” I felt like I was going to be sick.

His eyes found mine in the moonlight. “Are you serious? You used to be the more intuitive between the two of us.”

“Just tell me what you mean.”

“Alright, let me spell it out for you. Here’s a probable scenario. You get involved with her, do long distance for a while. You fall in love, she moves in. Then…slowly she realizes you triple check your locks at night. She notices you doubt and scrutinize everything she says because you don’t trust her. You fly into a rage every time you feel stressed. Then she realizes you’re so mentally unstable you can’t hold a job unless you’re your own boss, which is why you are still the captain of a ranch that can’t put food on the table. She realizes you have dreams that make you shake and throw up every morning before your first sip of coffee. You slip back into substance abuse, because you can’t help it. And as much as you love her, you hate her…becauseeverydamn time you take her to bed”—his voice cracked—“all you feel is blind rage.”

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