Page 42 of Dark Side of the River

Especially if he kept hanging around Tilly Stafford. His visit with Stu earlier had been chilly at best. There would be no mending things if Cooper didn’t give Tilly a wide berth. Even as he thought it, he had to admit that it wasn’t what he wanted—quite the opposite.

Stu said he would fight for her. Cooper had seldom walked away from a fight, especially one he thought he could win. But at what cost?

He groaned at the path his thoughts had taken. But if he kept being around Tilly, he knew what was going to happen, and he thought she did too. Was that what she’d wanted him to say last night? That he wanted her? Even as he warned himself against it, he was already looking forward to seeing her.

Checking the time, he went upstairs to get ready for the Dirty Business event.

TILLYPARKEDBEHINDthe abandoned gas station outside of town and got out of her pickup. The summer sun had disappeared behind the rugged hills to the west, but it wouldn’t get dark until after nine tonight. No one from the highway could see her vehicle, though, but anyone traveling the road to the barn could. She wondered why Cooper had wanted them to meet here. It wasn’t because he was looking for an intimate place for them to meet. No, he was worried. About the talk in town? About their families? Or about the people responsible for Oakley’s shooting seeing the two of them meeting?

No, she thought, he was worried about his friend.

Well, he didn’t need to worry anymore. She and Stuart wouldn’t be dating again. Stuart had taken it better than she’d expected. She was glad she’d cleared things up with him. Not that it would make a difference with Cooper—if that was what she’d been thinking.

Tilly felt a chill even though the approaching night was warm. Were Cooper and she headed for trouble if they kept digging into her sister’s shooting? Even though Oakley was going to be all right, was she really safe?

The smell of dust hung in the air. She noticed in the fading light that some of the cottonwoods farthest from the river were starting to turn. This drought was all anyone was talking about. Other than the methane well drilling. They needed a good old-fashioned winter with lots of snow. Would Cooper leave again?

She had no idea why he’d come home to begin with and wondered if he did. She hadn’t expected to hear from him after last night. Now she hugged herself and checked the time. He wouldn’t stand her up. Not Cooper. There was something so Old West gentlemanly about him that it made her smile.

Still, she felt relief when she heard a vehicle coming down the highway, slowing and then turning. She stayed where she was in case it wasn’t him. As she heard his pickup turn in and park, she stepped out into the twilight.

COOPERPULLEDUPnext to Tilly’s pickup. She’d been in the shadows of the old station. The light caught in her blond hair. She seldom wore it down, but she had tonight. It floated around her shoulders. The look of her made him catch his breath, desire a fire in his belly and much lower.

As she approached his pickup, he reached over to open the passenger door for her. He was on edge just thinking about the turn last night’s conversation had taken. He didn’t want to argue with her. He also didn’t want to push her away anymore.

As she climbed in, he caught a whiff of the summer night and the sweet scent he knew was Tilly. Not perfume. Maybe her bath soap or shampoo, but it pulled at him, stirring his need for this woman as if fanning embers.

“You said you had news?” he asked to break the silence as she buckled up and he got the truck moving.

“Good to see you too, Cooper,” she said, and laughed almost nervously.

He saw that she wore a sleeveless top, her shapely arms tanned, and a skirt that ended where the tops of her Western boots hit her slim calves. He swallowed, trying to remember if he’d ever seen her in a skirt before. As he drove, she pulled her hair up, reining it into a knot at her nape, exposing a spot of skin so pale and soft looking that he ached to kiss it. He cleared his voice. “You look nice, Tilly.”

She laughed again. “Thank you. I heard in your voice how hard that was for you to acknowledge.” She reached into the pocket of her skirt. “I have a name on that truck that was parked at Howie’s the day we went out there. Jason Murdock. He lives in Billings. He’s a private investigator.”

“A private investigator?” Cooper repeated. “I wonder who hired him. Maybe CH4 because of the vandalism. Good work. How did you...?”

“The sheriff.” He heard the hesitation in her voice. “That’s not all. While Stuart went to see about the license plate, I got a look at my sister’s phone. Did you know that she and Pickett Hanson are thick as thieves?”

He had suspected as much. Glancing over at her, he asked, “Romantically or just their involvement in Dirty Business?”

“I’d say both. I only got to look at one message from Pickett. But there is definitely something going on between them. It’s no wonder she’s kept all this under wraps. Our mother would go berserk. I can’t even imagine what CJ would have to say about it.”

“Because she’s involved in the anti-methane-well movement or because she’s fraternizing with a McKenna ranch hand?” he asked.

She gave him an impatient look. “It doesn’t matter that he’s a ranch hand. That would be fine with her. If he didn’t work on the McKenna Ranch. As for CJ...” She shook her head. “My brother seems to think he can tell us who we can see and what we can do. Clearly, he can’t.”

He glanced at her. “You’re not just using me to ruffle your brother’s feathers, are you?” He’d kept his tone light, but when she responded, hers was anything but.

“Is that really what you’re asking?” she demanded. “I don’t care what my brother thinks. He and I seldom agree on anything. If you’re asking what he’d have to say about you and me?” She looked away. “If there was a you and me? He’d learn to live with it.”

Cooper doubted that since he knew CJ. Her older brother had a chip on his shoulder when it came to a lot of things. He was very protective of his family, maybe too protective, and he had a grudge against the McKennas. There was only one person who could keep him in line and that was their mother, Charlotte Stafford, and she seemed to feel the same way about the McKennas—or at least Holden McKenna. “Has your mother said anything about the two of us being seen together?”

“Not really. What about your father?” she said. “Does he know what we’ve been up to?”

“I don’t think so. If he did, his concern would be that we were going to get ourselves killed.”

She turned a little in the seat. “Are you saying he’d be fine with us dating?” Was she really going to finally put it out there? Apparently so.

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