Page 48 of Charming the Cowboy
Her mom and grandma were peering down the stairs as she got the candy together, and he tried to keep a respectful distance from Eliana.
Everything was looking like it was going to be a grand time until her brother burst through the front door.
“Happy Halloween.”
Both she and Cooper froze. They weren’t touching each other or anything, they had just been sorting candy into bowls. But still, they might as well have been caught naked. She always feltlike there was an intense electricity between them, and surely Marcus would notice.
“Ellie!” He crossed the space and pulled her in for a hug. His curly ginger hair was in his face like a mop, his lopsided grin turned up to the highest wattage imaginable. He seemed so harmless. Feckless. He was none of those things. This was how he managed to get women to follow after him like they were rats and he was the Pied Piper. So harmless. So dizzy. So feckless.
“Hi,” she said, patting him on the head. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I come visit?”
“You can,” her grandmother said from the second-floor landing. “But you usually want something.”
“Gram. I don’t want anything. Except maybe a place to stay.”
“You’re not at the RV park?”
“I sold my camper. It’s a long story.”
“Is it?” That came from their mother, who appeared at the door of the kitchen. “Or did you have to rob Peter – being you – to pay Paul?”
“Paul may have been making some demands,” he said. “I’m starving.”
Eliana held a candy bowl out. “Trick-or-treat.”
“Thanks, Ellie.”
“Say trick-or-treat.”
He reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful of candy, and said nothing. “Asshole.” Then he seemed to notice Cooper for the first time. “Coop. What are you doing here?”
Cooper had been standing very still the whole time, like he was hoping he would blend into the surroundings. Like it was normal for there to be a redwood in the entry. “I’m just helping with trick-or-treating.”
“You didn’t do a very good job,” Eliana said. “He stole candy.”
“I’m starving,” Marcus said. “Dying.” He wandered over to the couch and lay across it, opening a bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups. “Truly wasting away.” He looked up at Eliana. “And you don’t even care.”
“No. I don’t. Because you suck.”
“What have you been doing?” Cooper asked.
“Thank you for asking,” Marcus said, suddenly moving into a sitting position. “I just started a new business, but then things went south really quickly.”
“Was that new business a Ponzi scheme?”
“Not technically,” Marcus said.
“Bynottechnicallyyou mean…”
“That anything I say can be used against me, so I’m not going to say much.”
“Well. We have trick-or-treaters to appease. Who are not you.”
“Right.” Marcus looked at the two of them. “Are you wearing a costume, Cooper?”
“Marcus,” Cooper said, his tone deadly serious. “I am a cowboy.”
