Woman on the Run (new version)

  Cooper’s deep voice was gentle again. “Turn right outside the door then seven doors down turn left and follow the corridor to the end, then through the pantry and into the kitchen.”

  Julia was finding it hard to concentrate when he was looking at her so intently. The force field effect was working again. “Seven doors, left, pantry, kitchen,” she said. “Got it.” She turned and walked out the door and looked with dismay down the endless, enormous corridor.

  Maybe she should have left a trail of bread crumbs.

  When the door closed behind Julia, Bernie collapsed into the chair and scrubbed his face with his hands. He stared into the fire for a long time and Cooper just watched.

  “She’s gone, Coop,” he said finally. “Gone for good.”

  “Yeah.” Cooper shifted uncomfortably. This wasn’t his scene, consoling men who’d been dumped.

  Bernie looked like he’d been through hell. Cooper felt a pang of pity for his best friend. Carmelita’s leaving had really punched a hole in Bernie’s life. For a minute, Cooper almost envied Bernie the intensity of his feelings. When Melissa had finally left, all Cooper had felt was weary relief.

  Bernie was really hurting. But that still didn’t excuse his behavior with Sally Andersen.

  “Listen, Bernie,” Cooper said, “I understand how you feel, but you’ve got to pull yourself together. After all, Miss Andersen…”

  “Forget it,” Bernie said. “You don’t stand a chance with her. You’d just lose her, anyway. All the women who come here leave.” He raised red-rimmed eyes to Cooper. “You should have told me about the curse, Coop. How was I supposed to know that no female stays for long on Cooper soil?”

  “That’s a stupid legend.” Cooper gritted his teeth. “I’m surprised you even thought twice about it.”

  “Thought twice about it? Damn you, I lost my wife because of it!” Bernie shouted, then winced and held his head.

  “You didn’t lose your wife because she was on Cooper land,” Cooper said reasonably. “You lost her because—because…” Cooper stopped. He didn’t know why Carmelita had left. Who knew why a woman did anything?

  “Because we were on Cooper land,” Bernie finished.

  “No, dammit!”

  “Well then—how come Melissa left?” Bernie’s voice was hostile. “Answer me that, huh?”

  “Because—because…”

  “Because the two of you were living here.” Bernie nodded his head sagely, as if he had just proved some difficult mathematical theorem.

  “Because she didn’t want to live with me anymore!” Cooper threw up his hands in exasperation. “Now stop this. It has nothing to do with the ranch.”

  “How come your momma left?” Bernie asked.

  “She didn’t.” Bernie was hurting and Cooper could make allowances. But there were limits. “She died.”

  “Same thing.” Bernie set his jaw mulishly. “And your great-grandma? Didn’t she run off with the Singer sewing machine man? And your grandma? One kid and she was off.”

  “Bernie…” Cooper growled.

  “And the mares they bring to us to be covered. How about them, huh? Huh? You have a 70-30 male female ratio. That’s statistically impossible.”

  “A fluke.”

  “A fluke? Okay, how about that collie bitch that had six pups and all of them male. What about that? Huh? Was that a fluke too? No wonder Carmelita and Melissa left. This place is poison for women.”

  Especially bitches, Cooper thought, but wisely kept silent.

  Bernie pushed his hands through his coarse black hair. “I should have got a job at a bank or in a store. Then we’d still be a family and I wouldn’t be in this mess.” He hung his head low. “And neither would Rafael.”

  “Bernie,” Cooper said patiently, “you couldn’t get a job in a bank or in a store because you haven’t got any training for it. You’re trained to work in livestock. It’s what you do and it’s what you do well. When you’re not going crazy.”

  “Of course I’m going crazy,” Bernie shouted. “I just lost my wife because of your fucking curse!”

  “Well, shut the fuck up about it!” Cooper shouted back. Sally Andersen was probably the only woman—certainly the only attractive woman—in a two hundred mile radius who had never heard of the Cooper Curse and Cooper wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could. “Miss Andersen is coming back any minute now. She’s taken time out of her busy schedule to talk to you about your son and you’re damn well going to straighten out and be civil to her.”

  Cooper didn’t know if Sally Andersen had a busy schedule or not—most people in Simpson didn’t have a whole lot to do—but Bernie didn’t have to know that.

  Bernie tried to focus on Cooper, head wobbling. He finally got Cooper in his sights. His eyes glittered an unholy red. “Make me,” he growled.

  He was spoiling for a fight. The last thing Cooper wanted was for Sally Andersen to walk in on a brawl. “Stop this shit, Bernie.”

  “No.” Bernie stood up, swayed, then went into a fighting stance, which was ridiculous. He could barely stand on his feet.

  “Fuck this.” Cooper raised his eyes towards the ceiling. “We both know you can’t take me in hand-to-hand. I’m trained and you’re not. I’ve got six inches and forty pounds on you. Now cut this out.”

  Bernie was slowly circling him. “Make me.”

  “Bernie,” Cooper said through gritted teeth. “You’re hung over. You’re probably seeing double. I’m not going to fight you and that’s that. I’d take you down in a New York minute. It’d be as easy as a mule breaking wind.”

  Cooper was expecting Bernie to smile at one of his father’s favorite expressions, but Bernie just set his jaw and swung heavily.

  Cooper dodged the blow without moving his feet. This was going to be worse than he thought. Bernie swung again, so slowly Cooper could have finished reading his biography of Eisenhower and still have time to catch Bernie’s fist in his hand. Cooper let Bernie wrench his hand free and said, “Don’t be a fool, Bernie, you can’t take me down and you know it.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Bernie was breathing heavily. He tried to sweep Cooper’s legs from under him. It didn’t work, but Cooper caught a sharp blow to the shin. “Damn it, Bernie! That fucking hurt.”

  Bernie showed his teeth. “It was meant to.” He dropped to a crouch and started circling Cooper. Cooper backed up.

  “Bernie, if you don’t stop this shit right this minute—” Bernie lunged. Cooper moved. Bernie banged first his fist and then his head against the fieldstone hearth. Cooper winced at the sound. Bernie turned around, blood flowing from a cut above his eyebrow and lifted his fists. The knuckles of one hand were bleeding. Cooper sighed and lifted his.

  The door opened.

  Sally Andersen stopped on the threshold, wide-eyed, briefcase in hand. The two men, one bleeding, one seriously annoyed, turned their heads and stared at her with surly expressions.

  “I guess this is male bonding, huh?” she asked.

  Chapter Five

  “Ouch!” Bernaldo Martinez tried to jerk his head away.

  “Don’t be a wuss.” Julia caught his bristly chin and dragged his head back to continue cleaning the small raw-looking laceration on his forehead. It had almost stopped bleeding. “I thought cowboys were supposed to be such tough guys.”

  “I’m no cowboy,” he complained as Julia finished cleaning the wound. “I’m just a poor cholo from the barrio who took courses in animal husbandry ‘cause it meant cheap college credits.” But he was smiling as he sat at the enormous kitchen table, letting Julia fuss over him. Cooper was smiling too…sort of.

  Men! Julia thought in exasperation. A quarter of an hour ago they’d been doing their level best to beat each other’s brains out, looking exactly like two of her more rambunctious seven year olds in a fight.

  Julia picked up Martinez’s hand and looked at the knuckles. She met Cooper’s dark eyes.

  “When was the last time that room was cleaned?”
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  “It’s clean.” Cooper frowned and looked affronted. “My men take the cleaning in four-man details on a rota basis. They muck out the stables and then they muck out…er…they clean the house. Bernie’s not going to get an infection from that scratch, believe me. And anyway…he’s immune to everything, including common sense.”

  “If you say so.” Julia looked at the cuts dubiously. “Still…I’d feel better if I put some disinfectant on it. Is your first aid kit still in the magic pickup?”

  Cooper pursed his lips. “You’d be better off putting an antibiotic ointment we use for the horses on it. It’s in a bowl in the refrigerator.”

  Julia stared at Cooper for a minute to find out if he was joking but he looked perfectly serious and she didn’t know if he even could joke, so she walked over to the huge, industrial-size refrigerator, opened the enormous steel door and simply stared inside.

  She had girlfriends in Boston with condos smaller than the inside of this refrigerator.

  “Who does the cooking around here?” She looked over her shoulder. “Paul Bunyan?”

  “The men take it…”

  “In turns. Right.” Julia turned back and examined the contents of the refrigerator. “So where is this horse ointment?”

  “In a bowl.”

  “There are two bowls here, Cooper.”

  “The green one.”

  Julia checked the other one and her eyes widened. “And what’s in the red one?”

  Cooper shrugged. “Lunch?”

  “No way,” Julia said firmly. She backed out of the refrigerator with the green bowl in her hands and closed the heavy door with her hip, thinking there should be a biohazard sticker on the door. “No way is that stuff food. A mutant life form, perhaps. An experiment gone bad, maybe—but definitely not lunch.” She drew in a deep breath and coughed. The stuff in the green bowl was either going to cure Rafael’s father or kill him. “I hope you’re ready for this, Mr. Martinez.”

  “Bernie.”

  “Okay, Bernie. Time to separate the men from the boys. Ready or not, here it comes.” She applied the smelly ointment to his forehead and knuckles. “I can’t believe you two actually fought. Like seven year olds. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that violence is no way to settle an argument? It’s absolutely reprehensible behavior for two adults.” Julia warmed to her topic. The use of violence was a subject of some poignancy to her at the moment. Her voice rose. “Violence is for barbarians. I mean, really. Engaging in fisticuffs. What on earth did you two hope to accomplish? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” both men replied in unison.

  Julia laughed when she realized that she’d been shaking her forefinger at them like she did with her second graders when they misbehaved.

  “I guess I was sounding an awful lot like a grade school teacher, wasn’t I? Speaking of which…” Julia tried hard not to think about how terribly unqualified she was to say what she was going to say. “Um, speaking of which, Mr…Bernie, I brought along some of Rafael’s homework to show you. He’s really an exceptional pupil and his grades have been very good, but for the past two weeks, his work has just degenerated. He’s not paying attention in class and quite frankly, I’ve caught him crying more times than I can count.”

  Bernie sighed. “You’re quite right, Miss Andersen…”

  “Sally,” Julia said, hating the name all over again. Though again, now that she thought of it, a Sally Andersen could conceivably find herself out on an isolated ranch bandaging a damaged foreman. Julia Devaux certainly couldn’t.

  “Okay, Sally. The story is this. My wife and I have been…have been…” Bernie started breathing heavily. “We…we weren’t…” Bernie stopped, unable to continue.

  “Getting along?” Julia supplied gently.

  Bernie nodded miserably.

  “I gathered as much. And Rafael was suffering, wasn’t he?”

  Bernie nodded again and Julia’s heart went out to him.

  She hadn’t had any experience personally with divorce, but she imagined that it would be horribly painful.

  Then her eyes slid to Cooper. His wife had left him, too. Had he been in this much pain? He didn’t look it. He didn’t look like he felt much of anything. That sharp-angled face might as well have been carved out of a rock, the only sign of life those dark, glittering eyes. And yet, it took Julia an effort to wrench her eyes away from him.

  “Bernie.” Julia firmly fixed her attention back on the father of her pupil, which was exactly where it should be, and not on some rancher with an amazing resemblance to a rock. “I think someone should oversee Rafael’s homework, maybe spend a couple of afternoons with him, making sure he gets back into the habit of doing his homework, bring him back up to speed. It wouldn’t take long. He’s such a bright little boy.”

  Bernie looked up, puzzled. Then light dawned on his face. “You’re right,” he breathed. He reached over and grabbed Julia’s hand in gratitude. “You’re absolutely right.”

  He pumped Julia’s hand enthusiastically, then saw Cooper’s scowl and hastily dropped it. “Why didn’t I think of that? What a wonderful idea. Thank you, Sally. Thank you so much.’

  “Oh no,” Julia said in dismay. “I didn’t mean that I…”

  “That’s just what Rafael needs.” Bernie ran his hands through his already disheveled hair and blew a sigh of relief. “A tudor.”

  “Tutor,” Julia said automatically.

  “Tutor. This is great, just great.”

  “No, really…” Julia began.

  “A woman’s touch,” Bernie mused. “Softness, gentleness but discipline, too. An iron hand in a velvet fist…”

  “Glove,” Julia said.

  “Glove.” Bernie nodded. “That’s just what Rafael needs.”

  “Ahm, Bernie, I don’t really think…”

  “Someone to pay attention to him. Actually…” Bernie grimaced, “Carmelita wasn’t really very good at that. No one would have given her a Mom of the Year award, that’s for sure. But you, Sally, you’re just what Rafael needs. He adores you. He’s always talking about ‘Miss Andersen this’ and ‘Miss Andersen that’.”

  “Listen—”

  Bernie looked at Julia gratefully. “I can’t begin to tell you how much this means to me, and to Rafael, too, of course…”

  “Look, Bernie…”

  “What a lifesaver,” he said simply. “Thank you.”

  “Okay.” Julia lifted her hands and gave up with a shake of her head. “If that’s what you want.”

  All things considered, she didn’t really mind all that much. What else did she have to do in the afternoons, anyway, besides freak out? Maybe it would help keep her mind off her troubles.

  Bernie reached into his back pocket. “So, how much would you like for the lessons?”

  “Put your wallet away.” Julia narrowed her eyes and tapped her lip, considering. She turned to Cooper. “How good is Rafael with animals?”

  “Very,” Cooper replied. “He wants to be a vet when he grows up.”

  “Well,” Julia turned back to Bernie, “that’s my price. I want Rafael to help me clean up my dog, Fred.” My dog, she thought, in surprise. It sounded so weird. “I want him washed and combed and…” dirty, matted fur crossed her mind, “…deloused. In exchange, Rafael can come over a couple of afternoons after school this week and I’ll get him back up to speed.” A thought suddenly occurred to her and she turned to Cooper with wide frightened eyes. “But someone will have to come pick Rafael up and drive him back here. I couldn’t possibly…there’s no way…”

  “Well, I could—” Bernie began.

  “I’ll do it,” Cooper’s deep voice interrupted.

  Sally Andersen and Bernie stared at him as if he’d grown two heads.

  Sally Andersen probably because she didn’t want a man who got a hard-on when he looked at her to show up in the afternoons.

  Bernie because he knew damn well Cooper didn’t have the time to drive into Simps
on a couple of afternoons next week. And he didn’t. It was his cock making plans for him and he was running along behind it, trying to catch up.

  “I’ll pick him up in the afternoons,” Cooper said. Bernie opened his mouth, looked at Cooper and closed it again. “And you haven’t stated your full price yet.”

  Sally’s mouth curved. He stared at her mouth, fascinated. Her lips were soft and naturally pink, slightly upturned at the corners in a perpetual smile. Warm, welcoming lips…

  She tilted her head and observed Cooper. “I haven’t?”

  “What?” Cooper tried to concentrate. “No.”

  “What’s the rest of my price?”

  “Your boiler needs first aid, the second step on your porch needs replacing and that’s just for starters.”

  “You’re right.” Julia smiled dazzlingly at him and he forgot to breathe. “So tell me. How good a handyman is Rafael?”

  “Rafael’s a better handyman than his father, that’s for sure.” Cooper smiled at her, then was taken aback. He was flirting with her. The sensation was so novel he lost track of what they were saying.

  Flirting with a beautiful woman. In the Cooper kitchen. Impossible.

  For as long as he could remember, his kitchen had been a cold and impersonal space where men refueled quickly then left for work as soon as possible, and that certainly included the grim period of his marriage.

  But with Sally sitting there, gently bantering with him and Bernie, the kitchen became almost…cozy.

  “Coop?” Bernie was looking at him. “You want me to fix her plumbing?”

  “No,” Cooper answered, the thought of a hammer in Bernie’s hands snapping him back to reality. “I will. You’re hopeless with tools or with anything that doesn’t move or eat hay. I…”

  “Dad! Dad!” Rafael ran full tilt into the kitchen and was in his father’s arms before the kitchen door had swung shut. “Dad, Southern Star’s colt is a beaut! He’s got a star on his nose just like his dam, and you should just see the way he moves. You can tell he’s gonna be a champ. You just wait till Coop trains him—he’s gonna win every prize in sight!”