Cowboy Ex - Summer Cooper

COWBOY EX
SECOND CHANCE ROMANTIC COMEDY
SUMMER COOPER
Copyright © Lovy Books Ltd, 2017
Summer Cooper has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of
the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, is entirely coincidental.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this
document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of
this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document
is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All
rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Lovy Books Ltd
20-22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU
PROLOGUE
I felt a bit like a voyeur as I peered into the barn and
watched him step into his jeans, bringing them up over
his bare backside in one smooth motion. I couldn’t help
but feel disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see more of
his naked form and I found myself sighing in frustration.
God, he was gorgeous.
Suddenly, he glanced over in the direction of where I
was standing and I ducked low, praying to God that
he’dn’t seen me spying on him. My heart was thundering
in my chest as I hid on the other side of the large door,
but I couldn’t help the big stupid smile spreading across
my face.
I’d seen Bryan Hart naked! I couldn’t wait to tell
Claudia, my best friend since kindergarten. She’d be so
jealous. First, I’d to find my way back to the main house
without Bryan catching me. I listened hard, trying to
figure out if Bryan had already left through the other
door. He was normally an early riser, getting up for
breakfast with the rest of the ranch hands way before I
got up for school. But this morning, he’d been running
1
late and so my pa had sent me to go get him when he
realized Bryan wasn’t around.
The ranch hands had stayed up late last night because
there’d been a forest fire not too far from us. It was
under control now, but Pa had been concerned the fire
would spread to our property.
I’d pretended to be annoyed by Pa’s request, when
secretly I’d been ecstatic, but I wasn’t ecstatic now given
I was now hiding from Bryan. I slowly rose and peaked
again into the barn and breathed a sigh of relief. He
wasn’t there. I quickly turned away and smacked into an
unyielding figure that hadn’t been there a second earlier.
I stumbled back and my eyes grew wide. “Bryan!”
He frowned at me, still shirtless. My mind went blank
and I knew I looked guilty and ridiculous with my
mouth wide open as I stared at his chest. He was perfect.
All the romance novels I’d read hadn’t prepared me for
this moment. I was the heroine, right? Wasn’t this when I
should say something clever and sassy then walk away?
But I couldn’t walk away, my legs wouldn’t move. My
eyes were glued to his body, as I stood mesmerized by
the sight of him. His long legs were covered in jeans that
had seen better days. They were covered in dirt, dust and
grime, but that did nothing to take away from my attrac‐
tion to him. If anything, it made me want him more.
I felt myself blush as my eyes traveled upwards,
taking in the lines of pure muscle that were his abs. His
chest was wide and his shoulders… oh, God… I just
wanted to run my hands over them. They looked like
they could carry the world and then some.
Bryan Hart was the most beautiful man my eighteen-
year-old eyes had ever seen. And he was also ten years
older than me, and related to a family from the city that
were rumored to be nothing but trouble. My father had
SUMMER COOPER
2
allowed him to live in our barn two years ago. I never
knew why Pa had been so generous to let a stranger live
on the property, especially a stranger that he didn’t
particularly like, but Pa was always a mystery. I knew his
“kindness” wouldn’t be extended if he knew Bryan had
been the subject of my lately, very racy dreams.
“What are you doing here?” Bryan asked, frowning.
This was a difficult task given that I was a very tall girl,
at least 5’11”.
“I—just—uh—”
“Spit it out. What are you doing out here spying
on me?”
“I wasn’t spying!” I said, blushing. “I just…” my voice
trailed off. I really had no idea what to say. I’d never even
spoken to him in the three years he’d worked for my dad.
He wasn’t some high-schooler. Bryan was a real man. I
was tongue-tied.
“Get out of here, before you get me into trouble.”
He turned away from me, making me feel silly and
insignificant. I decided at that moment that I was done
feeling like an inadequate little girl around him. I wasn’t
going to let Bryan dismiss me so easily. He’d ignored me
for three years. I was done being ignored.
I took a deep breath and scrambled after him. I didn’t
even think about it as I reached out and touched him,
stopping him in his tracks.
He turned around with a sneer on his face that
promptly turned into a look of confusion when he saw
my expression. I think what he saw there scared him.
“I’m not a little girl anymore, Bryan.”
I moved closer, so close my breasts were only a mere
inch from touching his chest. For the first time ever,
Bryan seemed caught off guard and unsure of himself.
“What are you doing, girl?”
COWBOY EX
3
“My name is Nikki,” I said as I slowly ran my hands
up his chest. He took in a quick breath, and I started to
enjoy how the tables were turned for once. For once, I’d
taken his breath away.
And as I leaned against him, I said, “I’m not a little
girl anymore. I’m all woman now.”
My lips closed over his.
SUMMER COOPER
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C H A P T E R 1
“Come on! Push it! Push it! I want everything you got!” I
yelled as my students groaned and moaned. Some of
them fell to the ground, gasping in pain and I couldn’t
help but smile a little inside. I was a beast.
“Nikki, you’re a beast,” said one of my clients, barely
able to get the words out through his heavy breathing. I
kneeled next to him with a big smile on my face. “Jami‐
son, you’re too kind.”
He collapsed to the floor and I reached a hand out.
He grasped it and I helped him stand up.
“I’m not going to be able to sit on the toilet tomor‐
row,” he complained as he helped put the equipment
back to its designated areas. He was a sweetheart and
always stayed around to help after class.
“Too much sitting is a problem for Americans
anyway. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.”
“No. You’re trying to kill me.”
I laughed and patted him on the back. “You love it.”
He tried to look contrite, and said with a sigh, “You’re
right. It just hurts so bad…”
5
We laughed together and I told him I would see him
next week as I tended to the few kettle bells that were
scattered in the back of the room.
In the silence of the warehouse, I was left with my
own thoughts. My assistant had offered to fill in for me
tonight because all the drama that was going on in my
personal life, but working out was my therapy. And I
didn’t want to sit at home alone, thinking about the
inevitable.
The inevitable found me anyway, in the form of my
phone ringing, and I pointedly ignored it. I didn’t want
to talk and I knew who the call was from.
My phone beeped and I knew she’d left me a
message. The “she” was my annoying big sister.
I was slow about clearing up before finally getting my
bag and going to my car. I took my sweet time, and as I
was pulling away, my phone notified me that I’d five new
messages.
“Jeez, sis. Calm your tits,” I said as I finally reached
for my phone, as I pulled up to a stoplight.
I quickly scanned my texts, and rolled my eyes. The
car behind me honked and I realized I’d been so busy
being annoyed with my sister Kerrie, that I hadn’t seen
the light change.
Feeling passive aggressive, I drove very slowly and
put on my hazards. The bozo behind me leaned on his
horn and sped past me, giving me the finger as he flew
by. I waved and smiled at him as if I were the Queen of
England.
“Asshole,” I mumbled.
I turned off my hazards and drove at least twenty
miles faster than the speed limit until I ended up in my
ritzy neighborhood and slowed down, not wanting to
get caught in any of the speed traps the local cops loved
SUMMER COOPER
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to set up near the beginning of every month. They hadn’t
caught me yet and I was determined to keep it that way.
Pulling into my lot, I made my way to the gate sepa‐
rating me from my apartment courtyard.
I scanned my key card at the entrance and made my
way inside. It was a cheap apartment complex on the
good side of town. My landlords were old rich people
who refused to sell the property that was worth at least
two million just for the property alone. Rumor had it
that they didn’t plan to sell ever. This complex was their
baby and as tenants, we treated the landlords better than
their own kids.
I stopped at my mailbox and was pulling out my mail
when I heard the door behind me open. It was the land‐
lord’s great grandson. He was acting as the handyman
while on break from college.
“Hey, Cesar,” I said as he closed the door behind him.
“Hey, Nikki. Some weirdo came looking for you
today. Tall dude with a weird accent. Like straight-up
hillbilly or something. Said something about your Dad
and how you needed to come back home. I didn’t let him
in. I figured if he knew you, then he could just call you.”
I sighed and nervously fingered my junk mail.
“Thanks for not letting him in. That’s my father’s lawyer.
My late father’s lawyer,” I corrected.
“Oh, Nikki. I didn’t know your father had died. I’m so
sorry.”
I shrugged. “Don’t be. I’m sure not. Goodnight, Cesar.
Tell your grands I said hi.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond as I walked away
towards my apartment door and shut out thoughts of the
hillbilly and my father.
COWBOY EX
7
THE NEXT MORNING, I awoke abruptly. Someone was
banging on my door. Loud. Incessantly. Pissed off, I
threw my covers off and stomped to the front door.
Without even stopping to look through the peep-hole, I
wrenched the door open and opened my mouth to shout
at the person on the other end only to see a pair of dark
green eyes the same color as mine staring up at me.
“Hi, Auntie,” said my ten-year old niece. She smiled
up at me sweetly and I embraced her immediately. It was
then that I saw my sister, in a fully-fledge fight with
Cesar.
She was poking him in the chest and looked ready to
punch him. We both had anger issues and she normally
handled hers a lot better than I did. Apparently, today
was the exception.
“Hey, Mom,” Tera said. “Stop fighting with that guy.
Auntie’s right here.”
“There you are!” Kerrie said huffily, glaring at me and
then Cesar. She marched towards me. She had red hair
like me, and the same dark green eyes. She kept her hair
long, while I wore mine short in a no-nonsense bob. I
was a personal trainer and didn’t like to worry about my
hair when I worked up a sweat.
“I didn’t know you had your own security detail,” she
said, sarcastically. “You’d think you were royalty, that’s
how hard it was for me to get in here. Your landlord is
like a version of the secret service. Why haven’t you
responded to any of my texts or phone calls? Are you
avoiding me? Do you know how far I had to drive and
pull Tera out of school just to be sure you weren’t
dead too?”
I winced. Kerrie wasn’t known for her sensitivity. I
looked at Tera who seemed unbothered, which worried
me. She was too much like us.
SUMMER COOPER
8
“Do you know this woman?” Cesar demanded. “She
barged in here with that little girl, practically mowed
down Mrs. Romski and her dog.”
I suppressed a giggle at the image of my sister tram‐
pling over my ancient neighbor and her annoying
Pomeranian and said, “Sorry for all the fuss, Cesar. This
is my sister, Kerrie and my niece, Tera.”
“I would say nice to meet you, but I don’t believe in
lying,” said Kerrie, nastily.
“Mom!”
“Kerrie!”
“Stop being mean,” Tera added, placing her hands on
her hips. “Now apologize.”
Looking contrite, my sister did as she was told.
Sometimes I wondered who was raising who.
“Oh, and there’s a big tall guy with us, kindly let him
in too. He’s wearing a cowboy hat. You can’t miss him,”
said Kerrie to Cesar who grunted in reply.
I ushered my sister and niece into my apartment. I
was barely able to close the door before my sister started
on me. “God! That was a nightmare! Next time just
answer your fuc—freaking phone,” she yelled, catching
herself at the last moment as to not swear in front
of Tera.
Tera giggled, clearly used to her mother’s potty-
mouth.
“I’ve been busy.” I sat down heavily, knowing that a
lecture I didn’t want to hear was on the horizon.
“Too busy to return my calls about your own dad’s
funeral?”
I glanced at Tera and said, “Hey honey, why don’t you
go watch tv in my room? I need to have an adult conver‐
sation with your crazy mother.”
Tera shrugged in response and headed in the direc‐
COWBOY EX
9
tion of my room. I waited until I heard her close the
door before turning back to Kerrie.
“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that around her.”
“Talk like what? Truthfully?”
I ignored her comment and said, “You know I hate
funerals and don’t deal with death well. And I wasn’t too
fond of Pa either, so why should I have bothered to go?”
“Because you need to forgive and move on…”
My face hardened. “Some things… some people
aren’t worth forgiving.”
She opened her mouth to rebuff my statement when
someone knocked sharply at my door.
“Come in!” I yelled in exasperation, expecting Cesar
to be standing there with Dad’s lawyer.
The door opened and all the hairs on the back of my
neck stood up as I saw the last person I ever thought I
would see again. My entire body tensed and my blood
pressure picked up. I could barely breathe and it took all
my focus to not faint right then and there.
With a shaky voice, I said, “Bryan?”
SUMMER COOPER
10
C H A P T E R 2
“What are you doing here?” I asked standing up from my
chair and staring at him as if I hadn’t seen him in a life‐
time. It had been a decade since I’d seen him and he
hadn’t aged at all. He looked the same. His dark brown
eyes still caused my heart to flutter dangerously. His full
lips were still my biggest temptations and I had to stuff
my hands in my pockets to stop myself from playing
with the bit of hair that fell towards the front of his face,
beckoning to push it back. He took off the cowboy hat
he always wore and smiled cautiously at me.
His smile made my heart skip a beat. I was still
attracted to my husband. I mean ex-husband. Unfortu‐
nately, ten years hadn’t changed that.
“Hi, Nikki,” he said approaching me hesitantly. I
moved towards him at the same time and we exchanged
an awkward hug, the cowboy hat in his hand poking at
my leg. When he let go of me, I immediately missed his
warmth. He smelled the same. I guess he never changed
his aftershave. While we’d been married he’d grown a
beard and I couldn’t help but remember the feel of his
11
freshly grown stubble when he used to rub his face
between my thighs.
Startled by the direction of my own thoughts, I
immediately grew defensive. “What are you doing here?”
He frowned. I guess he figured ten years would have
taken the bitterness away. He was very wrong.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Kerrie said
with annoyance in her voice. “If you don’t want to go the
funeral, fine. But your husband here—”
“Ex-husband,” I said pointedly.
“Whatever… he needs to sign off on all the property
Dad left him in the will and—”
“Dad left you property?”
Kerrie gritted her teeth. “Dad left everything to him. I
guess he figured one ex son-in-law to run things was
better than two girls.”
I shook my head, not believing it. “Dad left you noth‐
ing? Are you kidding me? You’ve sacrificed everything to
keep the ranch and he left you with nothing?”
“Us. He left us with nothing.” I could hear the anger
in her voice, but more importantly, I could hear the hurt.
Even from the grave, Dad was screwing us over.
I was furious for my sister, not myself. I wanted
nothing of my family’s legacy. Dad had been a sexist,
bigot, a good ol’ boy of the worst kind. In our small
town, he’d been one of the main employers, so
everyone bowed to his wishes, including my mother,
who’d been the daughter of the mayor. I understood at
an early age that she’d married my father for his money
and position in our small town. And she’d paid dearly
for her decision. My father hadn’t been a good person
and his ways had driven her to misery, drinking her life
away, dying from a heart attack when I was barely
fourteen.
SUMMER COOPER
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“What a slap in the face.” I muttered. “But that doesn’t
explain why you’re here.”
Bryan seemed uncharacteristically nervous as he said,
“Isn’t it clear? I’m here to sign the property over to you.”
“Me?” I said with surprise, “But I don’t want it. That’s
Kerrie’s pride and joy, not mine.”
“I told you she would be difficult,” Kerrie interrupted.
“I’m not being difficult—”
“Your middle name should have been difficult.”
“I don’t even have a middle name.”
“Ok, ok… let’s not fight, ladies—”
I cut him off before he could go any further. “Listen, I
don’t even know why you’re here. I don’t want the prop‐
erty. Sign it over to Kerrie and we’re done here. You can
go and disappear back to wherever you came from and I
can get on with my life. Deal?”
He looked at me in silence. And the way he looked at
me was unnerving. I was so glad my sister was around.
Like the jerk she was, she took that moment to excuse
herself.
I gave her a dirty look and she smiled back at me
innocently. “You guys don’t need me here. I’m sure you
can settle this amongst yourselves.”
She disappeared into the bedroom with Tera. I stood
there silently and heard the two of them laughing over
something on television. Their laughter made me smile
until I remembered my present company and it quickly
disappeared.
I folded my arms. “I think we’re done here, Bryan.
Nice to see you.”
He fingered his hat and said softly, “Sit down, Nikki,
I’m not going anywhere until we talk.”
“I’m not sitting down and you have nothing to say
that I want to hear.”
COWBOY EX
13
“Colette—”
“Don’t call me that,” I shouted. I didn’t want to get
riled up, but I was easily riled up. I had a short fuse.
Nicolette was my full name and no one, absolutely no
one called me that. But Colette had been his nickname
for me and it bothered me when he used it.
“Don’t you have something to do at that fancy new
farm of yours? I guess you’d be too busy tending to busi‐
ness there to care about anything to do with my
dysfunctional family.”
He looked pleased for a moment and I was puzzled
by his reaction to my question. “So, you’ve been keeping
tabs on me?”
I scoffed. “Clay is a small town, Bryan. You know
everyone in Clay was talking about it. Of course the
news got back to me.”
He took that moment to sit, not bothering to
respond. He settled back on my couch, making himself
comfortable. I couldn’t help but notice how manly and
rugged he looked as he sat there, his muscular shoulders
covered by his flannel shirt. He looked the same. If
anything, he was even more attractive now than he had
been ten years ago when I’d last set eyes on him.
“Sit down, Nikki. Please,” he said. He patted the space
next to him and I ignored his gesture and sat down on
the futon across from him.
“What is it, Bryan? Let’s cut through all the BS. I
know what you told my sister, but what do you really
want? To sell the property? If so, you don’t need my
blessing to do it. After all, it’s yours now.”
Bryan shook his head. “I have no interest in selling
your childhood home.”
“How thoughtful.”
He ignored my sarcastic tone. “I know you don’t have
SUMMER COOPER
14
fond memories of the place, but Kerrie loves it. I couldn’t
do that to her.”
“So sign the property over to Kerrie. Problem solved.
Are we done here?” I stood up then and walked over to
my door, opening it.
He studied me. His dark eyes not giving anything
away. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he didn’t
look too happy with me.
“Ok, I’ll leave,” he said, getting up. My eyebrows shot
up in surprise. Wow, that was e...