Page 31 of Love Me, Cowboy
“I love you, baby,” her father said, dropping a kiss on her forehead.
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
* * *
By Friday morning, Tyler had turned his phone off. Claire had sent three text messages and left him a voice mail. The texts had been requests to talk, but as far as Tyler was concerned, Claire had said all she needed to say at her parents’ house.
He’d not bothered to listen to the voice mail, but he also couldn’t bring himself to delete it. What could she possibly have to say? She couldn’t take the words back. They’d been spoken in anger toward her mother, which meant that’s how she truly felt.
He’ll get a respectable job eventually.
Just thinking about the words made him angry all over again. Which meant he was stewing mad when he answered the unexpected knock on his door. If she thought she could show up unannounced and make him listen...
But Claire wasn’t the one knocking on his door.
“Cooter?” Cooter Hightower worked as a ranch hand on the Double H. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, happy to see you, too,” he said, not waiting for an invitation before barging past Tyler and dropping onto the arm of the couch. “Before you turn that temper on me, I’m only the messenger.”
“Does Dad need me for something?” Tyler would usually have reported to the barn first thing in the morning, but as it was the day of Bug’s rehearsal dinner, the hands were taking care of business to let the family celebrate.
Not that Tyler felt much like celebrating.
“This message is from Carlene.”
“Your girlfriend?” Considering both Cooter and Carlene were in their fifties, using the term girlfriend felt out of place, but as Cooter refused to tie the knot, that was the only word that applied.
“You’re an asshole.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s the message.”
As Tyler hadn’t seen Carlene in longer than he could remember, nor had he done anything to provoke her, Cooter’s message didn’t make a lick of sense.
“Are you sure she wasn’t calling you an asshole?” Tyler asked. “Last I checked, you’re the one who won’t make an honest woman out of her.”
Cooter shook his head. “This ain’t about my love life. Miss Claire stopped into the school today. Carlene saw her in the hall during her potty break and said the poor thing was a mess. Eyes all swollen and red from crying.”
The nosy school secretary needed to mind her own business.
“I don’t see what that has to do with me.”
“She said you’d say that.” Cooter crossed his arms. “Makes you an even bigger asshole if you ask me.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “I’m not asking you anything except to get out of my house. What happens between me and Claire is no one’s business, especially not yours and Carlene’s.”
“She ask you to stop riding?” Cooter asked, taking Tyler by surprise.
“No, she didn’t.” Why was he even answering the question? “This conversation is over.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is none of your business,” Tyler growled, yanking his front door open. “Now get out before I throw you out.”
“Will you throw me out, too?” asked a familiar voice from the doorway.
Tyler turned to see Claire standing on his threshold, engulfed in a bulky sweater, looking pale and fragile. “Now I’ll go,” Cooter said, sliding out the door with a tip of his ball cap in Claire’s direction. “Good luck, ma’am.”