Missing the Stars: Chandler County Read online

  Cautiously he got out of the car as if he expected the whole façade to fall apart as soon as he climbed out of the safety of his car and then he would find yet another thing would be weighing on his shoulders. Only, when he got out of the car, nothing happened. A horse whinnied in the field, and another took off galloping across the expanse of green. Birds chirped and insects buzzed by, but nothing bad happened. Nothing was going to collapse because he had deigned to come home. It was merely his ego that had made him think he was so important, everything revolved around him.

  A whistle sounded beside him, and he turned slowly to look at the woman who had gotten out of his car. The same woman he had completely forgotten all about and who was currently taking in the farm with obvious admiration. He couldn’t blame her; it was a sight to behold. Once again, he found himself wondering if he would have come back if his parents had lived. Would he have helped run the farm? While Cole loved the farm, he hadn’t wanted to stay there.

  “This is some farm,” Jessie spoke beside him.

  “You’ve never been out here? Not even to check up on JD and see where he was working or to make sure he actually worked here?”

  “I deserve that jab. I know how freakishly overprotective I sound. You would understand if you knew our background.”

  “Why don’t you enlighten me?” he asked, brows lifted, but before she could respond to his question, he heard footsteps behind him. Right before a very familiar voice spoke.

  “Cole! Damn, it’s good to see you.”

  Without hesitation, they strode to each other and embraced. The years had been kind to Coop. Both men had filled out in the right places when they had become adults. They were no longer the lanky boys who had played basketball and helped propel the team to back-to-back state championships. Now they were tall and muscular. Coop from putting in a lot of hard labor on the farm and Cole from working his ass off at the gym to stay on top of his game. A lot of his jobs were risky, and he needed to be in top form at all times. With a pat on his brother’s back, he released him.

  “It sure is.”

  “Who’s the pretty little filly here?” Coop asked, but Cole knew with one hundred percent certainty that Coop knew exactly who was standing a few feet away. However, he was pretty sure his brother had no idea that his choice of words was likely to cause a very strong reaction from the little filly.

  “Odd, I don’t see any fillies in your field.” The smile on her face was sugary sweet, but the tone was completely “screw you.” Coop smiled from ear to ear, knowing he’d hit a soft spot and turned on the charm. “If you’re referring to me, which I believe you were, then I will also say that you know exactly who I am.” Now the smile was not sugary sweet, but rather ice cold. Jessie Carpenter was not a fan of Coop.

  “Well, I guess we know where we stand, huh? Even if you might not believe me, it’s nice to finally make your acquaintance. I had asked your brother to invite you out several times, but he didn’t seem ready to do that.”

  “Because he hated when I checked up on him.”

  “I imagine that had something to do with it.” Coop was choosing his words carefully. Cole suspected he knew far more about the situation than he was letting on.

  “Let’s cut through the BS.” It was no surprise Jessie had picked up on it as well. “Where is my brother?”

  “I can honestly tell you I have no idea. I haven’t seen him in a couple of days. I didn’t want to alarm you over the phone; I had hoped he would be back by now. I thought he was out partying. The derby is right around the corner, and he was feeling a bit stressed out. I told him to go let off some steam.”

  “Has he called?” Jessie asked. For now, Cole was content to watch the verbal volley of words. Soaking it all in, waiting for any nuances that would tip him off to what was really going on.

  “No. I’ve tried to call him, and it goes straight to voicemail as I’m sure it does when you call. I’m sorry, Jessie. I’m not trying to be obtuse, but I really have no idea where he might be and why he isn’t answering his calls. To be frank, I’ve become concerned about his whereabouts and that’s why I called my brother for advice. It was my good luck that he was nearby and got here so quickly to try to help me—us—out.”

  Bullshit. What in the hell was he up to? Cole wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew he was going to get to the bottom of it. He also knew there was a hidden message in his brother’s speech. He just didn’t know what it was. Maybe his brother would be more forthcoming if Jessie wasn’t there. If that was the case, he was going to have to find a way to discreetly get her to leave, or at least get her out of earshot, since he was her ride.

  “Can I take a look through his room?” she asked.

  Bingo. This would be his opportunity to talk to Coop alone.

  “Sure, I’ll show you to his room.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a peek around the barn. After you show her the room, can you come give me a tour?”

  “Absolutely, I’ve been waiting a long time for you to come here and check out the farm. There’s so much to show you,” he said, smiling widely.

  After they left, Cole wandered over to the fence to watch the horses dancing in the field. They were precision. Every last one of them. Cole itched to go for a ride on one of them, but he hadn’t ridden a horse since he left Bourbonville. It used to be something that he had once enjoyed so much, but now it only reminded him of his parents. One of the horses wandered over to the fence and nudged at his hands hanging over the side of the fence, probably looking for a treat.

  “That’s Starlight; she’s retired now. Most of the horses you see are retired. I started buying them and giving them a home for their golden years. Some are being boarded here.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Race the Stars is my only racehorse right now. Mom and Dad left us enough money to keep the farm solvent. I didn’t shit away my inheritance.”

  “So, you don’t need Race the Stars to win to keep the farm afloat?”

  “Nope. I just want to give him a chance at the crown. He’s good. Really good.”

  “What the hell’s going on, Coop?”

  “I’m not sure. What I do know is I woke up two days ago, minus a horse and a jockey.”

  “Best guess?”

  “Right now, my best guess is my jockey ran off with my horse for a big payday.”

  “The hell you say.” Both men turned around in unison to look at the pissed-off woman who was shooting proverbial daggers at them with her eyes.

  5

  Jessie wasn’t stupid. She knew a setup when she saw one. Little did they know that they weren’t setting her up as much as she was doing the same to them. They had no idea how JD had begged her to come to visit and how she would have if she could have gotten away. She also knew they assumed the second Coop had left her alone in JD’s room she would be searching for clues to his disappearance. What they didn’t know was they had underestimated and misread her. She was a shadow as she snuck out to see what they were up to. It wasn’t hard to follow Coop. She knew if it were Cole, she never would have been able to sneak up behind him. As it was, she was shocked he hadn’t sensed her, but at second glance, she suspected he might have known what her plan was all along.

  “My brother wouldn’t have stolen your horse.” The words flew viciously out of her mouth.

  “Shit!” Coop dragged his hand through his hair and then stuffed it in the pocket of his pants. “I don’t know what to believe right now. All I know is that my horse is missing and so is my jockey, and I want to believe he isn’t behind it.”

  “Well then, believe it because JD would never steal from you.”

  “How can you be so certain?” Cole took a cautious step toward her, like he thought he would spook her.

  “Because.” Her chin jutted out and her mouth clamped shut. She didn’t know if these men could be trusted.

  “Well, sorry, darling, but because isn’t good enough. How about we make a deal right now? Y
ou stop bullshitting us, Coop stops bullshitting me, and we all work together to figure this out, so I can go on my merry way.”

  Coop’s face had turned to granite. Jessie sensed he wasn’t happy about his brother wanting to leave so quickly. It wasn’t her concern. Her concern was her own brother and finding out where in the world he was, and more importantly, proving he didn’t steal Race the Stars. She knew he would never do something so stupid—not without a very good reason. He would never dishonor his parents' memory that way.

  “Fine by me.” Voice flippant, she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip out to the side.

  “Coop?”

  “I’m not holding back.”

  Again, tension crackled between the brothers. Judging by his furrowed brow, Cole didn’t believe Coop. They weren’t the only ones feeling tense. Her back was rigid from fear and her pulse was beating at an unnaturally fast pace as she thought about all the things that could have happened to JD. The sweltering heat bore down on her, causing a fine sheen of sweat to form on her upper lip. Her mouth felt like the Sahara Desert, and she was almost drooling over the water in the horse trough. It wasn’t even that hot out, but she hadn’t eaten in…shit, she couldn’t remember how long. For sure since before she’d been trying to find JD.

  “Listen, I’m not here to cause trouble. I just want to find my brother and go home.” She swayed slightly, and her vision blurred.

  “Jessie? Are you all right?” Cole took a quick step toward her and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her body tight against his own. “Jessie? What’s going on?”

  Her body seemed like it was floating as he helped her to a bench and slowly lowered her to sit, then he was crouching in front of her, his hand on her wrist checking her pulse. Slowly the dizzy spell let up enough for her to focus on the man in front of her. At least she was only seeing one of him now. She breathed in through her nose and held the air, counting silently to ten before releasing the breath.

  “I’m okay. I skipped breakfast.” With a glance at her watch, she grimaced. “And lunch.”

  “When is the last time you ate?”

  “That’s a tricky question. I had a quick bite to eat yesterday. I think. Wait, nope, I don’t think that’s true. Low blood sugar. I should have known better—the heat combined with not eating was a recipe for disaster.”

  “You haven’t eaten a meal in two days?” His voice was sharp, and she frowned at him.

  “I guess not. It’s really none of your concern.”

  “It sure as hell is when you just about collapse in front of us.”

  “Really, I’m a big girl. Thirty years old. I can take care of myself.”

  She had hardly finished speaking before he was up and moving, mumbling under his breath “clearly you can’t,” as his long strides ate up the distance to his car. He rifled around for a moment before he climbed out of the car and strode back to her and deposited a bottle of water and energy bar in her hands.

  “Drink some water and eat that. Once you feel steady on your feet, we’ll go inside. I’m sure Coop has something we can feed you, and while you eat, we’ll discuss things. All of us.” She didn’t miss the pointed look he sent toward his brother.

  Her hands were shaking so hard she was struggling to get the wrapper open when without so much as a word, Cole took the energy bar from her, opened it, and handed it back to her. Then he took the bottle of water and opened it before handing that back to her as well. Like a sentry, he stood over her, watching as she ate the energy bar and drank the liquid gold. Slowly, she began to feel slightly normal again; the sweaty, uncomfortable feeling was dissipating, and she felt able to have a conversation.

  “Better?” Cole asked.

  “Yes. Thank you.” She glanced over at Coop who was leaning a hip against the fence surrounding the field, the picture of amused nonchalance.

  “Time’s up, Coop. Get your sorry ass inside and tell me what’s going on.”

  It was refreshing hearing the alpha male directing his orders at someone else. It wasn’t like she could really complain. He’d been looking out for her when he was giving her instructions to eat. He wasn’t really bossing her around. Not to mention it’s not like Coop would go inside if he didn’t want to. Coop was no less alpha then Cole was. As a matter of fact, she wouldn’t bet on a fight between the two men. Though she suspected it would take a lot for the two men to come to blows over anything. With a shrug, the man moved away from the fence and walked toward the house, letting it be known by his carefree walk that he wouldn’t be going inside if he didn’t want to.

  “I suspect you didn’t actually look at anything in JD’s room? You’re welcome to look after we’re done talking,” he said over his shoulder as he walked.

  “I would appreciate that. Thank you.” Even though it pained her to thank the man who had given her the runaround for the better part of a day over the phone.

  Once inside, Coop led them into the living room. It wasn’t exactly what she’d been expecting. She didn’t know what she thought she’d see for interior design, but the warm country look wasn’t it. Cole paused for a brief second before pushing forward into the room. His reaction seemed odd. If she wasn’t mistaken, his face was slightly pale, as if he’d seen a ghost. She thought she understood the reaction. Jessie didn’t wait for an invitation to sit down. She was still a little wobbly and gratefully took a seat on the couch.

  “The place hasn’t changed, has it? It’s like a damn museum,” Cole murmured to himself.

  “Some of the house has been updated, but the furniture is the same. It was relatively new when Mom and Dad died. I couldn’t bring myself to switch it out. I don’t spend a lot of time in this room. It reminds me too much of them.”

  “Yeah. I just wasn’t expecting it. That’s all.”

  “You’re not the only one still hurting over their deaths.”

  Suddenly uncomfortable with the obviously private conversation, she busied herself by looking at the pattern of the armchair. It pained her to see the emotions on their faces. The brothers were still raw from the loss of their parents’ and had clearly not moved on.

  “I know that. Don’t you think I know that? Anyway, that’s not why I’m here.”

  “No, you’re right.”

  “The question is, why the hell am I really here, Coop?”

  “All in good time. For now, I’m going to get Ms. Carpenter a sandwich. You eat meat, right?” His tone was a touch chiding, and Cole looked taken aback.

  “Shit. You’re right. I’m sorry.” Coop had managed to chastise Cole for forgetting why they’d come inside, which was ostensibly to feed her.

  “Can I help you?” Jessie asked.

  “No, that’s okay. I’llget the stuff we need and lay it all out on the dining table, and you can help yourself to what you want.”

  “Sounds perfect.” As if to punctuate the sentence, her stomach growled. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was.

  They made their way into the dining room, and she watched as the men brought tray after tray of sandwich fixings into the dining room and set them on the table. Along with the bread, assortment of lunch meats, toppings, and dressings, they had also brought out chips for her to choose from. It was the epitome of a man’s lunch. She heaped her sandwich with meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayo. As she picked it up to take a bite, she realized the mistake she’d made. Obviously, her stomach had been in control when the sandwich was being made and not her eyes because there was little chance she would be able to take a bite without making a fool of herself. But she was so hungry she didn’t really care. Shrugging, she valiantly attempted to sink her teeth into the monstrosity. She was blissfully chewing when she heard a chuckle from behind her. Cole and Coop had been busy getting beverages and had told her to help herself. They had happened back into the room in time to witness her gluttonous display. She just wiped her face with the napkin that was provided and proceeded to watch as they made sandwiches that dwarfed her own.


  They all ate in silence until their plates were clean. As soon as Coop ate his last bite, which Jessie suspected he had purposely been taking his time to do, Cole squared his shoulders and stared his brother down.

  “Why am I here?”

  “To help me find my horse and jockey.”

  “Bullshit. You know better than to try to pull one over on me. So just freaking spill it already.”

  “There’s nothing to spill. I need my horse back. That’s all. I would prefer to have my jockey back as well.”

  “You’re holding back, and I can’t help you if you aren’t one hundred percent honest with me.”

  “I really don’t know where they are. I mean, initially, I did.”

  “What do you mean, initially?”

  “I mean that initially, the plan was for me to call you and pretend they were missing.”

  “And why would you do that?” Cole was spitting the words out between gritted teeth.

  “I needed a way to get you to freaking come home.”

  “Wait, so when I called last night, he wasn’t missing?” Jessie knew her voice sounded shrill, but she didn’t care. She was torn between being pissed and relieved. Pissed because she could have warned JD if she had been able to get ahold of him. Relieved because if he had only been missing a little less than a day, then the trail wasn’t that cold yet.

  “No.”

  “And that’s why you were being so short on the phone? But why wasn’t he answering my phone calls?” she asked.

  “Yes, and that I can’t tell you.”

  “You were going to lie to get me to come home?” Cole asked, acidly.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s about damn time you dealt with all of the baggage. You know you can’t hide from here forever.” Coop stood and began pacing and ran his hands through his hair, finally letting his cool demeanor slip and his agitation show. “When you called, Jessie, I told you I couldn’t find them, but JD was really out partying, and Race the Stars was in the barn.”