Chapter Six
“Thanks a lot, guys,” Cooper said, glaring at his brothers.
“What?” Cash said. “You’re not seriously pissed, right?”
“I still don’t understand why you said she was old,” Cade said.
Cooper pushed his plate with the rest of his uneaten fries toward the middle of the table. They were cold now, anyway. “Maybe because I knew you guys would act like this?”
“Act like what?” Cash asked. “Act like we want to see our brother have a social life? You’ve lived like a damn monk ever since you and Mandy divorced. You’ve got to move on, dude.”
Cade rubbed his neck and stared at Cash.
Cooper knew he didn’t like when they argued. Frankly, neither did he.
“What I think Cash is trying to say,” Cade said, turning his attention to Cooper. “Is that you work so hard. Every day. You live and breathe the shop and it’s great that you’re so passionate. But you never take time off to chill. You need to go out sometimes and just do something. Or nothing.”
“I have,” Cooper replied. “I’ve gone out with friends a few times.” He’d been trying to get out more lately and hang out with some of the guys he’d met through snowmobiling. It was all right but not totally his thing. He’d rather hit the trails and ride then sit around in bars talking. “And what are we doing now?” Cooper asked.
“He means with a chick, Coop,” Cash said. “How many dates have you been on in the last three years?”
Cooper thought about this. He hadn’t dated anyone since his divorce. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t had sex here and there, with a couple of one-night stands. But it wasn’t something he was real proud of. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell his brothers. They looked up to him and he knew he had to be a role model so he’d never admit it. But an actual date where he picked a girl up and took her to dinner or whatever? That hadn’t happened since he first started dating Mandy.
“I don’t see why it matters,” he finally said to Cash.
“You see?” Cash asked Cade. “I told you he hadn’t dated anyone.”
It wasn’t just the divorce that had put Cooper off dating, though getting burned by Mandy hadn’t helped. He didn’t want to get distracted from their business. He’d been pushing himself, hard, for months to make it a success. After all, he was the one who had dragged both of his brothers from their lives in Chicago out to Wisconsin to go into business together. He always put on a brave face with them but inside he was terrified he’d made a terrible mistake. Sure, things had been great since they moved there, but would they survive the off season? The three had put together a plan during their meeting that afternoon for how to get through the warm months. They’re decided to take in mechanic work on motorcycles, ATVs, dirt bikes etc. over the summer. Some of their snowmobile regulars had already been coming by with their ATVs to check-in and chat. But they couldn’t just depend on word-of-mouth. Cash was going to whip up some marketing materials and drum up more business in the surrounding towns and hopefully things would be all right.
“Why is it a bad thing that I want to make our business a success? If I eventually meet someone I want to date, then I’ll do it. But for now, I want to concentrate on work,” Cooper said.
“You’re going to burn out, Coop. Working twenty-four, seven isn’t good for anyone,” Cade said.
Cooper could hear the concern in his voice and he felt himself soften. “I know. I know.”
“And I think that girl likes you,” Cash said.
Cooper gave his brother a questioning look. “Which part of her yelling at me makes you think she likes me?”
Cash grinned. “Just take it from me. I’m an expert on women.”
Cade rolled his eyes.
Cooper shook his head and returned his brother’s grin. He loved his brothers and he wanted to make everything good for them. He’d always felt responsible for them, ever since their mother died when he was seventeen years old. Cash and Cade had been fourteen and twelve at the time and Cooper stepped up and helped raise the boys. His dad was always busy with work and overwhelmed with the house and life in general so Cooper did what he could for his brothers. He went to their football games and school holiday programs. He took Cash to student council meetings and Cade to his trumpet lessons. He even baked cookies for Cade’s school book fair once. They had tasted truly awful. But he’d tried. He drove his brothers everywhere and when it was their turn to drive, he taught them. He was the oldest and remembered everything about their mom. She was the best mother any kid could have. And he tried so hard to do things the way that she would have, or the way she’d have wanted, anyway.
“I think,” Cooper begun and then hesitated. “I think,” he started again, “that I just don’t want to waste time anymore, you know? I’m thirty years old. I don’t want to date around for the hell of it. If I’m going to date someone, I want it to be someone I can see myself with for the long haul. Someone who’d be a good partner in life and that I’d want to share everything with. Someone who’d be a good mom to our kids, if we had them, that is,” he added.
“Like Mom,” Cash said.
Cooper nodded. “Like Mom. I don’t want to make a mistake again like my first marriage.”
Mandy had said she wanted the whole picture: a house in the suburbs, kids running around the yard, and toys and juice cups everywhere. Cooper thought he’d wanted that, too, at the time. But Mandy had made him feel like it was him who was keeping the dream from happening. He was the one delaying the start of their family because he wasn’t serious enough. He didn’t have a solid enough job or make enough money. So, after two years of marriage, she’d pulled the plug. And subconsciously, he’d have to agree with her. Something was holding him back, only he didn’t know what it was at the time. Mandy was a correctional officer at the nearby prison. Cooper knew she worked in a male-dominated field but he had trusted his wife. He found out after their divorce was finalized, that that had been a big mistake. Mandy had fooled around with a number of her co-workers at the prison, including her staff Sargent. Cooper was retroactively humiliated when he’d thought of how many of her co-worker’s birthday parties and family picnics he’d attended with her. They must have all looked at him like he was such a fool.
“But you’re never going to find someone you can have that kind of real relationship with hanging out with Cash and me and working in the shop all day every day. You have, to open up, man.” Cade said.
“You’re just so enlightened now that you’re about to pop…” Cooper started.
“Shh!” Cade said and nodded.
Cooper turned around. Jessie was across the room standing behind the bar, cutting limes. She waved to them.
Cade waved back.
“Sorry,” Cooper said. “Okay, okay. I’ll think about opening up more and you two get off my back about it. Sound good?”
Cash shrugged. Cooper could tell he was already over the conversation.
“Sure. For now,” Cade said and playfully slapped his brother on the shoulder.
Cooper picked up his beer and drained the last of the mug. “All right, boys. I’m going to get moving. I have a few things I still want to get done tonight. You sticking around?”
“Yeah, I’m waiting for Jessie to get off work,” Cade said.
“Just going to finish my beer and then I’m off, too. Hot date,” Cash said.
“Of course. Okay, see you later.” Cooper pushed up from his seat and headed toward the door.
Becca was bussing a table near the exit and glanced up. She winked at him and then turned her focus back to the table.
The night was quiet as Cooper strode out to his car. He thought about what his brothers had said and about Becca. Yeah, she was cute but he thought that as soon as he’d seen her after the accident. He still thought she might have a bit of a crazy streak to her and he didn’t want any part of crazy. She’d bring her car into the shop and he’d help her with her bumper and then that would be that. He’d only see her if he bumped into her around town again or when he stopped in the pub, if she was working that was.
His brothers liked to tease him a lot about being too serious and spending too much time obsessing about their business. But they didn’t understand just how important the shop was to him. It was the most important thing in his world now. After ten years of floating from one job to another, he finally felt like he was doing what he was always meant to do. Cooper had tried it all. He’d spent time as a courier, delivering packages around the city. Then he worked at a call center for an online store. He even took a course to become an EMT at one point before he realized he didn’t really like the sight of blood or being around sick people. He never felt passion for any of the various careers he’d tried though, not until now. And he was too old to play games. He wasn’t messing thing up for himself again. Not a chance.