Nicole Edwards - Chasing Dreams

He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped being grateful for all of the fame that came along with his career, but in recent months, he was finding it harder and harder to want to keep moving forward. Instead, he found himself wanting to sneak out early, disappear on his own and find the solitude that had been lacking in his life for years.

His manager told him it was a phase that he’d be over soon. Cooper wasn’t so sure that was the case. Sure, he was thankful for his success, especially after he’d worked his ass off to get where he was, but Cooper was beginning to feel disconnected. As though he wanted more, but wasn’t sure what that more even was.

Hitting the big time and becoming a country music star might’ve been his original intention when he was a teenager, but he hadn’t known what all it entailed. Somewhere along the way, he felt as though he’d lost a part of himself. And despite all of the fans and the interactions, he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being alone that had started haunting him lately.

Cooper moved up close to the window, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with Adam in the confined space, downing half of his beer as he took in the silence while watching the overabundance of bodies below. His eyes landed on the woman he had glimpsed earlier. She was moving gracefully as she worked behind the bar and he found himself once again staring at her.

She was short, much shorter than most of the people standing around her. He couldn’t see much more than the snug black t-shirt that clung to her rather impressive curves, but he found himself trying to get a glimpse of the rest.

She looked like a country angel with her curly blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, the long strands falling down and over her shoulders. He couldn’t make out much of her features from this distance, but it was her dazzling white smile that captivated him. She was laughing with the man behind the bar, serving up drinks like she was born to run the crowded place.

“You meet my sister yet?” Adam asked, pulling Cooper from his visual assault of the cute bartender’s sultry smile.

“Haven’t met anyone, actually. I got here late, so I had to rush up on stage. The Realtor you referred me to decided tonight was a terrific night to show me another house.”

Adam just nodded his head, his attention once again on the folks below. “What’d you think of it?”

Cooper was beginning to relax again as he watched what was going on down on the main floor. There were still people coming in the door, and he was beginning to wonder just how many people the place could actually hold. He couldn’t imagine they’d be able to squeeze more than a couple hundred people between all four walls, but from the looks of it, they had almost twice that.

“This one is a little worse for wear than the one you mentioned. It needs more work, but I’m definitely interested. Don’t think the price can be beat. Luckily, I’m kinda handy.”

“A fixer-upper, huh?” Adam smiled at him, then returned his gaze to the scene below.

Fixer upper was an understatement, but for the price, Cooper could see himself making some serious progress on the house. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have some extra time on his hands.

And the land…

The property was almost double that of the one Adam had told him about. Hell, the two hundred forty acres were more than worth it. He had plans for the land which was the main draw of the property in the first place.

Movement at the front of the room close to the bar caught Cooper’s attention, and he looked over to see two men going chest to chest.

“Awww, hell. I’ll be right back,” Adam said with a groan, obviously seeing the melee that was about to erupt below.

As much as Cooper wanted to enjoy the solitude for a few more minutes, his instincts told him to follow Adam. The last thing he wanted was for a brawl to break out in his friend’s bar because of him. This happened more often than he wished it did. With this many women around, cowboys often had a hard time controlling themselves. Testosterone was a heady thing.

Dropping his now empty beer bottle in the trash can by the door, Cooper followed Adam, matching his fast pace as they made their way back to the main floor. By the time they reached the group, Cooper realized that the guy and the woman who had been manning the bar earlier were already attempting to break up the fight.

“Not here you don’t!” The sweet Texas twang of the woman’s words pierced something deep inside of Cooper, heard loud and clear over the music battling for attention in the overhead speakers. Cooper watched as the angel in blue jeans stepped right between the two oversized men as though she were six feet tall and bullet proof.

“Fuck off, dickhead!” One of the men shouted to the other over the top of the blonde’s head, ignoring her altogether.

Cooper took a step closer, praying like hell this woman wasn’t about to get knocked out by one of these assholes. His protective instinct suddenly kicked into high gear as he watched her attempt to stay right in the middle.

“Uh-uh. Not in here. This is your last warning, damnit!” The sassy cowgirl’s voice rose even louder, her drawl crystal clear and, despite her irritation, Cooper found he liked the sound of her voice as well as her spirit. A lot.

That’s when the shoving match ensued and, much to Cooper’s dismay, the cowgirl was pushed out of the way. Hard.

As the fists began flying, he watched her stumble backward. Somehow he managed to reach out and grab her before she crash-landed on the concrete floor at his feet. As grunts and groans echoed in the small area, Cooper grabbed the girl, pulling her out of the chaos, trying his best to shield her as the punches landed, neither of the men caring who got in their way.

Suddenly, a shrill, ear-splitting whistle sounded and to Cooper’s surprise, the rumble of voices died instantly. The two idiots stopped throwing punches, but neither of them moved far.

“Get your asses out of here,” the giant of a man said, his tone frighteningly calm as he moved closer to the two men who were now sweating, bleeding and breathing like they’d just run a marathon… in quick sand.

It took Cooper a minute to realize he was still holding the girl, her petite body pressed tightly against his as they stood on the sidelines staring back at the cowboy who managed to halt the fight with a whistle.

“Jack,” the woman said breathlessly, successfully wrenching out of Cooper’s arms and moving away.

Before she walked away, she turned to look at him, her pale green eyes meeting his as a blinding smile tilted the corners of her full pink lips. Cooper tipped his hat slightly at the same time he felt something strange and exciting stir up inside of him, rendering him speechless as he smiled back.

“Damn,” he groaned, turning away from the crowd and moving back to the stage. The least he could do was provide some entertainment and hopefully, by the end of the night, he’d have a chance to talk to the angel in blue jeans.

When they first walked out of the building, Tessa had fallen into step with her brothers at the same time two women began yelling obscenities from directly behind them. As much as she wanted to say something, she kept her mouth closed. No matter what she told them, the ladies weren’t likely to listen to reason anyway. Luckily, it only took Adam one piercing glare in their direction before they stopped their yapping.

Escorting the two hot-headed men over to Shane, one of their cousins who worked at the bar most frequently, Adam and Jack left them with instructions to ensure the men got home safely – and that meant they weren’t going to get behind the wheel of their own vehicles.

“You’ve got seriously good timing, you know that?” Adam asked Jack as they made their way back inside.

That he did. It seemed one of her brothers, usually Jack, was always having to come along and break up one fight or another. For the most part, they occurred at least once, sometimes twice on a Friday or Saturday night. Especially when they booked the more popular talent. Although, Tessa was pretty sure they had never had anyone bigger than Cooper Krenshaw on their stage.

As Tessa made her way back to the bar, she looked up to see him on the stage, his guitar in hand while he successfully distracted the crowd. A sudden flush of heat traveled from the base of her skull right down her spine when her eyes met his from across the room. Not five minutes before, she’d somehow landed practically in his lap, and her body had immediately taken stock of the feel of his hard body against her.

Something she hadn’t felt in… Well, since Richie.

While Cooper had been off with Adam during his break, Tessa received an earful about the country music phenom from a group of women standing around the bar, attempting to capture Eric’s attention since the superstar was nowhere in sight. Not that Tessa would trust anything she heard, but then again, since most of the chatter was about how nice his ass appeared in the Wrangler’s he wore, she could pretty much check that out herself.

Not that she would.

Ok, so she did.

And they were right.

“Is that Cooper Krenshaw?” Jack asked Adam as her brothers stood along the back corner of the bar where the sound system control panel was discreetly hidden.

“The one and only,” Adam answered easily, sounding entirely too proud of himself.

Tessa watched her baby brother as he moved behind the bar, grabbing a bottle of Southern Comfort from the shelf. Jack was the youngest of the three, and although they all had the same mother, she and Adam had a different father. For whatever reason, she found that she was closer to Jack than she was to Adam. Tessa was only a year younger than Adam, but she was three years older than Jack and, needless to say, she’d been an overprotective older sister. It wasn’t until Jack hit his twenties that he had taken over the protective role.

Tessa listened to her brothers as she tried to help out with the drinks, all the while her mind drifted back to the brief interlude she’d just shared with the famous country music star. Her body still tingled from where Cooper had touched her. It was the first time in a damn long time that her body actually craved the attention of another human being.

Considering she’d spent the better part of the first year and a half after Richie died grieving rather than living, Tessa hadn’t had much time for intimate relationships, nor had she wanted any. After one failed attempt at another relationship about a year ago, it hadn’t been until recently that Tessa even realized when the opposite sex was around her. At least not in any way that mattered.

In Cooper’s case, there was something in his touch, albeit brief, that felt familiar yet exciting at the same time. And oh, holy moly, he smelled so good. She would admit that she might’ve leaned against him a tad longer than was necessary just so she could sniff him.

Working to try and forget all that happened a few minutes ago, Tessa got wrapped up in passing out drinks while listening to that provocative voice that filtered through her bar. Thankfully, by tomorrow, all thoughts of Cooper Krenshaw would be a thing of the past and she could get on with her life.

No need to start dreaming about anything more now.

Especially about things even farther out of her reach.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Morning for Tessa didn’t begin until roughly noon on most days, but that was because she tried to get the required eight hours of sleep and going to bed at four o’clock in the morning meant the day was halfway over by the time she crawled out of bed.

She was a creature of habit, so it didn’t matter what time she woke up, the first thing she did each and every day was make coffee and sit on the front porch while Havoc and Harmony, her beloved Siberian Huskies that she had rescued from the animal shelter just over a year ago, frolicked in the yard in front of the house. Ever since she brought them home to live with her, they preferred to be outside as opposed to inside. Just like her.

So, this morning wasn’t much different than any other morning, with the exception of the dream that Tessa could not seem to stop thinking about. It continued to stream through her mind as she listened to the birds chirp and her dogs rumble and growl as they played in the grass just a few feet away from the steps she was perched on.

For the life of her, Tessa couldn’t get Cooper Krenshaw out of her head. Remembering the way it felt when the tall, dark haired cowboy had wrapped his arms around her, keeping her from stumbling right on her ass the night before was becoming annoying in its own right. Not only that, but that strange, bubbling sensation in her tummy when she pictured him in her mind wasn’t doing her any favors either.