A Fallow Heart (Tommy Creek #2)(27)

Damn it, why had he tried arguing with her about raising the child, why had he upset her even more?

Coop patted his belly and forced a smile. “Yeah, Mom’s fattened me up since I moved back home.” But his nerves strung themselves stiff with irritation as he mentioned his mother. After finding that damning letter, he’d yet to talk to his mom.

But he didn’t want to think about that right now, even though it was another reason he’d been craving a night out, away from home.

Emma Leigh snorted. “Fat! What fat? You’re pure muscle, boy.” She reached out to squeeze his bicep only to gasp as she prodded his taut flesh with investigative pokes. “Good God, Coop. That’s rock solid right there. Do you eat straight iron for breakfast or what?”

“Okay, okay,” Branson cut in, laughing nervously as he grasped Em’s wrist and manually removed her hand from Coop’s body. “That’s enough of touching the nice man’s muscles, dear.”

Coop chuckled as he studied her husband. Decked out in a prim and proper polo shirt with Dockers pants, the guy had city written all over him, yet Cooper found himself liking him anyway. He’d never pictured Em settling down with anyone in the first place, but if he had to pair her off, a man with this kind of staid, preppy look about him would definitely not have been his first guess. And yet, his friend seemed extremely content.

Cooper shook his head. Fate didn’t let you choose who you fell in love with; that was for damn sure. Just ask his mother.

“He seems more like the type to hook up with the princess,” he told Em before realizing what he’d just said.

Emma Leigh propped her elbow on Cooper’s shoulder and studied her own husband. “Yeah,” she fully agreed. “But I love him anyway.”

Branson glanced from Em to Cooper, scowling. “Huh?” he said. “Translation please.”

Emma swept away from Cooper to kiss her husband full on the mouth. “Coop says you look like you belong more with Joey than you do me.”

Arching a brow, Branson slid his gaze over her shoulder and grinned almost guiltily at Cooper. “Well, actually,” he started, the tops of his cheeks glowing with a light blush. “I tried for Jo Ellen first. But this one tricked me, so I ended up stuck with her instead.” By the satisfied gleam in his eyes, he didn’t seem too upset about the deception.

But his account of events had Emma glaring at him, obviously not amused. “I did not trick you.”

Snorting, Branson crinkled his brow and with a very bland voice, stated, “If you’ll recall, the only reason I kissed you that first night was because I thought you were Jo Ellen.”

Emma jerked away from him and set her hands on her hip. “What I recall is that you didn’t kiss me at all. I kissed you, moron. And the only reason you pulled away was because you thought I was her.”

“Well, what the hell were you doing, parading around as her anyway? If I’d known it was you, I might’ve—”

A couple of stools away from Cooper, Lexi plopped down, seemingly unconcerned by the yelling match going on between her brother and his wife. With a glance at Dex, she said, “We might as well order our supper now. This’ll probably take a while.”

“—If you had really known it was me, you probably would’ve kissed me before I could put the moves on you.”

“Oh, bullshit. You irritated the hell out of me back then.”

“You mean I intrigued you.”

Realizing the heat in their eyes really had nothing to do with anger and a whole lot to do with enthusiasm, Coop leaned toward their seated companions to ask, “So, they do this a lot, huh?”

Lexi rolled her eyes and spotted a bowl full of beer nuts on the counter in front of her. Pulling them close, she stuffed her mouth and talked around the peanuts. “Oh, all the time.”

“They like it,” Dex added, snagging his own handful. “It’s weird.”

“But strangely works for them.” Lexi shrugged.

“Well some people, especially identical twins, should have a little common courtesy and let a person know who she is before she goes and kisses him.”

As Branson ranted, Dex paused his chewing to frown at his wife. “Are you sure it’s okay for you to eat all this salt?”

“I’m starving!” Lexi exploded just as Emma railed, “Oh! You…how could you not know it was me if you supposedly had such a big crush on me?”

“Besides,” Lexi muttered to Dex, “I don’t know how I can retain any more fluids. I already feel like a walking water balloon as it is.”

Thoroughly entertained by the two conversations interweaving around him, Cooper leaned back against the wall and watched, munching on his own handful of nuts.

Branson scowled at Emma Leigh as if absolutely affronted. “I do not get crushes.” The word was obviously beneath him. “I may have had a small thing for you—”

“A thing called a crush,” Emma Leigh taunted, but her husband ignored her as he finished, “But you were acting a hell of lot like Jo Ellen that night, wearing that…that dress.”

“A dress?” Coop arched his eyebrows. “Wow, you have changed, Em.”

Emma Leigh grinned over at him and winked. “I looked good in it too.” Then she whirled back to glare at her husband. “And I can dress up like Jo Ellen if I so desire. It doesn’t mean I am her.”