Read Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) for Free Online

though it were
an afterthought to offer. She didn’t want this man to drink her coffee. She
didn’t want him to sit on her couch. She didn’t want him to steal her heart
and…
    Oh,
what the hell was she thinking? It’s just coffee.
    “Yes,
ma’am,” he said in that dark, rich tone that made her pulse thump rapidly.
    “No
need to call me ma’am,” she told him, not bothering to look up as she poured
his coffee. He didn’t answer, but she knew he heard her.
    Without
another thought, Tessa handed him the cup and turned to walk away, letting him
know that the cream was in the refrigerator and sugar on the counter should he
need it. The proximity was too much. She needed to get away, preferably outside
where she could smell the sweet, lingering scent of the country and not the
potent scent of Cooper Krenshaw.
    Cooper
damn it. His name was Cooper. He was just a normal person like the rest of
them. It didn’t mean a thing that his voice was crooning all over radio
stations worldwide or that his face was well known on the front cover of
magazines. And it didn’t matter that he’d won an award or probably twenty for
his music.
    A
few minutes later, the three of them were sitting on the front porch, Adam
perched on the wood railing, Tessa in the lone wicker chair and Cooper on the
porch swing. She much preferred the swing, but the possibility of him sitting
beside her was a risk she hadn’t been willing to take, so her choice of seating
had been calculated for her self-preservation.
    Now
that they were all seated, no one was speaking. There was no rushing her
brother, but Tessa sensed he wanted to talk. Not only because he had shown up
at her house at an ungodly hour after a particularly long night but because he
looked as though he had something on his mind. Rather than pelt him with
questions, Tessa chose to focus her attention on Harmony and Havoc who were
once again frolicking in the yard like puppies.
    “Coop’s
gonna buy Old Man Deluth’s farm,” Adam said out of the blue and Tessa damn near
spilled her coffee in her lap.
    What
the fuck?
    “What
do you mean he’s gonna buy it?”
    “Just
what I said,” Adam answered, one eyebrow cocking as he looked back at her
before his gaze transferred to Cooper.
    That
wasn’t even possible. Cooper could not be buying the Deluth farm because Tessa
was buying it. She’d been paying Old Man… er… Jerry Deluth for several years, a
little at a time until she had enough for the down payment so she could take
over the rest of the payments. It was an agreement they had made a very long
time ago, before...
    Before
Jerry passed away two months ago.
    Tessa
frowned as she peered at Cooper. She’d still been making the payments like
clockwork.
    Surely,
Adam had to be wrong.
    First
of all, why would the famous country music star want to live in Devil’s Bend?
For some reason that did not sound like a good idea, and Tessa knew it wasn’t
just because of her intense attraction to the man.
    Hold
up… that wasn’t the point. Regardless.
    “I
wouldn’t say it’s much of a farm anymore,” Cooper added, grinning at Adam.
“Maybe one day, but right now, it’s more of a shamble of a house and two
hundred forty acres of weeds.”
    Tessa
smiled despite herself at the way he enunciated the words, sounding very much
like he was born and raised in the south. And definitely not from Texas. She
wondered if he’d come by his drawl naturally or if it had been developed for
his country music persona.
    Realizing
she wasn’t supposed to be smiling, she forced her attention back to Adam. “When
did this happen?”
    “Talk
to him,” Adam told her. “He’s the one buying the place.”
    “But…”
Wait. No. Tessa was not going to mention the fact that she had a stake in that
place. After all, she’d never told Adam that she was buying it for a reason.
And thankfully her brother Jack had kept her secret as well. She wasn’t looking
for a hand out, and she knew all too well that Adam