Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) by Nicole Edwards Read Free Book Online Page A

it.
    Whether
or not he would admit it to anyone directly, Cooper wasn’t just looking for a
place to start over. He was looking for something that was missing from his
life. Recent events had changed his course, and he needed something more than
what he was currently getting. According to Marcus, happiness came with a
price, but it seemed like the more he paid, the less he got.
    Stardom
had its downside and one of them was the loneliness that came along with it. He
wasn’t referring to the women necessarily either. They were a dime a dozen, but
that novelty had worn off years ago. No, Cooper was referring to the
interaction with other people on a much more intimate level. Unless he was with
his parents, Cooper rarely spent time with anyone who actually knew him. And
that included his manager, who seemed to think he knew what was best for him,
despite Cooper’s frequent disagreements.
    “How
about tonight?” she asked, glancing back and forth between him and her brother.
She was obviously changing the subject and Cooper was grateful for that.
    “Tonight’s
good.” He was in the process of buying the Deluth farm, which meant he had some
time to kill before he could actually move in and get started. Working at the
bar would help him to get familiar with the people in town, as well as give him
something to do with his spare time. And the added bonus was that Cooper now
had an excuse to spend more time with Tessa.
    “It’s
settled then,” Adam’s smile looked both satisfied and concerned, but Cooper
didn’t say anything more.
    There
would apparently be plenty of time to figure out how this was supposed to work.

Chapter Five
    Cooper
wasn’t sure what Adam’s idea of settled was, but clearly it wasn’t the same as
his, that was for damn sure.
    Several
hours later, he was sitting on a stool in The Rusty Nail , doing
absolutely nothing except talking to anyone who approached him. When he had
asked Tessa what it was that he could do to help out, she’d flat out told him
to do what he did best. When he simply stared at her, she had followed it up by
telling him to find a chair and look pretty.
    He’d
laughed it off at first. Until he realized she was serious.
    The
bar was slowly filling up, although he noticed they didn’t have quite the
impressive turnout as the night before. There wasn’t an act on stage, but
Cooper’s mind was whirling with possibilities. If he was going to be in charge
of the entertainment, he was going to ensure that every Friday and Saturday
night had live music. Why the hell shouldn’t they have someone on stage drawing
in the crowds? There was plenty of new talent that would love the opportunity
to play in front of these people. And he had a few friends who would surely get
a kick out of playing in the small town bar.
    To
his surprise, he’d found out that The Rusty Nail was only open Thursday,
Friday, Saturday and Monday nights. When he asked Adam for the reason, he was
told that they didn’t bring in enough business during the week. Devil’s Bend
was a small town, and it was saying something that they managed to draw in a
lot of their patrons from the bigger neighboring towns. Based on Adam’s
explanation, Tessa liked the part time schedule.
    “Hey,
handsome,” a sultry voice sounded from behind him and Cooper turned to see a
tall, willowy brunette standing within just a few inches of him.
    Cooper
smiled at her, giving her a slow once over. Before she said another word, he
was already predicting how this conversation would go. Had he been just a
random cowboy in a bar, he’d at least have the pleasure of going through the
preliminaries with a woman, but he doubted this conversation was going to go
that way.
    When
the brunette’s hand quickly trailed up his thigh, he couldn’t hide his grin.
Too easy.
    “What
do ya say we get outta here for a while?” she asked, batting her fake eyelashes
and letting her hand wander freely as though he’d actually invited her to