“Did you ever think it wouldn’t be?”

Cooper couldn’t help but wonder what was spurring all of Tessa’s questions. He suddenly felt like he was under a microscope and she was digging for something specific. He never was one to circumvent the difficult questions, so he opted to go for the truth. “I always expected to work for what I wanted. I didn’t expect to get so far away from what I started out doing. That’s what I miss.”

“Playing in the small town bars?”

Cooper chuckled. “That’s part of it, but not all. I miss the fans, I miss getting in touch with what they want. I’ve spent the last few years letting other people make all of my decisions for me. I want to regain some of the control, I guess.”

Rose interrupted their conversation when she brought their drinks, but she didn’t linger and for that Cooper was grateful. “So, what else you got for me?”

“What brought you to Devil’s Bend?”

He had expected that question before now, but he actually hadn’t given it much thought. “I’m not sure what brought me to Texas,” he explained. “But as soon as I found myself here, I called Adam. He’s the reason I came to Devil’s Bend.”

“But you came to Texas on your own?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Are you originally from here?”

“I’m from a small town in Tennessee,” he admitted. “I grew up there, but came to Texas my freshman year of college at UT.”

“That’s how you met my brother.” It wasn’t a question, but Cooper nodded his affirmation anyway.

As much as he liked the idea of Tessa getting to know him better, Cooper couldn’t help but wonder whether she was actually trying to deflect from herself tonight. Not that he blamed her after their impromptu conversation over breakfast the other morning hadn’t gone so well.

Little did she know, but he was almost at his quota of personal information for the night. At least until she offered up some of the same answers for herself.

After all, it was only fair.

Chapter Sixteen

Tessa was on a roll and as long as Cooper was willing to answer her questions, she didn’t feel the need to stop asking them. That was until he pinned her with that look. The one that told her she wasn’t going to like the spin he was about to put on this entire conversation.

Yes, she knew early on that if she bombarded him with questions that he’d eventually get to take a turn. That was why she hadn’t let a single second pass before she asked another. Hell, part of the time she barely had time to process his answer before she was looking for something else to ask.

Apparently she wasn’t fast enough.

“I think it’s my turn.”

Darn it.

“Your turn for what?” Her rule of thumb: always play dumb, it helped to confuse them.

Thankfully, Rose chose that moment to arrive with their food, her gaze still glued to Cooper as she set their food on the table and went through the motions of making sure they didn’t need anything else. Tessa was pretty sure she could’ve asked for anything at all, and Rose would’ve agreed to go get it for her. Instead, she chose to keep quiet, quickly tossing French fries in her mouth so she wouldn’t have to answer any questions if Cooper decided to throw a few her way.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

“So, I know you grew up in Devil’s Bend,” Cooper commented, grabbing the ketchup and pouring some onto his plate.

“Yep,” she mumbled, her mouth full.

“You’ve never lived anywhere else?”

“Nope.” See, this wasn’t so bad. She could do this if he kept asking closed ended questions.

“What about college?”

“What about it?” Tessa could see the irritation in his eyes, but she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t want this conversation to turn on her. She remembered all too well what happened the last time they tried this. As much as she liked being in Cooper’s company, she certainly didn’t want to give him a glimpse into her life. If she did, she risked getting too close to him.

“Where’d you go?”

Paying attention to the food on her plate, Tessa swallowed hard. “I didn’t.”

“Why?”

There were many reasons, but none she cared to share with him. Not that he was going to be pleased with her deflection, but Tessa honestly didn’t want to go into this.

“Tessa,” Cooper said quietly, pulling her attention to him.

His sparkling brown eyes were so full of interest, Tessa felt like a jerk for trying to avoid him. No, it probably wasn’t fair that she’d asked him a barrage of personal questions, but didn’t want to sit on the other side of the interrogation table so to speak.

“Do we have to talk about me?” she asked, just as quietly.

“I want to know you.”

God, why did he have to sound so sincere?

Swallowing hard, Tessa pushed her food around on her plate. She recalled Izzy’s statement from earlier: Give this guy a chance.

“Richie and I fell in love in high school,” she began, which wasn’t necessarily true, but close. Tessa wasn’t going to tell Cooper that she’d been a wild child, one that had ventured long past smart ideas and into extremely reckless territory and that was actually how she met Richie.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so he went to college while I stayed back here and worked. At the time, Jack’s dad had just had his second heart attack, and Adam had already started his first year at UT. And because he wasn’t always here, I felt obligated to stay here with Jack. Not to mention, I didn’t have the money to go. Neither did my mother.”

“What about your father? Where was he?”

“Who knows. The guy was unreliable. He left when I was two and he wasn’t much on being a father after that. I think I probably saw him ten times my entire life even though he lived just a couple of miles away.”

Tessa hated talking about her father. No matter how she tried to spin the story, she never could rationalize his behavior. He didn’t have anything to do with either of his kids, nor did he help out her mother much financially. It wasn’t until he left The Rusty Nail to her and Adam when he died that Tessa even felt as though he’d acknowledged he had kids.