“Done.” She scarfs down the rest of her food. “We can go to Red’s.”
Rhett
“You could’ve told me Mo was going to be there today. Better yet, you could’ve told me she was the one who had my dogs.”
Cooper points his beer toward me and smiles. “If you remember correctly, I tried to tell you, but you didn’t want to hear it. In fact, I think your exact words were ‘What did I tell you about saying her name?’”
I hate it when he’s right.
“Asshole.” I take a pull from my beer and look around the bar in time to see my baby sister, Adley, bust through the front door.
“Hey! Sorry I’m late.” Adley tosses her purse on the table and drops into a chair. “Class got out late, and my car was parked on the other side of campus. I’m exhausted and crabby and hungry. Oooh! Are those wings?” She reaches across the table and grabs one. “What were you guys talking about?”
“Rhett was about to tell me how his conversation with Mo went today.”
Adley’s mouth drops open. She watches me for a second and then pops the wing inside. “You talked to Mo?” she asks around her food.
“Yes. And I would’ve been prepared to see her if this asshole would’ve told me she had my dogs.”
“I told you they were at Animal Haven,” Coop argues.
“Yes, and I assumed they were with Phil.”
Adley frowns. “Well, that would be difficult considering Phil’s in a—”
Coop shoots Adley a sharp look, and she snaps her mouth shut.
I glance between them. “Considering Phil’s in a what?”
“Nothing.” Coop shakes his head and grabs a wing.
I snag it out of his hand.
“Hey! I was going to eat that.” He tries for another, but I slide the plate out of his reach.
“Tell me what Adley was going to say, and you can have the wings.”
“Come on, Rhett, you know Phil had a stroke,” Coop says.
My heart clenches tight in my chest. I’ll never forget the day Coop called me. I was in the middle of training—something I’d been doing nonstop for weeks—when they pulled me out of the arena. My manager, Bill, told me my brother was on the phone, demanding to talk to me. I nearly lost my shit when he told me everyone had been trying to get a hold of me to let me know Phil had had a stroke. I hung up, grabbed my stuff, and raced for my truck. Mo answered on the third ring, and when I told her I was heading home, she ripped my heart out.
“I know, but what was Adley going to say?”
Adley clears her throat. “He’s paralyzed on one side and has been in a wheelchair ever since.”
Son of a bitch. “What?”
Coop looks annoyed. Good, so am I.
“What did you think happened to him when I told you he had a stroke?” he asks.
“I don’t know, Coop. I’m not a doctor. Grandma Allen had a stroke, and she wasn’t paralyzed.”
“You really didn’t know?” Adley asks.
I shake my head, and she frowns.
“It was awful,” she says, lowering her voice. “Mo was a mess, but everyone rallied around her to help her get through it.”