He let it go, but he kept the information filed away for later. So it would seem she might actually be attracted to him more than she was letting on. Although based on the way she had kissed him back, he wasn’t sure he should be all that surprised.

“I hear you’re buying the Deluth farm,” Jack commented as Miranda brought another glass of tea and set it in front of Cooper.

After saying thank you to the waitress, Cooper turned his attention to Jack. “That was the plan. I thought it was all a done deal initially, but the woman who owns the property called my Realtor a few minutes ago and told her there was another offer on the table. Said I might want to reconsider the price if I really wanted the land.”

“What!” Tessa jerked as though someone had hit her before turning to face him more directly.

At her passionate reaction, Cooper focused on her, watching her expression change from shocked to angry and then back again.

“Something wrong?” Cooper noticed that the pretty blush was gone and reflected in those crystalline green eyes was something more like fire.

“You didn’t offer more money, did you?”

“Not yet, no.”

“Don’t.” The single word was a command, and Cooper suddenly wondered what she knew that he didn’t.

“Why not?”

Cooper studied her, watching as she looked over at her brother. He followed her gaze, noticed the way Jack cocked an eyebrow as though giving her some sort of signal. Apparently Cooper was right because she sighed. Before she said anything, Miranda brought out two plates, setting them in front of Jack and then Tessa.

“I’ll have yours in just a minute,” Miranda told him and then turned away quickly.

“You didn’t order anything,” Tessa commented as she glanced up at him.

“I don’t have to these days. Seems I’ve become a regular in here, and they bring me the same thing every time.”

“Would you order something different?” she asked, a cute smile tipping her lips.

Cooper laughed. “No, probably not. I guess they’ve figured out I’m a man of routine.”

Tessa turned her attention back to her food, but she didn’t start eating.

“Go ahead. Don’t wait for me,” he told them both.

Jack dug into his food like he hadn’t eaten in a month and Cooper tried not to stare. He had so many questions running through his head, most of them having to do with the land and what these two knew that he didn’t, but he didn’t want to interrupt their meal. Luckily for him, he didn’t have to wait but a few minutes before Miranda was back with a plate containing chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

“Can I get you anything else?” she asked the three of them. When everyone said no, she moved on to the next table.

“So, one of you want to give me more details on the land? Or do I have to guess?” Cooper asked before he put the first bite in his mouth.

He noticed Jack didn’t stop shoveling food in his mouth, his cheeseburger never getting too far away from his lips. Cooper figured the guy was making sure he didn’t have to talk. Tessa, on the other hand, wasn’t eating much of anything. She was pushing her onion rings around on her plate, flattening them with her fork.

“Finish eating,” she told him. “Then we’ll talk.”

Cooper nodded, realizing he wasn’t going to get any further with the conversation until Tessa was willing to talk anyway. Doing as she said, he resumed eating, and the three of them talked mostly about the bar and the events of the night before – which were rather mundane for a Saturday night according to them.

Once Jack was finished, he looked over at Tessa and then back at Cooper before he spoke. “I just realized I had something to do,” he blurted. “I’ll get the check on my way out.”

“Wait!” Tessa called to him, but he was already climbing out of the booth.

Cooper noticed the wry grin Jack sent Tessa. “I’ll catch up with you later. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Dammit,” Tessa muttered, snapping a bite of food in her mouth.

“I see he bailed on you,” Cooper joked. “What are you going to do now?”

If she had her way, she’d probably knock him out of the booth and onto the floor. When his teasing didn’t get a rise out of her, he grew concerned. “I take it there’s a problem?”

With the booth on the other side now empty, Cooper knew he should move, but he didn’t want to. In fact, he wanted to stay right where he was for the duration. Sitting close to Tessa, inhaling her sweet fragrance and listening to her mutter obscenities under her breath was making his body stand up and take notice. Yes, he was even turned on by her irritation.

“Only if you consider Luanne Deluth a problem,” Tessa said, not looking at him.

“So you know about the other offer too?”

“I don’t think there is another offer,” she admitted.

“Why would you think that? Do you know her?” Now Cooper was thoroughly confused. Tessa must have realized it too because she continued, not looking at him though.

“I went to see Luanne,” Tessa began, another long sigh as she paused to wipe her hands on a napkin. “I had an agreement with Jerry Deluth, Luanne’s father, before he passed away a couple of months ago.”

“What sort of deal?”

“To buy the property.”

That got Cooper’s attention. Pushing his plate away, he decided he did need space. This conversation didn’t sound like the intimate one he’d have preferred to have with Tessa over dinner. Once he was situated across from her, he rested his forearms on the table and waited for her to continue.

“I had a verbal agreement with Jerry to buy the land. We agreed that I’d come up with twenty percent down and then I could take possession of the house and continue paying out the rest of the note.”

Cooper didn’t take his eyes off of her. He noticed the way she wrapped her arms around herself as though trying to hold herself together. “Go on.”

“Apparently, now that he’s gone, the agreement he and I had is null and void. At least that’s what Luanne told me a little while ago. She said you were paying her double what Jerry was charging me, and she wasn’t going to pass up an offer like that for my measly price.”

Fucking hell. Cooper didn’t like the sound of this. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the property because he did. Even at the price he agreed to, but something was off here. What were the chances that he had stumbled on some property that Tessa was in the process of buying – without a legal, written agreement?