I Choose Us: Book 2 in the Crossing Midian Series - A Christian Romance

Chapter 16

–Coop–

Coop walked off the porch and around the side of the house. He turned his coat collar up against the icy wind and held one hand up in front of his face as he squinted against the onslaught of snow.

The snow was rising quicker than anything Coop had ever seen before. He'd never experienced anything like this. A blizzard had come through when he was about thirteen, but he hadn't been home for it. Coop had been in the hospital having surgery to remove bone spurs from his leg. He only remembered hearing about it afterward.

This was something he expected to see in movies, not in his small Tennessee town.

He wondered if Lottie had been through many winters like this? Being from Chicago, he thought it was likely, and only now did he grudgingly admit he shouldn't have dismissed her thoughts about it so quickly that morning.

Coop made it to the woodshed, which sat to the side of the house, but snow was already making it difficult to get the door open. He stooped down and started digging snow away from the door, making a path for it to open. When he had cleared enough away, Coop groaned with the effort of pulling the door open against the wind that seemed to want to keep it closed.

As soon as it was open enough for him to fit through, Coop hurried inside and breathed a sigh of relief that there was plenty of wood already chopped and stacked inside.

"Now to get it carried up to the house," he mumbled to himself as he looked around for something in the small shed to help him complete his task.

The woodshed looked like any other Coop had been in; essentially it was a one room, wood planked building with a dirt floor. The back wall had a shelf that Mr. Callaway had built himself, and on it sat an arrangement of tools and containers filled with nuts and bolts and other odds and ends. Coop walked closer and picked up a container, only to realize it was a cleaned out peanut butter jar.

He smiled. Coop couldn't count the number of jars exactly like these, which were stored in the barn back home. He had grown up watching his grandfather clean them out and use them for anything that would fit inside.

Coop sighed as he put it back and turned around. He glanced about the space and grinned when his gaze landed on a red snow sled hanging above the door.

"That'll work," he said as he reached for it.

Coop put it outside in the snow and loaded it down with wood. When it was as full as he thought it could manage, he trudged back through the snow toward the house.

His pants legs were soaked, and the snow felt like it was literally freezing around the metal parts of his prosthetic. It was so cold that it stung his skin where his prosthetic met his stump and Coop had to grit his teeth to bear it.

When he got to the porch, he unloaded the wood into the chest and turned to go back for another load. He debated for a moment about using what he already had to get a fire started, but he didn't think he could stand coming back outside once he was in. He could see Lottie lighting candles inside and, despite everything, Coop wanted nothing more than to walk in and tell her how much he loved her.

He shook his head as he stepped back off the porch.

Coop couldn't believe how it had come to this. How had it gotten so bad, so fast? Not even two hours ago, they had been dancing while the band played. They were laughing and having a great time.

Why had he let himself look at the letter? Why didn't he shove it all back where it had fallen from and left things alone?

Lawyers.