Head Over Heels Read Free Page B

that white, white, strokable skin.
    Coop picked up his toothbrush and scowled. Wasting such baby softness on a Davis was a crying shame. Because Veronica might attire herself in khakis, white T-shirts, and little ballerina flats; she might even give a decent impression of a princess forced into servitude just because he’d made her serve a few drinks. But in all the ways that mattered, she was exactly like her sister Crystal. She was just another Davis woman without an ounce of concern for anyone but herself.
    Coop brushed his teeth and slapped on some deodorant. Then he spread foamy shaving cream on his face and reached for his razor. He may not have ever met Crystal, but he knew her just the same. Watching his mother had educated him on the ways of women looking to become upwardly mobile, and from everything he’d ever heard, Crystal probably could’ve taught her a thing or two. It wasn’t simply a matter of old prejudices rising up to color his view, though. He knew the type of woman Crystal was from letters and telephone conversations with his half-brother Eddie, who, despite having grown up the only heir of the wealthiest man in Fossil, was probably the sweetest guy on earth.
    And one whose belief in the goodness of everyone had landed him in a world of hurt.
    Coop rarely believed in the goodness of anyone, and Crystal in particular didn’t deserve that kind of faith. When she was twenty-eight she’d seduced his twenty-year-old half-brother. He suspected she’d deliberately gotten pregnant so Eddie would have to marry her, only to have Eddie’s father nip that plan in the bud. Still, she’d gotten around it by using Lizzy, whom his brother loved more than life itself, as a bargaining chip. And if that didn’t pretty much say it all, Coop’d eat his Marine-issue combat boots.
    Crystal had been a user, a woman who’d made a habit of playing all the angles and looking out for number one. Hell, she’d been a homicide waiting to happen. But Cooper also knew that Eddie hadn’t killed her, and he’d come to Fossil to prove it.
    Being able to rent these rooms in the Davis house had been an unexpected bonus. He’d had the entire place to himself for almost two weeks, and had gone through every room with a fine-toothed comb, looking for evidence to clear his brother’s name. But the only proof he’d found so far was that Crystal had been self-absorbed and narcissistic. Her clothing stuffed every closet to overflowing, and he’d come across photograph after garishly framed photograph of her, with her blond-streaked brown hair all teased up, her makeup layered on, jeans tighter than a coat of spray paint, and her tops unbuttoned to the legal limit.
    He’d found exactly one photograph of Lizzy. Coop paused with the razor poised above his Adam’s apple and took a couple breaths before he ended up slicing off something he might need in the future. But, shit fuck hell. His brother had been throwing every resource at his disposal into trying to gain custody of hisdaughter, and the fact that he’d been charged with her mother’s murder instead just went to show there was damn little justice in the world.
    Hearing a noise down in the kitchen, Coop rinsed the remaining shaving cream off his face, pulled on a pair of jeans, and jerked a sweater on over his head. Veronica wasn’t a damn bit better, and although he’d stopped letting women get to him the day he’d walked out of his mother’s house more than seventeen years ago, last night little Miss Ronnie had all but made steam blow out of his ears.
    Chump that he was, he’d felt almost guilty when he’d come in and found he’d driven her so hard over at the Tonk that she had tears drying on her cheeks. But then she’d had the nerve to invoke Lizzy’s name as an excuse to make him vacate the house, and both guilt and sympathy had gone up in smoke. If she’d been