Coop "Helps" Out

 Coop “Helps” Out

“Emmett, I said no.” 

“Pops, c’mon, it’ll be great!” Coop walked around the counter at the front of the feed store and bent down behind it. “Besides,” he continued as he stood back up, a large box in his hands, hiding his face from view, “I kinda already bought it.” 

Struggling under the weight of the box, Coop dropped it down on the counter and looked over it at his now seething grandfather.

Wesley, who, up until this point, had been quietly sitting on the barstool behind the counter affectionately scratching Duke behind the ears, gave a low groan. He hadn’t actually known about that part.

“You’re not helping!” Coop hissed at him before turning back to his grandfather. 

“Emmett Dale, you better hope, boy, that that ain’t what I think it is.”

Coop didn’t comment; he just dropped his head slightly before continuing to look up at him through the fringe of his dark auburn curls. The puppy dog eyes that could melt the heart of most of the women in Decatur (except, of course, for Old Lady Crenshaw, who worked at the Library, though Coop figured that was with good reason) did nothing to appease Hank Cooper, and so Coop changed tactics.

“Look, Pops,” he said as he walked back around and over to the far wall, “we can put it in over here, and I promise, when customers come in, they’ll see it, and they’ll buy some. I read the manual, and it can’t be that hard to do. Ms. Claudine said she’d help me if I needed her to. And if it doesn’t, but it will, you can take it out of my pay.”

Hank snorted, “I’ll take it out of your pay anyway.” He turned then to glare at Wesley. “Did you know about this?”

Wesley’s dark brown eyes widened, and his hand stilled atop Duke’s head. “I...well, I mean I….” He stumbled over his words for a moment before giving in with a grumble, “I didn’t know he went ahead and bought it.” 

Hank pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. “Let’s see the thing. 

Coop grinned broadly as he opened the box. “C’mere, Wes, help me get it out.”

Wesley stood up, causing Duke to whine behind him, and between the two of them, they managed to get it out without breaking anything. 

They set it back down on the counter, and Coop said, “See, it’s not that bad.”

Hank looked up to see a gleaming, stainless steel cappuccino machine.

“Check it out, Pops.” Coop said, motioning to the black containers attached to the top of it. “It’s even got places to store the cups and lids. And here’s where you put the cup, and you just pull down one of the handles.” He fumbled between the three black handles sticking out of the front of the machine. “I think it’s this one for cappuccino and this one for espresso. Maybe. I’ll figure it out.” 

If Coop had been looking up at Hank, he would have seen him cross his arms over his chest, his eyes narrowing and his mouth set in a firm line as he glared at his only grandson.

 Wesley did see, and he promptly sat back down, hoping to stay out of the line of fire.

“Emmett, how much did you pay for this contraption?”

Coop looked up then and felt the heat rising in his cheeks as he ran his right hand through his hair and looked away. “One.” 

“One hundred?” Hank asked, his voice lowering as he continued to pin Coop with a hard stare, daring him to lie to him.

Wesley suddenly became very interested in the floor as Coop gulped and lowered his own head beside him.

“One thousand,” he answered just above a whisper. 

The next several seconds were silent as the two boys waited for the inevitable explosion that they knew was coming. Instead, however, Hank spoke in a low growl.

“Send it back.” 

“Pops, I-” Coop started but was interrupted.

“I mean it, Emmett. You pack this thing up right now, and you send it back where it came from. You are sixteen years old! You got no business spending that much money on anything!”

“But I-”

“No, buts. I don’t wanna hear it!”

“But I can’t.” Coop managed to get a word in edgewise. “I bought it from a “going out of business” sale,” he admitted with a frown. “They don’t take returns. That’s why it was so cheap!”

“Cheap?!” Hank was yelling now. “You call a thousand dollars ‘cheap’?!” 

Then, though he hadn’t even been looking in Wesley’s direction now that Coop had come back around the counter, he ordered, “Wesley Anderson, if you take one more step towards that back door, I will personally see to it that you are spending your afternoons working here for the next month.”

Wesley, who had gotten up and was attempting to sneak away through the backdoor, stopped dead in his tracks. He grimaced as he turned back around and muttered, “Sorry, Pops.”

Hank wasn’t actually his grandfather, but he might as well have been.

“I thought you were supposed to keep him from pulling hair-brained stunts like this?” He asked.

“We thought it would help the store.” Wesley offered with a shrug.

Hank shook his head. “No, you thought it would help y’all.” He glared at each of them in turn. “You know that the only people in this town who are gonna come in here to have fancy coffee are teenage girls.”

Both boys in front of him blushed furiously at how quickly he had seen through them.

Hank sighed and rubbed his forehead. These boys sure knew how to give him a headache.

“Alright.” He pointed a finger at both of them, “You get that thing set up somewhere out of the way, and you get a sign put up outside to advertise it.”

“Yes, sir.” They eagerly agreed.

“You’re working off the clock til it’s paid for, understand?” He said to Coop, who groaned but gave the expected “Yes, sir,” all the same.

“And no more “helping the store” until you get the all-clear from me.”

“Got it.” 

Hank nodded. “Get it set up. I’m going over to the diner. For coffee.”

Coop rolled his eyes once Hank’s back was turned and grinned over at Wesley. He quickly schooled his features, though, when Hank turned back around.

“And don’t let me catch either of you giving free coffee to anybody, or I’ll rethink my decision not to take the price of that machine out on your hides.”

Wesley and Coop both blushed at the warning. “Yes, sir.”

And with that, Hank turned on his heel and walked out of the store, leaving the two teenagers to figure out how to set up their latest project by themselves.

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