The Sea Glass Cottage

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Her mouth tightened. “Maybe I’m just not a fan of crowded bars. Or crowded cafeterias, either.”

  She obviously didn’t want to tell him. Why should she? They didn’t have that kind of relationship, really. He was just a guy who had once been friends with her sister.

  “I’m not crazy about this bar, anyway. I was shocked when Melody said this was where she wanted to celebrate her birthday.”

  “The band is good,” she pointed out. “And I can’t blame her for wanting to enjoy a little nightlife. She hardly ever gets the chance to go out.”

  “Agreed. But The Sea Shanty? Really? I just wish Cape Sanctuary had a little wider selection of nightlife.”

  They danced for a moment in silence, the music weaving a spell around them that Cooper found as seductive as it was troublesome.

  “Why did you come back?” she asked after a moment. “I always thought you hated it here and couldn’t wait to leave Cape Sanctuary.”

  Surprise made him stumble but quickly catch the beat of the music again.

  He hadn’t hated it here. Not really. The town had a gorgeous setting beside the sea and plenty of kind people. Still, Cooper had never been able to see a future for himself here. He had too many difficult memories of his childhood, being the son of the town screwup. He was tired of being an object of pity and scorn, of hearing the whispers. After his mother died and their aunt and uncle offered to take Melody in for her remaining high school years, he had jumped at the chance to sign up for the Air Force and let the military give him a second chance.

  “I never hated it,” he protested. “I left for the military.”

  “And didn’t look back.”

  “I’m here now.”

  “Because of Melody.”

  How had she guessed that? He shifted, uncomfortable with her scrutiny. “Yeah. Because of Melody. She doesn’t have any other family here now that Aunt Helen is in San Diego, and her boys take a lot of energy. They’re too much for her to handle on her own.”

  “So once more, Cooper steps in to save the day.”

  “That’s what families do. Aren’t you back in town only because your mom needs your help?”

  “Point taken.” She smiled, her features soft and lovely, and he wanted to brush a thumb over that tiny dimple in her cheek. More than that, he had a sudden fierce urge to press his mouth to the corner of her smile.

  “Mel starts next week at the garden center. She probably told you.”

  He glanced over at his sister, sitting among her friends and trying to hide her pain and loss with forced animation. “Yeah. She’s excited about it. The job will be terrific for her. She needs to get out and she has always loved gardening. You won’t be sorry you hired her.”

  “It was a brilliant idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. I owe you one.”

  He hadn’t really done anything, but that didn’t stop him from coming up with a dozen ways he would like to have her repay him. He could share none of them with her, of course.

  The song segued to another slow song. He really ought to leave the dance floor but he found himself strangely hesitant. One more song, he told himself. Then he would lead her back to the group and do his best to put this inconvenient attraction out of his mind.

  15

  OLIVIA

  As the band led into another song, Olivia waited for Cooper to stop dancing and return them to his sister and her friends. When he continued swaying with the slow, sultry song, she decided she was enjoying herself too much to say anything.

  Other than a few nightclubs in college and a tango class she took when she first moved to Seattle, she hadn’t danced with someone in a very long time.

  That was a true shame. There was something so sensual about it.

  She closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of him, masculine, clean, some sort of woodsy soap with a hint of aftershave. The muscles beneath her hands were strong, taut, and she couldn’t help thinking that these muscles saved lives and helped people protect their property.

  Again, it seemed a betrayal of the girl power movement she so strongly believed in, but everything inside her wanted to nestle against him, safe in his arms.

  She fought the urge to rest her cheek against his chest and listen to his heartbeat. Let’s not get carried away or anything.

  She could easily see herself making a fool of herself if she wasn’t careful. There could never be anything between them and she needed to remember that. This was Cooper Vance. Her best friend’s brother. Her sister’s best friend. Her childhood crush.

  The man who had tried and failed to save her father.

  Their history was entirely too tangled and complicated for her to unravel during the short time she would be in Cape Sanctuary.

  The song was almost over when a shriek rang out from the corner of the tavern.

  A few other people cried out and Olivia almost dived for cover until she heard the follow-up cry.

  “Help! My sister! Someone help her!”

  If she had any doubt that Cooper Vance was a first responder to the bone, that was eradicated in one single instant. He whirled on the spot, dropping his arms from her and rushing to a nearby table.

  She stood on the dance floor, not sure what to do. He might need help. She couldn’t do much but she could at least call 911.

  She hurried to join him in time to watch Cooper lower a woman about her own age to the floor.

  “Does your sister have any allergies or any history of heart or lung problems?” he asked, his voice as calm as a summer breeze.

  Another woman stood nearby, expression frantic and her hands shaking.

  “She’s allergic to shellfish. But we didn’t order shellfish or anything with shellfish in it! I’ve never seen her have this reaction. She said she was having trouble breathing and then she just passed out.”

  “Does she have an EpiPen?”

  “She always carries one, but I couldn’t find it on her. She switched purses at the last minute. I...I wonder if she forgot to put it in her bag.”

  He adjusted the woman’s head, which looked swollen and blotchy, and felt for a pulse. The band had stopped playing and a crowd had gathered.

  “Anybody have an EpiPen?” he called out.

  “I do. Here.”

  A man thrust one at Cooper, who shoved it into the woman’s upper thigh and held it there for ten seconds or so.

  “What can I do?” Olivia asked quietly as he massaged the spot where he had injected her with epinephrine.

  “Call 911. Tell Dispatch we have a possible allergic reaction and the female patient is having trouble breathing.”

  Even as he spoke, the woman gave a ragged breath and her eyes fluttered open.

  “There you go,” Cooper said in a soothing voice.

  “Come on, Carla,” her sister said. “Wake up.”

  Olivia spoke quickly into the phone, relaying to the dispatcher the information Cooper told her. It took about seven minutes for paramedics to arrive, and by that time, Carla, a tourist from Iowa on a bucket list trip with her sister, was sitting up and answering his questions.

  “Do I have to go to the hospital? I’m feeling much better.”

  “You do. Sorry,” he said. “You know how serious anaphylactic shock can be. You need to be checked out in the ER.”

  She sighed. “I’m sorry, Terri. I shouldn’t have had the fish tacos.”

  “We asked if there was shrimp in it and the server said no.”

  “Maybe she didn’t know. Or maybe I had a reaction to something else. I don’t know. Either way, coming with me to the ER is a sucky way to celebrate your divorce.”

  COOPER

  “You’re not coming with us to the hospital?”

  Cooper shook his head at one of his best paramedics, Lindy Melendez, as he watched them load the patient onto the ambulance
for the short ride to the local ER. “It’s my sister’s birthday and I don’t want to ditch her. You all look like you have it covered.”

  “Good thing for her you were here.”

  “Right place, right time. I’m glad it worked out for the best.”

  The patient would be fine. Already, she was almost back to normal, though it had taken a second epinephrine injection. It had been determined that a new cook in The Sea Shanty’s kitchen had added some shrimp when he started running low on halibut for the fish tacos, without informing the servers. It was a rookie mistake that might have been disastrous.

  He headed over to Melody’s table to find his sister opening presents.

  “You all didn’t have to get me anything,” she said to her friends. “I told you I only wanted to spend time with you all.”

  “Shush,” said Bea Romero with a stern look. “You’re always the first one to give a gift to someone else. This is our chance to do something for you.”

  As he sat back down beside Olivia, Cooper was awash in gratitude for all of Melody’s friends. His sister had been through hell since her husband walked out. It warmed his heart to see her friends rally around her to support her.

  After she opened all her presents and they all raised their glasses to toast her and all the wonderful things in store for her, the party began to break up as Rosemary Duncan got a phone call from her husband and then said she had to leave to deal with an issue with one of their kids. Shortly after she left, Olivia rose, too.

  “I’m so happy I could be here to celebrate with you but I should probably go. I don’t feel great about leaving my mom this long, even though Henry is with her.”

  “I completely understand. Thank you so much for coming. Give Juliet my love. Drive carefully.”

  “I would, except I walked,” Olivia said with a smile. “But I won’t jaywalk and I’ll be sure to stay on the sidewalk.”

  With a general wave to everyone gathered to celebrate with Melody, she headed toward the door.

  She had walked to the tavern and was now walking home, alone? Not on his watch. It was only a few blocks but he still didn’t feel good about it.

  Cooper glanced at his sister. “I think I’ll take off, too, if you don’t mind. I’m on duty early.”

  She looked between him and the doorway where Olivia had just left, a wrinkle between her brow as if trying to locate a frustrating puzzle piece.

  “No,” she said slowly. “I don’t mind. I’ll be leaving soon, anyway. I told Caitlin I would be home around eleven. That’s only twenty more minutes.”

  Was it that late already? He hugged her. “Happy birthday, kiddo. You’ve got a lifetime of happier ones ahead.”

  She smiled, though it didn’t hide the lingering shadows in her eyes.

  He headed out into the night, one of those perfect, cool, sea-scented evenings along the coast. It didn’t take long for him to catch up with Olivia.

  She looked surprised and not precisely pleased to see him. “What are you doing? You don’t have to leave the party.”

  “Things are wrapping up. The guest of honor is leaving soon.”

  “I don’t need an escort, Cooper. I’ll be fine. I like to walk.”

  “I like to walk, too. But then, I’m not a lone woman wandering around after dark.”

  She looked exasperated but didn’t argue, and they set off toward Harper Hill.

  It wouldn’t have mattered if she had argued. He wouldn’t back down. He had seen too much bad stuff happen to people who weren’t quite careful enough.

  Yes, he could be overprotective. Melody called him a fussy mother hen. Cooper knew his instinctive need to protect others was rooted in his childhood, when he had carried far too much responsibility for someone so young.

  Classic consequence of growing up a child with an alcoholic mother. Because of those scars from watching his mother relapse, fight her way back and relapse again, he had an inherent need to watch over those he cared about.

  He was being a polite neighbor, he told himself. Only making sure she made it back to Sea Glass Cottage safely.

  “That was something tonight,” she said as they headed through the mostly darkened downtown. “Saving that woman’s life. How did you know she needed an EpiPen?”

  “The hives. They were a dead giveaway. She didn’t appear to be choking and had airflow when I checked. So I had to assume something more systemic was to blame for her reaction. If her sister hadn’t said she had allergies, I would have had to figure something else out.”

  “How does it feel? Saving a life, I mean.”

  “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, if you want the truth. Because then I would have to think about the plenty of people I haven’t been able to save.”

  “Like my dad.”

  The words sliced at him. “Yeah. Like your father.”

  “But you keep trying, even though you know you won’t save everyone. You’re willing to risk your life sometimes in the attempt.”

  He didn’t ever think about it that way. In the moment, he did what was necessary. While there was sometimes an element of risk involved, especially when he had been part of the Air Force’s elite special forces pararescue unit, his attention was always focused on trying to help.

  “I would make a trite comment about how I’m just doing my job, but I know it’s more than that. What I do is important.”

  “You’re a hero, Cooper. You do what you have to without even thinking about it. While I can’t even walk into a bar without a panic attack.”

  There was a quiet intimacy here as they headed up the road toward her mother’s house, as if the two of them were alone here in the night except for the constant murmur of the sea, the occasional owl swooping overhead and wispy clouds drifting across the moon.

  “What happened to make you afraid?” he asked again, sensing it would be easier for her to share here in the dark than it might have been inside the bar.

  She looked over at him, moonlight turning her features silvery. “You don’t want to know.”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t. Were you attacked?”

  After a long moment, she finally sighed and answered him. “Not me. That’s the stupid part. I was perfectly safe the entire time, but I...I was a witness to someone else’s attack.”

  They had reached one of his favorite parts on this walk, a spot not far from her house overlooking the cliffs, where the city had installed benches at intervals for those who wanted to stop and savor the scenery.

  Olivia seemed to notice the nearest bench. She moved to it and sat down, hands folded on her lap. He joined her, not sure he wanted to hear her story.

  “I was working from home that day, something I’m lucky enough to do a few times a month. I had taken my laptop in a favorite coffee shop late one morning, since I’m often more productive there.”

  She gazed out to sea, where up the coast a lighthouse revolved slowly, steadily. “I had been there only twenty minutes or so when a man came in, dirty and unshaven, a meth head, if I had to guess. He had a...a gun and a knife and was waving them around, demanding money. The barista didn’t move quickly enough, so he...he started attacking her. He didn’t shoot her, but he stabbed her then started beating her with the gun and anything else he could find.”

  “How scary.”

  “It was terrible. She was screaming and trying to fight back, but he was crazy-strong. I didn’t know what to do. He was huge and I didn’t have any kind of weapon, so I hid under the booth and called 911.”

  Her voice quivered and he thought he heard shame in it. Unable to help himself, he reached for her trembling fingers. Her hand stiffened in his and he thought she would pull away, but finally her fingers curled around his and he held his breath, as touched as if he had been able to coax a hummingbird to land on his palm.

  “What a terrifying s
ituation. Sounds like you did the smartest thing possible.”

  “Smart, maybe. But not what my father would have done. Not what you would have done. You jumped out of airplanes to help people. I couldn’t even cross a coffee shop.”

  He resisted pointing out that her father had died because he ran into a burning building without adequate protection. Cooper hadn’t been able to save him, or countless others.

  “What finally happened?”

  “Another customer stepped in. Someone my mom’s age. While the rest of us cowered, she took on this man who was out of his head with drugs and adrenaline. She was able to distract him from the injured barista long enough for her to scramble for a weapon. The two of them held him off until the police came.”

  He couldn’t imagine what Olivia had endured in those terrifying few moments while waiting for law enforcement to arrive.

  “I’m sorry.” It seemed wholly inadequate.

  “It’s been nearly three weeks and I’ve had a hard time with crowds ever since,” she admitted. “I keep feeling like I’m back there in that coffee shop, only the junkie is coming after me. The day my mom was hurt, I tried to force myself to go into another coffee shop in my neighborhood and I couldn’t do it. I honestly felt like I was on the brink of agoraphobia. I was coming up with a plan to work from home all the time, just stay in my apartment and order all my groceries online.”

  “Instead, you drove six hundred miles in the middle of the night to her rescue,” he pointed out.

  “That’s different. I was helping family and I didn’t have a choice. You said it earlier. Families help families. My mom needed me.”

  “Plenty of others wouldn’t have been so quick to drop everything and step up.”

  She slipped her hand away, not looking convinced. “I may have come back to help my mom, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did nothing to help another person in jeopardy in that coffee shop.”

  “You called 911. That helped. And I’m guessing you stuck around afterward to give police your statement, right?”

  “Yes.”