A Marine for His Mom (Sugar Falls, Idaho)

by Christy Jeffries

  After the day that Cooper had shooed them out of his room to take a phone call, she vowed she wouldn’t put herself in the same room as the marine again. And she hadn’t. Each time she’d taken Hunter to visit, which had been every week for over a month, she would walk the boy to Cooper’s room and then wait for her son out in the small lobby near the nurses’ station.

  Just then, a window flashed in the bottom of the screen, signaling an incoming Skype call from Cooper.

  She wanted to close the lid, but she couldn’t avoid the guy any longer. It would be better to get this matter settled before Gunny Heartthrob muscled his way into her their everyday lives. Her fingers paused over the mouse before she slowly moved it to the box and clicked.

  The chat screen shot to life and Maxine was immediately faced with a live version of her son’s pen pal soldier.

  “Hey, kid.” The grainy image displayed the same lonely eyes she’d seen in that one picture, but his head was lying back against a white sheet on a hospital bed. That is, until he braced himself up on his elbow, narrowed his eyes and gazed into the screen. “Oh. Hi.”

  “Hi. Hunter’s out. I was just in his room, uh, cleaning.” Geez, she sounded as lame as she looked. In the small box in the corner, Maxine recognized herself, with her curly blond hair pulled messily into a ponytail on top of her head.

  Was that how she really looked on a webcam? She should’ve put on some lip gloss instead of going for the chips. Speaking of which, she slowly slid the now-empty bag out of view from the camera.

  Of course, Cooper looked great. He was 100 percent male and even in a hospital bed, he was still as gorgeous as hell. She didn’t need him running around her town all healthy and virile.

  Ugh. She needed to get a grip. And not just of the rustling bag that was teetering precariously off the edge of the desk.

  “So, I hear you’re getting discharged soon,” she said, when it appeared that Cooper wasn’t going to start the conversation.

  “Yep. I was trying to stay in until I could retire, but I guess...stuff happens.” He appeared to lose his balance and cursed, then looked a little embarrassed. “Look, I don’t usually cuss like that in front of your son. Seeing you on my screen just kind of caught me...ah...off guard.”

  This was her opportunity to tell him that this whole Sugar Falls visit had caught her off guard and wasn’t such a great idea. But at that exact moment, Hunter walked into the room.

  She hadn’t even heard him enter the apartment because she’d been staring so intently at Coop’s beard stubble and wondering what it would feel like rubbing against her...

  Whoa. She was not going there. Especially now that her son was present.

  “Oh, cool, you’re talking to Cooper. Hey, Coop, are you coming to Sugar Falls?”

  Maxine hadn’t even had the chance to cast her son a reprimanding look before Hunter leaned over, and then practically crawled over her to get in view of the tiny webcamera.

  “What’s up, little man?” It was hard to register on the megapixels blurring on the screen, but she was sure that the look in Cooper’s eye softened when he saw Hunter. His tone of voice certainly did. “I was just going to talk to your mom about that.”

  But before Maxine could get any answers, Cessy popped her perfectly coiffed head in the door, and Maxine jumped up to hustle her former mother-in-law out of the room.

  She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want the woman to interact with their pen pal—

  Wait! When did Cooper become theirs?

  Whatever. All she knew was that the less Cessy was involved, the better.

  Besides, it wasn’t as if Maxine had anything to hide. She wasn’t cheating on Bo or anything. Bo was dead. And Cooper wasn’t even in the running as a candidate to replace her husband. As if she would ever get married again. That ship had sailed.

  Maxine steered Hunter’s grandmother toward the back door as Cessy talked incessantly about her latest shopping spree. Hopefully, the older lady didn’t even realize that her grandson just ditched her to do some online hero-worshipping. Or that her former daughter-in-law was blushing like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

  She needed to get Cessy out the door so she could go back and tell that marine that under no circumstances was he to come visit. So she hugged the woman goodbye and thanked her repeatedly for taking Hunter shopping—yet again. But before she could turn the lock, Maxine’s cell phone vibrated.

  Kylie.

  Maybe Maxine should ask her friend for a quick opinion before rejoining the Skype chat. She had to talk to someone, even if it was her chronically single best friend.

  “Is the date over?” Maxine asked instead of answering with a polite hello.

  “No, I just snuck away and am debating whether or not my big ole booty will get stuck if I try to crawl through this bathroom window.”

  Maxine reached into the back of her pantry and found a forgotten snack-sized package of pretzels. The empty bag of chips she’d left by Hunter’s computer had been the last of her emergency stash.

  “Why do I do this to myself?” Kylie asked. “Frankie is a tax attorney I met at that seminar last week. Who knew a guy with such a party name could deliver a mind-numbing monologue on the importance of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act through a mouth stuffed with sautéed spinach in chimichurri sauce? I’m about to—”

  “Listen,” Maxine interrupted. Kylie’s Bad Date Story From Hell: Volume 89 would just have to wait until tomorrow. “I need your advice. Hunter is trying to talk Cooper into coming to Sugar Falls after he gets discharged from the hospital.”

  “You mean Gunny Heartthrob?”

  Maxine nearly dropped her phone. “Stop calling him that.”

  “You called him that first. You told us he literally made your heart throb when you met him. Anyway, if he comes to town, would he be staying at your place? I have a sexy nurse’s costume you could borrow to help him on his road to recovery.”

  “Kylie! Are you serious? I have a son. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I can’t be shacking up with some marine from who knows where.”

  “Listen, Max, the guy seems cool. Hunter thinks the world of him, and I hate to point out the obvious, but that poor boy needs a man to talk to. Better a military cop than some lowlife gangbanging druggie.”

  Great. Maxine didn’t need the reminder that he was in the military and a cop. Matthew Cooper probably couldn’t cram any more testosterone into his camouflage pants if he tried.

  “Where would he find a lowlife gangbanging druggie in Sugar Falls?” she asked her friend, before realizing they were getting completely sidetracked.

  “That’s a good point. This town can be so boring sometimes.”

  “Kylie, focus. Hunter invited this man to come here.”

  “So what? Hunter also asked Jorge de la Rosa from the Colorado Rockies to come to his class presentation for that baseball book report he did. De la Rosa didn’t show and this guy probably won’t, either.”

  “You may be wrong.”

  “Do you think he’s actually coming?” Kylie suddenly seemed way too perky. Maxine tamped down the jealousy that crept its way around her closed-off heart.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. That’s what I need to ask you about.” She quickly filled her friend in, explaining about Hunter’s email and then the awkward Skype session.

  “I bet Hunter would be thrilled to see his pen pal more often.”

  “Well, he’d be the only one.”

  “Max, just because the guy rubs you the wrong way doesn’t mean he’s bad for your son.”

  She knew what Kylie said was true, but it was still a tough pill to swallow. “So you don’t think I should go back in there and explain that it’s a bad idea for him to come out to visit?”

  “Is it?”

  “Is it what?�
�

  Kylie sighed, almost as if she’d rather get back to Frankie and foreign tax compliance than have this conversation that was clearly a life-altering event in Maxine’s opinion.

  “Is it such a bad thing if this guy comes to Sugar Falls for a couple of weeks? Hunter obviously adores him, and the guy seems pretty stand-up. Why not let them hang out? It’s not like you can kill off their friendship at this point. Hunter would be devastated.”

  Her friend was right. “I don’t want to hurt my son, but how can I protect him? What if Coop doesn’t live up to the hype? As far as I’m concerned, Hunter has already been let down by one man in his life. He doesn’t need any more disappointment.”

  “Look, maybe this guy has absolutely no intention of coming out to visit. Just go back in and talk to him. Get to know the man a little bit better so you can become comfortable with the relationship—whatever that may be. Then let it fizzle out on its own.” She sighed dramatically. “Gotta go. Chimichurri teeth are coming this way. Let me know what happens.”

  The call disconnected. Maybe Kylie was right. Her friend sucked at her own relationships, but was pretty good at understanding other people and human nature.

  Maxine finished the rest of the pretzels and walked slowly down the hall toward her son’s room, her bare feet padding along the hardwood floor the only sound she heard. There wasn’t any more talking going on and she wondered if the chat was over already.

  She peeked in and saw her sweet little ten-year-old lying on his bed, reading the new Wimpy Kid book Cessy must have bought for him on their shopping trip—probably as a bribe to get him to wear the red-and-orange sneakers she thought were the latest and coolest fashion.

  That was just as well. She leaned against the doorjamb. Maxine’d had too much for one night. Too much worry, too much sexy marine.

  She should just sleep on it and let all the conflicting thoughts racing in her brain simmer down before she talked to Hunter. She worked best on her problems early in the morning when she was alone in her bakery, anyway.

  She just hoped Cooper hadn’t already let Hunter talk him into coming to Sugar Falls. After all, what could their cozy Idaho town possibly offer a man like him?

  What indeed.

  Yet, two days later, on Sunday afternoon, Maxine watched as Cooper slowly limped along next to her son, holding his discharge papers and the ugly little plant that was starting to perk back to life. Hunter was once again trying to carry the man’s duffel bag, and she shoved her hands into the pockets of her short, blousy white dress to keep from reaching out to help her son.

  “So I figured you could just ride back up the mountain with us,” Hunter told his pen pal. “You won’t need a rental car or nothing because you can just borrow my mom’s car if you need to go somewhere.”

  “Honey, let Cooper plan his own stay in Sugar Falls,” she said as they climbed into her SUV. It was just a stay, she hoped. A very, very short stay. “If he wants to get a rental car, he should do that. Besides, I need my car, and we don’t want him getting stuck without transportation.”

  She definitely didn’t want him stuck in her town with her son and her friends and her neighbors. None of them needed this guy staying too long. He could just keep going along his merry little macho way.

  In fact, she’d had no intention of even coming to the hospital to pick him up. But when she’d found out Hunter had asked both Cessy and Kylie to give him a ride, she wasn’t about to allow her mother-in-law to encourage the male bonding. And as much as she loved her man-crazy best friend, she wasn’t going to let Kylie flirt with the guy they’d gotten in the embarrassing habit of calling Gunny Heartthrob.

  And like it or not, those eyes of his certainly had a way of making her heart thump all around her rib cage.

  “I’m staying at Drew Gregson’s cabin, up off Sweetwater Bend and Snowflake Boulevard. He said there’s an old Jeep up there I could use while I’m in town, so don’t worry about me.” When he smiled at Hunter, Maxine’s heart thawed for a second. But only a second.

  Jeep or no, she didn’t want the man getting too comfortable in Sugar Falls.

  * * *

  The drive up the mountain was pure torture for Cooper. And not because of Maxine’s infuriatingly slow driving, which he decided she must be doing on purpose. The woman smelled like vanilla and every cozy kitchen aroma he’d ever wished to come home to when he’d been a child, fending for himself. But that was where any sense of hearth and home ended.

  Why was she being so cold toward him? Not that he wanted her to flirt or try and get too close, but what would it hurt for her to make some sort of small talk? Or at the very least, loosen her white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel?

  It was bad enough that she’d refused to enter his hospital room whenever she’d brought Hunter to visit. Was being in his presence that horrible of an inconvenience for her?

  In fact, he’d wanted to decline the offer of a ride up to the cabin, but a little piece of him wanted to be near her, even if it meant enduring her standoffish attitude.

  Luckily, Hunter had talked nonstop the entire twenty-five minutes it took to get up the mountain, which helped to alleviate the tension between the two adults in the front seat.

  As they approached civilization, she finally picked up speed. He noted a large timber-and-stone sign welcoming travelers to Sugar Falls, home of skiing, kayaking and the Sugar Falls Cookie Company.

  Whoa, the cookie queen must be a pretty big deal in town if her company got an honorary mention on the welcome billboard.

  Once inside the city limits, Hunter’s chatter took on a faster pace. “There’s my school and the fire department and the post office. And this is what we consider downtown. See the yellow building over there? That’s my mom’s cookie shop. We live in the upstairs part. My room is the second window on top.”

  Cooper merely nodded as Maxine accelerated her SUV through what he suspected was a twenty-five mile-per-hour area. She sure seemed to be in a hurry to get him through what had to be familiar surroundings and, most likely, her comfort zone. He didn’t think it was possible, but her hands gripped even tighter on the wheel as she ran through a yellow light at the main intersection.

  “There’s Patrelli’s,” Hunter continued. “It’s my favorite pizza place. And that’s Noodie’s Ice Cream Shoppe, but I don’t know why they spell it with an extra P and E. We get our groceries here at Duncan’s Market... Hey, Mom, that was Mr. Jonesy you almost cut off. Slow down, Cooper can’t see everything if you’re driving so fast.”

  The cookie queen took three deep breaths, and then eased her cowboy boot off the accelerator. Her tanned and toned legs were bare and the hem of her dress was riding high on her thigh. But Cooper had a feeling that sexy length of skin was all she would ever reveal of herself.

  Cooper didn’t say a word. The woman obviously wanted to get rid of him. Well, he’d be just as obliged to get out of this four-wheeled, leather-interior death trap.

  Hunter, as if finally cuing in on his mom’s tension and Cooper’s discomfort, fell silent, allowing the marine to take in the lay of the land.

  He thought of Gregson, who’d coerced him to recuperate in Buttsville, Idaho, instead of a tropical resort in Tahiti. When he was still in the hospital, Cooper had talked on Skype with the psychologist, who’d filled him in with stories about growing up in Boise and their cabin up in the mountains of Sugar Falls.

  Gregson had reminisced about the town being home to some of the best memories of his childhood. There was fishing and hiking and Norman Rockwell nonsense galore. Must’ve been nice to have a childhood like that.

  Sugar Falls wasn’t as remote as he’d expected and it definitely had a lot more character than any place he was used to. No two Victorian-style buildings were alike, providing a fresh boon of color and shops and restaurants in the middle of the rugged green wilderness. Gregs
on said hipsters flocked here for weekend vacations, and Cooper could see why. In fact, the shrink said he planned to move to the cabin himself when his tour was up in July. He had even put in a transfer request to be stationed at Shadowview.

  But no matter how much the quiet town might appeal to the homeless, former marine, Cooper intended to be long gone from here before then.

  He reminded himself that the only reason he was staying in Sugar Falls was because he wanted to. Not because some little boy wanted to hang out with him—and not because he liked hearing some homesick buddy’s stories about an idyllic vacation town. And it for sure wasn’t because he wanted to spend more time with the sexy cookie queen.

  They reached the other side of town, which probably took all of forty-five seconds and three seemingly unnecessary stoplights, and Hunter tapped him on the shoulder. When Cooper turned to look in the backseat, the boy silently pointed out a Little League field that was coming back to life after a snowy winter. Apparently, the normally yappy kid didn’t want his mom to know that they were even looking at something sports related.

  That would be the first thing Cooper changed while he was in town. Not that he had any business getting involved in Hunter and Maxine’s relationship. It wasn’t as if he was one of those interfering social workers he’d hated back in the day. But playing a little catch with the kid wouldn’t be overstepping his bounds, right?

  Maybe that sporting goods shop he’d spotted on Snowflake Boulevard sold baseball gloves, and not just the snowboards and kayaks that lined the outside walls. He made a mental note to check that place out. He’d been in town less than three minutes and already he was planning his first covert op.

  They continued another two miles up the mountain before Maxine swung a sharp right turn onto a small dirt street that looked more like a wilderness trail. There was no signage, so Cooper probably would’ve passed the road leading to the cabin if he’d been driving himself.

  They bumped over several deep gouges and potholes, his injured knee absorbing every impact. Damn. Was she purposely aiming at all those bumps? If he hadn’t seen her raise her sunglasses and lean forward over the steering wheel to carefully navigate the narrow lane that was practically enclosed with pine and larch trees, he would have thought so.