The Wanderer (22 page)

She was at her desk but kept looking at her watch, more than ready to call this workday over.

“Sarah.”

She looked up and saw her ex-husband standing in the doorway. “You’re early,” she said, looking at her watch again. He wasn’t due for an hour.

“I thought I’d offer you an early out for the holiday. Do you have plans?”

“I do,” she said, putting down her pen and leaning back in her chair. “I’m having dinner with friends.”

“And Landon?”

She lifted her brows. “The same friends,” she answered.

“I guess Thunder Point is working out?” Derek asked. “You seem happier.”

She just gave a nod, but she couldn’t help thinking about how much happier than she’d been in so long. There were a couple of very dark years until now, from the time she had been forced to acknowledge Derek’s cheating, through the extended, black process of freeing herself when all she’d really wanted was for him to love her more than anything, more than anyone. When she looked at him now, she could summon that pain and disappointment. Of course, if she tried, she could find that rage and humiliation again. But it was hard now. Landon was happy with Eve, hanging out with friends and the McCain family. And she had Cooper, who was safe.

“I’ve been thinking, Sarah,” Derek said. “Maybe over the holidays, we could get together. You and me and Landon. Last year wasn’t good. It was—”

She laughed at him before he could finish. “Our divorce was final three days before Christmas. No, Derek, we’re not going to spend holidays together.” She didn’t bother to tell him it had been the worst Christmas of her life, rivaled only by the Christmas right after her parents died.

He stepped into the room. He straightened. “I’d like to see Landon.”

“He has the same cell phone number he’s had for the past two years, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that he won’t be interested.”

“I thought maybe you’d tell him I might be calling.”

“Might? Might? You seriously want me to tell Landon his long-lost brother-in-law
might
be calling him?”

“I didn’t want to be long and lost,” he said. “It just seemed kinder to Landon not to put him in the middle of our problems.”

“Derek, no one put him there and he was in the middle of it. You know that. When you were unfaithful to the marriage, you were unfaithful to him, too.”

“We really need to have a conversation about—”

“No,” she said. “Just no.”

“Look, I think enough time has passed for us to have a conversation, maybe mend some fences.”

“We’re not going to talk about this here. This is work.”

“Will you have dinner with me? Meet me for a drink?” he asked. “Sometime between now and Christmas?”

“Absolutely not,” she said, standing. She briefly remembered how attractive and sexy she’d once found him. He had been irresistible. If she’d known about his little problem with monogamy, she not only wouldn’t have married him, she would never have gone on a date with him. “We weren’t right for each other, we ended it as well as we could, it’s over. Landon is getting his confidence back and seems happy. Let’s just try to be professional.”

“Sarah, I heard through the grapevine that I’m getting orders. Is that your doing?”

“
My
doing?” she asked, stunned. Then she laughed. “Derek, if I could work a deal like that, I’d have done it a year and a half ago! Where are you going?”

“Kodiak,” he said, completely glum.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered. He didn’t want to go. She knew he didn’t like to be cold, to sleep in daylight, to be challenged too much. She’d give just about anything to be reassigned to Kodiak, to the Bering Sea.

“I think I’ll be out of here in a few months or less. I want to be friends, to see Landon, to—”

She came around her desk. She was shaking her head. “You’re way too late, Derek. You’d have to unscrew a whole bunch of women, to start with. And you never said goodbye to Landon—he’s not feeling real brotherly toward you. In fact, he’s pretty pissed, and not just because of what you did to me. You left him, too.”

“Come on, you didn’t exactly make me feel welcome.”

“Oh, sorry,” she said sarcastically. “I’m not going to discuss this with you, especially not here. No dinner, no drink, and I don’t give a shit about your fences. You made your choice. Your fences are all beyond repair.”

“Sarah,” he said. “You have influence. People like you, respect you. Can you get me out of Kodiak?”

“I’d take it off your hands in a second if I could. But I have commitments. I’m determined that Landon will graduate from his current high school.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “Oh, man, I missed all the signals!” he said suddenly. Then he laughed. “You’ve been smiling lately—you’ve been less mean. You’re in a relationship!”

She didn’t flinch. “Last count, you’re in twenty relationships. Derek, I am so done with you. If you’re ready to take over, I’ll leave for the day. My brother is waiting for me.”

But he wasn’t done laughing. “Holy crap, I didn’t think it would ever happen—I know that look! Someone’s got you all softened up. Sarah’s getting laid!”

She got right in his face, put her palm against his chest and said, “I just thought of a way to keep you out of Kodiak. Sexual harassment charges and court martial. That sound better than the Bering Sea?”

“Come on, Sarah. What’s a little teasing between friends?” he asked.

She walked away from him, leaving everything on her desk. She went to the locker room to change out of her flight suit. Using her cell phone from there, she called the rescue diver on her team. “Paul, do me a favor. Keep me out of prison. Occupy Stiles. He’s giving me shit and I want to make a clean getaway before I kill him.”

“You bet, boss.”

She could count on Paul. She’d have to get his family some kind of nice Christmas basket.

She changed into her jeans, blouse, sweater, boots. She put on some makeup, something she never did before leaving the station. Suddenly she wondered, could Cooper be as insensitive and cruel as Derek? Because she felt about Cooper right now just as she had once felt about Derek and it scared her to death. She had laughed with Derek as much, as often. She had relied on him in almost the same way she relied on Cooper—as someone not just for her, but for Landon. And sex with Derek had been good.

But if she was honest, she had never really trusted Derek. She knew firsthand that he didn’t always keep his word, that he could lie easily, but she had dismissed these as minor flaws because they were never about issues that really mattered. He would tell a friend he’d completely forgotten he was going to help him move when, really, he had decided he’d rather watch the ball game. He would promise to be home right after work and be two hours late, but he had excuses that at least sounded believable.
Sorry, babe, we got arguing about a few completely miscalled plays, the game was in overtime, we added a beer to the discussion—in which I was totally right, by the way—and before I knew it...

But it had been tough to ignore what happened the day they got married.

Are you at Susan’s house?

Susan’s? Why would I be at Susan’s?

I hear that dog—the one next door to her. The one that never shuts up.

What dog?

I heard it in the background.

I don’t hear anything. Sure it’s not somewhere you are?

I’m at the spa! And Susan isn’t!

Well, call her, Sarah. I’m about to walk out the door. I’ll see you at four. Stop going crazy. You’re just having nerves.

Aren’t
you?
Having nerves?

No, Sarah. I’m ready.

The one question Derek had never been able to answer—why in the world did he marry Sarah if he still acted like a single guy? Screwing around? “It’s not like I planned it. It just happened. And I don’t love her—I love you.”

So maybe she should thank Derek for showing her the light? Because without some of his most disastrous lies, betrayals and infidelities, she would have fallen in love with Cooper in just a few weeks. But she had learned. Boy, had she learned.

She slid into the blazer she was wearing to Thanksgiving dinner at the McCains’. And then the bell went off, followed by the intercom calling for a rescue team.

She had been leaving early, thanks to Derek, but at the sound, she was out of her clothes and back into her flight suit faster than lightning. She ran to the chopper.

“Suspected heart attack, fifty-seven-year-old male, on
The Misty Morning.
Sixty-foot sailing vessel, luxury Oyster, about twenty miles northwest. Here are your coordinates,” the crew chief said. “Ready?”

“Ready,” she said. “We did the preflight checklist and gassed her up earlier. Paul finished the inventory. Is our guy conscious?”

“So far. Want to wait for a doctor?”

“We stand a better chance of bringing him in than waiting for the doc. Tell them to lower the sails. Paul? You have everything?” she yelled.

He was pulling on the bottom half of a wet suit. With all the rigging on a sailboat, she might have to put him in the water. “Got it,” he yelled back. Then, carrying his gear, he jogged to the helicopter.

Derek was pacing. She could tell he wanted on this flight, even though she would be pilot in command. Thankfully her copilot, sharp young Lieutenant JG, was on board, ready for their takeoff preflight. She was plugging in the coordinates. “We can eat up twenty miles in ten minutes.”

Copilot, maintenance crew chief, EMT all buckled in; takeoff preflight done. It was showtime.

“And we are airborne,” she said into the radio. “Schuman, remind me that if I’m ever going to have a heart attack, I want to have it on a sixty-foot yacht.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

Air traffic control gave her altitude and heading, and in two minutes, it was all water underneath them. Nine and a half minutes later, they had the vessel in sight. “We have a lot of rigging, but I can get you down on the deck, Paul. Harness up. Ready to go.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

“We can deploy the rescue basket after you assess.”

“Roger,” he said, sitting in the open door of the chopper.

With the crew chief managing the reel, Paul descended to the deck. He dropped the emergency bag before he released the harness. The passengers seemed to be gathered around the patient. It was maybe four minutes before Paul said into his radio, “We have a possible coronary, patient’s breathing on his own, severe chest pain. Let’s take him aboard, Commander. Have medical and transport standing by.”

The crew chief deployed the basket. Sarah maneuvered around the rigging and in just a few minutes the patient was aboard and they were headed in. Her mind was on nothing but flying until she was landing. It was then that she saw Derek again, through the open hangar doors, loitering around the debrief area. She wondered why he took so much pleasure in screwing with her head? Was it because she outranked him? Because she had caught him in his lies and thrown him out? Why didn’t he take the high road, realize he’d tortured her enough and make himself invisible? Or at least a little less obvious?

The ambulance crew rushed forward with a stretcher and she shut down the helicopter. “Debrief in five,” she said. “Then if we’re lucky, we’re headed out for the rest of the day.”

There was paperwork to file after a rescue, a crew debrief, but Sarah took a moment to text Landon.
Had to fly; rescue mission. Don’t wait for me. Tell everyone to eat.

He texted back:
Everyone okay?

So far,
she responded.

Sixteen

L
ou McCain wasn’t that much of a cook—other than her trademark spaghetti—and she knew it. But Thanksgiving at her house had been a tradition since they’d moved to Thunder Point. They always invited Gina and her gang, too. On every other day of the year, Carrie—her closest friend—cooked and baked for the deli. Gina helped with that, plus served in the diner. Lou thought it was the mark of a good friend to feed them on this particular day.

But this year was special: she was springing Joe on them.

While Eve helped her stuff the turkey, Lou broke the news. “I’ve invited a gentleman your dad knows to dinner. Joe Metcalf. He’s a state trooper.”

“Why? Is he all alone for the holiday?”

“Well, as it happens, he is, but that’s not why I invited him.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been dating him a little.”

“Really?” Eve asked, stunned. “And you never said anything?”

“I wanted to make sure I liked him before bringing him home for dinner.”

“Highway Patrol? How old is this guy?”

“You had to ask.... He might be a little younger than me, but not all that much. It’s not like I’m some cougar...”

Eve giggled and covered her mouth.

“Oh, I’m sure you think this is funny. I’ve been a little nervous about this, so you might lend some support. After all, I’ve been squarely on your team when you want the car, when you’re out on dates. Without me, you’d be wearing a chastity belt.”

“True,” Eve said. “Okay, tell me more about this guy.”

“Well, he’s African-American. Mostly.”

“Mostly? Does that mean he’s black?”

“Latte,” she said. “He’s also Native American, lots of different European and Caribbean.” And then she smiled. “He’s very beautiful.”

When Joe arrived at one in the afternoon, Mac met him with a hearty handshake and invited him to grab a beer and come into the living room by the fire. But Joe said, “Give me a little while.” He took off his jacket, draped it on a kitchen chair and said, “Let me help Lou in the kitchen first. She’s not that much of a cook. Today I can guarantee pretty canapés, no lumps in the potatoes, very smooth gravy and sweet potato pie like you’ve never had. I’d do pies, but my understanding is your friend Carrie is bringing them.”

“You cook?” Mac asked. “And bake?”

“My mother made sure I knew all her recipes so I wouldn’t starve. I can make fried chicken so good you’ll cry.”

“Damn,” Mac said. “Lou, you have a nerve keeping Joe all to yourself for so long! The last time I had fried chicken, it came from the Colonel.”

“I was a colonel,” Joe reminded him.

It all worked. Ryan and Dee Dee hardly noticed that Joe was new to the gathering; Carrie was delighted to finally meet him; Gina was shocked and pleased. Even Cooper, whom Mac had invited, seemed comfortable around Joe, even though they’d just met.

There was only one pall on the celebration—Sarah didn’t make it. There were two more rescue flights, far more than was typical in a single day. She stayed for the debriefs, made sure everything was stable before she even attempted to leave. It was seven-thirty when she texted Landon that she was exhausted and just needed to go home. Holidays could be like that for first responders—accidents, crimes, severe illness, sometimes brought on by overindulgence. Lou was sorry Sarah couldn’t celebrate with Landon and Cooper, because she felt a surge of satisfaction when she saw her family all together around the table—and Joe there, too.

Cooper found Thanksgiving at the McCains to be as close to a family gathering as he’d been to in years. He hung out with the men in Mac’s living room while the women stayed mostly in the kitchen. The kids were downstairs in the basement-turned-rumpus-room until Ryan and Dee Dee came up because, “They’re
kissing!
”

Then it was on Joe and Cooper to keep Mac upstairs. “Take it easy, Mac,” Joe said. “Kissing is good. If they still have their clothes on.”

He wished Sarah had been there, even if she was in the kitchen with the women, but he understood about work. He liked that everyone trusted Sarah enough that no one was worried about her. Landon was used to this and had a lot of respect for his sister’s ability. Cooper had been a pilot himself and since the weather was good, he wasn’t concerned. It was a house full of first responders—people were used to call-outs.

After dinner, Ashley and her boyfriend, Downy, showed up for dessert; they had been with his family for part of the day. Then there was a round of charades. If someone had told Cooper a year ago he’d play charades with three generations of people and laugh his ass off, he’d have called them crazy. After charades, they broke out the Wii and had a bowling and rock star competition.

Cooper hung around the McCains until the text came to Landon, then he pulled the kid aside and, in a quiet voice, said, “I’m going to take off. I think I’ll beg a covered dish from Aunt Lou for your sister and wait for her at your house.”

“You don’t, like, have a key, do you?” Landon asked.

“No. She’s on her way, right? I’ll sit out front.”

Landon looked a little troubled. “Okay.”

Lou was more than happy to fix up some leftovers for Sarah, something she could put in the microwave, plus some pie. She even forced a bottle of wine on him, in case there wasn’t any at Sarah’s house. And then Landon walked Cooper to his truck.

“Listen, maybe we should talk about this,” Landon said.

“This?”

“I want Sarah to go out, to have fun. In fact, I need her to. When all she’s got is me, it just...I don’t know...just gets very heavy. But her ex—he hurt her. It was a terrible thing to watch.”

“What did he do to her, Landon?” Cooper asked. “Anything I should know about that, anything above and beyond the usual rigors of divorce?”

“I could tell you, but I don’t know how she’d take it. Ask her yourself, Coop. Let her tell you. And then, go out, have fun, whatever. But if you hurt her, if you do anything that makes her cry every day for six months, I swear to God...”

“Landon, I don’t want Sarah to be hurt. I like her. It might be easier to avoid that if I knew what I’m not supposed to do.”

“Well, for starters, don’t cheat on her. That’s all I’m saying.”

Cooper shrugged. “That’s easy. I’m kind of simple—one woman is about all I can handle. More than one at a time? Bigger than I am, that’s for sure.”

“Okay,” Landon said. “Good to know. Because Sarah hasn’t had many boyfriends. Derek, he was a surprise. I’m sure she went out with guys because I had babysitters sometimes, but Derek was the first one she got serious about and I was thirteen. So what I’m saying here is, Sarah doesn’t have a lot of experience with guys. If you screw her up...”

He felt a smile come to his lips. Sarah wasn’t inexperienced. Or maybe she was a natural. But one thing was clear—she hadn’t paraded an army of beaux past her little brother, yet another thing for which he admired her.

Cooper put a hand on his shoulder. “I promise,” he said. “But, Landon, I’m leaving after Christmas. January, maybe February at the latest. I told Sarah, and you knew from the start, I’m going to have to find work. This place? I like it—it’s a good place. But I’m just passing through.”

“I know. I get that. That’s not the same thing as using someone. Hurting someone. I said all I have to say.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket.

“Wait a minute,” Cooper said. “Maybe you should tell me what the ex did to you.”

“If you’d asked me that a few months ago, I would have had a load of crap to lay on you. First, he practically killed my sister, she was so sad. And I haven’t heard a word from him since he left us over a year ago. We had to move because Sarah couldn’t make the mortgage by herself. And she moved me to Nowhereville. But now? I don’t want to hear from him and I like Nowhereville. And there’s Eve...”

Cooper chuckled. “I might be just a cockeyed optimist, but things seem to work out the way they’re supposed to.”

Landon gave him a key off his key ring. “Let yourself in. Warm up her dinner. She comes off a bunch of rescues just shot to hell.”

“When are you going to be home?” Cooper asked. “So I can pass that on to your sister.”

“When Deputy Yummy Pants throws me out,” he said.

A loud bark of laughter escaped Cooper.

“That’s what the women call him behind his back. Believe me, from where I’m sitting, he’s not all that sexy. I’ll leave when he says I’m leaving. Let Ham out, will you? And leave my key on the kitchen table, okay?”

“Sure, kid. Behave yourself.” And he left for Sarah’s house.

She wasn’t home yet. This was only the second time Cooper had been to Sarah’s house and his first time inside. It was very small, he knew from their conversations—two whole bedrooms. But she had a fenced backyard, absolutely necessary for Ham. And there was a small fireplace in the living room. Probably the best part about the house was the front porch. It was covered and stretched the length of the front of the house. If she owned the property or if she were staying here permanently, she could enclose it or screen it. From that front porch, there was a view of the bay and, in the distance, a small light across the beach. The light he’d left on over the door of his fifth wheel. She could also see the town, the main street, the marina.

He took off his boots inside the front door. He let Ham out the back door and, using the wood and pinecone starters, he built a fire. Then he put the covered dish holding the turkey dinner beside the microwave on the counter and the wine in the refrigerator.

When she walked in the back door, she looked stunned. “What are you doing here?”

He stood from the sofa. “I brought you some leftovers and made you a fire. Landon gave me a key—I left it on the table. Listen, I don’t have to stay. You must be worn-out. Long day?”

She shrugged out of her coat and tossed it over the back of a kitchen chair. “Fourteen hours, the last two just mopping up the paperwork. Three rescues in one day—unprecedented. I was going to stop off for a bottle of wine, but since it’s Thanksgiving evening, not much is open.”

“Got you covered, Commander,” he said. “Aunt Lou wouldn’t let me leave without one. I’ll open it for you.”

“You’re a good man to have around,” she said, going to the sofa. She pulled off her boots. He must have found the corkscrew right away; she heard only one drawer slide open. When he started opening kitchen cupboards, she said, “Over the toaster oven, next to the refrigerator.” A minute later he brought her a glass of wine.

“Maybe I should get going.”

“Only if you want to,” she said. “I’m up to a little quiet company. I’m sorry I missed the dinner.”

“We played charades,” he said, then surprised himself with a laugh. He sat beside her. “Landon had a father-son talk with me. This time I was the son. He’s pretty worried, Sarah. Afraid that getting mixed up with me is going to leave you brokenhearted and broken-down.”

“Ah, poor Landon. You can’t blame him. It was so hard on him, seeing me fall apart the way I did over the divorce. This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Cooper. In fact, it’s very nice to have a friend like you. And I’ve gotten closer to Gina and let me tell you, it’s been a while since I had a girlfriend. I needed that, too.”

With a finger, he ran her short hair around her ear. He smiled. “Will you think I’m a complete pig if I tell you that sleeping with you really winds my watch?”

She grinned. “We’ve never slept.”

“Because you drive me out of my mind. I’ve needed a friend like you, too.”

She chuckled. “Needed to get laid, huh?”

“That, too. Listen, I made a slight change in plans. While the bait shop is being worked on, while Rawley is around to keep an eye on the reconstruction, I’m going to head to Albuquerque to visit my family.”

“Now?” she asked.

“In a week.”

“I thought you planned to go for Christmas?” she asked, sipping her wine.

“I was considering it. But I decided I wanted to be around here. Do you have plans?”

“I only work Christmas Eve until four, unless it turns into another day like today. And I have Landon, when he’s not with Eve.” She curled up against Cooper’s side. “This is his first girlfriend, unless you count Cindy Freeman when he was seven.”

“He’s a goner,” Cooper said, putting his arms around her. “Have you talked to him about, you know...”

“Talked to him and armed him. But God, I hope he doesn’t have sex.” She lifted her head. “Is there any way we can keep them from having sex?”

Cooper just shook his head. “Has he talked about you having sex with a nomad who lives in a tin can?”

She shook her head. “He must be leaving that up to me.”

“Good. You turned out to have very good judgment about that.”

“You mean the way I jumped your bones on the second date?”

“My favorite part. Want me to warm your dinner?”

“No. Can you put it in the refrigerator when you’re up getting me another glass of wine?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, reluctantly pulling away from her. And then he was back, handing her the wine and pulling her against him. In lieu of hot, crazy sex, just holding her was very satisfying. He told her what he’d heard at the McCains’ about Christmas, about the decorating of the town, about parties, about a legendary open house at Gina and Carrie’s house, catered by the only caterer in town. “And we’re included, if interested.”