The Newcomer (Thunder Point) (29 page)

“We should do that sometime,” he said while driving.

“We should,” she said quietly.

They stopped off for flowers, took two lovely bouquets to a small chapel near the waterfront and found an excited and thrilled bride and groom. Gina was astonished by the gorgeous flowers. Sarah pinned a simple rose on Mac’s lapel, and then one for Cooper. And Cooper was so proud of her for her thoughtfulness and generosity. He’d gotten them a gift to give them later, which he hoped they would like.

When the bride and groom stood before the minister, Cooper whispered, “We could do this, you know.”

With a heavy sigh that was filled with disappointment, she said, “I wish.”

“It would be a game changer.”

“I know,” she said softly.

Before anything more could be said, the vows began. It was the simple, straightforward pledge—for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness or health, forever and ever. A very short, balding minister who wore glasses and a robe stood before them at the front of the pretty little chapel; his voice was soft and caressing, but Mac’s voice was strong and firm, Gina’s voice was tinged with emotional tears. Sarah cried and smiled at the same time, and in seven minutes the vows were pledged, the kissing done, the certificate of marriage signed by everyone and a half-dozen pictures were taken by the minister’s oldest son. Cooper and Sarah took photos on their cell phones, then immediately texted them to Lou and Carrie. Ten minutes later they were entering a nice waterfront restaurant where Mac had reserved a table with a view.

Before even sitting down Cooper excused himself for a moment. He saw the maître d’ and ordered a bottle of champagne. He hadn’t been seated long when it arrived to the surprise of the new husband and wife. When the cork had been popped and the flutes filled, he lifted his glass and said, “Here’s to a wedding in which the kiss lasted longer than the vows!”

Mac leaned against Gina and said, “Hear, hear!”

Gina said, “And look at us—at a restaurant that’s not Cliffhanger’s.”

“And if Mac doesn’t mind, I’ll order for myself tonight,” Cooper said. “He’s pretty fond of telling people what to eat.”

“This is the pot speaking of the kettle,” Sarah pointed out.

“So where are Mr. and Mrs. McCain knocking boots tonight?” Cooper asked, getting an elbow in the ribs from Sarah.

“Joe has a lake cabin,” Mac told them. “There are plenty of really nice hotels around here, even some bridal suites, but the cabin is just perfect—we’ve been there before. It’s isolated, comfortable, there’s a boat to take out on the lake. Gina packed a cooler with some of Carrie’s best dishes and sandwiches premade, plus some breakfast groceries. I made the beverage run and confirmed that the cell phones don’t work up there. There’s a landline for emergencies, but we’ll be alone, which is the main thing. It’s an hour away, but well worth the drive. We promised to be back by six Sunday night. We’ll stop by Carrie’s for dinner with Ash and Carrie, then on to my house—Gina’s new home.”

“We hope,” Gina said. “A lot of people are facing change with this marriage—the kids, my mom, Mac’s aunt. They all say they want this, but we’re hoping the adjustments won’t be too confusing or disruptive.”

“Gina will have the biggest adjustment to make,” Mac said. “Her house has been like a convent—not a lot of noise or traffic. My house is the bigger house, but it’s filled with kids and dogs and... Well, there’s Aunt Lou, who is very protective of what little space she gets. She’s threatening to get her own place, or move in with Joe, who is staying there with her this weekend. Whatever she does, she won’t be far away. My kids are her kids. She’s raised Ryan and Dee Dee since before they were potty-trained.”

“As far as I’m concerned, my mom and Aunt Lou have made all things possible,” Gina said. “I don’t know how either of us would have raised our kids without them. You, Sarah, doing it on your own as you have...my hat’s off to you.”

Cooper put an arm around her, giving her a squeeze. “She doesn’t give herself enough credit. She’s amazing.”

Cooper noticed that she looked down, nodded and murmured something about Landon being a wonderful kid. In spite of the happy occasion there seemed to be a sadness about Sarah and he began to imagine she was hiding even more dire problems Maybe she was sick. Terminal! There was something terrible going on to cause her to withdraw like this.

After dinner, Cooper and Sarah walked the happy couple to Mac’s truck, bid them farewell and wished them a great weekend. After they had gone all Sarah said was, “It was so lovely. So lovely.”

“Let’s go for a little walk,” Cooper said, his arm around her shoulders. “Just around this block to the waterfront. To finish watching the sunset.”

“We should get home, Cooper....”

He stopped and turned her toward him. “No, baby. We have to talk about whatever is eating you.”

“I should figure out what to do before I dump it on you....”

“Maybe you could use some help with whatever it is.”

She took a deep steadying breath. “I’ve been notified that...I got reassignment orders, Cooper...soon. I haven’t had the guts to talk it over with Landon yet. This isn’t going to go down well.”

Shock widened his eyes. It was the last thing he expected. “I thought you had another year here.”

“I should have. That’s what I thought when I came here—that’s what we had all predicted. But there’s a pressing need for someone at my level of command and I’m the most logical person to fill it. And it’s for a south Florida Coast Guard station.”

“Whoa.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Could they give you a more distant assignment?”

“They don’t have Coast Guard stations on the moon yet,” she murmured.

“Well,” Cooper said, thinking for a moment. “You’re right, this is going to go down hard. I was moved right before my senior year and I’m still pissed about it. And I didn’t have a shining football career ahead of me. I was just an ordinary high school kid.”

“This will devastate Landon,” she agreed.

“Is it at least a decent job? In Florida?”

“Depends on your definition of decent. It’s a good position and I’m in line for a promotion. It will mean less flying and more administrative time. But I’m good at both, so...”

He thought maybe they should continue walking...and thinking. But for some reason his feet were rooted to the ground. “Maybe it would help if...I could get him down there early, like right away. We could look around, make sure he gets into a good school with a good football team and give him a chance to adjust before school starts. By the time you get there, maybe he’ll be human about it....”

Her eyes were round and her mouth actually hung open. She shook her head as if to roll the marbles back into place. “You would do that?”

“Of course I could. Or I could take care of him here. He only has one more year. But it would be so damn far for you to travel to see him. That would be really hard on both of you. I mean, you’re a team, you and Landon. But there’s another fact you have to face—in one more year he could choose a college on the other side of the country. He’s going to leave your care eventually. But if things stay as they are now, I think he’d probably opt for the left coast....”

“Live with you...here?”

He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes. “Okay, maybe you don’t want me to be a part of this. But if that’s what it is, you have to tell me, Sarah. I’ve been bent out of shape worrying that you want to dump me. We’ve been together nine months. You know I love you—you know I want to spend my life with you. If you don’t want that, you have to tell me.”

“But you have a business here! A son!”

“I haven’t lived with my son for the last ten years. He wouldn’t be devastated if I only visited. In fact, there’s no guarantee Spencer and Austin will stay in Thunder Point—that all depends on if this job works out to be a good thing for them both. You and Landon, that’s a different situation. It’s just the two of you and you’re real tight.”

“And the bar? The beach?”

“Ah...I love the beach and the bar is working out, but I’m not more tied to that than to you, for God’s sake. I could sell it. I could even sell it responsibly, so it doesn’t hurt the town. Or I could rent it so there’s something to come back to. You do understand that if I had to make a choice...”

“You’d be giving up everything you love!”

He just smiled at her and shook his head. “Not everything I love.”

“What if I quit?” she said. “What if I didn’t take the assignment and just resigned my commission and didn’t have an income? What if I turned out to be just a part-time barmaid who couldn’t pay her own rent just so Landon could finish school here?”

He laughed. “Don’t tease me,” he said. “Sarah, don’t you know by now? There’s no deal breaker here. I’ll take any part of you—career Coast Guard pilot or simply my wife. And I’m not asking you to give up anything you love or have worked hard for.” He grinned. “I know how controlling you are. And I also think you love me. You love us together. If you don’t, you have a good fake going on.”

“Cooper...” she whispered, her eyes misting.

“Hey! How long have you been carrying this around? This worry and burden?”

She shrugged helplessly. “I got wind of it a couple of months ago, when it was just rumor, when there was still hope that—”

“A couple of
months?
Aw, baby! We could’ve talked it out a long time ago! This has been eating you up! Sarah, honey, you don’t have to manage everything alone anymore. You can count on me, don’t you know that?”

He looked around uncomfortably. They stood on a sidewalk under a restaurant’s neon sign. The surf was audible, but so was passing traffic. He grunted, reaching into his shirt pocket. “This isn’t what I planned. Man. I’m no great romantic, but I thought I could do better than this. And I don’t know if it will help your decision or just make it harder, but...” He produced a ring. Not a box, just a ring. But he thought it a damned beautiful ring. “I’ve been carrying this around for a while now, but you were so bitchy. Sorry to say that, but really...” He held it out, in his palm. “Please don’t make me get down on my knees,” he said. “The ground is wet.”

A laugh sputtered out of her through her tears. “You’re not kneeling?”

“On a wet, cracked sidewalk, in the mist, on a busy street? Only if it’s the difference between yes and no. I’ll kneel for you later.... Sarah, I want to marry you. I want to bind you up and take you off the market. I want you to trust me with your problems. I want to be your other half. I want us to share the same life, whatever that means. The only caveat is that I will always visit Austin, wherever he lives. But you? You, I want to be with every day. And I will never ask you to give up anything for me—just say you’ll be my wife.” He picked up the ring and slid it onto her finger so she could look at it.

“Is it real?” she asked.

“Of course it’s real! It’s not a custom design or anything, so you can exchange it for something you like better. It’s damn hard to pick a ring for a woman who never wears jewelry and who goes to work in combat boots, so I can be flexible here. But you have to say yes first.”

She looked up at him. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

“I know you are,” he said softly. “Plus, you hold a grudge. It takes a lot to piss you off, but man, when you get there... Look, I know you’re scared, but I’m not. For the first time in my life, I’m not nervous about commitment like this. And eventually you’re going to stop being scared because there’s not one thing about us that’s suspicious or scary or risky. Everything works with us. We’re solid. And you know it. You should take a chance on us. We can be happy, I know we can.”

She blinked and a tear escaped. “Then...yes,” she said in a whisper.

He lifted her chin with a finger and kissed her, at first lightly, then with hunger. His arms went around her waist while hers went around his back, molding her to him. Their mouths fit perfectly, searching and caressing and devouring, the taste of her tears on his lips.

A horn honked and someone yelled,
“Get a room!”

They broke apart on a laugh. “Let’s get a room,” he suggested.

“Let’s go home,” she said.

He kissed her again. “Home,” he repeated. “Sounds good to me.”

* * *

It was hard for Gina to say goodbye to an idyllic weekend at Joe’s little cabin on the lake, but Mac said, “He promises that any time we can get away and it’s not in use, it’s ours.”

They headed home, as man and wife, all ready for a new adventure in Thunder Point. They would have dinner with Carrie and Ashley, at which time Gina would pack up what was left of her toiletries and a few other personal items and bring them over to Mac’s place. School might be out for the summer, but Gina and Mac both had to get back to work on Monday morning.

As they pulled onto Main Street sawhorses had been set up with detour signs hanging from them. “What’s this?” Mac said. “I wasn’t told about this. I wonder if there’s trouble in town.”

“Why would they close the street through town?”

He put the truck in Park. “I couldn’t tell you. Broken water main? Fire? Maybe they’re moving a wide load through town? Let’s go have a look, Mrs. McCain.”

They walked the rest of the way into town and as they got closer they spotted the Sheriff’s Department SUV, lights flashing, blocking the street in front of the diner. There were people everywhere, milling around the closed off street.