A Marine For His Mum

Who was she kidding? The man was good-looking just off his long flight with beard stubble, jet lag and a bum leg. Of course he’d be even more handsome in uniform. She’d never been attracted to those types, though. They represented everything she’d tried to get away from during her childhood.

But somehow Cooper seemed different. He didn’t really look as if he fit the military mold despite the regulation haircut. And mercy, Kylie was right—he really was hot. His running shorts showed off tan, well-muscled legs. She could see the outline of his washboard abs through his beige T-shirt.

It could just be the wine warming her up, but something pulsed in her lower lady parts. She hadn’t experienced any pulsing down there in a long time, and she was uncomfortable with it. Maybe because it was a complete stranger who was making her feel this way. Or maybe because she was getting slightly turned on by his photos while sitting in her son’s room surrounded by Angry Birds posters and Lego sets.

She needed to get ahold of herself. Or go out on a date once in a while.

Just then, a text message popped up on her smartphone. Kylie was running late and Mia’s knee was too sore for yoga. Maxine took another sip of wine. She could either back out of their dinner plans now and sit in front of Hunter’s computer screen staring at Gunny Heartthrob, or she could walk down the street and meet her friends at Patrelli’s for pizza and another glass of wine.

Her nerves won out and she grabbed her heavy jacket off the coatrack and practically ran out the door, trying to get as far away from her thoughts as she could.

* * *

To: [e-mail]

From: [e-mail]

Re: Star Wars

Date: Jan 25

Hunter,

First of all, the femoral surgery went well. Dr. McCormick is supposed to be the top orthopedic surgeon in the Navy, and he expects me to recover quickly and undergo the knee replacement surgery just as well.

Second of all, Han Solo is in no way “more awesomer” than Luke Skywalker. You can’t even compare the two. Han Solo is a smuggler. He isn’t even a Jedi. Also, Luke is royalty, and he went through a lot of training. Han doesn’t even have a light saber.

Third of all, I’m still learning to use Skype and I’m not used to it yet. And you have to promise that you’ll get your mom’s permission before we start talking on the computer like that.

Speaking of your mom, please thank her for sending that box of her cookies. When I shared them with all the guys on my floor, I was more popular than PFC Spooner, whose dad sends him magazines with— Well, I’ll tell you about those when you’re older.

I got the list you sent me with the names of every local police department that is hiring. I’m really not sure if I’m going to try to be a civvie cop. And I’m definitely not going to love Idaho “the way a drunk loves a martini.” Does Jake Marconi even know what a martini is? Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on when I can start having visitors.

Cooper

Cooper hadn’t been lying to the kid. The surgery really had gone pretty well. It was too soon to tell if he’d make enough of a recovery to reenlist, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Hunter that there was no way he planned to stay in Idaho permanently.

It was bad enough that he’d been putting off Hunter’s visit, but, honestly, he didn’t know if he could handle being around Maxine Walker again. The woman had brought out the worst in him that day at the baggage claim area, and it had been all he could take when she’d had to help lift him out of the airport-issued wheelchair and into her car.

She’d smelled as incredible as she looked. And the drive to the hospital had been just as intense as the woman’s forced smile when Hunter had insisted on waiting for the admission paperwork to be completed and for the nurse to wheel him away to the orthopedic wing.

He didn’t look forward to having to endure Maxine’s stiff presence, but at the same time, he couldn’t wait to see her again. To smell her again. Hell, to feel her hands on him again—even if it meant asking her to help him get out of this damn hospital bed to hit the head.

A light blinked on the bottom of his open laptop and he pulled the wheeled tray table closer to him.

He was receiving a Skype call from Dr. Gregson. The damn shrink was the one to blame for the whole mess. Back in September, Gregson had gone right over Cooper’s head and his objections. He’d purposely sought out Cooper’s commander to force him to participate in the pen pal program, knowing full well the honor-bound marine couldn’t refuse a direct order.

As Cooper clicked on the mouse to connect their call, he had a lot more than some soul cleansing to discuss. There was hell to pay.

“Gregson,” he bellowed, when the counselor’s grainy image jumped onto his screen.

“How’d the surgery go, Gunny?”

Cooper relayed what Dr. McCormick had told him, including the part that his leg would never be 100 percent.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I know the Corps was your life.”

“Yeah, well...” he cursed, though it hardly raised one of Dr. Gregson’s eyebrows.

“Language, Gunny.”

“Do you have to be such a sainted do-gooder all the time?”

“Do you have to be so cranky and miserable all the time? Here I thought you’d like Shadowview, being close to your pen pal and all that.”

“That’s another thing, Gregson. I’m still pissed about that whole program. I told you I didn’t want to play pen pal to some kid. And yet you went up my chain of command and had me ordered to participate? You made me look like a loose cannon to Colonel Filden. And now he, and probably everybody else in my unit, thinks I’m some lonely PTSD candidate who needed a damn morale boost.”

The only man Cooper had opened up to in his almost sixteen years in the Corps now sat behind a web cam with a self-righteous smirk on his saintly face. Gregson might make a good psychologist, but he was too softhearted to be a marine in a combat zone.

“I gave you the opportunity to accept graciously, Coop. You forced me to take it up with Colonel Filden.”

It was hard to stay angry at Gregson when he simply sat there, passively and politely nodding his head and listening to Cooper’s heated argument. Did they teach shrinks to smile and nod like that in grad school?

“Why are you still so upset about that?” Gregson asked. “What else did you have to do when you were off duty? You never associated with any of your fellow troops. And you never went anywhere besides the chow hall and the weight room. And look at what you got out of the program.”

“The decision should have been mine to make.” Cooper tried to scratch under the bandage covering his recent incision. He knew Gregson was right and that meeting Hunter had been exactly what Cooper needed in his life at the time. Hell, his letters and emails with the boy were the only thing that got him through the aftermath of that explosion at the base, followed by a helo evac to Okinawa, where he’d had to stay while his body and leg stabilized enough to fly back to the States for surgery. If it hadn’t been for Gregson, Cooper wouldn’t have Hunter in his life.

Nor would his pain-addled mind be hosting those damn dreams of wrapping Maxine’s sexy blond curls around his fingers. Being laid up in the hospital was making him stir-crazy and had his emotions spinning all over the place. Logically, he knew this situation that he’d landed in wasn’t Gregson’s fault, but the fact remained that his leg hurt, his pride hurt and he wanted to be mad at someone.

But Gregson didn’t get riled. Instead, he changed the subject. “So when the knee replacement surgery is over, how long will it take to recover?”

“I’ll stay in the hospital for a couple more weeks, doing rehab, and then they’ll release me to go home, provided I come in for regular physical therapy sessions. But that could take weeks.”

“Where would you stay?”

“I don’t know. I guess a motel somewhere. Or I could probably rent a furnished apartment. I’m just trying to take everything one day at a time.” Gregson knew enough about Cooper’s background that he didn’t have to expand on the fact that he didn’t really have a home to go to. Even the apartment he’d once lived in as a boy never felt like a home since his mom had died and his stepdad never wanted him around. When Cooper had been married to Lindsay, she’d tried to make their tiny house on base a home, but it just always seemed so forced—as if they were just playing house. He was always more comfortable being on deployment than living with her, which was probably why their marriage didn’t last.

“You know, my family lives in Boise. We have a cabin up in Sugar Falls you could use.”

“I’ve got news for you, Gregson. Spending time in your quaint little vacation hideaway isn’t going to give me back anything I’ve lost.”

“Well, if you’re going to keep your expectations low, you might as well do it in Sugar Falls, where it’ll be more comfortable than some no-tell motel. Use the cabin, let your knee heal and think about your options if you can’t reenlist. What are you so afraid of?”

Cooper bristled at the implication that he was afraid of anything. He had both a silver star and a purple heart to prove otherwise, and Gregson knew it. But Sugar Falls meant seeing Maxine on a regular basis and Cooper was smart enough to understand that hiding out in enemy territory wasn’t brave, it was downright foolish.

“Forget the reverse psychology crap,” he told the doctor. “I know they teach that BS in shrink school and Terrorist Interviewing 101, but it won’t work on me.”

“You and I both know the real reason you don’t want to spend any time with the kid. You don’t want to risk getting close to anyone. It might mean creating a crack in your hard shell of a heart.”

Cooper gritted his teeth at the unwelcome analysis, his jaw fixed even harder than his alleged heart at that moment. Hell, he wasn’t even a patient of Gregson’s. The only thing they had in common was a proclivity for using the weight room after everyone else in their units had hit the rack.

When Cooper didn’t respond, Gregson continued. “You know, maybe if you would’ve had a positive male role model back when you were a fatherless fifth grader, it wouldn’t have stunted your emotional and social growth.”

“Yeah, and maybe if you’d had a date or two while studying for your PhD, it wouldn’t have stunted your ability to get laid.” Cooper slammed the laptop closed.

“Uh, hello?” a feminine voice asked from behind the curtained partition that barely provided any privacy from the busy hospital floor.

“Yeah?” Cooper responded as he used the trapeze handle to lift himself up into a better position on the narrow bed.

Right before his brain registered the owner of the voice, Maxine Walker’s very pretty face peeked around the curtain and her large blue eyes locked on to his. “Are we disturbing anything?”

He practically knocked the tray table over in his haste to pull the bed sheet over his exposed legs. Damn these short hospital gowns.

What was she doing here? And how much of his conversation had she just heard?

“Uh, no. I was just talking on Skype with my buddy and uh...” He trailed off as she lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow at the closed laptop. “What are you doing here?”

There he went again with that gruff accusatory tone, the defensive one he found himself reverting to whenever he was in an uncomfortable situation. He saw the ugly little cellophane-wrapped plant in her hands and tried to force his lips into a smile so he wouldn’t seem like the world’s biggest bastard for barking at her in such an ungrateful way.

“Hunter said you could have visitors, so I brought him down and...” She paused as her gaze swiveled around the room and then behind her into the corridor, as if she’d lost something. “Well, he was with me just a second ago. Maybe I should go find him.”

She turned to walk out, and he pulled himself up as if he could will his useless body to physically stop her from leaving. “Wait, you don’t have to go. I mean, I’m sure he just got distracted and will be along any minute.” Cooper nodded his head toward the wilted green thing in the plastic pot. “Is that for me?”

“Oh, this? It’s just a little something to cheer up your room.” She walked toward the small window and set the plant on a bare cabinet, causing some curling leaves to fall off their stems.

He’d seen interrogation huts in third world countries more cheerful than that dying shrub. But he thanked her all the same.

“So, the surgery went okay?” Now that her hands were empty, she’d reverted back to that same stance she’d displayed at the airport—arms crossed tightly across her torso.

“I guess so. One down and one to go. I guess the real recovery will start after that.”

“Hey,” Hunter interrupted, as he finally breezed in past the curtain. “There’s a guy down the hall with the coolest robot legs, and they have him doing jumping jacks and leg squats and all kinds of things. He showed me how the new joints are like titanium-powered springs, and now he’s like an incredible bionic man. Maybe they’ll give you some legs like that, Coop.”

As exciting as the kid made it sound, Cooper needed the reminder that he was lucky to still have all of his own limbs. A lot of soldiers had injuries so much worse than his. “I don’t know, little man. I’m kinda attached to these legs right here.” Cooper patted the sheet that he’d finally gotten into place.

“Can I see your stitches?”

“Hunter.” Maxine blushed, and Cooper enjoyed seeing the pink flush stain her cheeks. It made her seem warmer somehow. “Leave his bandage alone. He probably needs his rest.”

“I’m okay,” he said, wanting to reassure Maxine that her son didn’t bother him in the least. He pulled the sheet back so Hunter could get his curiosity fix.

“Oh, wow, they had to shave your leg and everything. Just like a girl.” Hunter screwed up his chubby little face in disgust. “Dr. McCormick didn’t tell me about that part.”

“When did you talk to my surgeon?” Cooper asked. Maxine’s puzzled expression must have matched his own.

“When I called him yesterday to ask how your surgery went and to see when we could come visit. He said today was fine, so Mom brought me down.”

Maxine raised her shoulders and shook her head, as if to tell him she had no idea her ten-year-old son was capable of navigating his way through a busy hospital’s switchboards and acquiring confidential patient information. But Cooper wasn’t the least bit surprised. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past Hunter to know what he’d had for breakfast, how many times the nurses had changed his IV bag and when his next sponge bath was scheduled.

Looking at Maxine, whose arms were now akimbo in confusion, and whose perfectly formed breasts were on proud display under her snug white cotton top, he couldn’t help but wish that she could be the one to assist him at bath time.

“I brought you my Lord of the Rings DVD series.” Hunter’s voice brought Cooper back to reality. “My mom got you that plant. It looked better when she picked it out in the grocery store, but Gram says Mom has a black thumb and kills everything she touches.”

“Well, it’s the thought that counts,” Cooper said, trying to muster up something positive to say. He couldn’t very well agree with Hunter’s grandmother, could he?

“Now you sound like Mom when she makes me wear the stupid clothes Gram picks out.”

The little white phone by his bedside rang just then, and before Coop could move, Hunter jumped to answer it. “Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Cooper’s room.”

“Sorry,” Maxine whispered as her son spoke into the corded receiver. “I thought you were the one who told him he could visit. I didn’t know he was calling your doctor directly.”

“It’s okay,” Cooper whispered back, actually surprised by how much seeing them both had boosted his spirits.

“Yeah, he’s right here.” Hunter spoke with the importance of an adjutant screening a four-star general’s call. “But he still has the same ole boring human legs. Okay, hold on, Colonel Filden.”

Cooper grabbed the phone from Hunter’s hand and covered the mouthpiece as he spoke to his guests. “Thanks for coming to visit, but I have to take this call.”

“Okay, I’ll come back in a couple of days,” Hunter promised, but Maxine shook her head at the boy while attempting to quietly lead him out of the room.

He hoped they understood that he wasn’t trying to dismiss them out of rudeness. But this was possibly the call that would decide his entire future. And no matter how cool Hunter was—or how pretty his mom—Coop wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of here, stat.

Chapter Three

“Hello, sir,” Cooper finally said into the receiver once he knew Maxine and Hunter were well on their way down the hall.

The men exchanged general pleasantries for all of twenty seconds before his commanding officer finally cut to the chase.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Filden said. “They’re not needing as many soldiers, and they’re getting real stingy with the retirement pay. Your record speaks for itself. You’re a phenomenal marine. An asset to the squadron. Your men respect you and look up to you. I did my best to push for your reenlistment, but it doesn’t look good. Hell, if it were up to me, you would’ve been promoted to First Sergeant after your last deployment. But when you add this new injury to the mix, there’s just no way the government is willing to take the gamble. Anyway, nothing’s official yet, but I figured I’d give you a heads-up so you could start thinking about your future and any possibilities that may arise.”

The itch near Cooper’s incision flared up, and he wanted to throw the phone across the room and rip his bandage off. But he took the conversation like a man. As much as Cooper hated hearing the truth, he was grateful the colonel wasn’t shining him on. “I appreciate your candor, sir.”

“You’re made for police work, Gunny. And right now, just about every major department and agency stateside is hiring cops. I’m just saying it’s not a bad idea to put some feelers out. See if there’s anything open in your hometown.”

“Yes, sir,” Cooper said, knowing full well he’d never step foot in his old neighborhood if he could help it. The truth of the matter was that Cooper didn’t have a home, let alone a hometown. Nor did he have anyone he could talk to about what his options were.

“I’ll let you know if I hear anything different,” Filden added. “But a marine is always ready for anything, right?”

“Right, sir. Semper Fi.”

Cooper was almost surprised at the gentle way he eased the receiver down. Probably because he’d never wanted to throw anything so badly in his life.

So there it was. One minute he’d been out for a jog along the base perimeter with his dog, Helix. The next minute, a sixteen-year career in the Corps was gone in the flash of a detonated suicide bomb strapped to some poor insurgent’s chest.

* * *

To: [e-mail]

From: [e-mail]

Re: Surgery

Date: March 1

I didn’t know that Miss Gregson’s family has a cabin up here in Sugar Falls. That’s so cool that they’re letting you stay in it when you get out of the hospital. I still think you should stay with me and my mom so we can take care of you and make sure you don’t fall or bust your knee back open. But at least we’ll be close enough to see each other every day.

How long are you going to be able to stay? I know you’re bummed about being discharged from the marines, but there are some real great cop jobs all over Idaho. Did you check out any of those applications I printed out for you?

Anyway, me and my mom will pick you up on Sunday and give you a ride to the cabin. Or to our house if you get smart and change your mind. And don’t forget, you’re gonna play catch with me when your leg is better.

See ya,

Hunter

No! No, no, no.

What had Hunter done?

He’d left his computer on when he’d gone to Boise with Cessy to see the latest superhero movie, and Maxine had only come in to collect the smelly socks and inside-out pants that were piling up in the corner.

But his laptop screen was open to his outbox and she soon realized the perfect small town world she’d created for herself and her son was about to change.

She went to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of barbecue potato chips before coming back to Hunter’s room to reread the email her son had sent that afternoon.

For years, people had been telling her that Hunter needed a positive male role model in his life. She knew some manly influence wasn’t necessarily a cause for alarm, but she wanted to be the one to decide who exerted that influence.

And now Hunter had invited this jerk to their hometown to recover from his surgery. He’d even volunteered her to pick the guy up at the hospital! She should have grounded him after that airport ride stunt, because apparently the boy hadn’t learned his lesson.

Geez, what should she do? She wanted to call someone to ask for advice, but who?

Her friend Mia understood kids. But Mia had a late-night dance class. Kylie was probably on a date, and Cessy’s advice was never an option, even if her mother-in-law wasn’t with Hunter. It sucked that her son certainly didn’t have a father she could share her parenting concerns with.

That was probably the reason Hunter had gotten into this situation in the first place. No father figure. And no matter how hard Maxine had tried to be both mom and dad, she must not have pulled it off. There was obviously something lacking in Hunter’s life that drew him to some random soldier like a heat-seeking missile.

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.”