A Marine For His Mum. Christy Jeffries
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.
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