Twenty
January was a cloudy and wet month, typical for the coast at this time of year. Sarah had a weeklong training class to attend in Florida. She was hesitant to allow Cooper to be in charge of Landon because of the way it resembled her relationship with her ex. But Cooper made a good case. “He’s going to want to be on his own,” Cooper said. “And he’s definitely capable. But I can at least make sure he eats and doesn’t use your house as a sex shop.”
After a brief shudder, she said, “All right. But don’t get any ideas.”
“God forbid,” he said.
Unlike her ex, Sarah was monogamous. She was just afraid of commitment, and for good reason, it seemed. There was no practical reason for her to trust a man, especially a man like Cooper, who could admit women had in the past complained that he just couldn’t stick. There were no more proclamations of love, but the passion hadn’t weakened.
While Sarah was in Florida, she called him daily. He spent his time at the renovation or his trailer. Rawley was still coming by most days and had taken to wearing a tool belt. Building was something he could do with minimal interaction. He did break down and ask Cooper if he might work on that old pickup in the shed, rather than taking it to his father’s house where there was limited driveway and garage space. Ben had left an impressive collection of tools.
“Makes no difference to me, Rawley,” Cooper said. “Just leave me enough space in there for the toys. I’ll put the Jet Ski on the water when the weather gets warm.”
The bait shop was officially gone and the bar/deli was looking damn good. They’d managed to kill the mold, reinforce the struts, lay down new floors, put up new drywall, rewire, plumb and polish without tearing down the deck. Cooper and Rawley got to work on the stairs to the dock, but the new roof and dock were going to wait till spring. One of Cooper’s favorite things to do was walk through the renovated structure first thing every morning. Every day he was more impressed than the day before.
One of the best parts of the day, if it was a nice day, was watching Landon come to the beach in his Razor. Sometimes Eve was with him. Ham was almost always sitting beside him—and he wore a helmet. He looked so silly, sitting up tall with his small helmet latched under his chin. Then Landon would park in the center of the beach, let Ham get out, remove the helmet and run the beach after sticks and balls.
During that week that Cooper was spending nights at his house, Landon only gave him a wave. When Cooper wasn’t the nanny, Landon might come up to the shop and look around at the progress.
When a new stove top, oven, warming trays and industrial-size ice maker were delivered and installed, it was virtually done. There was still enough finishing work to keep him busy, new tables and chairs to be delivered, bar stools to be ordered, but the contractors would be moving out and taking their Dumpster, trucks and equipment with them.
The two rooms above the bar were also finished, though vacant of furnishings. It was basically just a bedroom, sitting room and large bath with shower. He had installed a fireplace downstairs that extended to a second-floor fireplace in his sitting room. Drawers were built-in. If Cooper chose, he could move into the bar. If he wanted to, he could find storage space for the toy hauler and have something under his feet that didn’t move in the wind.
* * *
Mac’s involvement in any case against Jag Morrison had been limited to the battery charges, but it was the link to all other things. The first hurdle had been to convince Puck that he must press charges. In the end, Mac was able to convince him that Puck might be able to escape large sums of payment for his third son’s education by stipulating that the boy had assaulted him.
“What’s the difference?” Puck had asked. “It’s not like there’s any real money left.”
“The difference is, the court could attach your future earnings to benefit the person who beat you up,” Mac told him. “And all you have to do to attempt to prevent that is file charges. Besides, eventually Jag needs to bear responsibility for his actions.”
Puck, though in his seventies, had seen many fortunes come and go in his lifetime and fully expected to hit it big again any second. He was divorcing Effie while he had no visible means of support.
The next step for Mac was to charge Jag and send him to court. If the judge put him in jail for as little as forty-eight hours, that could be enough. The judge gave him a week in the county jail and two hundred hours of community service to add to the time he was already assigned for attacking Landon Dupre.
If there was one thing Mac knew about criminals, particularly young criminals, it was what idiots they could be. As Jag was taken into custody by an officer of the court, the homicide detective working on Ben’s case told him, “Just so you’re aware, Mr. Morrison, we’ll be interviewing your mother, father, brothers and friends about your relationship with the late Ben Bailey at the approximate time of his death.”
“What for?” he asked. “I didn’t know that guy at all.”
“Just the same,” the detective said. “Anything you want to tell us before we start that process?”
“Do I look worried?” he asked with his usual insolence.
That was all that was needed.
When Jag was booked, he was told the same thing as every prisoner—that they have use of the phone in the jail, but that all calls will be recorded. When any prisoner picked up the phone and accessed an outside line, a recording restated that warning. And yet, Mac knew from experience, it was the rare inmate who believed anyone had time to listen to all those recorded calls.
They did.
Morrison called his mother, his father, his three friends who made up his little high school posse, and warned them all they’d better not say anything about his involvement with Ben Bailey.
Those people were already on the list to be interviewed, but not right away. What was done immediately was a review of the phone tapes. And there was one conversation that was the most revealing.
Jag’s buddy Kenny Sinclair said, “You said you offed him! You expect me to lie about that?”
“There’s no evidence!” Jag said. “We burned the two-by-four I hit him with! And I was alone! There aren’t any witnesses!”
And there it was. It was admissible. He might have burned the forensic evidence, but his recorded statement was now in the hands of the D.A. They hoped to use that to sweat a confession out of him, as well.
It might not have been premeditated, it could have been manslaughter, but they knew who did it. And Jag Morrison knew he was a suspect. It might take months to bring it to trial, but they knew the truth.
This all caused Mac a great deal of reflection. He had brought his family to this little town to be safe and comfortable. And the scariest person in town turned out to be a seventeen-year-old kid.
* * *
Cooper was using a razor blade to scrape some of the paint off a pane of window glass, shining it up. He was on the deck, working on the outside, when the deputy’s SUV came down the road from the highway. He dropped the razor into the open toolbox that sat on the table and wiped his hands on a rag.
“Why didn’t you come across the beach?” Cooper asked when Mac stepped onto the deck.
“I had business in Coquille at the Sheriff’s Department. Place is looking pretty good, Cooper,” he said with a nod. “Better than it ever looked while Ben was here.”
“Look around the inside,” Cooper said, opening the door. “There’s some cleaning and deliveries left, but it’s close to finished. Rawley and I are still working on the stairs to the dock, but we’re close.”
Mac whistled. “I could live in this. That fireplace is just the touch.”
“I’ll sell it to you,” Cooper said with a laugh. “You’ll have to leave the kids and aunt behind, but the dogs can stay here with you.”
“Funny,” he said. “Maybe I could be a cop during the day and wait tables at night.”
“Hey, it bears thinking about. How long do you intend to be a cop?”
“Long enough to make the pension worth my time. But seriously, Cooper, this place looks fantastic. I had no idea it was going to end up looking this good.”
“Did it all without totally gutting the interior. Mold is gone, plumbing doesn’t talk to you all day and night, sits still in the wind, keeps out the rain. And done in around three months’ time.” He chuckled. “Amazing what you can do with a ton of money.”
“Will you get your investment back when you sell it?”
“No telling,” he said with a shrug. “It mattered to Ben. I couldn’t just sell off the land. I wanted to do something to deserve what he left behind. I wanted to leave it better than I found it, something that would make him happy. That’s about all there is to it.”
“Well, there might be one more thing. Jag Morrison was arrested this morning for the murder of Ben Bailey.”
Cooper was shocked into silence, his mouth hanging open. It was a long moment before he whispered, “Oh, Jesus.”
“I don’t know how it’s going to shake out. It’s still under investigation. The prosecutor is alleging that Morrison’s father, Puck, paid multiple visits to Ben, trying to entice him to sell his land. Puck wanted to develop it and there were plenty of investors on board for that idea. But Ben wasn’t interested at any price. They believe Jag Morrison caused the fall that killed him.”
“Why would he do that?” Cooper asked in a breath.
“Money,” Mac said. “Puck’s business was suffering with the recession and he had been asking the family to cut corners. According to Puck, he’d told them the house was going into foreclosure. That house—it was like the Morrison anchor, announcing them as the richest family in Thunder Point. That could all have been stopped if Ben considered even a small portion of his land for sale.”
“He was rooted here,” Cooper said. “It meant more to him than just land. It was home. He wouldn’t have wanted to start over, find a new home at forty.”
Mac nodded. “He wasn’t about to budge. But a lot of people around here thought he had no family, no next of kin, no one who would step in and take care of it. Then you came along.”
Cooper ran a hand around the back of his neck. “Did Jag’s father have anything to do with Ben’s death? Did he put Jag up to it?”
“I doubt it, but there’s still an ongoing investigation.”
A sardonic laugh shot out of Cooper. “The big house behind the gate was the evidence they were the richest family in town and the gentle giant in the crappy little bait shop was, in fact, the man with all the money.”
“That about sums it up. I just wanted you to know. I can keep you posted, but I think until there’s a court date, we’re not going to have access to any more information. So—you came here to find out what happened. It wasn’t an accident, Cooper. That’s what happened.”
“He was a good man,” Cooper said. “Why should good men die?”
“If I could answer that, there’d be no reason to have me in this job. Now, what about you? You were supposed to be here for a week. A little over three months later, you’re still here. What’s next for you?”
That brought a melancholy smile to his lips. “Pretty soon I better work for a living.”
“What about Sarah?” Mac asked.
“She’s already working for a living,” he said with a smile.
* * *
It was the following afternoon that Sarah came across the beach with Ham. Cooper chose not to tell her over the phone about the arrest. He hadn’t been told to keep anything about the situation confidential, but he’d be damned disappointed if they failed to convict the little motherfucker.
After he told her the news, she said, “Are you making this up?”
“I’m not. He’s been arrested. Investigation and hopefully a trial to follow.”
“My God,” she said. “He might’ve killed Landon!”
“And now he’s arrested.” He put his arms around her waist and pulled her near. “Want a cup of coffee? I should rinse off the dirt and grime.”
“I’m just a little blown away by the news.”
“So was I. I didn’t want to tell you on the phone. Let me know how Landon takes it. I’m not surprised by this, but it’s still shocking. I knew he was bad but hell, Sarah, I underestimated him. Come on,” he said, taking her hand and leading her—and Ham—to the trailer. He used the rag from his back pocket to wipe Ham’s mouth and feet, then he fixed up his water in the saucepan. He tore the hoodie off over his head.
“Feel like a shower?” he asked her.
“I do,” she said, smiling. “Lock the door.”
“You know, these little interludes are very nice, Mrs. Robinson,” he said with a grin. “It’s naughty and sneaky and I like it.” And he pulled his T-shirt over his head.
“No funny business,” she said. “I know you think this place is a mansion, but that shower is not really a two-person shower.”
“Fine,” he said with a smirk, as he removed his boots and socks. “All funny business begins when you’re dried off.” And he dropped his jeans, revealing an erection.
She laughed. “Cooper, you’re not the least bit coy, are you. Can you hold that thought?”
“I can. But let’s not waste time.”
She went to the bedroom to remove her clothes, folding them in a pile on one of his built-in dressers, walking naked to the shower. When she got in, he was soapy and he pushed her up against the wall. He kissed her deeply, holding her against his soapy body. “Sarah, you are beautiful. Have I told you that lately?”
She ran her hands over his chest. “You’re beautiful, Cooper.” She traced his tattoo on his right shoulder. It was a globe and ocean. Fitting. “Are you clean enough yet?”
“I think I could manage to make you happy right now...”
“Not right now, Cooper,” she said, laughing. “This shower is worse than an airplane bathroom.”
“Have you ever done it in an airplane bathroom?” he asked.
“No. Have you?”
“Well, no. But with you, I could.” He lifted the showerhead from its bracket and rinsed them off. “Come on.” He turned off the water and pulled her out of the shower, but instead of drying off, he grabbed and carried her, slippery and squealing, to his bed.
“Cooper,” she said and laughed. “I’m cold!”
“You won’t be cold for long,” he promised, covering her with kisses until she relented, put her arms around his neck and opened her legs for him. “That’s what I’m talking about....”
It took only a few moments for both of them to explode in the ultimate satisfaction, then melt into laughter once more.
“Do you know what I love about being with you?” she asked. “You’re fun, you know when to be serious, then you’re fun again.”
“Do you ever feel like there are eyes on you?” he asked.
Her eyes grew very large, then she turned her head to see Ham sitting patiently at the side of the bed near the foot, waiting for attention.
Cooper pulled on her chin, bringing her gaze back to him. “Please don’t talk to him,” he whispered. “If you do, I’ll have a Great Dane on my back.”
She started to laugh and he covered her mouth.
“Laughing at him could do it, too. Shh. This is good, my hand over your mouth. I have to tell you something.” He was smoothing the damp hair off her brow. “Remember when I told you that I’d been accused of being emotionally unavailable? Afraid of commitment?”
“A couple of months ago,” she said, and nodded.
“I didn’t understand that at the time, but I think maybe the woman who said that was right.” He shook his head. “I’m not that way with you. With you, I’m mentally, emotionally, physically in the moment. All in. All there. All yours. I can tell. I feel different with you than I’ve ever felt before.”
“Why are you saying this, Cooper?”
“Because I want you to know. It’s important that you know.”
“Why? You already told me you love me.”
“Love is easy,” he said. “The other stuff is even more important.”
She smiled and rubbed her knuckles along the hair over his ear. “You’re awfully good to me when I’m the one who’s emotionally unavailable and afraid of commitment.”
“I’m not worried about that.” He grinned at her. “Do you want food?”
“You always make me hungry,” she said, sitting up and wiggling to the other side of the bed so she wouldn’t have to wrestle her way around Hamlet.
“This has been fun, these afternoons when Landon is at school and you’re not at work.”
“And Rawley isn’t here,” she said.
“Rawley is here. He’s working on that old car of Ben’s in the shed. One of these days soon, I’m going to have to actually work, too.” He pulled on his jeans and gave Hamlet a pat on the head.
“The bar is done, then?”
“It’s as close to done as it needs to be.”
“Have you been sending out résumés?” she asked quietly.
He shook his head. “But I’ve gotten a couple of offers without applying. An old friend from Texas is giving up a news chopper job in San Francisco and he said they’d hire me on his recommendation. ASAP. And Colorado really needs firefighters—that was another personal recommendation. Last year’s fires charred the state. They’re ready to gear up for summer. Both positions are open immediately.”
She looked down to fasten her pants.
“What would you do, Sarah?” he asked her.
She gave a shrug. “News chopper,” she said. She looked up. “Cooper, do you think we’ll stay in touch?”
“I hope so, Sarah. You could beg me not to leave,” he suggested with a patient smile.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“I know you can’t do that.”
“How soon on that news job?”
“They’d like someone right away. I assume that means within the week. But—”
“You wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye, would you?”
“Of course I wouldn’t do that. Would you?”
She shook her head. “Wow. The idea of you leaving. It hit me. Even though I knew all along, since that first day I caught you surfing the net, looking at potential jobs.”
“You wouldn’t like that? Me leaving?”
“I’d hate it.”
“Yet you wouldn’t ask me to stay?”
“You know I can’t. I explained about that. The best I could.”
He gave her a little kiss on the forehead. “Yes, you did. Let me take you out to dinner at Cliff’s. Text Landon and invite him. Tell him Eve can come. Take your horse home and I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
* * *
Sarah assumed one of Cooper’s reasons for taking her out to dinner with Landon along was to explain to her brother that he’d be leaving. But of course Landon brought Eve and the conversation around the table didn’t leave room for any kind of serious discussion about Cooper’s next move. Instead, it was all about Jag.
“Everyone in school is talking. People say Jag shot him or stabbed him, but that can’t be right,” Eve said. “The police would’ve known if that happened.”
“What about his friends?” Cooper wanted to know.
“Only Wormitz and Pickering were there. They said they didn’t know anything, except that Morrison lied so much all the time, bragged so much, no one really took him seriously,” Landon said. “Except Sinclair didn’t come to school and someone said he isn’t coming back. He’s going to stay with his aunt and uncle in Seattle for a while. He might be afraid of Morrison.”
“Did either of them try saying they were sorry for backing him up? For picking on you?”
Landon shook his head. “I don’t see that happening, man. But around school, they’re treated like they have typhoid fever.”
When Cooper took Sarah home, he didn’t go inside. Landon and Eve had followed them home in Landon’s little truck, and they walked past them to go inside. Sarah told him she had to go to work early and probably wouldn’t see him until late tomorrow, so he spent delicious moments at the front door, kissing her stupid.
Landon snapped open the front door. “Get a room, guys,” he said, then laughed at himself.
“He’s a pain in the ass sometimes,” Cooper said.
“Will you promise me something, Cooper? Will you please not leave town without explaining to Landon what’s going on? Where you’re going, what you’re doing, all that? Because even though he’s a pain in the ass, I think, in his way, he depends on you.”
He rubbed a knuckle down her cheek.
“Sometimes you really act like you don’t know me,” he said, giving her a brief kiss. “Or maybe you think I’m someone else? Of course I would never leave without saying goodbye, without talking to Landon. Is this going to keep you awake all night? Because you have work early tomorrow and you need sleep.”
“No, I’m fine,” she lied. “Thank you for being so understanding. About Landon and everything.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said.
Why can’t I say it, she asked herself. Why can’t I say I love you, don’t go? “Good. Tomorrow.”
Sleep came hard. She heard Landon leave to take his girlfriend home, heard him return, saw the time on the clock every hour. The next day at the station dragged so much she found herself almost wishing they had a training day or an inspection.
She did talk to Cooper, but somehow managed not to ask him if he was packing. It hung like a pall over the conversation. The only thing that filled her mind right now was giving him up, an unfathomable notion. And yet she didn’t want their relationship nailed down.
The sun was setting by the time she got home. Landon and the dog were gone, as was the Razor. She changed into spandex, rubber boots, turtleneck and her red slicker and headed across the beach. She suspected Landon and Cooper were having a talk about his leaving. But then she found Landon on the beach, throwing the ball for the dog, his ATV parked nearby, Ham’s helmet in the seat.
“Hey,” Landon said.
“Hey,” she answered. “Did you see Cooper? Talk to him?”
“Not yet,” Landon said. “I’m wearing out this big old moose. Hey, I’m going over to Eve’s tonight. That’s okay, right?”
“Sure. They aren’t getting sick of you over there, are they?”
He grinned his heart-stopping grin. “They love me.”
She looked up toward the bait shop. Cooper and Rawley were both there, working on something, though it was getting dark. “I’m going to go see Cooper. Are you having dinner at Eve’s?”
“Probably. Mac is starting to refer to me as his oldest son.” He made a face. “Creeps me out.”
She laughed at him and that was all it took to remember they were a team. Invincible. Hard stuff had happened to them, but together they were up to it.
Well, today Cooper wasn’t packing up. It appeared he was putting some sort of finishing touch on the bar. He and Rawley had ladders against the wall, one on each side of the double doors that opened onto the deck. It looked to be a sign, covered with a sheet or piece of paper. They lifted the sign just as she started up the stairs and while she climbed, they fastened it into place.
They were coming down as Sarah reached the deck. “What are you guys doing?”
Cooper looked at her over his shoulder, smiled at her and tore off the cover. The sign read BEN & COOPER’S.
Rawley lifted his ladder and took it around the corner, leaving them alone on the deck.
“What is that?”
“A sign, Sarah,” he said, laughing at her.
She took a step forward, looking up. “You’re going to sell it with your name on the sign?”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to sell it.”
“Rent it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Run it. I hope I can figure it out.”
“But, Cooper, what about that flying job?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I think I’m done working for other people. I’m too judgmental, for one thing. Now if I pick apart the way things are being run I have no one to blame but myself. Sarah, I’m not done with us. We’re just getting started.”
She was shocked for a moment. Then she said, “You let me believe you were leaving!”
He shook his head, then he put his hands on her waist. “I didn’t correct your assumption. It’s true, I was contacted about a couple of flying jobs. I turned them both down. Even though dropping flame retardant on a big nasty fire does sound like fun.”
“Why didn’t you say so? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I told you I loved you. I told you I was all in, that you could trust me. Do you think I’m the kind of guy who can say something like that and then leave you?”
“Yes!” she said. “I thought that! Not because you’re a bad guy, but because you said you had to work.”
He chuckled. “There’s no doubt in my mind, I’m going to have to work. I bet this place only looks simple. I bet it turns into a giant pain in the ass.”
“Oh, Cooper, what are you doing?”
“I’m staying, Sarah. I’m not going to push you, crowd you or worry you. I’m just going to love you. I’m going to hang around here, close to you, until you trust me enough to get your dreams back.”
She stared at him for a moment. Then she put her hands on his cheeks and pulled his mouth onto hers, kissing him so deep and so hard it knocked him back a step. But he hung on to her. Then, against his lips, she whispered, “I do love you, Cooper. I do.”
He smiled against her lips. “I know, baby. I know.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr.