The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River) (7 page)

FIVE

Emma knew Bob Kendrick didn’t trust her. He followed her around to double-check everything she did, from changing the sheets to making Leo’s protein smoothies. Once, he even leaned over her shoulder to make sure she was recording the right show for Leo.

That was okay, Emma understood. She wouldn’t trust her, either. She was accustomed to not being trusted—people seemed suspicious of her right away. Mostly women. They always eyed her as if they thought she was going to steal their husbands, which Emma chalked up to her looks. She didn’t consider herself conceited in that regard, but realistic. Why pretend?

That’s why she loved Leo so much. Emma had never met anyone like him. Not anyone with MND, but like
him.
She’d known from almost the moment they’d been introduced that Leo was similar to her because he called it as he saw it, too. He just had more finesse with his opinions. He wasn’t “socially awkward” as Emma’s stepfather always said of her. But like her, Leo was realistic; he knew he was going to die and didn’t hide behind useless hope or prayer or whatever it was that people did to keep from facing awful, irrevocable truths. And it was an awful truth, one that sometimes kept Emma awake at night. Yet she loved that Leo could look headlong at his reality. He was braver than anyone she had ever known.

Emma understood the rest of the world didn’t think like she and Leo did, and it didn’t bother her that men like Bob decided they distrusted her and then stuck there. So when Bob stepped into the kitchen and told her that some guy was looking for her, he looked almost gleeful about it, as if he’d finally been proven right—she was not to be trusted.

“I know,” she said, and dropped the tops of Leo’s drinking tubes into a pot of boiling water. What the hell was Cooper doing, following her here? Her pulse began to race again. She didn’t like this, being the prey. She was always the one to do the stalking. Not as blatantly as this—she never had to put much effort into it, really—but still.

Bob squinted at her, his eyes disappearing into folds of skin. “So who is he?”

Emma glanced up, hoping her face didn’t betray her. “Just a guy.”

“
Just
a guy doesn’t
just
show up in Pine River,” Bob gruffly pointed out.

Emma shrugged and turned back to her task.

“Well? Are you coming?” Bob demanded.

Before Emma could answer, she heard Cooper’s low voice in the living room, followed by Leo’s. “Nope,” Emma said, and reflexively hitched her shoulders, as if try
ing to shake off Cooper’s voice from her skin. “Not coming. I’ve already talked to him and I don’t have anything more to say. I have things to do.”

“No, no, no,”
Bob groaned, and rubbed his forehead with both hands. “Jesus, please don’t do this here, Emma. Don’t bring your drama into my house and around my son.”

“
My
drama! You’re the one being overly dramatic,” she said as she removed the bottle tops from the boiling water and set them in a rack to dry.

“Oh, am I?” he said sarcastically. He leaned backward, glanced into the front room a moment. “You gotta come talk to him,” he almost whispered, presumably so Cooper wouldn’t hear him.

“No, I don’t.”

Bob glared at her with a
Law and Order
glint. He stepped closer—which took him across the tiny kitchen to the bar that separated him from Emma. “Just what are you hiding, girl?”

“Nothing,”
she said, and ignored the tingling in the nape of her neck that said she was. “No law says I have to talk to every guy who comes to my door.”

“Maybe, but he came to
my
door. Who is he? What does he want? How the hell do I know this guy ain’t stalking you and looking for trouble?”

He had a point. Emma turned off the burner and faced Bob. “He’s a guy from LA. That’s all. He’s no one to me, I swear.” Jesus,
another
lie. For someone who always wore the truth as her shield of armor, that was two whoppers on the day. “As for why he’s here? I don’t really know. But he’s not violent.”

“You don’t know that,” Bob said.

The sound of Leo’s laughter wafted into the kitchen. “Yep, she’s got two eighty-five horsepower,” they heard Leo boast. “She’ll blow any car off the road.”

Bob rolled his eyes, as he often did when Leo talked about that van.

“That’s amazing,” came Cooper’s low, dulcet drawl.

“Is he an ex-lover or something?” Bob whispered loudly.

Emma snorted, as if that was as ridiculous as it was impossible. “
No
. You didn’t have to let him in, you know,” she said. “Most people see a stranger at their door and they don’t let them in. Did you think of that?”

“Thought he was a friend of yours,” Bob said, and stepped around the bar, squeezing past Emma to take a pan from the stove. “Listen, I don’t give a rat’s ass who he is.” He paused to dip down and look her right in the eye. “But I won’t have any drama around my boy. Got that?”

“Couldn’t miss it,” she said, leaning back from him. “Okay, okay, I’ll get rid of him. But in the future, if you don’t want drama, don’t let strangers into your house! Hello!”

Bob frowned at her.

“I’m just saying,” she muttered as she left the kitchen.

Leo was exactly where Emma had wheeled him a half hour ago—in his chair, his head propped up by two pads on either side of the headrest, his fingers unnaturally curled around a stick that Leo insisted kept them from closing up completely.

And there was Cooper Jessup, leaning up against the wall, his arms folded across his chest, long and lean and handsome. But it wasn’t that which held Emma’s interest. It had been Emma’s observation that when people first met Leo, they often looked purposely blank so as not to let on to all the thoughts swirling in their heads, such as,
thank God, not me,
and
what is wrong with him,
and
what do I say.
They tried very hard not to stare at Leo and his useless appendages and the apparatus that was necessary to keep him upright.

But Cooper was looking directly at Leo like he was another buddy he’d run into. Maybe he’d been shocked when he’d first walked in, but now he looked completely relaxed, as if he chatted with guys like Leo all the time. He also looked like a sexy motorcycle bandit with his jacket and boots and the shadow of a beard on his chin. As if he had a history as long as the road and the moves to prove it, and Emma felt that funny tingle slip down her spine.

Don’t do that, Emma. Don’t look at him like that.

“I had a buddy from high school do the flames,” Leo was explaining, always happy to talk about the van. “It’s sick, right?”

“Yep,” Cooper said. “I’ve never seen a van as cool as that.”

“I got it to take me to a Broncos game,” Leo said. If he could stand, he’d be hitching up his pants and puffing out his chest right now. “Going to see them play the Patriots. Got skybox seats lined up for me and my pal Dante.”

Cooper’s face lit up. “Dude, that’s awesome,” he said. “My money is on one of those two teams to win the Super Bowl.”

“Broncos, right?” Leo said excitedly.

“Maybe. But the Patriots are looking as strong as ever.”

“Do you know how hard it is to get tickets like this?”

“I can’t imagine.”

“It takes a
genius.
Here’s how I did it—”

“Excuse me,” Emma said before Leo could launch into his ever-expanding story of how he’d managed to obtain tickets and a van to a football game.

“Wha—what?” Leo stammered, unable to turn his head.

“He came to see me, Leo.”

“Hey, are you trying to stop me from talking about the game again?” Leo protested. “It’s such
a great story! Okay, well, maybe it’s time
you
told a story, Emma. What’d you do that brings Cooper Jessup here all the way from Los Angeles?”

“Why is there an automatic assumption that I did anything?” Emma complained as she moved between Leo and Cooper, frowning down at Leo.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, baby doll, but generally speaking, men don’t come halfway across the country unless there’s a love thing going on. Or to catch a fugitive. I mean do you
ever
watch
Dateline
? I know you don’t have a love thing going on since you’re totally into me, so the only other logical conclusion is that you’re on the lam. Am I wrong?”

“You’re so wrong you’re embarrassing yourself,” Emma said flatly.

“Then who is he?” Leo asked.

“Just a guy,” Emma said, and whirled around, intending to keep Cooper from moving any deeper into the house or conversation.

But Cooper was one step ahead of her and had moved around her. “First of all, I’m not just a
guy
, I’m a man.” He looked directly at Emma when he said it, and the emphatic way he said
man
radiated down her spine and made her knees begin to quiver. “Yes, I did come with the intention of speaking to you.” He shifted his gaze back to Leo. “But not to apprehend her. I’m not a bounty hunter or a cop. But I do need to speak to her, if that’s okay.”

“Man, that would be
super
cool if you were a bounty hunter, bro,” Leo said.

“But he’s not, and he already spoke to me.” To Cooper, Emma said, “This is where I work. So
. . .”
She gestured firmly to the door.

“Hey, what’s
this
?” Leo exclaimed. “Is it possible that I could have been mistaken? I mean, the odds are
totally
against it, but this has all the markings of a lovers’ quarrel.”

“No,” Cooper said in a manner that Emma found unsettlingly quick and firm.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Leo said. “Emma and I aren’t together—”

“Leo, shut up!” Bob shouted from the kitchen where, apparently, he was managing to keep up with the conversation.

“Can’t, Dad!” Leo said cheerfully. “My mouth is the only muscle that works, and if I don’t use it, I lose it. Pardon, Mr. Jessup—you were about to tell me about this love affair?”

“I’m about to stuff a sock in that mouth!” Bob yelled.

“Ignore him,” Leo said. “He has a tendency to feel left out.”

Cooper smiled. “I wish I had something interesting to tell you, Leo. I’m also in town to do some work.” He gave Emma a self-satisfied smile that only made her feel wobblier.

“What do you mean, work?
What
work?” she demanded.

“I think what Emma means to ask is, what kind of work do you do?” Leo offered helpfully.

“She knows what work I do,” he said. “I have a company with some buddies called Thrillseekers Anonymous.” He explained TA to Leo, and added, “We’ve got a contract to stage a canyoneering event next summer for some studio execs, and I’m going to check out the area.”

“That is
sick,
” Leo said, his voice full of awe. “Dad, did you hear that?”

“I did,” Bob said, appearing in the door that led to the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dish towel. “You ought to talk with my son Luke. He’s been all over these mountains. He could show you around.”

“Oh yeah?” Cooper asked, perking up.

“There’s nothing around here that he’d be interested in,” Emma said, throwing up her hands as if trying to keep the men apart. “You’re wasting your time, Cooper. Go to Telluride and look around. That’s better.”

“Telluride,” Cooper drawled. “Where is that, exactly, Emma?”

Bastard. She had no idea where it was, and he knew it.

“No, no, Dad’s right for once,” Leo said as Bob ducked back into the kitchen. “There are loads of places around here to rappel or ride white water, or even do some of the swinging Tarzan stuff I saw on the National Geographic Channel. Luke would totally show you around and he’s probably done it all.”

“I’d love to meet him,” Cooper said.

“Then come over tonight. He’ll be here. Hey! Why don’t you come for dinner? Dad! He should come for dinner!”

“Leo, for heaven’s sake,” Bob said, appearing again with Leo’s lunch in a repurposed half-gallon milk jug. It was two-thirds filled with the smoothie Emma had made before Cooper had shown up. “Before you go issuing invitations, you might ask the head bottle washer if there’s anyone available to
make
a dinner,” he said as he fit the jug into the apparatus he had welded onto the side of Leo’s chair.

“Don’t let this jug of delicious liquefied fish and vegetables fool you,” Leo said to Cooper. “We still eat real food around here. Well
. . .
we might agree to disagree on the definition of
real,
but what I mean
is that it’s not all liquid—some of it, you can actually chew.”

Bob said something under his breath. “It ain’t fish and vegetables.” He moved to stick the straw in Leo’s mouth.

“No, Dad, wait!” Leo exclaimed. “I’m having a conversation here!”

But Bob stuck the straw into Leo’s mouth, who was powerless to stop him. Leo began the laborious effort of drinking.

“You’re more than welcome to dinner tonight if that’s what Chatty Cathy here wants,” Bob said, jerking a thumb at Leo. “I’ll whip something up. Won’t be gourmet, but it will be edible.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Emma said, startled by Bob’s willingness to have Cooper over for dinner. “What happened to the complaints about stranger danger and not wanting any trouble? Now you’re inviting him to dinner?”

“Leo wants him to come,” Bob said with a shrug.

“You don’t have to be nice to him! It’s not like he’s a friend of mine!” she exclaimed.

“Gee, thanks,” Cooper said.

“See, now, this is the kind of thing I was trying to tell you the other day,” Bob said, pointing a pair of fingers at her. “You got the wrong idea about how to do people. Inviting him to dinner is called hospitality. I don’t know how you do it up there in LA, but in these parts, we ask people to come in and sit down.”

“Jesus,”
Emma muttered heavenward. She was not in the mood for a Bob Kendrick lecture, any more than she was in the mood to deal with Cooper. She glared at the latter and pointed to the door. “Cooper, will you please come outside with me so Bob can give Leo his lunch?” She walked to the door and yanked it open.