The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River) (9 page)

Jackson looked away, out the driver’s window. There was something about his demeanor that made Cooper think that meeting hadn’t gone well. “Did she know he was sick?” he asked.

“No,” Jackson said, and suddenly downshifted, pulling off the main road onto a bumpy dirt trail. “They hadn’t had contact in years, and honestly? She didn’t seem that affected by the news, you know? Like she didn’t care. I don’t know what happened between her and her father, but there was definitely some bad blood there.”

Cooper held on to the dash as they began to bounce up an old pitted logging road. “So is that why she’s here?” he asked. “She came to claim her share of the ranch?”

“No, no, they did that last spring,” Jackson said loudly over the bump and grind of the Jeep. “After Grant died, they all came out to meet each other and have a look around. The ranch had been set up for some destination events—Grant’s idea to make some money, right? Family reunions, weddings, that sort of thing. And the girls decided they were going to make it work. That is, Madeline and Libby decided. Emma didn’t want anything to do with it. The next day, she took off back to LA with some guy she called her boyfriend. No one had heard anything from her until she showed up here again, out of the blue, sometime before Thanksgiving.”

So Emma was fond of taking off, Cooper thought.

“Not sure what her deal is,” Jackson said, “but she’s kind of interesting. I’ve got a buddy who works over at the body shop across from the city park. He says when the weather is good, she goes there in the afternoons and sits there watching the Wilson kids. They live on the other side of the park. He said she doesn’t do anything but sit there and watch them. Sometimes she laughs, but once those kids go in, she leaves.” Jackson shook his head and gunned it to get over some rocks. “I don’t know why anyone would watch the Wilson kids—little terrors, all three of them. Dani says they’re troublemakers at school. The dad works just shy of the law, and the mom, I hear, drinks her breakfast every morning. I don’t know what Emma’s fascination is with them.” He suddenly looked at Cooper. “Oh hey, man, I’m sorry, I’m just talking out my ass—are you and she involved?”

“What? No,” Cooper said quickly, thinking of her earlier today, suggesting she had somehow
rejected
him. “Nothing like that. She’s got something that belongs to a friend of mine. I told him I’d get it back while I was out this way.”

“Ah,” Jackson said, throttling down to take a treacherous turn in the old logging road. “So you and she aren’t
. . .
?”

Cooper looked at him. Jackson shrugged. “Sleeping together?” Cooper drawled.

Jackson smiled faintly.

“No,” Cooper said, eyeing Jackson curiously. “Are you?”

Jackson laughed. “Nope. I think that shop is closed up tight. Every man in Pine River has tried and gotten the cold shoulder.”

That was interesting. From what Cooper had heard, that shop was anything but closed.

“So you’re out this way for recreation?” Jackson asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“You could say that,” Cooper said, and explained to Jackson what he did for a living.

Like most men, Jackson was enthralled by the idea of TA; it was every man’s daydream. “I know some people who would be totally into that,” he said. “Myself included. We should talk. I could hook you up with some potential clients.”

“In Pine River?” Cooper asked.

“No,”
Jackson scoffed. “Back east. Guys with
real
money.”

Cooper found it interesting that this loafer-wearing, Jeep-driving lawyer in Pine River would know “real money” back east, but he didn’t have a chance to ask him about it, because they came to an abrupt halt. An iron gate closed off the road before them, a yellow triangle with a warning against trespassing hanging slightly crooked. Jackson hopped out, walked up to the gate, jiggled the lock, then swung it open and pushed it out of the way.

He climbed back into the Jeep and put it into gear.

“I thought you said the road was open,” Cooper said, noticing the sign on the gate that clearly marked the road as prohibited by the Forest Service.

“One man’s ‘closed’ is another man’s ‘maybe.
’
” He grinned at Cooper as he drove the Jeep through the gate and up the road until it became impassable. At that point, Jackson stopped, retrieved some hiking boots from behind his seat, and donned them. “Come on,” he said.

Cooper followed him up the road until they ran into snowpack. But from there, they could glimpse Cheyenne Canyon below them.

The view was breathtaking. A rush of adrenaline swept through Cooper; he could think of any number of things he would do in that canyon. It was narrow, with some interesting rock formations and, according to Jackson, a fast-running stream that poured into Pine River. Cooper had always been a lover of the great outdoors, and when he saw a vista like that, he felt he was standing as close to God’s perfection as possible. Yes, he would definitely look forward to late spring when he could come back here to check it out.

They poked around the logging roads a bit more, but finding their way blocked more than once, they eventually drove back down to town. Jackson dropped Cooper at Tag’s. “Thanks, man,” Cooper said. “I appreciate it.”

“Any time. Before you leave town, come around to my office and let’s talk business. In the meantime, if you need anything, let me know.”

Cooper said goodbye, watched Jackson drive away, and was digging in his pocket for car keys when his phone rang.

“Jesus, I’ve been trying to get you all day,” Carl Freeman said testily when Cooper answered. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Cell service is pretty spotty up here,” Cooper said.

“Well? Did you find her?”

“I found her.”

“So did you get the box?” Carl asked, his voice rising with his eagerness.

Cooper steeled himself for the barrage that was coming. “Not yet.”

“Not
yet
?”
Carl shouted into the phone.

“Calm down, Carl. She says she doesn’t have it. But I will get it.”

“Alicia is busting my balls—you have no idea!” Carl ranted. “Her lawyer says that me losing this
fucking
family heirloom and her mother’s
fucking
wedding ring is indicative of how I had no respect for her in our marriage! It’s her dead mother’s wedding ring, Cooper! I can’t go to court and say that some one-night stand took off with that shit, do you
get
that? Do you understand how important this is? Do the
thousands
of dollars I’m paying you not indicate how important this is? I have about two weeks to get it back or it’s court, Cooper. Two weeks!”

“Take a breath, Carl,” Cooper snapped. “She’s
here
. Give me a couple of days and I’ll get it. I can’t very well walk into her house and go through her things.”

“Maybe you could find a way in—”

“
No
, Carl. I’ll call you in a couple of days.”

“You better,” Carl said. “Because if you don’t, I will smear Thrillseekers up and down Wilshire Boulevard. You’ll be lucky to get a kid’s birthday party.” He clicked off before Cooper could speak.

Cooper fumed. This was the very thing he hated about TA—having to kowtow to a jerk like Carl Freeman. What he wanted was the extreme sports. What he couldn’t abide was the kiss-ass end of the business.

Where he was going with it at this stage of his life, Cooper couldn’t say, but it was clearly something that he needed to think about. And he would, just as soon as he could shake a certain blonde from his head.

SEVEN

Leo was not going to let it lie. Emma figured if she were sitting in a chair every day waiting for something interesting to happen, she would be relentless, too. But the difference between her and Leo was that she could take no for answer. Leo could not.

“I mean, it’s like this,” Leo said, his voice rattling along with the chair as Emma pushed him down the street, hoping that the fresh air and bright afternoon sun would divert his attention. So far, no luck. “We’ve all had those relationships
that were never going to work out, you know? It’s okay, Emma. You can tell me. I won’t think any less of you, and in fact, I’ll think
more
of you.”

Emma stopped. She leaned over, braced her hands against her knees; the long tail of her hair slid over her shoulder and swung below her.

“Hey, why are you stopping?” Leo asked. “I’m kind of helpless, you know. If you pass out, I’m like,
stuck.
”

Emma slowly lifted up. She shifted around the side of the chair, tucking in the blanket around Leo. Bob had insisted on the blanket. He didn’t like her to take Leo out.
Too painful for him
, he’d say curtly.
Too cold.

Dad, it’s not that bad
, Leo would argue.

Emma didn’t know how bad the pain truly was for Leo, but today, she thought she could see it around his eyes. And yet, he’d begged her, more than once.
Take me with you.
Anything to get outside of that little house. Anything to soak up a few rays, to breathe real air.

It occurred to her that maybe his incessant talking was his way of trying not to think about the pain.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Leo peered up at her. Most of his muscles didn’t work anymore, but his eyes were laser sharp and full of expression. “I’m
great.
The question is, how are
you
, Em? You don’t look so good. Is it the heavy pushing? Or is it the interrogation?”

“Both. I haven’t eaten.” She pressed a fist to her abdomen, only now realizing she hadn’t eaten since this morning. That was something else that had cropped up in the last few weeks—she couldn’t seem to remember to eat until her body was on the verge of revolt. It was as if her mind was too filled with other thoughts to worry about it.

“Let’s go back then, because that makes me nervous,” Leo said. “I know you’re acting weird because Cooper showed up, and I would totally help you if you’d just tell me what the deal is between you two.”

“God,”
she sighed. “You’re relentless! I really hate to disappoint you, Leo. I know how much you thrive on juicy gossip. But I really, honestly, hardly know the guy.” She tried very hard to look sincere. But Emma could only look sincere when she was telling the truth.

“Really?”
Leo asked, his voice full of deserved skepticism. “Because it’s, like,
super
strange that a guy would come all this way if you hardly know him.”

He’s not a guy, he’s a man.
A shiver ran down Emma’s spine.
If he’d wanted you, he would have had you.
Okay, keep moving. She wasn’t going to let Cooper’s words play with her head.

“You
do
know him,” Leo said.

“Seriously, will you shut up?”

“That’s no way to talk to the true man of your dreams, but, because you’re ultrasensitive, I will bow to your wishes.”

“I’m not ultrasensitive, Leo.” Emma had a sudden flashback to her mother, ten years ago.
Don’t be so sensitive, Emma. It’s not about you.
She shivered again. “I’m not even
sensitive,
doofus. I
don’t know
Cooper. That’s all there is to it.”

Leo gave her a half-crooked smile. “You look like you’re lying and like you totally want to kiss me right now. Well, don’t. I don’t want that big bruiser trying to fight me for you.”

“Oh my God,” she muttered, and walked around behind the wheelchair. She tipped it back and wheeled it around and began to push. “Sometimes I think you are the greatest guy in the world, you know? And then you’ll be totally obnoxious like you’re being right now, and I think, no, you’re really the biggest
jerk
in the world.”

“Thank you!” Leo said happily. “I know you may say that now, but you’ll miss my sage advice when I’m gone. But don’t cry for me, Argentina, the truth is I’ll never leave you. You’ll still be thinking about me when you’re gimping around on a cane.”

Emma gasped and gave the chair a hard jerk. “Why do you do that?” she demanded. “Do you think it’s funny? Do you think it’s shocking?”

“Isn’t that our thing?” Leo asked, sounding surprised. “Aren’t we totally honest with each other? I say it because it’s true, and I don’t shy away from the truth. Neither do you, Emma! So don’t get teary-eyed on me. Are you getting teary-eyed?” he demanded.

“No,”
she lied.

“That’s what I like about you, Em! You don’t get teary-eyed for anyone or anything.”

“Nope. I’m hard and flinty,” she said, but the tears were burning the backs of her eyes.

“Come on,” Leo said. “If I hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. I only meant to point out an obvious fact.”

“You didn’t hurt my damn feelings.” She slowed her pace a little so that she could wipe away a tear. “It’s
impossible
to hurt my feelings. But you don’t always have to state the obvious, Leo. It’s obvious already—get it?”

“Okay, well, that’s even
more
obvious,” Leo said. “But I get it. I won’t state things that are obvious because they are totally obvious already, even though sometimes it seems things are
not
so obvious to the genius-challenged among us.”

“Jesus, do you ever stop talking?” she cried to the perfect blue sky with breathless irritability.

“I think I have answered this question many times before. No, I never stop talking. Y
ou
are, like, irrationally irritable, which says to me, there is more to this Cooper thing than you’re willing to tell me,” Leo blithely continued as she moved down the street toward Elm, as if she hadn’t denied it more than once, hadn’t asked him to stop talking one hundred times. “I just want you to get your stuff worked out beforehand so I don’t have to worry about you.”

“What are you talking about
now
?”

“Your stuff, your stuff!” Leo said impatiently, and paused to catch his breath. “Such as why you showed up in Pine River out of the blue, and why you don’t want to talk about Cooper.
That
stuff.”

“You know what?” Emma said, slowing her pace as they moved over the Pine River Bridge. “You’re really lucky I don’t push you into the river. Because the thought has crossed my mind about ten times in the last ten minutes.”

“Threatening the totally handicapped.
Nice.
I
knew
I liked you.”

On the other end of the bridge, Emma maneuvered Leo over a rough patch of pavement. But there was no access ramp onto the sidewalk, and when Emma tried to tilt Leo’s chair back, she couldn’t get more than one wheel onto the curb.

“What’s happening?” Leo shouted at her.

“It’s okay—” His chair tilted to the right. Emma struggled to keep it from tipping completely over and somehow managed to level it before Leo went spilling out of his chair.

“Go back. Go back across the bridge!” Leo said frantically.

“I can do it,” Emma insisted, and studied the high
curb for a way on. She was only vaguely aware of a car slowing. But when she heard the door shut, she whirled around.

Cooper
.

“Need some help?”

“Yes!” Leo shouted with his back to the street.

Cooper walked around the front of his car, looking concerned, eyeing her as if he’d caught her stealing Leo. “What’s going on?”

“Who is it?” Leo asked. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Cooper Jessup,” Cooper said, and put his hand on Leo’s arm. “The guy from this morning?”

“Thank God,” Leo said. “We’re having some trouble here.”

“No we’re not,” Emma said quickly. “It’s just that the curb is higher than normal.”

“You have to save me, Cooper,” Leo said. “She just threatened to dump me in the river.”

Emma gasped and gaped wide-eyed with mortification at Cooper. “I was kidding!” she cried, but Cooper looked dubious. “I was
kidding,
” she said again. “Leo knows that.”

“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. I’ll let you know what I believe when I am safely on the sidewalk.”

“Here, let me,” Cooper said. He stepped in between Emma and the chair, grabbed the handles of Leo’s chair, easily tipped him back and put his front wheels on the curb, and then the back wheels. “There you go,” he said to Leo. “I think it’s probably a straight shot from here. Want me to push you home?”

“I’ve got it,” Emma said, and elbowed her way in front of Cooper, shoving against his hard chest. He budged only a little.

“You okay, Leo?” Cooper asked again, unwilling to move until he heard from the horse’s ass.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Leo said. “I guess I freaked out a little when this delicate little flower couldn’t get me up here. And she hasn’t eaten, so I am expecting her to faint at any moment.”

“Why haven’t you eaten?” Cooper asked, frowning at her.

“I ah
. . .
haven’t had time,” she said crisply. “But I’m fine. I’m not even hungry.” She hoped he couldn’t hear the rumbling in her stomach.

“Maybe you could take her to dinner,” Leo said. “We could postpone our—”

“Thanks, Leo, but I have plans!” Emma said.

Cooper smiled slowly and easily at her fluster. His gaze wandered down her body, causing her starved belly to tingle even more. “That’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of time. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

“I don’t think so,” Emma snorted.

“We’ll see,” Cooper said, and leaned around her to put his hand on Leo’s shoulder. “You okay?”

“Could
not
be better!” Leo said. “You have made my day, Cooper Jessup. I’m so stoked you came into town.”

“Okay, all right,” Emma said, pushing against Cooper and leaning into the chair to get it moving. “We need to go.”

“I’ll see you tonight, Leo,” Cooper said, and then caught Emma’s arm, forcing her to stop and look at him. “I’ll see
you
later, too,” he said, his voice annoyingly and knee-bendingly stern.

“That’s
great
,” Leo said. “We were just talking about how Em’s going to try and get out more. You know, socialize with people. I can’t be her sun
and
her moon, you know what I’m saying?”

Cooper chuckled.

“He’s not funny,” Emma said. “Don’t laugh at him. And don’t get some idea that we’re going to be friends, because we’re not, Cooper. Not now, not ever.”

“Ouch,” Cooper said with a funny little smile.

“Leo and I really need to go.”

“No we don’t,” Leo said.

“We’ll see about the friend thing,
Em
,” Cooper said with a wink, and leaned around her, giving Leo’s chair a push to get it started.

Emma gave the chair another heave and began to move Leo along as quickly as she could.

“Thanks, Cooper!” Leo called out.

“Welcome!” Cooper called back.

She wasn’t going to look back. She was
not
going to look back.

Damn it, she looked back.

Cooper was standing on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, watching her. Expressionless. Virile.
Kryptonite.

“Total hottie,” Leo said, wheezing a little.

“Oh my God,” Emma said. “Are you serious right now?”

“Well, he is. Way to draw him in, Em! I mean, if you get any warmer and fuzzier, we might have to call a fire truck. You want my advice?”

“No.”

“My advice is to be nice to him. It’s no skin off your nose. Who knows, he might even
feed
you.”

“I can feed myself,” Emma muttered.

But Leo was right. She could be abrupt, especially when she was flustered. She’d never been a sweet girl, that was for sure.
Nothing but brass tacks and nails coming out of that mouth,
her mother used to say. Even as a little girl, Emma had understood she wasn’t considered to be a nice girl, like Laura or Libby. If she could have figured out how to change that about herself, to become personable, she would have done it in a heartbeat. It sure would have saved her a lot of agony through the years. Unfortunately, having a way with words always seemed to elude her, like it had just now, with Cooper.

But then again, what was the nice way to tell someone to get lost?

Emma knew Leo was hurting when she wheeled him into the little house on Elm Street. He wasn’t hungry, either, which seemed to bother Bob more than usual. “What’s happened to your appetite, Son?” he demanded, as if Leo had eaten a jar full of cookies.

“I don’t know, Dad. It could be the delicious selection of pulverized food you offer me every night,” he said, and laughed. But even his laugh sounded a little off. When his care attendant came at four, Leo asked him to put him in bed.

He looked so thin and uncomfortable in that hospital bed, and there was a crease between his eyes that hadn’t been there earlier. “Should I get Bob?” Emma asked.

“No, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” he said at Emma’s look of concern. “I’ve got a full night lined up—it’s the
Real Housewives
reunion show, and then hockey! I don’t even have time to explain to you how important this game is for the Bruins.”

“Thank God,” Emma said, and smiled at Leo. She touched his temple.

“Cut it out,” Leo said, his eyes twinkling above his permanently lopsided grin. “Dad will have a heart attack if he knows how into me you are.”

“He already knows. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, and leaned down to kiss the top of his head.

“Stop,”
Leo groaned. “Get out of here. But you better come back here with some gossip! The Methodist ladies are coming over tomorrow afternoon, and if I don’t have some meat for them, they will draw blood.”