by Mercer Scott
Oh crap. It’s the Chief. And I’m standing here naked in Cooper’s living room. Worried that he can somehow tell that I’m naked over the phone, I grab the blanket on the back of Cooper’s sofa and wrap myself up in it.
Other than a few emails telling me to keep waiting, it’s been radio silence from the hospital for more than three months. I haven’t spoken to the Chief since we met in his office after the incident. At first, I thought about the hospital all the time. I replayed the conversation in the Chief’s office – and the thirty minutes leading up to it – over and over in my head. But I haven’t thought about it much lately because I’ve been so wrapped up in my life here on Maui. Life with Cooper. But this isn’t real life, this is vacation. Hearing the Chief’s deep voice over the phone brings reality crashing down on me like a million pounds of Chinese take-out.
After bracing myself with a deep breath, I answer him. “Hi, Chief. Yes, it’s Natalia. It’s been a really long time. Is there any news?”
“I’m sorry that it’s taken so long to give you an answer, and I don’t have a complete one for you today. The Board met and one of the topics of discussion was reviewing the status of your employment. The Board isn’t willing to let you come back to work, yet. But they have an emergency meeting scheduled in two days, and they agreed to hear from you. You need to be here in person to plead your case to get your job back.”
I swallow hard at the thought of facing the entire hospital Board and trying to explain… any of it. I still don’t really have a good explanation. I lost my shit. I behaved completely unprofessionally. I jeopardized my career, my whole life. All I can do is promise that it will never happen again. And how could that possibly be enough?
“Natalia? Did you hear me?”
“Ummm, yes. Sorry, I’m just… processing. Do you think they’ll really let me come back?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t make you any guarantees. But if you show remorse, and you convince them that nothing like this will ever happen again, I think you have a shot. The other parties involved have decided not to pursue any legal action regarding the… incident. So, that helps your case.”
“Oh, I didn’t know about that…”
“So, you’ll be here? Day after tomorrow. Ten o’clock in the hospital conference room.” There’s a long pause on the line. “Natalia, you’re an excellent nurse. But I don’t have to tell you just how bad the incident was. This is your one shot to come back to work at San Francisco General.”
“I understand.” I wasn’t sure I’d ever get even one shot. And now that I have it, I can’t risk messing this up again. I have to be perfect. “I’ll be there, Chief. Thank you again for… everything.”
“I did everything I could. It’s up to you now. I’ll see you in two days.”
“I’ll be there.”
Two days? My whole life is on the line in two days? I need to pack. I need to book a flight. I need to… tell Cooper that I’m going back to San Francisco. Cooper. I’m not ready for this to be over. But I can’t choose a man that I don’t have a future with over the career that I love and worked so hard to create. And Cooper has never once mentioned any kind of future with me. Not once.
“This bed is getting really lonely with just me and a hairless cat in it,” Cooper calls from the bedroom. “She’s kneading me again, and I’m afraid to move. I need you to come rescue me.”
Cooper pulls me out of my panic about board meetings and suitcases and leaving him. I can’t help but laugh at the sight in front of me as I walk back into his bedroom. Cooper is lying frozen on the bed, with Meowriah on his chest kneading his throat and gazing lovingly into his panicked eyes. He looks like he’s afraid to move an inch.
“Awww, she likes you…” I like him, too. But unfortunately for Meowriah and I, we don’t get to keep him. “And I definitely need a picture of this! Smile, Cooper!”
He gives me a look that can only be described as a grimace. “I can’t smile. I’m afraid to move a single muscle.”
“So, the fierce Navy SEAL is afraid of an eight-pound, hairless cat?” I tease, as I take picture after picture of the cuteness in front of me.
“I’m afraid of this ferocious creature. I never know whether she’s going to lick me or bite me. Stop documenting my torture and come rescue me?”
A smile tugs at my lips as I crawl into bed next to him and pick up Meowriah off of his chest. “How could anyone possibly be afraid of this angel?” I snuggle my face into her navy and white polka dot sweater.
“I have my reasons.” Cooper sits up in bed next to me, and he doesn’t even wince. “What was the call about? Everything okay?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. It was the hospital…”
“And?”
“It’s not a sure thing. But I have to go back to San Francisco today? Tomorrow? The hospital board is meeting in two days, and they’re going to let me plead my case.”
Cooper lets out a sigh and runs his hands through his dark hair. “Two days? That’s fast.”
“I know. I’m sorry that it’s so sudden… but I guess we knew that it was coming at some point. You have to deal with your parents and New York, and I have to deal with the hospital or finding a new job.” I guess it’s back to real life, at least for me.
Cooper frowns. “Just because I knew about it doesn’t mean that I’m happy about it.”
Me, either. I should be ecstatic to finally have a chance to get my job back. Only I’m not.
Later on, Cooper and I are back at Lara’s to pack all my stuff for my flight to San Francisco tomorrow. Cooper’s lying on my bed at Lara’s while I try to shove all of my clothes back into the suitcase that I brought with me more than three months ago
“So, I’ve been thinking…” Cooper says thoughtfully from the bed.
“That sounds ominous…” Just about everything seems ominous knowing that I’m leaving Maui – and leaving Cooper – tomorrow. He’s wearing this dumb blue t-shirt that says, Beautiful Smile on it. Even his dumb t-shirt makes me want to cry. And I’ve been trying not to cry all day, ever since I got the call about coming back to the San Francisco.
Going back to San Francisco to maybe save my career means that I have to leave Maui. It means I have to leave Cooper. I know that this wasn’t supposed to turn into anything real. I told myself that over and over. We were just hanging out. Then we were just sleeping together. But it was always going to end.
I was never supposed to fall in love with him. But I did. I love Cooper. I knew it the moment I realized that I was going to have to leave him after the Chief called. I haven’t told him. And I’m definitely not going to get to tell him now. What’s the point? It would only make things harder when I have to say goodbye to him tomorrow. When I head back to San Francisco and leave him here on Maui. We both have our own lives, and they just don’t work together.
There’s a creaking from the bed, and then Cooper is standing right in front of me. I still can’t bring myself to look up and face him. Feeling him this close makes me feel both better and worse at the same time.
“You’ve been folding and re-folding that same pink sweater for five minutes. What’s going on in that head of yours? You look like you’re trying to solve nuclear fission.” Cooper runs his thumb along my forehead, smoothing away the frown I’ve been wearing all day since the Chief called.
“I’m packing. I think I’m going to need another suitcase. I’ve somehow accumulated way more stuff than I came here with.” Shrugging, I look down at the suitcase on the floor in front of me and then up at all the clothes still hanging in my closet. Each dress and pair of shorts holds a memory. The dress I was wearing when Cooper first ran me down. The one I wore to the eighties dance. And the one I wore when he took me to watch a meteor shower on top of a volcano. How can I possibly pack all of those memories into a single suitcase?
“We can get you as many suitcases as you need. I’m going to miss you.” Cooper leans down and kisses me on the temple. Is this man trying to make me cry now? “
And I don’t want to miss you… I want to come to San Francisco with you.”
My heart literally jumps up, does a triple axel, and then falls back down. It’s beating so hard that it feels like it’s going to pound right out of my chest. My gaze travels up his chest to meet his light violet eyes.
“I need to make an appearance in New York or my mother is going to hire my SEAL team to hunt me down and deliver me back into the family fold. And San Francisco is on the way.”
“Oh.” It’s the only word my lips are capable of forming, and it’s not even a word. I don’t know what it is. And I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it’s not a real chance for us. Cooper spending a few days with me in San Francisco is only delaying the inevitable.
“Oh,” Cooper repeats the non-word back to me. “It was just a thought. I guess I should have asked if you even want me to come to San Francisco with you? I get it if you don’t.” The way he says it tells me that he doesn’t get it at all.
Cooper holds my face in his hands. “I’m just not ready to let you go yet, Natalia. I know we never really talked about what this was or what it could be. The place I was in when I met you, I wasn’t sure I had a future. But then you came along, mowed me down, and made me laugh like I hadn’t in more than six months. I want you, Natalia. I’m not done wanting you. And right now, I can’t picture a time when I don’t want you.”
“I want you, too. But if talking to the Board works, then my job is in San Francisco. And where are you going to be? Maui? New York? How does that even work?” I know it doesn’t work, and that’s why my heart feels like it’s breaking in two.
“Look, I don’t have all the answers. You can kick me to the curb if you want out. But I guess what I’m saying is that it’s your choice. I’m not ready to let you go, and I’m not going to. Unless and until you tell me to.”
“I don’t want to kick you to the curb. But this is crazy.”
“All I know is I’m crazy about you. And I have been since you since you steamrolled your way right into my life.”
“I steamrolled my way into your life? That’s not exactly how I remember it…”
“So, are you going to keep right on steamrolling your way all over my life like I want you to?”
I shake my head to clear it, but the hurt I see in Cooper’s eyes tell me that he thinks I’m saying no. I didn’t mean to say no, so I nod just about as hard as I can without my head falling off, and throw my arms up around Cooper’s neck.
“No. Yes.”
Cooper frowns down at me. “Which is it?”
“Yes, I’m ready to let you keep steamrolling your way all over my life. Because that is what happened. And I want it to keep right on happening.”
“Yeah, you do. See?”
“See what?”
“How charming I am? I charmed you, Natalia Roy. Everybody thinks I’m charming, and you do, too.”
I squint up at him. “You keep saying that. But I really just don’t see it…”
“Oh, you don’t do you?”
I shake my head up at him, biting my lip to hold back the smile tugging at it. “Nope.”
“Well, that’s okay, I guess. Because I’m going to keep right on charming you until you see it. On Maui. In San Francisco. Hell, maybe I’m even more charming in San Francisco?”
“I have my doubts about that. But I guess we’ll see.”
“Yeah, you will.” He leans back and pulls me off my feet, spinning me around. The pink sweater in my hands spins out behind Cooper’s head as we spin together.
When he finally sets me back down on my feet, I’m happy and dizzy. And I’m scared. The longer I spend with Cooper, the more I’m going to fall for him. And the more it’s going to hurt when it’s all over.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Natalia
“I don’t want you to go!” Lara says, pulling me into a tight hug at the front door of her house. She may be small, but she’s suspiciously strong. Veronica and Lara are my official bon voyage, we hope you get your job back party. “You just say the word, and I’ll send the jet to bring you back here for good. Ty can build you your own house, and we can all be neighbors, forever!”
“He can start building today. I will do whatever it takes to make that happen!” Veronica offers.
“Thank, friends. I might need a job after this. I can be the old spinster living in a cottage out back and be a nanny to all the babies you two are going to have.”
“Oh please! I bet you have a baby before I do. I’m nowhere near ready… at least not yet.” Lara looks uneasy about the idea.
“Ty and I aren’t even married yet! Not that you have to be married before you have a baby, but I want to be. And you’re not going to be a spinster. You have Cooper.”
“I have Cooper for now.”
“Don’t get all in your head. Just see what happens in San Francisco. It’s going to be great. Cooper adores your weird ass!” Lara practically shouts at me.
“Shut it! He can hear you.” Glancing back over my shoulder to where Cooper is supervising the tall one and the short one loading our suitcases and Meowriah Furré in her travel case into a black Range Rover, I can tell from his grin that he definitely heard her.
I’m still bright red when Cooper walks up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. “She’s not wrong. I do adore your weird ass.”
“Can everyone please stop talking about how my ass is weird?” As I run my hand self-consciously over what – until ninety seconds ago – I was quite certain was a very normal ass, Cooper’s fingers meet mine.
He grins down at me. “You may be a weirdo, but your ass is fine as hell. And don’t you forget it.”
“I’m going to miss you so much!” Veronica says, and throws her arms around me. Lara joins in and Cooper stands back to let us say goodbye.
“You all know that you’re only going to be a few hours on a plane away from each other, right?” Cooper looks back and forth between us.
“That’s way too far!” I mutter. “I never want to be more than a fifteen-minute taxi away from you guys.”
“Agreed. Why can’t everyone just move to Maui already?” Veronica looks so sad.
“We’ll get them here eventually. Whatever, it takes, V.” Lara doesn’t sound sad, she sounds downright Machiavellian.
“Okay, I guess we better go. I don’t want to miss our flight. What time is it leaving again?”
Lara laughs. “It’s leaving whenever you tell it to leave. You’re flying on Deacon’s jet!”
“Oh my god, we don’t need a private jet!”
“Yes, you do. My treat! Have fun!” Lara announces with another laugh.
“I love you two so much. I’ll call you when I get home.”
“You better!” Veronica squeezes my arm one last time, and then Cooper and I head down to the waiting Range Rover.
The only noise on the drive to the private air strip is Meowriah’s loud objections to being in her travel case. No one puts Meowriah Furré in the corner, at least according to her.
When our suitcases, our most precious cargo – Meowriah, and I are all settled into the jet, Cooper tells the pilot that we’re ready to go.
“This is so crazy! We didn’t need to fly on a private jet. I’ve flown economy my entire life.” Glancing up at Cooper, I realize that he probably hasn’t. “But I guess you haven’t. Is this normal for you?”
Cooper shakes his head as he sits down beside me on the little white, leather sofa. “Not anymore. Noisy military planes are normal for me now, or I guess they used to be. But at least Meowriah doesn’t have to stay in that damn crate. Her voice must have been getting hoarse from all that complaining.”
I smile every time Cooper says her name. “I guess that’s one good thing about flying on a private jet.”
Meowriah is happily exploring the cabin of the jet, crawling over chairs and tables like an inquisitive lion… in a rainbow sweater.
Then he looks down at me and smiles. “Have I told you that
I’m glad I’m coming with you?”
I nod. “Once or twice. But feel free to tell me again as many times as you want to.”
“I’m glad that I’m here with you, babe.”
“Me, too.” Glancing around me, I’m uneasy with all the luxury. I’m just an ordinary person. I’m economy flights, not private jets. We may have just left an enormous mansion, but we’re on our way to a one-bedroom apartment.
“What’s wrong? You know I’m going to make you tell me.” Cooper’s hand sneaks up my side and starts tickling me.
I giggle and slap at his hand. “Stop! Stooop!”
Cooper retreats and holds up his hands in front of him. “Tell me.”
“I guess I’m just nervous for you to see my life. My place. My everything.”
Cooper looks confused. “Why would you be nervous about that? I’m a pretty big fan of everything I’ve seen so far.”
“My apartment is pretty small. There’s just one bedroom. I’m sure that it’s not what you’re used to…”
“What I’m used to is a military bunk with nine other guys in the same room or a hospital room with three other guys. Any place that has a bed and you in it is going to be a hell of a lot better than that.” Cooper smiles at me like it’s all so simple.
“It’s just… you’re used to me living in this big, fancy mansion. But that’s not my life. I’m just a… an ordinary person. No mansions. No fancy cars. No private jets. Just me. And Meowriah Furré. We’re just ordinary. My life is ordinary.”
Cooper leans down close and presses on my chin until I look up at him. “Trust me, there is nothing ordinary about that cat. And there’s definitely nothing ordinary about you, Natalia Roy. You’re beautiful. You’re smart. And best of all, you think I’m funny.”
“I don’t think you’re that funny.”
“Yeah, you do. And I want to be here with you. I don’t care what your place is like, I just want to be where you are.”
“I know that you think that. But there’s the idea of something, and then there’s the reality. You grew up with everything and I grew up with a burlap bag and a corn husk ball.”
