Only Love

by Garrett Leigh

  “Oh yeah,” Max said dryly. “I get all the good stuff, but you don’t need to worry about it. Flo warns me when they’re coming, and I can take care of myself.”

  The belligerence in his tone made Jed want to smile, but he didn’t. It was clear Max valued his independence, and Jed saw nothing funny about that. “Flo is your alert dog?”

  Max pointed to a handset Jed hadn’t noticed on the hallway floor. “Yeah, I got her from the pound when she was a pup. The disability center in Portland helped me train her. Most times, I’m fine, but if I’m not, she can press the button on that phone and call for help.”

  “Who does the phone connect to?”

  “A call center in Portland. If they can’t get me on the phone, they send help and contact Carla.”

  “Dan’s sister?”

  “Yep.”

  Jed absorbed the influx of information. Carla Valesco seemed to be everywhere he turned. “Why not Kim?”

  “She freaks out too much. Makes me go to the hospital when all I need is a nap.”

  Jed covered his amusement by gazing out at the boat shed. “Power tools and seizures can’t be a fun mix.”

  “I don’t use them much. I like stripping the boats by hand.”

  It sounded risky to Jed, but who was he to judge? And he recognized the mutinous edge to Max’s tone. “Is Flo reliable?”

  “When I listen.”

  “What if you’re outside? How does she get to the phone?”

  Wry humor flashed in Max’s gaze. “I leave the cabin doors unlocked, even when I go out. She can reach the handles, and I always leave the boat shed door open when I’m working.”

  “Seems like you’ve got it all figured out.” This time, Jed couldn’t bite back his smile.

  Max grinned too. “I like to think so. If you do decide to live here, it’s not something you need to worry about. I leave the door ajar when I’m in the shower, but Flo guards it. Do you want to see the other side of the yard?”

  Jed blinked. “Sure.”

  He followed Max and Flo outside to the patch of land where Max did indeed grow vegetables and a little fruit.

  “The nearest store is three miles away and I don’t drive anymore because of my seizures, so it makes sense to live off the land,” Max explained. “I grow my own produce, fish from the lake, and get eggs from the girls.” He pointed to a couple of chickens milling around in the yard. “That’s Leonardo and Donatello. Raphael and Michelangelo are probably round the back.”

  Ninja Turtles again. It figured. Jed had spent more time staring at them in the past week than he had his whole childhood. “Do you eat the chickens?”

  “No way! I don’t eat meat. It’s expensive and bad for the soul. They die from time to time, but I can usually get another one before the kids notice. Hey, can you handle a boat?”

  “I can get by.” Jed tore his eyes away from the scruffy hens, who’d moved closer to peck around his feet. “It’s been a while, though. Why?”

  Max pointed to a small wooden boat tied to the jetty. “That’s mine, but I don’t go out on the water anymore. There’s trout and crappie in the lake. If you want to fish, help yourself. Just make sure you eat what you catch. It’s cruel, otherwise.”

  Jed stared at the lake. The thought of being out on the water was comforting, though he couldn’t say why. It had been years since he’d sailed on anything other than a huge aircraft carrier. He hated those things. They were grotesque, mutant machines of death, and they smelled like ass.

  He looked back at the cabin. With the sun high in the sky, it was pretty much a perfect picture. There really was nothing there, save the water, the mountains, and the sky. Nick had told him the cabin would suit him. Perhaps his brother knew him better than he’d ever imagined.

  Chapter Four

  MAX O’DAIR stared after the retreating set of broad shoulders through the grubby workshop window. He watched until the car disappeared into the distance. “He was something else, eh, girl?”

  Flo made no comment. Somewhat distracted, Max made his way to the back of the boat shed and picked up the grinder he’d been using before Flo had alerted him to their visitor. He checked she was in her customary place by his tool chest and resumed his task of removing stubborn bolts from an old pontoon.

  His mind wandered as he worked, and despite his best efforts, the image of the tall blond stranger kept coming back to him. Jed Cooper wasn’t the man he’d expected. When Kim had approached him about renting his spare room to Nick’s long-lost brother, his answer had been a firm “hell no.” He’d learned the hard way that living with someone brought hassle and stress he didn’t need. And questions, too; questions Max didn’t have answers to.

  Besides, the dude was Nick Cooper’s brother, and in recent years Nick had become a real prick. To Max, the idea of sharing his home with anyone even remotely related to Nick was bullshit. At least until he walked out of his workshop and saw Jed Cooper standing in his backyard. Then it was fair to say he forgot his misgivings ever existed.

  Jed Cooper was… damn. Max could think of no other word to describe him. Tall, with broad, defined shoulders and golden-blond hair, the man was gorgeous. He was sharp too; those keen green eyes missed nothing. He’d proved that when he’d picked up a seizure so short even Flo had missed it. Max wasn’t sure how he felt about living with someone so observant, but he figured he’d wait until Jed moved in to worry about it, if he moved in at all. They’d agreed to talk after Thanksgiving, but Jed had an inscrutable poker face. Max didn’t have a clue which way he was leaning.

  He finished up for the day, rounded up the chickens, and made his way back to the cabin. He felt a little restless as he poked around in the kitchen for dinner. Most weeks, he spent a few evenings at Kim’s place, cooking dinner with the kids and putting them to bed, but with Jed occupying the spare room for the past month, he’d kept his distance. Until Jed had walked onto his land, he hadn’t seen another soul in days.

  Isolation wasn’t something that usually bothered Max. He loved his quiet life out by the lake, and it calmed his irritating excess energy. But his encounter with Jed had gotten under his skin. There was something about the world-weary soldier. Max could tell he’d been through hell already, but for some reason it felt like his journey was only beginning.

  THE NEXT day, Max finished the pontoon. He had no other boats booked in, so he occupied himself sweeping out the cabin’s chimney. It was a messy job, and one he detested, but with the prospect of a roommate looming he couldn’t put it off any longer. The task took him a couple of days. By the time he’d finished and cleaned up, it was Thanksgiving.

  He spent the morning cooking, and in the afternoon, he packed up his wares and set off for the Cooper house. He was halfway there when a familiar car pulled up alongside him.

  “Hey, little brother. How’s tricks?”

  Max grinned and opened the back door of Kim’s car for Flo to jump in. Seeing her muddy paws on the shiny leather seats always made him smile. He slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. “You didn’t have to come looking for me. I was on my way.”

  Kim rolled her eyes and put the car into drive. “Max, if I left you to your own devices you’d roll up next Tuesday. Where’ve you been the past few weeks? We’ve missed you.”

  Max watched the town blur past his window. “I figured you guys had enough excitement, what with Jed being there and all.”

  “I don’t think excitement is the word I’d choose.”

  “Trouble in paradise?”

  Kim ignored the barb and sighed. “Not exactly, it’s… oh, I don’t know. You know Nick doesn’t like change, and Jed… well, I don’t think he likes Nick very much. Things have been a little strained.”

  Max refrained from pointing out that no one liked Nick very much. For reasons he’d never understand, Kim saw something in her husband no one else did. For better or worse, she loved him. Besides, he’d learned long ago that dissing him was more hassle than it was worth. “I mean
t to call you, actually. Jed came to see me a few days ago.”

  “Yeah, he said.”

  “Did he say if he was moving in or not?”

  Kim hung a left. “No, but he doesn’t say much about anything. If he told anyone, it would probably be Tess. Those two are joined at the hip.”

  “Really?” Max felt his eyebrows rise. Jed had seemed a cool enough guy, but he couldn’t imagine him having the patience for a kid like Tess. Even Flo didn’t have the energy to keep up with his hyperactive niece.

  “Really,” Kim said. “He’s like Prozac for her or something. You know that jigsaw puzzle we’ve had half-finished for months? It’s all done. He actually got her to sit down and focus on something. I think he wanted some peace, but still. Can you believe that?”

  Max couldn’t quite. He figured he’d have to see it to believe it. “What about Belle? How’s she taking to him?”

  “That’s another thing,” Kim said. “I thought she’d be terrified of him, but she’s not. The sun’s barely up in the morning before she’s sneaking into his room.”

  “Guess he doesn’t mind the early morning wake-up call, huh?”

  Kim shot Max a sideways glance. “I don’t think he sleeps enough to care.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I don’t. But he’s seemed out of sorts the past few days.”

  Max held his tongue as Kim pulled into the driveway of the Cooper house. He didn’t know the details, but he knew Jed had suffered appalling injuries. Max’s short-term memory sometimes failed him, but he could recall the day Belle opened the door to two men from the Army like it was yesterday. Nick’s devastation at the news of his brother’s injuries had marked one of the rare times Max had ever considered him a fellow human being.

  It hadn’t lasted. Nick left for Boston the next morning and returned a week later the same dislikable bastard he’d always been, but Max hadn’t forgotten Nick’s mysterious older brother. The military officials had been cagey about the circumstances surrounding his injuries. They’d only confirmed that Jed Cooper had been shot and caught in an explosion. Now that Max had a face for the name, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the rest.

  “You don’t have to worry about Jed, you know,” Kim said. “He doesn’t seem the type to get up in your face about things.”

  Kim disappeared into the house without another word. Max rolled his eyes and got out of the car with a heavy sigh. A bundle of arms and legs collided with his body. “Hey, Tessie. How’re you doing? I’ve missed you.”

  “Uncle Max! We missed you too. Come see, quick. We made Flo some doggie holiday biscuits. Come see, come see.”

  Max scooped Tess up and perched her on his hip. “Hold your horses, kiddo. Let me get my stuff, okay?” He reached into the car and retrieved the packages of food he’d brought. “Bellabug, do you want to let Flo out for me?”

  Tess giggled and wriggled in his arms. “Uncle Jed calls us little bugs. He says we have googly eyes.”

  Max checked that Flo was shepherding Belle toward the front door and carried Tess inside. He set her down, shut the front door, and shifted the food he carried to his other arm. “Well, if Uncle Jed thinks so too, it must be true, right?”

  It was a weak argument, but it didn’t seem to matter as the girls made a beeline for the garden. Flo spotted the tennis balls they retrieved from a basket by the patio door and bounded off after them.

  Max made his way to the kitchen. Kim was at the counter, surrounded by a mountain of vegetables. She looked up and smiled as he took his place beside her. She didn’t enjoy cooking. Their mother had been a strong believer in child labor in the kitchen, something Kim had rebelled against in later years. These days, the Cooper house survived on convenience foods—a habit that made Max shudder—but Kim made an exception at Christmas and their relatively new tradition of Thanksgiving.

  Max reached for a pile of yams and picked up a knife. “Where’s Nick?”

  Kim shrugged. “Up in the office, I think. He had to take a call. Hey, can I ask you something?”

  Max knew a deflection when he heard it—Nick always had something more important to do than spend time with his family—but he let it go. “Fire away.”

  “Nick has a conference in Seattle next month. I was thinking of going with him. Could you watch the girls for me?”

  “You want me to come and stay here for the night?” That was a new one. Max spent as much time with the girls as he could, but with his badly behaved brain to consider, his unsupervised responsibilities were limited to softball practice and walking them home from school with Carla and Flo for company.

  Kim opened the oven. “No, I figured you could all stay at the cabin. You know they’d love that.”

  “I thought my place was too unsavory for your children?”

  “You know it’s not that.” Kim nudged the oven shut with her elbow and set a dish on the side. “Nick knows the girls love you. He just worries that something could happen up there and the girls wouldn’t know how to tell anyone.”

  “They don’t need to. Flo knows.”

  “You can’t expect a dog to look after all three of you. Besides, with Jed there, it’s the perfect solution, isn’t it? If he agrees, Nick won’t argue with him.”

  Max was inclined to agree that Nick wouldn’t argue with Jed—the elder Cooper sibling had all the presence his brother lacked—but there was a fatal flaw in Kim’s plan. “What if Jed doesn’t want to live up at the cabin?”

  “Then, I guess he’ll be here, so it won’t matter.”

  There was something in her tone Max didn’t quite understand. Despite everything he’d heard, he couldn’t picture Jed volunteering to be a live-in babysitter. “Where is he, anyway?”

  “Asleep in the den,” Kim said. “I might wake him up in a bit. He’s been in there a while.”

  “Don’t bother. Tess found me.”

  Kim jumped, and Max spun around at the sound of another voice in the room. Despite keeping half an eye on the backyard, neither of them had noticed Tess sneaking inside or Jed slipping into the kitchen behind them.

  Jed leaned against the doorframe, the corner of his mouth turned up in a half grin. “Need some help?”

  “I’m sure I can find you something to do. Pull up a stool and get off your feet.”

  Jed remained by the door. A flash of something akin to stubbornness crossed his face until he pulled it back into what Max was beginning to recognize as his trademark inscrutable stare.

  Kim was unfazed. She dropped a bag of potatoes on the counter and rummaged in a drawer for the peeler. “Sit,” she chided. “I know you don’t want to, but humor me, please. Someone around here has to.”

  Jed looked as though he might protest, but he didn’t. With a slight roll of his eyes, he crossed the kitchen, eased his body into the stool, and reached for the potatoes.

  Satisfied, Kim reached over and rubbed his shoulder. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “If you say so, doll.”

  Jed’s tone was dry, but there was a lightness that dazzled Kim into a slightly giddy smile—no doubt his intention. Max pondered the motive behind Jed’s flawless deflection. Maybe he was flirting. The idea made Max shudder, though not for any misplaced protection of his sister’s honor; Kim was more than capable of….

  “Max?”

  “Huh?” He felt Jed’s gaze on him as he focused on Kim. “What?”

  “You left us for a moment. I’m going to fetch the girls in to wash up before dinner. Can you finish up in here?”

  “Okay, Bibi.”

  Kim stepped on his foot. Max frowned, and it took him a moment to realize his mistake. He shook himself, and the moment passed. Kim disappeared, and for the second time in a week, Max found himself alone with Jed Cooper.

  Max finished preparing the yams and got the pot out for the potatoes. He turned back to find a pile of peeled potatoes waiting for him. “Wow. That was quick.”

  Jed waved a small Swiss Army knife attached
to his keychain. “I couldn’t figure that weird peeler out.”

  Fair enough. Max dumped the potatoes into the pot and set it on the stove to boil. He retrieved the containers he’d brought from the cabin and set out the food he’d cooked at home.

  Jed watched him with curious eyes. “Are these the stuffin’ muffins Tess was yelling about this morning?”

  “The very same.” Max put the lids back on the empty containers and put them by the back door to give himself a chance of remembering to take them home. “It’s probably all she’ll eat of Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “Going through a picky phase?”

  “It’s not a phase,” Max said. “She’s always been like that. All she wants is sugar.”

  Jed leaned forward and snagged a muffin. He held it up to the light. “What the hell is a stuffin’ muffin, anyway? It looks like cornbread.”

  “It pretty much is, with some added stuff from the garden—apples, celery, and herbs. Want one before the kids eat them all?”

  “Maybe later.”

  Jed put the muffin down and leaned his elbows on the table. Max found the wariness in his eyes slightly disturbing. To break the heavy air, he got up and opened the fridge. He thought about reaching for a beer, but decided against it. He didn’t drink often, and when he did, it went straight to his head. Not a good plan when he was spending an evening with his brother-in-law. He pulled out two bottles of water and set one in front of Jed.

  “Thanks,” Jed said. “So, what’s the deal with Tess? Does she have ADHD?”

  The blunt question caught Max off guard. To buy some time, he took a slow swallow of water. “Why do you say that?”

  Jed shrugged, letting his keen gaze talk for him. He’d lived in the Cooper house for a month, and from what Kim said, he’d spent a lot of time with Tess. There was no way he would’ve missed her hyperactive behavior and inability to focus on anything.

  “She might,” Max said. “It runs in our family.”