A Marine for His Mom (Sugar Falls, Idaho)

by Christy Jeffries

  Cooper shrugged his shoulders. He was at a complete loss. “I figured because we were pen pals and he liked me.”

  Cessy put her head down into her jeweled hands as she shook it. “Maybe I need to call Mayor Johnston and tell him we picked the wrong man for the job. How are you gonna get those two knuckleheads—” she looked up to nod toward Scooter and Jonesy “—to stop leaving their horse poop all through town if you can’t even figure out what’s right in front of your face?”

  He rubbed his hands along his jeans, trying not to crumple the napkin in his lap. He was about to tell the woman to cool her jets and start speaking English when Freckles put their orders down on the counter. When he saw his big plate loaded down with meat, eggs, potatoes and gravy, he winked at the waitress.

  “Really, Freckles?” his uninvited dining companion asked.

  Cooper wondered how many people defied Cessy Walker’s wishes and lived to tell about it. But instead of further chastising the café owner, she took the empty plate from Freckles’ hand and used her fork to fill it with almost half of his food.

  “What are you doing?” Cooper couldn’t believe the woman had helped herself to his breakfast and planned to eat it. And Freckles had brought her the extra dish to do so.

  “Oh, relax. You can have some of my bananas.” She pushed her own plate toward him, and Freckles laughed as she walked back to the kitchen. The waitress sure knew her customers.

  Had he known he’d be subjected to insults and food theft, he would’ve gone straight to Maxine’s bakery. But these women were definitely providing him with some valuable insight. If he could only figure out what it was—and whether any of it was accurate.

  “So you were telling me about your grandson’s master scheme.” Cooper curled his arm protectively around the remains of his breakfast.

  “Of course Hunter liked you and you two guys clicked, but he also knew you’d be perfect for his mom. I wasn’t so sure because that girl can be downright fierce in her independence and women’s lib hoopla and all that. But he talked me into speaking to the city council and pushing for a police department. Mind you, I don’t go around creating jobs on the whims of a ten-year-old boy. The city really does need it, though. Anyway, I figured if Hunter was right about you, then it’d be a win-win.”

  “So Hunter gets me here, and you lock me into the position as chief, but then what? You can’t make people fall in love. Even you, Cessy Walker, have limits to what you can control.”

  “True. I wanted Bo to be as in love with his new family as I was. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get that boy to settle down and see reason.”

  “And now you’re trying to get me to see reason?” Cooper didn’t know if he liked being lumped in the same category as Bo Walker.

  “Well, you do seem to be a bit more levelheaded. Bo was never cut out for being a father and husband, not like you are.”

  Nobody had ever told Cooper he was cut out for family life—including his own family.

  “How do you know I’d be good for them?”

  “How do you know you wouldn’t?”

  “I’ve never been that great at relationships.”

  “Bull. Just look at you and Hunter. He adores you, and you’ve been wonderful for him. You guys are like two peas in a pod.”

  Maybe the woman had a point. He’d had no problem opening up to the kid and letting him get close. And Hunter had taken to him, as well.

  “Okay, let’s suppose that I stay in Sugar Falls. That doesn’t mean that Maxine will agree to a relationship.”

  “How do you know she won’t? Have you asked her?”

  That was the thing. He hadn’t asked her. Yet.

  “Just as I thought.” She nodded as she finished off the small plate she’d filled with his food before attacking her own. “Son, if you want her, you gotta go after her.”

  It was a catch-22. He knew that if he exposed his love for her, he’d be risking rejection. His other option would be to just leave and never know what could’ve been. He’d already decided on the former, but he’d allow the interfering older woman to provide him with more information about what Maxine’s answer might be.

  “I plan to. But she might say no.”

  “Then you tell her to change her mind. I love that girl as if she were my own, but she can be just as stubborn and prideful as you seem to be. She says no to me all the time, but that doesn’t stop me from doing what’s best for her anyway.”

  No, it certainly didn’t stop Cessy.

  He wasn’t one for pep talks—and certainly not from people like Cessy or Freckles. Still, he couldn’t help thinking it was time to cowboy up.

  * * *

  That night, Cessy had just picked up Hunter for dinner when Mia and Kylie knocked on Maxine’s apartment door. She’d told her friends earlier in the day that she wasn’t up for their usual Thursday night out, which obviously let them know she was in an emotional state of emergency because they showed up anyway, setting several grocery sacks on the counter as soon as they walked into the kitchen.

  “Is there anything left in the snack aisle at Duncan’s?” Maxine asked, peeking inside at the contents.

  “Only the low sodium pretzels and some rice cakes,” Kylie said. “We even brought this limited-time bacon and waffle kind that Mia wanted to try. Gross.” Kylie scrunched up her nose and tossed the unusual flavor to the dance instructor, but Maxine caught it midair and tore it open, grabbing one to taste.

  Mia eyed their friend. “So I’ll assume from the way you’re moving into the bag that something bad has happened with Cooper?”

  Maxine told her friends about the night they’d spent together, leaving out some of the more intimate details, and then about the trip to Boise when he told her he was potentially moving to San Francisco. “I saw his Jeep parked in front of the café this morning, and all day I’ve been waiting for him to come around and say his final goodbyes.”

  “Wait, back up,” Kylie said. “I know that I’m no love expert, but at any point during your conversation in Boise, or since, did you tell him that you wanted him to stay?”

  “Of course not! I’ve been there, done that. Remember when Bo accused me of interfering with his long-term goals? He acted like I’d gotten pregnant on purpose and then forced him to run right back to his mama in Sugar Falls.”

  “Honey, you know you can’t compare every man to Bo,” Mia said absently as she went through the cupboards. “It’s not fair to you or to Cooper.”

  After the way he’d handled Nick the Stalker, Mia thought Cooper should be awarded a medal of honor. She obviously was biased. Still, perhaps she had a point.

  Maxine sat down and thought about her recent comparisons and her reactions. In her head, she knew that Bo had unjustly blamed her for his own failures. But in her heart, she’d been so beaten down by his accusations and finger-pointing that she didn’t want to put herself in a similar position.

  She was too strong a woman to resort to begging a man to stay—and too afraid of being hurt again to stand the thought of being rejected if she did ask.

  So these past two weeks, she’d swallowed down the lump in her throat and smiled when she saw Cooper around town, but she couldn’t bear much more than a few awkward words. He was leaving. And if the guy wanted to move on, she wasn’t going to keep him from following his dream.

  * * *

  Maxine might not have come up with a concrete plan last night, but Mia and Kylie had talked some sense into her and had definitely made her laugh. She was now awake earlier than usual because she’d been too restless to sleep. She knew she needed to tell Cooper how she felt, even if it meant running him out of their lives forever.

  The only thing that gave her any peace of mind was making her dough in the early predawn hours. And at this rate, she’d stockpiled eighteen extra batches and
wouldn’t have any more room in her freezer if she kept hiding from her problems.

  Maybe she should expand her business. Or she should start a program sending cookies overseas to soldiers. That was an idea. With summer vacation around the corner, she and Hunter could travel around to various military bases and pass out cookies. Maybe then her son could find a new pen pal, one who was skinny and pimply and read poetry—and who didn’t put her senses on high alert every time the very essence of his masculinity poured into the room.

  She heard a booming knock at the back door and was thrilled to have a distraction. At least, until she looked out the peephole and saw the subject of her thoughts with his fist raised, about to start his obnoxious pounding again. She unlatched the dead bolt and threw open the door before his knuckles could make contact again.

  “Are you serving a warrant or something?” she asked. “You’re going to wake up Hunter with all that racket.”

  “We need to talk.” Cooper looked as if he hadn’t slept in days and she wanted to rub her fingers along the crease in his forehead and soothe him.

  “Good morning to you, too,” she said instead.

  “Don’t do that.” He strode past her and looked up the stairwell before turning back to her, his hands on his hips as if he was ready to do battle.

  “Do what?” She closed the door and returned to her mixing bowl, bracing herself behind the unnecessary, but comforting task.

  “Don’t sidetrack me with small talk. You’ve been all polite and distant with me ever since that night, and it’s driving me crazy.”

  “I’m supposed to be sorry for being polite?” What exactly did he want her to say?

  “Here’s the deal. You know how I told you about my ex-wife and the canned ham?” he asked, but didn’t wait for her answer. “Well, that’s why I’m not good at relationships or personal conversations. I don’t want anyone having access to the little opener key that could unseal the tin around my heart.” He leaned over the counter, looking into her eyes. “See, if I let you open me up, then you’d see that I’m just a bunch of processed, pressed pieces of leftover bits that nobody really wanted.”

  She slammed the bowl against the counter, forgetting about her sleeping son. “How could you possibly think that I wouldn’t want you?”

  “I don’t know! Probably because for whatever reason, you and I can’t seem to have a normal conversation without one of us either tiptoeing around or barking at the other. Unless we’ve got our hands all over each other’s bodies, I’m too afraid to ask you direct questions, and you’re too reserved to tell me what you want. So let’s do it now. Let’s throw all our cards on the table.”

  His nostrils flared slightly, and she suddenly felt a great empathy with every poor soul who’d had to sit across an interrogation table from him.

  “Okay,” she said. “You go first.”

  “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that they offered me the chief of police position. I haven’t accepted yet because I’ve been waiting for you.”

  “For me? I thought you were waiting to hear about the NCIS job. You said you wanted to keep your options open.”

  He ran his hand through his hair, and she stood a little straighter, not willing to back down now that the taboo subject was out there.

  “I only lined that up in case I needed a backup plan. Now your turn. How would you feel if I took the job here and didn’t move to San Francisco?”

  “Are you asking me if I think Hunter and everyone else wants you to stay?”

  “No, Maxine, I’m asking you if you want me to stay.”

  “I don’t want to force you to do something you might resent me for later. Sugar Falls is a small town, and you’re used to a faster pace. What if I tell you that I want you to stay, and then you miss out on a fabulous opportunity in the big city? I don’t want to be the one who held you back.”

  “You know I’m not Bo, right?”

  She nodded, her hand trembling on the stainless steel bowl she clenched tightly to her.

  “And you know that I can swim in any damn pond I want to swim in, and it doesn’t matter what size fish I am, right?”

  “Yes. I think. Are we talking about you staying or are we talking about fish?”

  He moved toward her and took her shaky hands in his.

  “I love Hunter. And I don’t want to be just a pen pal to him—I want to be a dad to him. More than that, though, I love you. And I don’t want to have to pretend to you or anyone else that I don’t. I’m telling you right now, if I take the job here, I’m not going to be sneaking around town with you or acting like what we have isn’t the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me. And if that’s too threatening to your precious reputation, then you’re going to have to marry me because I won’t stay in Sugar Falls unless I have both you and Hunter full-time in my life.”

  Maxine’s heart was churning faster than the butter machine in the corner. “Did you just ask me to marry you or did you tell me to marry you?”

  “Well, I sort of asked you, but I really don’t want to give you the option of saying no.”

  Maxine knew just how much the entire revelation had cost him. And if he could lay down his pride for her, then the least she could do was open her own heart to him.

  “Honestly? I think I fell a little in love with you before you ever moved here, when I saw all those letters and emails between you and Hunter and realized you were exactly what he needed. And when I saw you in person almost daily I had to fight to keep from falling in love even more. I convinced myself you would only be here for a short time, and when you left, it would bring nothing but heartache—not only for Hunter, but for me, too. So I figured it would be safer to keep my distance.

  “I thought I was strong enough to have a physical relationship with you because that would be better than having none of you at all. And, just for the record, I wasn’t trying to keep our relationship a secret because I was ashamed of you. It was because I was ashamed of being so weak. As long as nobody found out how I felt about you, then I wouldn’t have to suffer in public when you finally said goodbye.”

  “That’s the only reason you didn’t want anyone to know?”

  “Yes. And when it looked like you were going to move here permanently, I let my defenses down, only to hear you mention the possibility of leaving again. I wanted to be woman enough to keep you, but at the same time, I needed to be woman enough to let you go.”

  He circled the counter and slipped his arms around her. “I don’t want you to ever let me go.”

  “I won’t if you promise to tell me that every day for the rest of our lives.” Her eyes filled with tears, and, as a drop spilled out and trickled onto her cheeks, he wiped it away.

  Then he flashed those dimples. “Just to be clear, that’s a yes? You want to marry me?”

  “You better believe it, Chief Heartthrob.”

  He pulled her closer. “I might need you to make me believe it. Do you think there’s enough room for a testosterone-fueled guy like me in your girl-power life?”

  He kissed her gently, and she let the wooden spoon she’d been holding clatter to the ground. She deepened his kiss and proved just how much room she had to accommodate him, and that she would never, ever let him go.

  Neither of them saw the grinning ten-year-old standing in the stairway, sending out a text message.

  Hunter Walker: We did it, Gram. Operation: Dad is a success!!

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss Kylie Chatterson’s story,

  WAKING UP WED,

  the second book in Christy Jeffries’s new

  Harlequin Special Edition miniseries

  SUGAR FALLS, IDAHO.

  On sale February 2016, wherever Harlequin books and ebooks are sold.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THREE REASONS TO WED by H
elen Lacey.

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Special Edition story.

  You know that romance is for life. Harlequin Special Edition stories show that every chapter in a relationship has its challenges and delights and that love can be renewed with each turn of the page.

  Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Special Edition every month!

  Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Other ways to keep in touch:

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  Three Reasons to Wed

  by Helen Lacey

  Chapter One

  Marissa Ellis pulled up outside her aunt’s house in Cedar River and switched off the ignition. The old home looked shabby and tired. Kind of like me. But she quickly pushed the thought aside. For the moment she had more important things to think about than her own complicated situation. Aunt Violet was recovering from a fall and would be in the hospital, then rehab, for at least a month. Which meant Marissa needed to be in South Dakota to look after the small ranch.

  It was the least she could do for the great-aunt who had taken her in following the death of her mother when Marissa was twelve. She’d spent six years living on the ranch. Until she’d finished high school. Until a scholarship meant college. After college, there was an internship at one of the most successful advertising agencies in New York, followed by five years of fourteen-hour days and multimillion-dollar deals. And then there was her husband. Who quickly became her ex-husband.

  Marissa shook herself. There was no point in reliving all that now. She was back…for good.

  The small town sat in the shadow of the Black Hills. It was actually two towns—Cedar Creek and Riverbend—that were separated by a narrow riverbed and a bridge and with a total combined population of a few thousand. A century ago, both had served as the backdrop for a booming silver mining industry. The mines were mostly closed now, with just a couple used as tourist attractions, and finally, after years of negotiating between the local governments, the town would soon be renamed Cedar River.