The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2)(99)

“Let’s go for a little walk,” Cooper said, his arm around her shoulders. “Just around this block to the waterfront. To finish watching the sunset.”

“We should get home, Cooper....”

He stopped and turned her toward him. “No, baby. We have to talk about whatever is eating you.”

“I should figure out what to do before I dump it on you....”

“Maybe you could use some help with whatever it is.”

She took a deep steadying breath. “I’ve been notified that...I got reassignment orders, Cooper...soon. I haven’t had the guts to talk it over with Landon yet. This isn’t going to go down well.”

Shock widened his eyes. It was the last thing he expected. “I thought you had another year here.”

“I should have. That’s what I thought when I came here—that’s what we had all predicted. But there’s a pressing need for someone at my level of command and I’m the most logical person to fill it. And it’s for a south Florida Coast Guard station.”

“Whoa.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Could they give you a more distant assignment?”

“They don’t have Coast Guard stations on the moon yet,” she murmured.

“Well,” Cooper said, thinking for a moment. “You’re right, this is going to go down hard. I was moved right before my senior year and I’m still pissed about it. And I didn’t have a shining football career ahead of me. I was just an ordinary high school kid.”

“This will devastate Landon,” she agreed.

“Is it at least a decent job? In Florida?”

“Depends on your definition of decent. It’s a good position and I’m in line for a promotion. It will mean less flying and more administrative time. But I’m good at both, so...”

He thought maybe they should continue walking...and thinking. But for some reason his feet were rooted to the ground. “Maybe it would help if...I could get him down there early, like right away. We could look around, make sure he gets into a good school with a good football team and give him a chance to adjust before school starts. By the time you get there, maybe he’ll be human about it....”

Her eyes were round and her mouth actually hung open. She shook her head as if to roll the marbles back into place. “You would do that?”

“Of course I could. Or I could take care of him here. He only has one more year. But it would be so damn far for you to travel to see him. That would be really hard on both of you. I mean, you’re a team, you and Landon. But there’s another fact you have to face—in one more year he could choose a college on the other side of the country. He’s going to leave your care eventually. But if things stay as they are now, I think he’d probably opt for the left coast....”

“Live with you...here?”

He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes. “Okay, maybe you don’t want me to be a part of this. But if that’s what it is, you have to tell me, Sarah. I’ve been bent out of shape worrying that you want to dump me. We’ve been together nine months. You know I love you—you know I want to spend my life with you. If you don’t want that, you have to tell me.”

“But you have a business here! A son!”

“I haven’t lived with my son for the last ten years. He wouldn’t be devastated if I only visited. In fact, there’s no guarantee Spencer and Austin will stay in Thunder Point—that all depends on if this job works out to be a good thing for them both. You and Landon, that’s a different situation. It’s just the two of you and you’re real tight.”

“And the bar? The beach?”

“Ah...I love the beach and the bar is working out, but I’m not more tied to that than to you, for God’s sake. I could sell it. I could even sell it responsibly, so it doesn’t hurt the town. Or I could rent it so there’s something to come back to. You do understand that if I had to make a choice...”

“You’d be giving up everything you love!”

He just smiled at her and shook his head. “Not everything I love.”

“What if I quit?” she said. “What if I didn’t take the assignment and just resigned my commission and didn’t have an income? What if I turned out to be just a part-time barmaid who couldn’t pay her own rent just so Landon could finish school here?”

He laughed. “Don’t tease me,” he said. “Sarah, don’t you know by now? There’s no deal breaker here. I’ll take any part of you—career Coast Guard pilot or simply my wife. And I’m not asking you to give up anything you love or have worked hard for.” He grinned. “I know how controlling you are. And I also think you love me. You love us together. If you don’t, you have a good fake going on.”

“Cooper...” she whispered, her eyes misting.

“Hey! How long have you been carrying this around? This worry and burden?”

She shrugged helplessly. “I got wind of it a couple of months ago, when it was just rumor, when there was still hope that—”

“A couple of months? Aw, baby! We could’ve talked it out a long time ago! This has been eating you up! Sarah, honey, you don’t have to manage everything alone anymore. You can count on me, don’t you know that?”