A Marine For His Mum

Her friend Mia understood kids. But Mia had a late-night dance class. Kylie was probably on a date, and Cessy’s advice was never an option, even if her mother-in-law wasn’t with Hunter. It sucked that her son certainly didn’t have a father she could share her parenting concerns with.

That was probably the reason Hunter had gotten into this situation in the first place. No father figure. And no matter how hard Maxine had tried to be both mom and dad, she must not have pulled it off. There was obviously something lacking in Hunter’s life that drew him to some random soldier like a heat-seeking missile.

After the day that Cooper had shooed them out of his room to take a phone call, she vowed she wouldn’t put herself in the same room as the marine again. And she hadn’t. Each time she’d taken Hunter to visit, which had been every week for over a month, she would walk the boy to Cooper’s room and then wait for her son out in the small lobby near the nurses’ station.

Just then, a window flashed in the bottom of the screen, signaling an incoming Skype call from Cooper.

She wanted to close the lid, but she couldn’t avoid the guy any longer. It would be better to get this matter settled before Gunny Heartthrob muscled his way into her their everyday lives. Her fingers paused over the mouse before she slowly moved it to the box and clicked.

The chat screen shot to life and Maxine was immediately faced with a live version of her son’s pen pal soldier.

“Hey, kid.” The grainy image displayed the same lonely eyes she’d seen in that one picture, but his head was lying back against a white sheet on a hospital bed. That is, until he braced himself up on his elbow, narrowed his eyes and gazed into the screen. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hi. Hunter’s out. I was just in his room, uh, cleaning.” Geez, she sounded as lame as she looked. In the small box in the corner, Maxine recognized herself, with her curly blond hair pulled messily into a ponytail on top of her head.

Was that how she really looked on a webcam? She should’ve put on some lip gloss instead of going for the chips. Speaking of which, she slowly slid the now-empty bag out of view from the camera.

Of course, Cooper looked great. He was 100 percent male and even in a hospital bed, he was still as gorgeous as hell. She didn’t need him running around her town all healthy and virile.

Ugh. She needed to get a grip. And not just of the rustling bag that was teetering precariously off the edge of the desk.

“So, I hear you’re getting discharged soon,” she said, when it appeared that Cooper wasn’t going to start the conversation.

“Yep. I was trying to stay in until I could retire, but I guess...stuff happens.” He appeared to lose his balance and cursed, then looked a little embarrassed. “Look, I don’t usually cuss like that in front of your son. Seeing you on my screen just kind of caught me...ah...off guard.”

This was her opportunity to tell him that this whole Sugar Falls visit had caught her off guard and wasn’t such a great idea. But at that exact moment, Hunter walked into the room.

She hadn’t even heard him enter the apartment because she’d been staring so intently at Coop’s beard stubble and wondering what it would feel like rubbing against her...

Whoa. She was not going there. Especially now that her son was present.

“Oh, cool, you’re talking to Cooper. Hey, Coop, are you coming to Sugar Falls?”

Maxine hadn’t even had the chance to cast her son a reprimanding look before Hunter leaned over, and then practically crawled over her to get in view of the tiny webcamera.

“What’s up, little man?” It was hard to register on the megapixels blurring on the screen, but she was sure that the look in Cooper’s eye softened when he saw Hunter. His tone of voice certainly did. “I was just going to talk to your mom about that.”

But before Maxine could get any answers, Cessy popped her perfectly coiffed head in the door, and Maxine jumped up to hustle her former mother-in-law out of the room.

She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want the woman to interact with their pen pal—

Wait! When did Cooper become theirs?

Whatever. All she knew was that the less Cessy was involved, the better.

Besides, it wasn’t as if Maxine had anything to hide. She wasn’t cheating on Bo or anything. Bo was dead. And Cooper wasn’t even in the running as a candidate to replace her husband. As if she would ever get married again. That ship had sailed.

Maxine steered Hunter’s grandmother toward the back door as Cessy talked incessantly about her latest shopping spree. Hopefully, the older lady didn’t even realize that her grandson just ditched her to do some online hero-worshipping. Or that her former daughter-in-law was blushing like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

She needed to get Cessy out the door so she could go back and tell that marine that under no circumstances was he to come visit. So she hugged the woman goodbye and thanked her repeatedly for taking Hunter shopping—yet again. But before she could turn the lock, Maxine’s cell phone vibrated.

Kylie.

Maybe Maxine should ask her friend for a quick opinion before rejoining the Skype chat. She had to talk to someone, even if it was her chronically single best friend.

“Is the date over?” Maxine asked instead of answering with a polite hello.

“No, I just snuck away and am debating whether or not my big ole booty will get stuck if I try to crawl through this bathroom window.”

Maxine reached into the back of her pantry and found a forgotten snack-sized package of pretzels. The empty bag of chips she’d left by Hunter’s computer had been the last of her emergency stash.

“Why do I do this to myself?” Kylie asked. “Frankie is a tax attorney I met at that seminar last week. Who knew a guy with such a party name could deliver a mind-numbing monologue on the importance of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act through a mouth stuffed with sautéed spinach in chimichurri sauce? I’m about to—”

“Listen,” Maxine interrupted. Kylie’s Bad Date Story From Hell: Volume 89 would just have to wait until tomorrow. “I need your advice. Hunter is trying to talk Cooper into coming to Sugar Falls after he gets discharged from the hospital.”

“You mean Gunny Heartthrob?”

Maxine nearly dropped her phone. “Stop calling him that.”

“You called him that first. You told us he literally made your heart throb when you met him. Anyway, if he comes to town, would he be staying at your place? I have a sexy nurse’s costume you could borrow to help him on his road to recovery.”

“Kylie! Are you serious? I have a son. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I can’t be shacking up with some marine from who knows where.”

“Listen, Max, the guy seems cool. Hunter thinks the world of him, and I hate to point out the obvious, but that poor boy needs a man to talk to. Better a military cop than some lowlife gangbanging druggie.”

Great. Maxine didn’t need the reminder that he was in the military and a cop. Matthew Cooper probably couldn’t cram any more testosterone into his camouflage pants if he tried.

“Where would he find a lowlife gangbanging druggie in Sugar Falls?” she asked her friend, before realizing they were getting completely sidetracked.

“That’s a good point. This town can be so boring sometimes.”

“Kylie, focus. Hunter invited this man to come here.”

“So what? Hunter also asked Jorge de la Rosa from the Colorado Rockies to come to his class presentation for that baseball book report he did. De la Rosa didn’t show and this guy probably won’t, either.”

“You may be wrong.”

“Do you think he’s actually coming?” Kylie suddenly seemed way too perky. Maxine tamped down the jealousy that crept its way around her closed-off heart.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. That’s what I need to ask you about.” She quickly filled her friend in, explaining about Hunter’s email and then the awkward Skype session.

“I bet Hunter would be thrilled to see his pen pal more often.”

“Well, he’d be the only one.”

“Max, just because the guy rubs you the wrong way doesn’t mean he’s bad for your son.”

She knew what Kylie said was true, but it was still a tough pill to swallow. “So you don’t think I should go back in there and explain that it’s a bad idea for him to come out to visit?”