Robyn Carr - The Newcomer

“But what are you going to do?”

“I’m working on that. But I’ve been down this road and I have done twenty years of service. My decision is made. You’re the one who has decisions to make. Maybe there’s some family friends around who can keep Landon in this school for one more year?”

She shook her head. “There’s no one.”

“Good friends?”

The only ones who came to mind were Gina and Cooper. Her friend Gina was trying to develop a new life with Mac—aka Deputy Yummy Pants—and she had a small house crowded with her mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter. And Cooper? Oh, as great a pal as he was for Landon, he wasn’t in the market for instant guardianship. She couldn’t ask either of them for a favor this big. “The Coast Guard has always been inconvenient,” she heard herself say. “Not a lot of stability. But the job itself made up for that most of the time.”

“Where does Landon stay when you sit alert overnight?”

“He’s pretty much okay on his own, as long as he has his phone and my contact numbers. If I have a temporary assignment out of town, like simulator training or something, there’s this guy I’ve been seeing...local guy, civilian. He doesn’t mind Landon duty for a few days or a week, but trust me...”

“Guy?” Buzz said. “Guy? Why don’t I know about this guy?”

Sarah smiled in spite of herself.

“How long has this been going on?” Buzz asked.

She gave a shrug. “Six months or so.”

“You never bring him around. You protecting us from him or something?”

“I could be protecting him from you....”

“Hmm. Well bring him around sometime. Happy hour or something.

“I just wanted you to have a heads-up on the assignments,” he said. “With any luck someone could request a relocation in the next couple of months—maybe just the right person will come along and take these potential east coast assignments off your hands....”

“Two of them?” she asked cynically.

“There are people who would kill for a chance like you have,” he said.

“I know,” she said. She could go far in the Coast Guard; Commander was a prestigious rank in a demanding service and she’d earned it. She was only thirty-three. “I could quit, but I can’t retire....” Quit and do what? There was the little matter of paying rent, buying food, making car and insurance payments...tuition. She stood up. “Well, thanks, boss. I guess.”

“Don’t panic,” Buzz said. “Yet.”

* * *

Sarah wasn’t one to panic, unless her career was about to turn everyone she loved upside down once again. She could tell Landon, give him time to adjust to the possibility and come up with his own coping options, but she wouldn’t do that—not yet, anyway. She wasn’t afraid he’d balk and sulk, she was afraid he’d say, “Whatever, Sarah. Just let me know.” He was that kind of kid, that kind of brother. He wasn’t a typical sixteen-year-old boy, probably because of how challenging his life had been. She often worried about how much disappointment he was holding inside to spare her feelings.

Landon was only five when their parents were killed in an accident and he spent one horrifying year with their mean spinster aunt and then had spent the past ten years as her responsibility. She’d moved him five times, put him through a divorce from a man he’d grown attached to and now, just when he was happiest... No, she couldn’t talk to him yet, not until she had time to think things through.

She could tell Cooper. He loved her; he was proud of her. But he’d just put all his time and energy into setting up his new local business and she couldn’t put him in the position of choosing between breaking it off with her or leaving behind everything to follow her. She could tell that his new lifestyle not only suited him, but he was also very happy. Relaxed.

* * *

That afternoon she hadn’t even made it home after work before Landon called her cell. “You going out to Cooper’s tonight?”

“Not tonight,” she said. “I have things to prepare for for our inspection.”

“If Eve comes over to do homework tonight, will it bother you?” he asked.

“Nope. I’ll take my paperwork to my bedroom. What are you cooking?” she asked.

He laughed at the joke. “Want me to pick up a pizza? I still have that twenty you left me.”

“I’ll make sloppy joes. Save the pizza money—I sit alert tomorrow night and you’re on your own. And before you even ask, no, Eve cannot spend the night.”

“Damn,” he said, making her laugh.

She made the same excuse to Cooper, though he didn’t buy it as quickly. “Can’t you do your paperwork tomorrow night while you sit alert?”

“I have enough work for both nights. We’re gearing up for a big inspection. I’ll see you in a couple of days. I mean, we’ll talk, but—”

But I have to work on my poker face.

“—I have the day off after my twenty-four at the station and I’ll come out to your place. If the sun’s shining, maybe I’ll take out my board.”

“I love to watch you on the water,” he said. “The ocean is more beautiful when you’re out there.”

* * *

Sarah hadn’t seen Cooper in a couple of days and she could’ve taken the Razor—the all-terrain vehicle—across the beach with Hamlet, but they both needed some exercise. She’d just had two long nights and now she was stiff and groggy and Hamlet was restless.

Rather than getting right to their walk across the beach to Cooper’s, Sarah stopped at the diner to say hello to Gina. Hamlet enjoyed that part of his walk almost as much as being on the beach. He didn’t mind being hitched to the lamppost with a bowl of water and treated to pats and pets from every passerby.

Mac McCain was sitting at the counter in the diner. Gina was on the other side and they were holding hands across the counter. Sarah realized she’d been so self-involved she hadn’t even remembered that almost every midmorning around this time the diner was usually empty and Mac took his coffee break with Gina. They were so focused on each other, Sarah was impressed that they looked up and smiled at her. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself. I hear you’ve been putting in a lot of hours,” Gina said.

“A lot of hours, but I’m off today.”

Gina and Mac might be the cutest couple in Thunder Point. They’d been best friends for years. Both single parents, their sixteen-year-old daughters were also best friends. Just a couple of months ago, they came out as a couple. A real couple, not just a couple of good friends, and ever since that had happened, they’d been staring soulfully into each other’s eyes when they weren’t stealing the occasional kiss. For a brief moment Sarah turned cynical and almost said, “Look out—when you think you’re staring happily ever after in the face is when the fates get jealous and pounce.”

“On your way to Cooper’s?” Mac asked.

“Yep. I think I’m going to take my board out for a while. There’s sun today and I could use some exercise.” And alone time, think time. Not that she hadn’t had enough of that over the past day or two. “And Cooper always needs quality time with Ham.” She laughed. “If we ever break up, I’ll have to share custody.”

“You’ll never break up,” Gina said. “You’re down for the count.”

No, she thought. Just down...

Two

Mac and Gina might be enjoying new love, but that didn’t keep them from spending plenty of time talking about their families. While Gina only had one child, sixteen-year-old Ashley, Mac had three kids. His oldest, Eve, also sixteen, his son, Ryan, was twelve and another daughter, Dee Dee, was ten. Recently, their sixteen-year-old daughters seemed to take up most of their conversations about kids—Eve was a little too in love with Landon, sometimes worrying Mac, and while Ash had had a steady boyfriend for the past year, she had seemed a little out of sorts lately. Ashley was sulky and down in the dumps.