don’t know. I guess a motel somewhere. Or I could probably rent a furnished apartment. I’m just trying to take everything one day at a time.” Gregson knew enough about Cooper’s background that he didn’t have to expand on the fact that he didn’t really have a home to go to. Even the apartment he’d once lived in as a boy never felt like a home since his mom had died and his stepdad never wanted him around. When Cooper had been married to Lindsay, she’d tried to make their tiny house on base a home, but it just always seemed so forced—as if they were just playing house. He was always more comfortable being on deployment than living with her, which was probably why their marriage didn’t last.
“You know, my family lives in Boise. We have a cabin up in Sugar Falls you could use.”
“I’ve got news for you, Gregson. Spending time in your quaint little vacation hideaway isn’t going to give me back anything I’ve lost.”
“Well, if you’re going to keep your expectations low, you might as well do it in Sugar Falls, where it’ll be more comfortable than some no-tell motel. Use the cabin, let your knee heal and think about your options if you can’t reenlist. What are you so afraid of?”
Cooper bristled at the implication that he was afraid of anything. He had both a silver star and a purple heart to prove otherwise, and Gregson knew it. But Sugar Falls meant seeing Maxine on a regular basis and Cooper was smart enough to understand that hiding out in enemy territory wasn’t brave, it was downright foolish.
“Forget the reverse psychology crap,” he told the doctor. “I know they teach that BS in shrink school and Terrorist Interviewing 101, but it won’t work on me.”
“You and I both know the real reason you don’t want to spend any time with the kid. You don’t want to risk getting close to anyone. It might mean creating a crack in your hard shell of a heart.”
Cooper gritted his teeth at the unwelcome analysis, his jaw fixed even harder than his alleged heart at that moment. Hell, he wasn’t even a patient of Gregson’s. The only thing they had in common was a proclivity for using the weight room after everyone else in their units had hit the rack.
When Cooper didn’t respond, Gregson continued. “You know, maybe if you would’ve had a positive male role model back when you were a fatherless fifth grader, it wouldn’t have stunted your emotional and social growth.”
“Yeah, and maybe if you’d had a date or two while studying for your PhD, it wouldn’t have stunted your ability to get laid.” Cooper slammed the laptop closed.
“Uh, hello?” a feminine voice asked from behind the curtained partition that barely provided any privacy from the busy hospital floor.
“Yeah?” Cooper responded as he used the trapeze handle to lift himself up into a better position on the narrow bed.
Right before his brain registered the owner of the voice, Maxine Walker’s very pretty face peeked around the curtain and her large blue eyes locked on to his. “Are we disturbing anything?”
He practically knocked the tray table over in his haste to pull the bed sheet over his exposed legs. Damn these short hospital gowns.
What was she doing here? And how much of his conversation had she just heard?
“Uh, no. I was just talking on Skype with my buddy and uh...” He trailed off as she lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow at the closed laptop. “What are you doing here?”
There he went again with that gruff accusatory tone, the defensive one he found himself reverting to whenever he was in an uncomfortable situation. He saw the ugly little cellophane-wrapped plant in her hands and tried to force his lips into a smile so he wouldn’t seem like the world’s biggest bastard for barking at her in such an ungrateful way.
“Hunter said you could have visitors, so I brought him down and...” She paused as her gaze swiveled around the room and then behind her into the corridor, as if she’d lost something. “Well, he was with me just a second ago. Maybe I should go find him.”
She turned to walk out, and he pulled himself up as if he could will his useless body to physically stop her from leaving. “Wait, you don’t have to go. I mean, I’m sure he just got distracted and will be along any minute.” Cooper nodded his head toward the wilted green thing in the plastic pot. “Is that for me?”
“Oh, this? It’s just a little something to cheer up your room.” She walked toward the small window and set the plant on a bare cabinet, causing some curling leaves to fall off their stems.
He’d seen interrogation huts in third world countries more cheerful than that dying shrub. But he thanked her all the same.
“So, the surgery went okay?” Now that her hands were empty, she’d reverted back to that same stance she’d displayed at the airport—arms crossed tightly across her torso.
“I guess so. One down and one to go. I guess the real recovery will start after that.”
“Hey,” Hunter interrupted, as he finally breezed in past the curtain. “There’s a guy down the hall with the coolest robot legs, and they have him doing jumping jacks and leg squats and all kinds of things. He showed me how the new joints are like titanium-powered springs, and now he’s like an incredible bionic man. Maybe they’ll give you some legs like that, Coop.”
As exciting as the kid made it sound, Cooper needed the reminder that he was lucky to still have all of his own limbs. A lot of soldiers had injuries so much worse than his. “I don’t know, little man. I’m kinda attached to these legs right here.” Cooper patted the sheet that he’d finally gotten into place.
“Can I see your stitches?”
“Hunter.” Maxine blushed, and Cooper enjoyed seeing the pink flush stain her cheeks. It made her seem warmer somehow. “Leave his bandage alone. He probably needs his rest.”
“I’m okay,” he said, wanting to reassure Maxine that her son didn’t bother him in the least. He pulled the sheet back so Hunter could get his curiosity fix.
“Oh, wow, they had to shave your leg and everything. Just like a girl.” Hunter screwed up his chubby little face in disgust. “Dr. McCormick didn’t tell me about that part.”
“When did you talk to my surgeon?” Cooper asked. Maxine’s puzzled expression must have matched his own.
“When I called him yesterday to ask how your surgery went and to see when we could come visit. He said today was fine, so Mom brought me down.”
Maxine raised her shoulders and shook her head, as if to tell him she had no idea her ten-year-old son was capable of navigating his way through a busy hospital’s switchboards and acquiring confidential patient information. But Cooper wasn’t the least bit surprised. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past Hunter to know what he’d had for breakfast, how many times the nurses had changed his IV bag and when his next sponge bath was scheduled.
Looking at Maxine, whose arms were now akimbo in confusion, and whose perfectly formed breasts were on proud display under her snug white cotton top, he couldn’t help but wish that she could be the one to assist him at bath time.
“I brought you my Lord of the Rings DVD series.” Hunter’s voice brought Cooper back to reality. “My mom got you that plant. It looked better when she picked
