He was pulling on the bottom half of a wet suit. With all the rigging on a sailboat, she might have to put him in the water. “Got it,” he yelled back. Then, carrying his gear, he jogged to the helicopter.

Derek was pacing. She could tell he wanted on this flight, even though she would be pilot in command. Thankfully her copilot, sharp young Lieutenant JG, was on board, ready for their takeoff preflight. She was plugging in the coordinates. “We can eat up twenty miles in ten minutes.”

Copilot, maintenance crew chief, EMT all buckled in; takeoff preflight done. It was showtime.

“And we are airborne,” she said into the radio. “Schuman, remind me that if I’m ever going to have a heart attack, I want to have it on a sixty-foot yacht.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

Air traffic control gave her altitude and heading, and in two minutes, it was all water underneath them. Nine and a half minutes later, they had the vessel in sight. “We have a lot of rigging, but I can get you down on the deck, Paul. Harness up. Ready to go.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

“We can deploy the rescue basket after you assess.”

“Roger,” he said, sitting in the open door of the chopper.

With the crew chief managing the reel, Paul descended to the deck. He dropped the emergency bag before he released the harness. The passengers seemed to be gathered around the patient. It was maybe four minutes before Paul said into his radio, “We have a possible coronary, patient’s breathing on his own, severe chest pain. Let’s take him aboard, Commander. Have medical and transport standing by.”

The crew chief deployed the basket. Sarah maneuvered around the rigging and in just a few minutes the patient was aboard and they were headed in. Her mind was on nothing but flying until she was landing. It was then that she saw Derek again, through the open hangar doors, loitering around the debrief area. She wondered why he took so much pleasure in screwing with her head? Was it because she outranked him? Because she had caught him in his lies and thrown him out? Why didn’t he take the high road, realize he’d tortured her enough and make himself invisible? Or at least a little less obvious?

The ambulance crew rushed forward with a stretcher and she shut down the helicopter. “Debrief in five,” she said. “Then if we’re lucky, we’re headed out for the rest of the day.”

There was paperwork to file after a rescue, a crew debrief, but Sarah took a moment to text Landon. Had to fly; rescue mission. Don’t wait for me. Tell everyone to eat.

He texted back: Everyone okay?

So far, she responded.

Sixteen

Lou McCain wasn’t that much of a cook—other than her trademark spaghetti—and she knew it. But Thanksgiving at her house had been a tradition since they’d moved to Thunder Point. They always invited Gina and her gang, too. On every other day of the year, Carrie—her closest friend—cooked and baked for the deli. Gina helped with that, plus served in the diner. Lou thought it was the mark of a good friend to feed them on this particular day.

But this year was special: she was springing Joe on them.

While Eve helped her stuff the turkey, Lou broke the news. “I’ve invited a gentleman your dad knows to dinner. Joe Metcalf. He’s a state trooper.”

“Why? Is he all alone for the holiday?”

“Well, as it happens, he is, but that’s not why I invited him.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been dating him a little.”

“Really?” Eve asked, stunned. “And you never said anything?”

“I wanted to make sure I liked him before bringing him home for dinner.”

“Highway Patrol? How old is this guy?”

“You had to ask.... He might be a little younger than me, but not all that much. It’s not like I’m some cougar...”

Eve giggled and covered her mouth.

“Oh, I’m sure you think this is funny. I’ve been a little nervous about this, so you might lend some support. After all, I’ve been squarely on your team when you want the car, when you’re out on dates. Without me, you’d be wearing a chastity belt.”

“True,” Eve said. “Okay, tell me more about this guy.”

“Well, he’s African-American. Mostly.”

“Mostly? Does that mean he’s black?”

“Latte,” she said. “He’s also Native American, lots of different European and Caribbean.” And then she smiled. “He’s very beautiful.”

When Joe arrived at one in the afternoon, Mac met him with a hearty handshake and invited him to grab a beer and come into the living room by the fire. But Joe said, “Give me a little while.” He took off his jacket, draped it on a kitchen chair and said, “Let me help Lou in the kitchen first. She’s not that much of a cook. Today I can guarantee pretty canapés, no lumps in the potatoes, very smooth gravy and sweet potato pie like you’ve never had. I’d do pies, but my understanding is your friend Carrie is bringing them.”

“You cook?” Mac asked. “And bake?”

“My mother made sure I knew all her recipes so I wouldn’t starve. I can make fried chicken so good you’ll cry.”

“Damn,” Mac said. “Lou, you have a nerve keeping Joe all to yourself for so long! The last time I had fried chicken, it came from the Colonel.”

“I was a colonel,” Joe reminded him.

It all worked. Ryan and Dee Dee hardly noticed that Joe was new to the gathering; Carrie was delighted to finally meet him; Gina was shocked and pleased. Even Cooper, whom Mac had invited, seemed comfortable around Joe, even though they’d just met.

There was only one pall on the celebration—Sarah didn’t make it. There were two more rescue flights, far more than was typical in a single day. She stayed for the debriefs, made sure everything was stable before she even attempted to leave. It was seven-thirty when she texted Landon that she was exhausted and just needed to go home. Holidays could be like that for first responders—accidents, crimes, severe illness, sometimes brought on by overindulgence. Lou was sorry Sarah couldn’t celebrate with Landon and Cooper, because she felt a surge of satisfaction when she saw her family all together around the table—and Joe there, too.

Cooper found Thanksgiving at the McCains to be as close to a family gathering as he’d been to in years. He hung out with the men in Mac’s living room while the women stayed mostly in the kitchen. The kids were downstairs in the basement-turned-rumpus-room until Ryan and Dee Dee came up because, “They’re kissing!”

Then it was on Joe and Cooper to keep Mac upstairs. “Take it easy, Mac,” Joe said. “Kissing is good. If they still have their clothes on.”

He wished Sarah had been there, even if she was in the kitchen with the women, but he understood about work. He liked that everyone trusted Sarah enough that no one was worried about her. Landon was used to this and had a lot of respect for his sister’s ability. Cooper had been a pilot himself and since the weather was good, he wasn’t concerned. It was a house full of first responders—people were used to call-outs.

After dinner, Ashley and her boyfriend, Downy, showed up for dessert; they had been with his family for part of the day. Then there was a round of charades. If someone had told Cooper a year ago he’d play charades with three generations of people and laugh his ass off, he’d have called them crazy. After charades, they broke out the Wii and had a bowling and rock star competition.

Cooper hung around the McCains until the text came to Landon, then he pulled the kid aside and, in a quiet voice, said, “I’m going to take off. I think I’ll beg a covered dish from Aunt Lou for your sister and wait for her at your house.”

“You don’t, like, have a key, do you?” Landon asked.

“No. She’s on her way, right? I’ll sit out front.”

Landon looked a little troubled. “Okay.”

Lou was more than happy to fix up some leftovers for Sarah, something she could put in the microwave, plus some pie. She even forced a bottle of wine on him, in case there wasn’t any at Sarah’s house. And then Landon walked Cooper to his truck.

“Listen, maybe we should talk about this,” Landon said.

“This?”

“I want Sarah to go out, to have fun. In fact, I need her to. When all she’s got is me, it just...I don’t know...just gets very heavy. But her ex—he hurt her. It was a terrible thing to watch.”

“What did he do to her, Landon?” Cooper asked. “Anything I should know about that, anything above and beyond the usual rigors of divorce?”

“I could tell you, but I don’t know how she’d take it. Ask her yourself, Coop. Let her tell you. And then, go out, have fun, whatever. But if you hurt her, if you do anything that makes her cry every day for six months, I swear to God...”

“Landon, I don’t want Sarah to be hurt. I like her. It might be easier to avoid that if I knew what I’m not supposed to do.”

“Well, for starters, don’t cheat on her. That’s all I’m saying.”

Cooper shrugged. “That’s easy. I’m kind of simple—one woman is about all I can handle. More than one at a time? Bigger than I am, that’s for sure.”

“Okay,” Landon said. “Good to know. Because Sarah hasn’t had many boyfriends. Derek, he was a surprise. I’m sure she went out with guys because I had babysitters sometimes, but Derek was the first one she got serious about and I was thirteen. So what I’m saying here is, Sarah doesn’t have a lot of experience with guys. If you screw her up...”

He felt a smile come to his lips. Sarah wasn’t inexperienced. Or maybe she was a natural. But one thing was clear—she hadn’t paraded an army of beaux past her little brother, yet another thing for which he admired her.

Cooper put a hand on his shoulder. “I promise,” he said. “But, Landon, I’m leaving after Christmas. January, maybe February at the latest. I told Sarah, and you knew from the start, I’m going to have to find work. This place? I like it—it’s a good place. But I’m just passing through.”

“I know. I get that. That’s not the same thing as using someone. Hurting someone. I said all I have to say.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket.

“Wait a minute,” Cooper said. “Maybe you should tell me what the ex did to you.”

“If you’d asked me that a few months ago, I would have had a load of crap to lay on you. First, he practically killed my sister, she was so sad. And I haven’t heard a word from him since he left us over a year ago. We had to move because Sarah couldn’t make the mortgage by herself. And she moved me to Nowhereville. But now? I don’t want to hear from him and I like Nowhereville. And there’s Eve...”

Cooper chuckled. “I might be just a cockeyed optimist, but things seem to work out the way they’re supposed to.”

Landon gave him a key off his key ring. “Let yourself in. Warm up her dinner. She comes off a bunch of rescues just shot to hell.”

“When are you going to be home?” Cooper asked. “So I can pass that on to your sister.”

“When Deputy Yummy Pants throws me out,” he said.

A loud bark of laughter escaped Cooper.

“That’s what the women call him behind his back. Believe me, from where I’m sitting, he’s not all that sexy. I’ll leave when he says I’m leaving. Let Ham out, will you? And leave my key on the kitchen table, okay?”

“Sure, kid. Behave yourself.” And he left for Sarah’s house.

She wasn’t home yet. This was only the second time Cooper had been to Sarah’s house and his first time inside. It was very small, he knew from their conversations—two whole bedrooms. But she had a fenced backyard, absolutely necessary for Ham. And there was a small fireplace in the living room. Probably the best part about the house was the front porch. It was covered and stretched the length of the front of the house. If she owned the property or if she were staying here permanently, she could enclose it or screen it. From that front porch, there was a view of the bay and, in the distance, a small light across the beach. The light he’d left on over the door of his fifth wheel. She could also see the town, the main street, the marina.