The Wanderer (10 page)

“There is. But the waterfront is owned by Cliff. He knows a big resort would put Cliffhanger’s out of business. And his whole family has been in fishing for years. He wouldn’t do as well if the marina was full of pleasure boats and all Ben’s land was full of resort, the land surrounding the beach all condos and villas.”

“Wow,” Cooper said. “There’s a lot more to this town than I thought.”

“And you think the kids could go build a bonfire on that beach after a ball game when Hyatt or Marriott owns it? There will be a security gate to get in!” Then she grinned. “Since you’re still here, you going to the game?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” he said.

“Well, this one’s in Coquille—an away game.”

“You going?” he asked.

“Yeah, we have to go—our girls are cheering. And it’s kind of what we do.”

We.
He didn’t miss that. “You and Mac?”

“And Lou. The younger kids. Sometimes my mother.”

He just smiled. “Sounds romantic,” he said.

“Cooper, it’s not romantic. We do stuff with the kids. We have since Eve and Ashley became friends. It works out.”

“What if your kids weren’t friends?” he found himself asking.

She leaned on the counter. “Well, gee. Then I might ask him to the Sadie Hawkins dance, I guess. But that hasn’t come up.” She refilled his cup. “Homecoming is in less than two weeks. There’s a dance. I’ll sign you up to chaperone.”

“Very funny.”

“Oh, you thought I was being funny? It’s the Saturday night after the Friday-night game. Dress nice.”

“Get real, Gina.”

“I’m as real as it gets. Need directions to tomorrow night’s game?”

“Yes. Thanks.”

* * *

Landon decided he was going to have to have a man-to-man talk with Cooper. He’d been avoiding him, which wasn’t too hard to do—his sister had been around a lot and when she wasn’t, he’d had football practice and then a shit pot full of homework. But at Friday night’s game in Coquille, Cooper had been there, spending most of his time hanging around the sidelines. One time, when Landon looked up, he’d been talking to Eve’s dad, the local law. He’d been pointing at Landon and a couple of the other players; the deputy had been grim faced and nodding.

And that dog wouldn’t hunt.

“Landon?”

He pulled one more book out of his locker and turned to find himself eye to eye with the most beautiful girl at Thunder High, Eve McCain. She was smiling at him and he returned the smile so fast, so lame, he felt like an instant loser. He felt like some idiot who’d just won the lottery. He crumpled in the face of the sexiest girl on the planet.

He recovered his cool. “Hey,” he said.

“Good game, Friday night.”

“Thanks. Not a real tough game.” And thankfully they’d let Jag Morrison, the future homecoming king, play a lot. Therefore Jag left him alone.

“Still. So, I was going to wait till after Chemistry, but I was wondering who you’re taking to the dance?”

He gave a shrug. “I probably won’t go,” he said.

She stiffened in shock. “But you have to go! Everyone on the team has to go!”

He felt a laugh come to his lips. Jag Morrison was destined to be a real king, the homecoming king, a position only open to seniors. He’d get that crown even if he had to buy it. Therefore that dance didn’t feel like the ideal place to be, even if he wanted to go. “I’ll probably show up for a little while....”

“Well...would you like to show up for a little while with me?” she asked. And the usually bold and vivacious Eve blushed shyly. “I mean, I can’t believe you don’t have a date.”

“No. Wait.
You
don’t have a date? You?” He was thunderstruck, to borrow a phrase from one of their most famous cheers.

She laughed lightly and shook her head, clutching books tight against her chest. “It’s pretty hard to ask, too, so try not to hurt my feelings too bad.”

“I can’t believe you’d even... Jeez,” he said, scratching his head. “Me?”

“Why not?” she shot back. “I thought we were friends.”

“Absolutely. Of course. Yes, we’re friends, of course we are.”

“So?”

He thought for a moment before he said. “You’re sure?”

“Oh, I’m sure. Can you drive or should I?”

“I can drive, sure. Maybe I can borrow my sister’s ride. I just have that little truck. It’s okay, but...”

“Landon, the truck is fine for me. Whatever you want.”

“Wow,” he said. “Just wow. I really can’t believe no one asked you.”

“Oh, I was asked, just not by the right person....” She started to back away. “Bell’s gonna ring...”

He snagged a piece of her sleeve. “Yeah? Who asked?”

She grinned. “Wanna know your competition, huh? Well, he’s not—I can’t stand him. I’d never go out with him.”

“Yeah?” Landon asked, grinning hugely. “Who’s that?”

“Morrison. Jag Morrison. He’s just a stupid ass. I gotta go. See you later, like after practice or something.” And she whirled around and was gone.

Landon turned back to his locker, closed it and let his head fall against the cold steel.
Oh, man,
he thought.
I can’t believe this is happening. My life is definitely over.

* * *

Landon’s sister worked two nights in a row in North Bend so she could be off the weekend of the high school homecoming game. That gave Landon just the right amount of freedom to check in with Cooper. It was a misty, moonless night, but he jogged Ham across the beach, confident there wouldn’t be people out there. He saw the lights on in Ben’s place and heard music, so he ran up the stairs to the deck and pounded on the door.

Cooper answered. He was wearing a dirty old sweatshirt covered with sawdust, a tool belt around his hips, a surgical-type mask over his mouth and nose and a crowbar in his hand. The music came from an old paint-splattered radio. Cooper pulled down the mask. “Well, I thought you were avoiding me,” he said with a grin. He looked down at the Great Dane, who sat patiently beside Landon. “Hello, Hamlet. Kind of calm tonight, aren’t you?”

“I ran him across the beach.” Landon almost forgot his mission. Cooper was surrounded by debris—piles of wood, dismantled bar and shelves, boxes of what looked like Ben’s things. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to clean the place up, renovate. So I can sell it.”

“Sell it? You’re going to just sell it?” Landon asked.

“Well, it needs a lot of work first. But in a few months I’ll sell this and the piece of land it sits on.”

“We have to talk,” Landon said.

Cooper thought about this for a second, then put down the crowbar and removed the tool belt. “Let’s go in the house and get a drink. I don’t suppose he knows how to wipe his feet?” he said, shooting a look at Ham.

Landon pulled a rag out of his back pocket. “I got it,” he said.

The house was, of course, Cooper’s fifth wheel, the toy hauler. Cooper went first, brushing off his shirt and pants. Landon did as he was asked, wiping the sand off Ham’s feet and, for good measure, the drool off his mouth. When he stepped inside, he said, “Nice.” Then, hanging on to the dog’s collar, he picked a chair by the door and kept the dog sitting politely at his side.

Cooper went to the kitchen and washed up. He opened the refrigerator and helped himself to a beer. “I have bottled water, tea, cola and Gatorade.”

Landon shook his head. “I’m not going to be here long.”

Cooper gave an impatient sigh and reached for a cola. He handed the can to Landon. “Your sidekick there need a drink?”

Knowing they were talking about him, Ham sat up a little straighter.

“He wouldn’t turn it down, thanks.”

Cooper filled a saucepan with water, grabbed a towel to put under it and delivered the water.

“Remind me never to have dinner here,” Landon said.

“I’m planning to wash it.”

“This place is nicer than I thought,” Landon said. “You wouldn’t expect this.”

“The toys are under the tarp behind the trailer. I have to keep it nice—I live in it. I lived in it for two years in Corpus Christi. I couldn’t see renting or buying anything when I had this. It’s plenty for one person.”

“You don’t settle down, do you?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Well, we have that in common,” Landon said.

“How’s that?” Cooper said, sitting on the couch across from Landon.

Instead of an answer, Landon said, “Listen, I saw you at the game. In Coquille.”

“I was pretty obvious,” Cooper said. “I intended to be obvious. You didn’t have any trouble, did you?”

“No, but listen, you can’t be telling the deputy what’s going on. You can’t. You’ll just make it worse, I’m telling you.”

“I didn’t tell Mac you were getting shoved around.”

“It looked like it.”

“I know what it looked like. We were talking football, talking plays. I pointed to a few players I knew, made sure they saw me pointing them out to the deputy, but we were talking football.” He took a drink from his bottle of beer. “They can’t beat you up if I tell on them, Landon. I was there, remember? I can talk about what I heard and saw and that doesn’t make you a snitch.”

Landon scooted forward on his chair. “You think they’re going to see it that way?”

“They may be stupid, Landon, but I do believe they know that if they beat you up, they’re going to answer to me. And one of my only friends here is Mac, who seems to know what he’s doing. You should tell him, but if you won’t, I’ll just look like the bad guy for a while. How’s that?”

“You shouldn’t get into this, Cooper. You don’t have to do this.”

Cooper gave a shrug. “Listen, I was the new guy a lot when I was your age. I wasn’t the star football player, but I always had trouble fitting in. And there was always some asshole who thought pushing me around and making my life miserable would be fun. By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you...what makes Morrison so special?”

“Money, I think. His family is about the richest family around and he has two older brothers who have big football fame at Thunder High—big athletic scholarships. Not pro ball kind of stuff, but they’re a lot older and finished with college and everyone around here thinks the Morrisons are awesome. I only know Jag and he is not awesome. He’s not even that much of a football player.”

“Huh,” Cooper said. “They live in that big house out on the point, right? Where do they get the money?”

“Hell if I know,” Landon said. “The brothers have trophies in the trophy case and people talk about them like they’re legend. That’s all I know. The coach and Mr. Morrison are old friends.”

“How convenient...”

“And my situation is just going to get more interesting because Jag asked Eve McCain to the homecoming dance and she said no.” Cooper’s eyebrows shot up. “So then she asked me. And I should’ve said no, but I couldn’t. I said yes.”

“You
couldn’t...
?”

“Man, I should’ve said no, just to keep her as far from this Morrison thing as possible, but I didn’t know till after that he’d asked her first. And my God, she’s so hot. And nice, so nice. And funny, too. Plus, she said it was hard to ask me and also said to please not hurt her feelings too much.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t tell her no, man. It would’ve killed us both.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah, Morrison might just have more to be pissed about...”

“Okay, now we
do
have an issue, because I gave Mac my word that if I saw anything going on that put his daughter in a bad place, I would definitely tell him....”

Landon sat tall. “And have you? Seen that?”

“Come on, Landon, let’s be straight here—you’re worried about it. You as much as said so....”

He shook his head. “I don’t think Morrison would ever do anything to Eve. But he’d get even with me if he could.”

Cooper relaxed, propping an ankle over his knee. He took a long, leisurely drink of his beer. Then he said, “Good thing I go to games. And even though I was mad at her for it, it’s a good thing Gina conned me in to helping her and Mac chaperone the dance.”

Landon hit his head with the heel of his hand. “Aw, man!”

“My feeling exactly,” Cooper said. “So, if you have any trouble, speak up.”

“You can’t say anything, Cooper,” he said pleadingly.

“I probably won’t have to, but you should. You should at least tell the coach and, if necessary, tell Mac. You’re going out with Eve. It’s your job to keep her safe.”

“Right. Tell Mr. Morrison’s good friend, the coach....”

“Look, you know what I think. Just think about what’s the right thing to do, for Eve if not for yourself, okay? Now, let’s change the subject. I haven’t seen you in over a week, except at the game. Where’ve you been?”

“My sister has been around a lot. She’s working tonight so me and Ham, we’re on our own.”

“I know you moved here because she got a divorce, but you said you’re like me—you don’t settle down. Why’s that?”