“And did you?” she asked.

Coop rubbed his jaw. “Can’t remember the last time I got drunk, but I’ve never had great luck with women… .”

“Ever married?” she asked. “Children?”

“Almost married—twice. It didn’t work out. No kids. And I’m thirty-seven, kind of set in my ways. My life has changed a lot since I was twenty-two. I’ve been told I march to a weird beat. I guess I’m kind of a loner.”

“No family?”

“Oh, I have family,” he said. “Parents still living and three married sisters, a couple of nieces, couple of nephews. My family is all in Albuquerque, where I grew up. And I’ve been working the past ten years in either Costa Rica or the Gulf of Mexico for Texas-based oil companies.”

“That sounds like more than one company,” Shelby said.

Coop gave a lame shrug. “I never had a big role in the companies, the drilling, the pricing—my job was helicopter transport to the offshore platforms. But there are things you can’t help but see. When they get greedy and take chances on the people, on the wildlife and ecosystem… Let’s just say I get my back up. I’m a pilot—it’s safety first. Risk management. No amount of money is worth a life…”

“Absolutely not!” Shelby agreed.

“Not even the life of a duck,” he said.

Luke laughed. “Coop’s gotten a little liberal there.”

“Can’t help what I see,” he said unapologetically. “I can’t make the rules. I haven’t been a whistle blower, at least not yet, but I’m not going to work for a company that rapes the land and the consumer and puts the employees at risk while they’re doing it.”

“You?” Shelby asked. “Were you at risk?”

“Oh, hell no,” he said. “If they asked me to fly out to a rig in bad conditions, I wouldn’t go. They could always find someone who would go—that galls me. But I’m not a cop. Cost me a couple of jobs, but I was more than happy to let them go. I had to think for about ten seconds—let’s see, job? Life? Huh?”

“And now, you’re an ecologist? More or less?” she asked.

He laughed heartily at that. “I appreciate nature,” he said. “I respect it. As long as we don’t hurt anyone or anything by drilling, by supplying fuel, I’m good with that.”

“But you hunt,” she said.

“And wear leather. And fill up my tank. But I don’t shave safety regulations or take advantage of hungry people who need the work to feed their kids… Aww, get me off this soapbox, Luke!”

Luke laughed. “How do you like your slab out back? You have your traveling apartment all hooked up?”

Coop grinned and looked up at the sky. “I think I’m going to like this.”

* * *

Nora knew that Tom Cavanaugh would come for her on Monday morning, so she waited out in front of her little house, leaning against her five-year-old gray Nissan. She couldn’t wait to see the expression on his face. He pulled up at the usual time and just sat in his truck for a minute, staring. It made her let go a big laugh.

He finally got out of his truck and looked at her quizzically. “Do you have company?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Jed gave me a car,” she told him. She opened the back door. “With car seats!”

He pulled off his cap and scratched his head. “Just gave it to you?”

“He’s trying to make up for lost time, I think. It belonged to his lady friend, Susan. And rather than trading it in for a newer car, she sold it to Jed, who wanted it for me. I was pretty shocked. I still can’t believe it. And guess what? It’s very nice.”

“I guess that means you have a driver’s license.”

“Of course I do. I just haven’t driven in a long time.”

“Maybe you should let me drive you to the orchard until you have a couple of test drives,” he suggested. “You can tell me about your visit.”

“I think you’re disappointed I don’t need a ride,” she said with a laugh.

“Nah. But I kind of got used to the updates… .”

“We can talk at lunchtime. If you’re not too busy.”

He looked uncomfortable. She thought he actually squirmed a little, looking briefly away. “I don’t want anyone to think—”

She was shaking her head. “Come on,” she coaxed. “This isn’t junior high, and you have a girlfriend!”

“Not quite yet.”

“Oh, boy—now we have to talk! I want to hear all about the red boots!”

“Did you get anything else from good old Jed besides the car?” Tom asked.

She put her hands on her h*ps and grinned. “Did you just change the subject?”

“I wondered, that’s all…”

“Walmart gift card for winter clothes, some toys for the girls and, get this, he brought dinner—roasted chicken, potatoes, vegetables. He bought it on the way.”

“I guess you don’t need much now… .”

“I need to know how your weekend went!” she said, laughing. “Okay, look—I’ll follow you back to the orchard. I’ll make your coffee. We’ll have a cup while we wait for the others to come—the ones you’re so careful to arrive before and leave after. You can ask me questions and then you’ll tell me all about your weekend with that magnificent woman!”

“Magnificent?” he asked with a frown.

“Well, Tom, I saw her! Let’s get a move on or we won’t have time to talk. Because God forbid old Jerome or Junior think we’re friends. Come on!”

* * *

Tom was completely unsure how this little spitfire did it to him, but he was grinning all the way to the orchard, following her as she carefully putted along the almost deserted road at dawn. And after they’d arrived and parked, he suggested they have coffee in the kitchen with Maxie.

“But Tom, I’m not going to get all the more intimate details if your grandmother is there,” she said quietly.

He leaned down, close to her face. “You’re not going to get intimate details anyway.”

“Oh,” she said, laughing, covering her mouth. “All right, then.”

When they walked into the kitchen, they found Maxie leaning on a hand, elbow braced on the table, her paper and coffee in front of her. She was dozing.

“Maxie?” he said.

She jerked awake. “Oh!” Then she smiled. “Morning, Nora.” And she yawned. “Good grief.”

“Oh, you’re tired,” Nora said. “Let’s go get coffee going in the office.”

“You okay, Maxie?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said. “I think I didn’t sleep well the last couple of nights or something. So—are we having coffee?” She sipped hers and made a face. “Mine has gone cold.”

“Let me fix that up for you,” Nora said, taking her cup. She dumped it, dressed a new, hot one with cream and sugar while she fixed her own, then sat down at the table. “Tom has promised to tell me about his weekend.”

“That should be interesting—he hasn’t really told me,” Maxie said.

Tom cleared his throat. “You were here,” he said, pouring his own coffee.

“Yes, and I’m not sure if we had a good time or not.”

“We had a great time. Darla’s a city girl, a businesswoman. She loved the orchard, the redwoods, the coast. She just couldn’t appreciate our country lifestyle, I think. You know what I mean—not the type to get real excited about country-fried steak and gravy. But she wants to come back.”

“She does?” Maxie asked.

“She does,” he confirmed, narrowing his eyes at Maxie, trusting her not to carp about the strange appetite, the many outfit changes, the fact that Darla never got out of her chair to help with dishes.

“How wonderful.” Maxie looked at Nora. “She’s a very beautiful and successful woman. Widowed.”

“So I heard,” Nora said. “Her husband served with Tom, right?”

“What was her husband like?” Maxie asked Tom.

“A good guy,” Tom said.

“Oh, now I could pick him out of a crowd,” his grandmother said.

“He worked for me,” Tom said. “You can’t usually get real cozy with the men you command, but he was a sergeant and his boys would walk into hell for him. In the end, he walked into hell for them—he lost his life saving others. But let me tell you this—he was loyal, smart, brave…and he had a great sense of humor. When he wasn’t driving them hard for their safety and survival, he was making his boys laugh. Sometimes he thought rules were stupid and sometimes I agreed. He didn’t exactly cross the line, but man,” he said, laughing and giving his head a shake. “He ran right up to it—he was an edgy guy. He had common sense and terrific instincts. Unafraid. He didn’t talk about Darla too much, at least not with me. But then, we were kind of busy.”

Nora was in a trance, listening. “Busy,” she repeated. Though he hadn’t said, what she imagined he meant was that they were under fire. She tried to shake that off—he was home safe now. So she asked, “What’s Darla like?”

“Like?” he asked, frowning. “Nice.”

Maxie and Nora exchanged looks. Maxie lifted her brows.

“Okay, she’s very smart and sells drugs for a pharmaceutical company,” Tom said. “She has to travel a lot. She seems to like clothes and I think she must make good money. And she… She watches her weight.”

Nora laughed and shook her head. “Men,” she said in exasperation. “So—what does she like to do for fun? Does she hike or surf or go duck hunting? Or does she play chess, or read or paint? Is she kind to animals? What are her big goals and what are her impossible dreams? Does she have religion, speak more than one language, cook, bake, sew? Is she on Facebook? Does she tweet? Would she like to have children, and would she rather be a working mother or stay-at-home mom? Who is her best friend, and worst enemy? Who is her idol? When she lists her five most important things, what are they? And what are the three things she’s most grateful for? And if she could have dinner with any famous person, dead or alive, who would it be?”

When she finished, both Maxie and Tom were staring at her, openmouthed.

“Nora, I can’t answer those questions about myself,” Tom said.

“I can answer four or five of them,” Maxie said. “The orchard is important—my second priority after family, who is Tom. I bake and work out walking the orchard and I think canning, baking, cooking and cleaning this big house qualify as much as exercise. I was a working mother and grandmother and hope to be a working great-grandmother. I’m on Facebook—”

“You’re on Facebook?” Tom asked, shocked.

“A little thing for me and my friends…to share pictures and news…”

Nora was fascinated. “And the famous person you’d have dinner with?”

She looked at the ceiling for an answer. Finally she said, “Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Nora was fascinated. “And what do you want to know?”

Maxie smiled. “It will have to be a long dinner…”

“Aw, jeez,” Tom said. “I think it’s time to harvest apples.”

“Maxie, I have some news,” Nora said just as she stood to leave. “I have a car! One with car seats so I can drive myself around for errands and to work. It’s going on my list of the three things I’m most grateful for.”

“That’s such good news,” Maxie said. “So—dinner on Friday? With the little girls?”