“I said, do you like the bouquet Coop picked out?” Rick asked.
His mother narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that was not what he said. “Yes, I love it. You know that purple is my favorite color.” She looked at the bouquet on the side table. “We should call Hal and have him bring a vase for them.” His mother closed her eyes for a minute, then opened them to look Rick in the eye. “Should your father and I have told you what was going on? Probably but should’ves and could’ves are neither here nor there. We didn’t want to face the fact that the treatments weren’t working. We hoped the treatments were killing it all and that my body was spending all it had to recuperate.” Rick watched tears form in his mother’s eyes and searched for something to stop them.
“Mrs. Stanton, you should’ve seen the bikes at the race I was coaching at this weekend. They were—"
“Rick? You ready?” Coop asked from the doorway. He was dressed in a black suit with a purple tie. Rick chewed on the inside of his cheek for a minute, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn’t put this off any longer. He walked over to Coop and dropped his head to his shoulder, wrapping his arms around his man, but didn’t pull him too close. Even with his grief swamping him, he needed his uniform to look pristine for his mother. But the quiet strength that he would get from Coop was as necessary as breathing right then.
“Yeah, it’s time,” he said quietly. Time to go say his final goodbyes to his mother. Fuck.
Rick climbed out of the limo and moved to the side for the rest of the family to exit. He felt more than saw people coming up to his side. When he turned, his jaw dropped to the ground. Drew was walking up with Brody at his side, followed by some of his family. Drew’s parents, his uncle Danny, Cal, and Maddy, with Julia bringing up the rear. Looked like all those who lived in North Carolina were here. Drew got to him first and pulled him into a hug. Rick tried to hold in the tears, feeling Drew’s arms around him with Coop’s hand on his back.
“Tris and Cam send their condolences. Cam’s out on a west coast swing with the team. Tris is sitting on a board that he couldn’t get out of. Uncle Mackey and Scott said to tell you they’ll see you when you get back to Campbell,” Drew said as he pulled back and looked over Rick’s shoulder. “What the fuck?”Drew exclaimed under his breath, but not softly enough; his mother smacked his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Andrew Brian Nolan, we might not be in the church yet but you will show respect. You are not a heathen,” Mrs. Nolan said as she shoved her son out of her way to wrap Rick in her arms. “I’m sorry.”
“But Mom? When did that happen?” Drew demanded. Rick turned and saw what had Drew in a tizzy. Julia and Christopher were embracing. Yup, Rick had been correct when he’d thought he’d noticed something when Julia and Christopher had met. There was no mistaking that they were more than just friends.
Rick introduced Drew’s family to his father. He could see how their showing up was affecting his father. A sheen of tears had been hovering in his eyes since Rick and Coop had arrived. Rick watched as they overflowed and trailed down his face. Drew’s father, Kevin, stepped up to him and said something that Rick couldn’t hear before handing his father a handkerchief.
“Liam sends his love and sympathy. One of the triplets is sick, and Amy had a field trip today, so he stayed with the kids,” Uncle Danny said as he shook Rick’s hand. “Comes in handy having a doctor in the family. Looks like you’ll be finding that out if things work out between your brother and Julia. I will warn you about something that Cam found out years ago: Kevin might seem laid-back, but when it comes to his kids, yeah, not so much. Might want to suggest to your brother that asking Julia’s father for his baby girl’s hand in marriage would be appropriate.”
Rick’s mouth opened and closed like he was a guppy fish blowing bubbles. Yeah, the thought of his brother and Julia together had crossed his mind, but he wasn’t sure it had fully sunk in. Hmmm, maybe Drew and he were going to be brothers-in-law.
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Coop
Back at the house after the funeral, Coop grabbed Rick’s hand and pulled him upstairs to his old bedroom, where they’d gotten ready. It was so one hundred percent Rick’s room with all the posters on the wall of military crap. Planes and paratroopers. He might not have known it when he first met the man, but they shared a very similar personality trait. Coop went with motorcycles. He could race anything on two wheels, the faster the better, while Rick went up. Way up. Jumping out of perfectly good aircraft. Because there were more than a few helicopters on these walls.
But at the moment, none of that mattered. What mattered was the gooey mess that was churning inside of Rick. Coop pulled him into his arms the second he closed the door behind them. “I’ve got you, babe.”
“I know…” he spoke into Coop’s neck, making Coop hold him a little tighter. Coop felt Rick’s body shake. His neck felt wet with Rick’s hot tears.
“That’s it. Let it out. It’s only you and me, Rick.” He kissed the side of Rick’s head. “And I’ve got you. I mean it.” He knew what it was like to lose family. He wasn’t as close to his parents as Rick was to his mother, but his grandfather was a different story, and the pain of that loss was still there after all these years, and Coop wanted nothing more than to help ease Rick through his grief.
After a while, Rick hummed and sighed, pulling out of Coop’s arms but holding his hands and squeezing them. “Thank you.” His voice was rough with tears and his eyes beyond bloodshot.
“Nope. No thanks. This is what we do. I love you.” He trailed his thumb down the tracks along Rick’s cheek. “How about you wash your face, and we go down and talk to everyone for a littlewhile? And I promise, if I see you’re struggling too much, I’ll drag you back up here.”
Rick nodded. “Okay.”
As he was going out the door to the bathroom, Coop called out, “And use Visine.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Rick
Rick was one step from dropping. The unit had been in the field for the past two weeks, preparing for their pre-deployment training exercise in Louisiana. He wasn’t looking forward to that mock deployment but at least they weren’t going in the summer. There was no way, no how, that Fort Johnson was making his top three places to be stationed any time soon. Now, if he was going to be one of the Observer/Controllers? Helping to plan out the trainings? Now, that he could get behind.
He threw his rucksack into the back of his car and slammed the trunk. He would worry about cleaning his gear tomorrow. Tonight was for going home, showering, eating something, and loving on his man. Coop was heading out in a few days to coach Nate and some new racers. He’d gained a reputation for getting into the heads of those he was coaching and making them see how the track was going to change and how to take advantage of the inside corners and the whoops. Look at him having learned the lingo.
Collapsing into the driver’s seat, Rick turned on the car and started the air conditioning. As he drove home, he couldn’t turn off his brain. They had some things to ramp up their training on but this trip to Louisiana would highlight all their shortcomings. He wanted his platoon to be the best that he could make them. Maybe he should talk to Emerson about—
Rick’s phone rang, derailing his thought process. “Rick Stanton,” he said, pushing the button on the steering wheel as he made the left into their complex.
“Hey, Ricky, you sound like shit,” Christopher pointed out. “What? Isn’t Coop taking care of all your needs these days?” He’d kept his promise to himself to strengthen their bond, andthey’d done that in the six months since Mom had died. Rick still talked with Drew more than Christopher but their conversations weren’t stilted anymore. They teased each other. They’d even gone in on Dad’s Christmas gift. He still thought that Dad was planning their deaths for spending that much on a 16-day trip to tour World War II Memorial sites through France, Austria, Belgium, and Germany. He was going to be over there for the D-Day festivities this year.
“Coop is taking very good care of me. I’m just getting home after being in the field for two weeks. What’s up?” Rick asked, slowing to pull into his parking spot.
“Think you could get leave for a long weekend before you deploy? I need a best man.”
Rick was so stunned, he slammed on his brakes, stopping his car shortly. “J-Julia?” He needed his brain to kick back online.
