He does it with an eye twinkle and a grin that says he loves his job.
Is there anything more irresistible than someone who loves his job? And his family? And his life?
“What would you do if Hashtag never loves you?” I ask him and regret it the minute the words are out of my mouth.We’ll be together forever, Cooper, so how will we deal if my pet still hates you in ten years?
Like he’s not going to play baseball for the next ten years and I’m not going to be booked up for the rest of my life. Like we might actually have time for each other, which we both know we don’t.
But he takes it in stride. “Challenge accepted.”
God, he’s fun. Two words, and they’re overflowing withlife.
Do I live?
Do I?
Or am I wasting it all while trying to findthat thingthat will make me next-level happy when I already have the means to buy myself anything that can be bought?
“How do you do that?” I ask.
“Do what?”
“Behappyall the time.”
“I’m not happyallthe time, as I believe you’ve witnessed.”
“But you always come back.Always. How do you do that?”
“No idea. I was born like this.”
I stroke Hashtag and try to smile, but it doesn’t quite come. “I’m serious. Too many people in our positions aren’thappy. But you…”
“Are you happy?”
“Cooper, I’m on top of the world.”
“So that’s ano.”
“You’re ignoring my question.”
“I grew up with the best parents ever—retrospect speaking, for the record—in a family that was well-respected in our community because we earned it generation after generation. Maybe not that first generation, or even the second. But we earn it now.”
“Why not the first or second?”
“I hear Thorny Rock was a real bastard, but he was an actual pirate who had to choose between his love of the sea and living with his treasure in relative anonymity away from the bounty hunters, so that probably went with the territory. Also, if I grew up the kid of a total bastard, I probably would’ve been a pill. But we’ve steered the ship back in Shipwreck for a lot of generations now, even if we’ve never found the legendary pirate gold, and really, community’s more important than gold.”
I truly do smile now. I’d forgotten the legend of Shipwreck and its pirate founder and his supposed booty that he hid somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains after giving up his life on the sea.
Cooper’s still going. I like that about him. He’s not afraid to talk, and that helps you know where you stand with him. “I learned early on that my parents and grandparentskeptearning it every day, and then I learned how much they sacrificed to give me what I had, and then I learned what it feels like tonotget what you want, and how much work it takes to put in the time to make your dreams come true, and how important it is to believe.”
Believe.
That’s Cooper. Hebelieves.
“I might not be living full-time in Shipwreck now,” he says, “and I might not ever again, but I always find time to go home. To stay in touch with my roots and the people who’ve been there for me in the hard times, and to be there for them when they’re having hard times. If you’ve got family and community, what’s there to not be happy about?”
“Not knowing where your dreams will take you next?” I say softly.
“Yeah.” His voice goes husky. “There’s that. But a very wise woman reminded me that’s not my hill to climb yet. Maybe in a couple months, but today? Today, I’m happy. Plus, I eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep. Pretty sure the sleep’s the key.”
