“That’s it?” Eric straightened, looking pissed. Or like he’d taken a hit to the face. “I bring you out to show you this place, the project, our plans. I offer you part of…” He shook his head. “That’s all you’ve got? Your only response is a joke?”
“It’s impressive, Bro. It’s just a lot.”
“Right. Sure.” Eric looked away. When he turned back, his expression was worried. “Still in pain?”
“No. I’m good,” he said through gritted teeth. “Doing great.”
“Jesus, man, you’re a shitty liar.”
He met his brother’s eyes, shocked to see absolutely no humor there.
“Pretty sure I know the answer to this, but…what’ll it be, Ford?” Eric looked resigned. “Will you consider my offer? Join Polaris? Or are you seriously committing suicide by going back to the ice?”
Coop couldn’t quite meet his eye. “I like it there, Eric. I’m comfortable there.”
“Yeah, I know, Ford.” Eric leaned forward and smacked Coop’s good shoulder. The hit wasn’t entirely friendly. “But it’s too damned dangerous to be you. If you must, find some isolated glacier where nobody knows you, do your field stuff for a month every year, like a normal person, like every other goddamn researcher. Drill your cores and head home to study ’em.”
He couldn’t do that. Live his life in labs? Didn’t matter how attractive that might sound to someone else—it wasn’t for him.
“Take the offer. Change your name and join the team. Come on, man. Don’t waste your life hiding from thegood stuff.” The way he said those two words made Coop feel like he’d never understand.Ever.
Eric turned away to stare out at the endless blue ocean.
Coop started to say something about how he belonged on the ice and that was where he was needed but stopped. When he looked at Eric again, there was nothing between them but the truth. “I’m lost, Eric.” He motioned toward the enormous metal structure, currently under massive renovation. “This is…awesome. I mean, magnificent. And Zoe’s…great. She doesn’t take your crap and she loves you and…”
He stared out at San Elias Island, rising up from the water just a few miles closer to shore, sucked in the briny sea air, listened to the gulls and the light slap of water far below.
“Why’d you start coming out here again? I mean, why San Elias instead of a million other places you could’ve picked to go fishing?”
Eric opened his mouth and shut it, as if he’d reconsidered some wisecrack. “I missed him.”
Dad. He didn’t have to say it for Coop to know who he meant.
“You ever miss him, Ford?”
Tears hit the back of his throat in a rush, stinging his sinuses, blurring his eyes. Shocked, he could only nod in response.
“He was a shitty dad. But he gave us each other.” After a weird, awkward pause, he moved in close to put his arm around Ford’s shoulders. Aside from the docs in the clinic, nobody’d touched him like this in forever.
Except for Angel.
They stood quietly for a few minutes—long enough for Eric’s arm to go from awkward to comfortable and, finally, comforting. All the while, Coop pictured being back on the ice, the way it was before. He could envision it perfectly: heading out to his drills, going back to the station, taking a load off in the galley. The problem was that he couldn’t picture anyone but Angel in the kitchen, couldn’t see himself sleeping in that same cold single bed every night of his life.
“I miss Angel and it’s only been a week.”
Eric dropped his arm without stepping away. Shoulder to shoulder, they faced the island that had brought them together as kids.
“You know, life was different before Mom died,” Eric said lightly. “I was little, but I remember it. Not details, but the feel of it. Of having her. Of Dad loving someone and being loved back.” Eric leaned forward and Ford couldn’t tell if he felt better or worse with the distance between them. “You never saw them together.”
“No. But I saw how bad off Dad was. I never knew him happy.” Dad had been a lonely, miserable mess of a human being. He’d had no time for anything, anyone. Not even his sons. He was too busy being…alone.
The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. “She scares the shit out of me, Eric. Nother, but…” The salt air tasted like tears.
“I’m there, Ford.” His brother nodded slowly. “Right there with you.”
“What if…what if something…” He shut his eyes. “She’s out there on her own right now.”
“We’ve got an eye on her.”
