2
" I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier,” Delia said in a whisper loud enough to be heard…well, almost two stories up on a rope ladder anyway, making Kerry wince a little. “We really do like him. We’re happy for you.”
Kerry wanted to hiss who’s we? but refrained. As far as she could tell, Cooper had spent the past three days befriending every man, woman, and lobster in Blueberry Cove. And every single one of them had managed to find a moment to tell her so. She was happy--truly--that everyone liked him but not surprised. He was a likeable guy. And she was equally happy folks were happy for her.
Now she just wished they’d butt out and let her get on with being happy with Cooper. She managed to give Delia a little salute with half of one hand while still clutching the rope, and Delia gave her another enthusiastic wave, eyes sparkling. Kerry waited until Delia had scooted on back toward the café before turning her attention to the trapdoor. And almost had her second heart attack when she looked up, only to find Cooper staring down at her, his chin propped on folded arms, meaning he was lying flat on the balcony deck. He smiled and lifted his fingers in a little wave. “Nice of you to drop up,” he said, a smile curving his lips but the glittering light in his blue eyes telling a different story.
His voice was deep and just a shade rough, which made her skin tingle in delicious anticipation. “I got waylaid by another of your throng of supporters and well-wishers so you only have yourself to blame.”
“So I heard,” he said. “I’ll be sure to thank her later and tip double the usual when we order breakfast in tomorrow morning.”
“Awfully sure of yourself, mister.”
“Finish climbing that ladder and I’ll be happy to explain the source of my confidence.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Or, better yet, I’ll show you.”
“Well, if I’d known there was going to be show and tell, I’d have gotten up here sooner. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
3
" Sorry,” Brodie said with a grin as he covered the last ten yards at the end of the pier, a small mutt racing down the docks behind him. “Didn’t mean to startle.”
“So, an Irishman and an Aussie walk into a bar,” Kerry said, recovering quickly and teasing Grace’s husband as he stopped a few feet away. She bent down and clapped her hands as the scruffy mutt came skidding to a stop in front of her. “Hello, Mr. Whomper, and how are you today?” She gave him a good ear scratch, then laughed when he immediately wriggled over to his back in hopes of a belly rub to go with it. Laughing she obliged, then straightened, leaving the dog to sniff out Cooper’s feet, hoping for more of the same from the newcomer.
“Heck of a watchdog you have there, Monaghan,” Cooper said, squatting down to give the dog a good once-over.
“You realize,” Brodie said, “you’ve just made a shameless love slave out of him for life.”
“Well, he has good hands,” Kerry said, then lifted her own in mock surrender when both men looked at her. Cooper was certain his surprised expression mirrored Brodie’s. “What?”
Brodie chuckled, and his grin had the same cheek Cooper had been told his did. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
4
" So,” he said, clearing the roughness out of his throat. “Where should we set up?”
There was a narrow galley belowdeck and, he knew from Tom’s brief tour earlier, there was also a small cabin tucked up in front, with a snug queen-size bed wedged inside and a small shower between the two. All completely outfitted, ready for its next occupants. He tried like hell not to think about that.
He knew she’d been about to say or do something when she’d closed the lid of the bin, but whatever it was, she let that go. He had no doubt she’d get back to it, if it was important to her.
“Foredeck,” she said, motioning with her free hand to the expanse of white fiberglass and sealed teak that formed the raised, flat, front end of the boat, where the thick masts soared upward, rigged out under full sail. “You okay to maneuver up there? I can take the hamper.”
“No worries,” he said. “I’ve got it.” Given the way things were going and the war he was waging with his body, better to keep his hands full for as long as humanly possible. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
6
" Even annoyed, as she was now, she vibrated the kind of barely restrained energy that made every part of him spark to life. Some parts more enthusiastically than others. He shifted his weight and sidestepped slightly in an effort to keep that reality as unnoticeable as possible. He’d become a master of that particular skill during the last few months she’d been on the station.
He needn’t have worried. She didn’t so much as glance at him. Her irritation was focused solely on her big brother. “Did you really just perp walk Cooper down the harbor?”
Logan’s eyebrows lifted along with his hands, which he held up at his sides, palms out. “Hold up, I didn’t--”
“Save it,” Kerry said. She turned to Cooper. “I apologize. He forgets I’m an adult woman who can handle her own affairs.” She glared at her brother during that last part.
“She’s right, you know.” This came from a little spitfire brunette who, given Kerry’s descriptions of her family, must be the middle McCrae sister, Fiona. Fists planted on her hips, managing to somehow look down her cute little nose at her much taller and much bigger brother, she added, “We’re trying to plan my wedding and grill her about Mr. Hot and Aussie here. I’d think by now you’d know that we’ve got this covered.” She made a brief gesture to the other women standing alongside her. “If we thought he was a danger to society, we would have called.”
Cooper watched the ricocheting dialogue like a spectator at a cricket match, unable to squelch a grin. It was like watching his own sister, all grown up and in triplicate. As Kerry and Fiona closed in on a somehow now hapless-looking lumberjack of a police chief, Cooper stepped forward and stuck out his hand toward the taller, willowy young woman who stood just behind Fiona. Where Kerry was Amazonian and Fiona a little firebrand, their oldest sister was the epitome of cool, calm, and collected. “Hannah Blue, I presume? I’m Cooper Jax. Sorry for the disruption of your sister’s wedding plans. I didn’t know.”
This had Fiona turning his way. “And how could you, given Kerry couldn’t be bothered to so much as send you a postcard?”
“Hey,” Kerry said, looking at her sister now. “Whose side are you on?”
Fiona looked back at her. “The side that keeps this guy here and you looking all pent up and googly-eyed.”
“Googly-eyed?” Kerry shot back.
Cooper, grinning unrepentantly now, turned his attention back to Hannah and continued, as if her sisters weren’t getting all up in each other’s personal space. “I understand congratulations are in order on your recent nuptials as well.”
Hannah gave him a swift, all-encompassing once-over as only a former defense attorney could. Then, in the face of his unrelenting goodwill, she took his hand, her mouth curving up in the barest hint of a smile as she gave it a firm, quick shake. “You’re a charmer, Mr. Jax, I’ll give you that.”
“Go with your strength,” he replied. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
7
" Weddings seem to be something of a spectator sport in these parts.”
Grace laughed. “Come to think of it, we have had our share of bouquets tossed in the past year or so.” Still smiling, she glanced at Fiona, who, along with Kerry, was still wrangling over who should be in charge of running Kerry’s love life. “And we’re not done yet,” Grace said.
Smiling, he looked back at her and winked. “Yes, I’m rather counting on that bit. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
9
" She couldn’t help it; she looked hungrily at his dessert-covered chest and abs. Like a woman starved and stranded at sea. Her gaze rose slowly to meet his. But before she could reply, or attack and devour him, a boat horn sounded, making them both start. An amused voice carried the short distance across the water. “He surrenders, Kerry! Don’t make him walk the plank!”
Kerry pulled back as if she’d been physically poked, swinging her gaze across the water to where another sailboat was passing by, getting ready to leave the harbor for the bay, sails fully unfurled. It was Jim Stein, with his wife, Carol, an older couple who were long-time friends of Fergus’s but well known to the whole McCrae clan. She felt her cheeks flaming in embarrassment and was grateful they were far enough away not to see the particulars of what was going on. Of course they could plainly see Cooper was shirtless, but she still had on the hoodie and fishing hat, so how inappropriately could they be behaving, right?
If only they knew. Five more minutes and her old friends might have gotten a completely different eyeful. Hell, five more seconds.
She waved, flashed a thumbs-up, then waved again as they sailed on, leaving laughter in their wake. With her teeth still gritted in a smile, she said, “This will be all over the Cove five seconds after they get back. Sooner if they have radio signal.” She turned back to Cooper, who was grinning shamelessly, hands linked behind his head now, as if preparing for his plank walk. “Very funny,” she said, trying to ignore how the posture made his biceps flex and showed off the definition in his six-pack. She couldn’t help but note that some of the blueberries had slid all the way down to the waistband of his cargo shorts, leaving streaks of blue on his skin, like arrows pointing to where she should go to resume their little game.
She realized she was staring when her eyes slid a little lower still and--she jerked her gaze back to his, realizing he’d made her blush again. She typically wasn’t much of a blusher either. But she didn’t usually find herself playing food Twister with a half-naked man. Rather than finding a mocking smile waiting for her, the curve of his lips was amused, maybe even a little affectionate. Like she was being cute or something. She’d show him cute. Then she met his eyes and saw there was nothing amused or even borderline condescending to be found there. Incendiary was the word that came to mind. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
10
" He also has Sadie,” Kerry added. “Unless Big Jack is so old-school that he can’t picture a woman running the family empire.”
Cooper shot her a quick smile. “I think we both know that Sadie’s not meant to live her whole life on Cameroo Downs. I can’t even--don’t want to--think about the time when she’ll be wanting to head off, but I’m fair to certain she will.”
“What makes you say that?”
He glanced at Kerry again. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you, Starfish. She’s got a bit of the wanderlust herself. You’re her hero.”
Kerry ducked her chin, but she was smiling. When he looked at her again, she was staring through the front windshield, a mix of wistfulness and guilt on her face.
“I didn’t say that to make you feel bad.”
“I know,” she said. “But I do, all the same.” She shifted in her seat so she was angled more toward him. “Whatever happens between us, I’d like it if--do you think she’d still want to hear from me?”
He nodded immediately. “She’s got a huge heart, as you know, and she misses you greatly. She’d be over the moon.”
“She’s counting on you to bring me home, isn’t she.” She didn’t make it a question.
“They all are,” he said quite honestly. “But they won’t hold it against you if your heart says otherwise. They--we--wouldn’t want you there if it’s not where you want to be.” He looked back to the road. “You’ve two families who support your life choices now, you know, regardless of their own wants or desires.”
He didn’t look at her then, well aware that he’d added to the guilt and fear she already was feeling. He supposed, if he were being brutally honest, she’d earned a bit of the guilt where it concerned not staying in touch with Sadie as she’d promised, but the rest…well, it was all water under the bridge now.
“I appreciate that,” she said in a quiet but steady voice. “More than you know. More than I knew. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
12
" The way I see it,” she went on, “our friendship, and our working relationship, were solid foundations we built over time. Now you’re here wanting more, and the way we started that next step was with a kiss. So I feel like we’ve done just about everything two people can do in getting to know each other except…finish that kiss. It seemed to me that the logical next step, the next piece of information we needed to know, was what comes next when we let that kiss go to its natural conclusion.”
She did smile then, and her emerald green eyes blazed as she let down a guard he didn’t know she’d still had erected, letting him see for the first time the rest of what she was feeling. “Or at least that was my rationale for finally letting myself have what I fantasized about having, all those months I worked next to you.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it again when her words sank in. “I--what did you just say?”
Her smile remained, but there was a new light flickering in the depths of her eyes now, one that somehow managed to look bold, excited, and endearingly nervous all at the same time. “You weren’t alone, Cooper, in wanting…what you wanted. At least the physical attraction part anyway. I should have been more forthright about that when you showed up at the pub, or afterward. But at least try to see this from my perspective. Suddenly, out of the blue, the man I lusted after all those months was standing, quite improbably, right in front of me, in his full, Technicolor gorgeousness, looking even better than the guy I was sure I’d exaggerated and romanticized. Right there, in the flesh. And before I could even begin to get a grip on that, you went all going down on bended knee on me, and--it was all so much, too much, to even begin to process.”
She let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “Maybe if you’d just dragged me into your arms and not given me a chance to think, I might have surrendered right there on the spot, and the rest of the Cove be damned. But instead you’re all sincere, with your big, beautiful heart hanging on your sleeve, all earnest and lovely, and I so didn’t deserve anything like that, not after the way I left things between me and your entire family. I didn’t have the first clue what to do with that. With you.” Her smile turned decidedly rueful. “So, naturally, I resorted to form. I shut you down, told you to go away. If I couldn’t run away, I was going to make damn sure you did. I mean, it was one thing to leave Cameroo, then insult you and your family by not keeping in touch. It was another thing entirely to do it again, right to your face.”
“I hate to interrupt,” he said, trying like hell not to grin, then drag her into his lap to do what he apparently should have done the moment he’d laid eyes on her again. “But I haven’t heard a word you’ve said since that part where you’ve been lusting after me for two years. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
13
" She couldn’t help it; she looked hungrily at his dessert-covered chest and abs. Like a woman starved and stranded at sea. Her gaze rose slowly to meet his. But before she could reply, or attack and devour him, a boat horn sounded, making them both start. An amused voice carried the short distance across the water. “He surrenders, Kerry! Don’t make him walk the plank!”
Kerry pulled back as if she’d been physically poked, swinging her gaze across the water to where another sailboat was passing by, getting ready to leave the harbor for the bay, sails fully unfurled. It was Jim Stein, with his wife, Carol, an older couple who were long-time friends of Fergus’s but well known to the whole McCrae clan. She felt her cheeks flaming in embarrassment and was grateful they were far enough away not to see the particulars of what was going on. Of course they could plainly see Cooper was shirtless, but she still had on the hoodie and fishing hat, so how inappropriately could they be behaving, right?
If only they knew. Five more minutes and her old friends might have gotten a completely different eyeful. Hell, five more seconds. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
14
" You know, what with all the weddings here and about, there’s been a lot of talk about who’d be up to take on the challenge of the youngest McCrae,” Brodie said, then stepped in and gave Cooper’s shoulder a clap. “I’d say you look good for it, mate,” he said with a grin. “I’ll leave you two to it, then. And by it I mean--”
“Good-bye, Brodie,” Kerry said, giving him a little shove, even as they both laughed. “I should have known not to encourage the incorrigible.”
“You did start it,” he said, then gave them a quick salute before jogging back down the pier, Whomper close at his heels. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
15
" The women, sans Kerry, closed ranks once again, and from the cool, considering look of Hannah to the enthusiastic and plotting smiles of Grace, Alex, and Delia and now the unbridled glee of bride-to-be Fiona, he wasn’t exactly sure what he might have just gotten himself into. He glanced back at Logan. “Should I be afraid, mate?”
“Oh, very, very afraid. Mate.” Then a slow smile spread across Logan’s face, transforming him from stern police chief and protective brother to a far more relaxed and, if Cooper wasn’t mistaken, surprisingly relieved-looking comrade in arms. “You know, I just realized I haven’t been looking at this the right way at all.” Logan looked from Kerry to the group of women and then to Cooper. “Strength in numbers.”
Kerry turned to her brother, hands limp at her sides now. “Wow,” she said flatly, turning the word into two drawn-out syllables. “Just…wow.”
“Hey, a minute ago you were jumping all over me for interrogating the guy. Which, you know, think about that. And I’m just saying that maybe, at times, it wouldn’t hurt to have another guy on the team.”
“You’ve got all kinds of guys on ‘your team,’” she retorted, making air quotes on the last two words. “Every other person here has another half who is on your man team. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
18
" Well, all I’m saying is, if you were to, you know, take off again on your next adventure, we’d make sure he had this place covered. You know that, don’t you?” Fiona lifted her hand, palm facing front. “And I’m not saying it has to be Australia, but, you know, you have been parked here for a pretty long time now. I’m surprised you’re not twitchy with the need to get back out there. I know just listening to that accent of Mr. Hot From Down Under would make me a little twitchy. Seriously, Kerry, how did you work next to him for a year and not jump him?”
“Wow, I didn’t know you were in such a big hurry to see me out of here,” Kerry replied, ignoring the part about jumping Cooper. It wasn’t like she hadn’t asked herself the same question a dozen times. Or a hundred dozen.
“I didn’t say that; I’m just making sure you know we’d support your decision to run off with him, if, you know, that’s what you decide to do.”
“Since when is this decision up to me? Seems like you all have it all figured out already.” Then Kerry’s eyes narrowed. “Or do you just want the inside scoop so you can win the pool on when I’ll head out again?”
“Pool?” Fiona said overly brightly. “My, my, whatever do you--”
“Oh, don’t even bother pretending. I know Barbara’s had one running since I came back for Logan’s wedding. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
19
" Where were you planning on heading next, then, if not Australia?” Fiona asked.
“Oh, I’ll just toss a dart at the map like I usually do,” Kerry said, as blithely as she could.
Fiona eyed her closely, as if checking her sincerity. “Well, whenever you do head back out--wherever and with whomever that might be--we’ll make sure Gus hires someone to help him with the pub. So, you know, don’t let that part affect your decision making or anything.”
“‘Wherever or with whomever’?” Kerry repeated with a roll of her eyes.
Fiona beamed sweetly again. “Just saying. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
20
" I know you don’t owe me a damn thing,” she said at length, “but I’m going to ask a favor anyway.”
“Ask,” he replied, simply.
She didn’t glance at him, keeping her eyes on the rocks as they began to crowd out most of the seafloor and the kelp beds, which were strewn over and in between them. “Please tell Sadie that my being a total shite of a friend was not in any way about her.”
“What was it about, then?” he asked, the barest hint of amusement in his tone, when she’d expected--and earned--censure. Or worse.
She sent him a quick, sideways glance, but his gaze was fixed downward, as hers had been, as he navigated the exposed seafloor under their feet.
“I meant to,” she said. “Write her,” she added. “I know she was upset that I left.”
“She’s a tough little sheila,” he said.
Kerry glanced at him again, not missing the barest hint of an edge in his voice this time. More like it, she thought. More like what she deserved. “I know. She has to be, living with the likes of the rest of her family.”
That got a quick look from Cooper, and maybe the first bare hint of a smile from her. He caught that, looked back, and this time their glances caught and held. Her smile faded, but the honest affection came through in her tone when she said, “She shouldn’t have had to be where I was concerned.”
Kerry was surprised at the bark of laughter that comment earned her. She merely lifted her eyebrows in response.
“Says the woman who made it as hard as humanly possible for Sadie to connect in the first place. That girl could make friends with the meanest croc alive with little more than a smile and a laugh. You, on the other hand, made her work for it.”
“Did you just compare me to a mean old croc?” Kerry asked, the thread of amusement back in her tone.
“If the tough hide fits,” he said, but not unkindly.
Kerry nodded, gave him a considering look. “True that,” she said. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
