Sunrise Point

forehead leaning onto the fence. He stood there until he was almost too cold to walk.
    * * *
    Jack Sheridan was manning the bar on Sunday morning when Hank Cooper walked in. “Hey,” Jack said, but he didn’t say it with an abundance of friendliness.
    “Hey.”
    “Coffee?” Jack asked.
    “Thanks. I came to say goodbye.”
    “Heading out?”
    “Yeah, kind of sudden. There was a phone call last night—kind of sketchy, but the short version is our friend Ben, from up the Oregon coast—he’s dead.”
    Jack was jolted. He damn near spilled the coffee. “Dead?”
    “He was killed. He’s buried already. Some old guy said Luke’s phone number was written on the wall of that old store of his—and there were some personal effects for me. Well, for someone named Henry Cooper.”
    “Henry?” Jack asked.
    “Henry. Hank. I answer to a lot of things. So, I’m headed up there…to pick up whatever it is. And to find out what happened to him.”
    “Aw, man, I’m sorry. Luke going?”
    “He offered, but no point in both of us going. I can call him if I need him.”
    “And me,” Jack said. “If you get up there and find out you could use a posse…”
    “Decent of you,” Coop said, sipping his coffee. “Thing is, I don’t know when I’ll get back this way, so I wanted to say…” He hesitated. “Look, I get that you did what you had to do back then. And I get that it looked bad on me and that wasn’t your fault. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
    “Consider it cleared up, but why you worrying about your conscience now? We could’ve settled this when you got back… .”
    He gave a shrug. “I have no idea what’s going on, that’s all. It could be complicated.”
    “I hope you know how to be careful,” Jack said.
    Coop grinned. “That’s one good thing that came out of our last encounter. Careful is my middle name.”
    “I hope you get back this way.”
    Coop took another drink of his coffee, put down the cup and reached for his wallet.
    “Nah, I’m not taking your money. It’s just a cup of coffee between friends.”
    Coop put out his hand. “I think maybe that could’ve worked out, if we’d had more time, if we both weren’t so damn stubborn. Well, if you weren’t.”
    Jack took the hand and grinned. “I’ll be checking in with Luke to find out how you’re doing. And if you get back here, we’ll scare up some poker.”
    “I’d like to beat the hell out of you at something,” Coop said.
    “Happy trails, man.” Coop turned to go and Jack said, “Hey, Coop—that was nice, that you stopped by. Thanks for that.”
    “Yeah, anytime. Watch out for my friends, Jack.”
    “You don’t even have to ask. Call if you need help.”
    * * *
    It was early afternoon when Maxie walked into her kitchen. She found Tom sitting at the table, eating cold casserole right out of the dish. She smiled at him and asked, “Hungry?”
    He pushed it away and said, “Sit down, Max—we have to talk about a couple of things. Sensitive things.”
    She sat warily. “Yes, I had a very nice trip, thank you for asking.”
    “This might be a little hard for you at first, but you’re going to have figure out how to get along with the idea—I’m going to marry Nora.”
    Her eyes widened in shock. Her mouth hung open.
    “Right away. Well, as right away as she’ll go along with. Now, I know that’s not what you expected me to do, marry some woman with a couple of kids—a couple of kids by some loser who’s in prison—but this is how it’s going to be. I think, despite the fact her life has been pretty rocky up to now, she’s a solid person. She’s a very moral, decent person. She might’ve had a few little errors in judgment along the way, but a lot of that has more to do with the hard knocks of her childhood, something I only know a little bit about… .”
    “Tom, I like Nora,” she said.
    “I know, I know. That’s obvious. But liking her as an orchard worker and friend and as my wife—those are different roles. And I know that your life has been very different from hers, Maxie. You’ve been more mother to me than grandmother and I know the woman who raised me has a really rigid moral code… .”
    She straightened her spine in shock. “Rigid moral code…?”
    “You were so damn strict, the apples ran for their lives! I always planned to marry a woman a lot more like you, but this one just tripped me up!”
    “Tom, Nora is—”
    “I’m just telling you before I go one step