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It was just past lunchtime when Cooper walked into the settlement near the coast, nodding briefly to the guard and keeping his hat tilted over his face. It had taken him all of three months to track her down…three months to ask around and follow leads. It hadn’t been hard…hell, it had been a lot easier than finding her Daddy. Than finding his Janey. He’d started near Filly, partially because he’d happened to be close at the time, partially because it was somewhere she’d been before, and she might have sought out the familiar, but apart from Ma June who’d seemed disinclined to do much other than point her shotgun at him, he hadn’t had any luck there. So, not sure what else to do, he’d made his way north until he’d gotten lucky.
He’d sat down in the first bar he’d come to in the little settlement, ordering a whiskey from the bartender he’d met about a year back when he’d come this way looking for a bounty. She’d been friendly enough, and he figured she was as good a place to start here as any. “I’m looking for a woman,” he’d told her as she was pouring his drink.
“Aren’t we all,” she’d told him with a sigh, capping the bottle, and he’d found himself chuckling. He blamed Lucy…she’d done something to him…woken up some part of him he thought he’d killed a long time ago.
“A specific woman. About yay high.” He’d held up a hand. “Big brown eyes. Brown hair. Probably traveling with a dog.” He hoped she was still traveling with the dog.
The bartender had met his eyes then, hesitating for a moment. “You hunting down a bounty?”
“No. Not a bounty. She used to be a friend of mine. I wanted to check up on her.”
“And that’s not a roundabout way of saying you’re gonna shoot her?”
He shook his head, phantom pain shooting through him at the thought, and glanced down at his right index finger. It was still nicer looking than the rest of his fingers. “No. I’m not gonna hurt her.”
She’d started talking then. Lucy had been through about a year ago…her and Dogmeat. She had stopped at the bar to ask for directions and for a drink. Then she’d done a couple of jobs around town, earned some caps, and had moved on.
“She looked rough,” the bartender had admitted.
“Was she hurt?” He hadn’t been able to help the way those words had come out, short and clipped and afraid.
“No…just…she seemed real sad.”
He hadn’t thought about that…hadn’t wanted to think about how he must have hurt her. Instead, Cooper had followed the trail with the same single minded determination he did everything, never mind she might not even want to see him. Never mind she might just slam her door in his face and tell him to get lost. And he couldn’t even blame her if she did. So as he walked, he tried to figure out what to say…how to excuse what he’d done. But all of his excuses sounded so stupid, even to him. What the fuck was he supposed to do to fix this? Admit that he’d been scared? Sad?
Jesus, she’d made him so fucking soft.
In the next settlement he came to, about a week and a half from the first, he asked at the bar first, and the man there had pointed him towards the doctor’s place. So he’d gone there, stepping into a waiting room where an older woman had been sitting, clipboard in hand.
“It’s not too often I get ghouls around here. I don’t have any drugs. Any money either.”
“I’m not looking for either,” he’d assured her, keeping his hands where she could see them, far from his gun. “I’m looking for an old friend of mine. A woman. Goes by Lucy. Probably traveling with a dog.”
The doctor had looked him over, pensive. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“It’s coming up on two years.”
She’d looked him up and down once more. “You wouldn’t happen to be the Ghoul, would you? Bounty hunter?”
“I was. Not anymore.” He wasn’t even sure which part he’d been referring to, but he knew it was true, nonetheless. “The name’s Cooper.”
“Mary,” she’d introduced herself.
“Is she okay?” He’d tried to make his voice formal…something like disinterested. Anything to hide the desperation he felt. Desperation was dangerous. Desperation got you killed out here.
“She showed up early one morning with that dog…she’d been in some kind of fight. Dislocated shoulder, broken wrist. I got her squared away.”
She’d been alone. He hadn’t been with her and she’d gotten hurt.
“She stayed about a week in that hotel down the way. Managed to do a couple of jobs and make some caps. That dog was glued to her side the whole time. Then she thanked me and moved on.”
In the next settlement he’d tried, the bartender had sent him to the hotel where a tennager working the front desk had put her hands up, stepping away from the desk and looking like she might just bolt. The sight had made him unexpectedly sad, which was irritating because before Lucy, shit like that had just irritated him. Or amused him. He’d never let sad come up.
“Not here to hurt ya,” he’d tried to reassure her, voice softer than he’d meant it to be. “I’m just looking for a friend of mine. I think she passed through here. Her name’s Lucy. Her arm was probably in a cast. She’s traveling with a dog.”
“Are you going to hurt her?”
He’d known he couldn’t blame people for asking, but he’d sure been sick of the question by then....had hated the way it had made his chest ache. “No. She’s a friend.’
“Then why don’t you know where she is?”
It had been a surprisingly brave question from a girl with her hands still in the air, and he’d found himself admiring her a little. “I did something stupid. Ran off on her when something shitty happened to us. Now I need to make it right.” It had been the first time he’d said anything like it aloud, and just those words had come out harder than prying teeth out of his skull, but she’d dropped her hands, nodding like this made sense.
“She stayed in one of the rooms, but it was a long time ago. She was nice. My dad, he owns the hotel, he had me carry her backpack because she looked really tired, and she was hurt. She gave me five caps and thanked me…and she asked me to bring her some food, so I did. My brother worked the next day, and he told me that she stayed in her room all day, but after that, she ran into a school teacher passing through, and they got to talking in the diner for a long time.”
“Any idea where this school teacher is?”
“He said he was headed for the coast. I think she went with him.”
Him.
Nope. He’d squashed that feeling right back down because of all the emotions coming up when it came to Lucy MacLean, jealousy was the one he was the least entitled to.
So here he was. One of the settlements by the coast…the fourth he’d tried. He had five more on the list and then…well, he didn’t know what he’d do then. But there was something about this place…he had a gut feeling about it, and his gut was rarely wrong. It had kept him alive all these years. Not only that, his gut had told him to ask her to travel with him…to leave the observatory with him and travel through the wastes together. So, following his instincts once more, he kept an eye out, figuring he’d go to the first bar he found and start asking questions.
And then he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks, breath catching like someone had punched him right in the chest.
“Exactly. Good. And if you wanted to find the perimeter of the square, what would you do next?”
Lucy’s voice drifted out through the open window of the little wooden building he’d been passing, and he had to close his eyes for a second, his heart clenching painfully in his chest. Jesus…how long had it been since he’d heard her voice? He walked to the window without thinking, peering in through the gap left between the white curtains. Inside, he could see four rows of desks, most of them filled with kids, and one at the front standing beside the chalkboard.
And off to the side, leaning against a desk and smiling encouragingly, with her hair tied back and wearing a yellow dress, was Lucy.
Just the sight of her hurt…she was here. Lucy was here. He’d found her.
Now what?
For the first time in a long time, Cooper was at a loss. There she was. He’d found her. But he hadn’t been lying to the people he’d questioned. She wasn’t a bounty. He hadn’t come all this way to drag her back to someone who had promised him caps or to kill her. Despite all the conversations he’d had with her in his head, he still wasn’t sure how to have a real one…not after what he’d done.
So he waited. He went to the bar and got a stiff drink. The’d been staying in a room above a bar the first night they’d slept together…well…the first night they’d fucked. It hadn’t been gentle or sweet…just scratching an itch. She’d initiated it, staring at him from across their tiny room above the bar, the sound of laughter and a bottle breaking not drawing his attention from the way she’d been looking at him. It was a new look, curious and…something. So he’d finally broken down.
“What exactly are you looking at, Vaultie?”
“Do you want to have sex?” she’d asked, just as matter of fact as if she were asking him if he wanted to get something to eat.
And since the two of them had mostly been getting along, and since she hadn’t made any attempts on his life, Cooper had thought, what the hell? Why not? She hadn’t stripped, had just yanked her pants down and climbed on top of him, kissing him hard and fast while his hand had found the wet heat between her legs. The feeling of her on top of him, kissing him and touching him, had nearly made him come right then, and he’d wasted no time in shoving his own pants down so that she could sink down on him.
He’d never forget the look on her face…the sound she made when she took him for the first time. God, he still had dreams about it.
They’d made a habit of fucking whenever they could, undressing just enough that he could thrust into her, lying on the ground or pinning her to the wall or holding her in his lap. She’d used him for her pleasure as much as he’d used her for his. And there had been no questions of what they were. No clinginess on her part. No hurt feelings when he didn’t hold her afterwards, or when he was just as brusque with her as before. No, Lucy had been perfectly fine with casual sex, and he had been too.
That’s what he’d told himself…that he had a job to do. That he was going to find her father and find his daughter and then the two of them would part ways and it would be fine. And when her shivering woke him one night and he pulled her into his arms with a gruff ‘come here Vaultie’ to keep her warm, that was nothing more than practical. When a stab wound got infected and she couldn’t even hold her own head up, the time he’d spent carrying her to the closest settlement and the caps he’d spent on a hotel and a doctor had been because he needed her to find her daddy…as a bargaining chip. As an extra set of eyes. Besides, she’d saved him once. He was paying back a debt.
Then, after she’d been feeling better and they’d moved on, the first time she’d climbed into his lap and lowered herself onto him, throwing her head back and gasping in pleasure, if he’d felt anything different as he’d kissed her throat and nibbled gently on her soft, sweet skin, that had only been because…it didn’t matter. He hadn’t let himself think about it…had just held her close, guiding her hips until she’d gasped and moaned into his neck, walls clamping down on him.
It was just sex. Had only ever been a way to pass the time and scratch an itch.
That’s what he’d told himself again and again as he’d started reaching for her at night, holding her close in his arms, and rubbing her back when she’d had nightmares. They were traveling companions and sometimes they had good sex.
Cooper went back to the schoolhouse about an hour later, waiting until kids of all ages started streaming through the front door before stepping out of the shadows and walking inside. A few of the kids gave him strange looks as they raced by, but he didn’t have it in him to feel anything about that. Instead, he walked until he reached the open door to her classroom. A sign beside the door had “Ms Lucy, 5th grade” painstakingly painted on it in a soft green, and he wondered if she’d done it herself.
“Tell your dad that I’ll see him tomorrow, okay?” he heard her tell a little boy who had been late packing up.
“Yes ma’am. Bye, Ms. Lucy!”
“Bye Dalton.”
The little boy, Dalton, apparently, stopped short when he saw Cooper standing in the doorway. The kid was maybe ten, with blond hair and big blue eyes that got bigger as he took Cooper in. He moved back, gesturing for the boy to pass, but the kid just glanced back at Lucy who had her back to them, gathering papers that she placed in her bag.
“Ms. Lucy?” he asked, fear in his voice that sent a thrill of discomfort up Cooper’s spine.
Lucy turned, brows raising in question, but then her eyes met Cooper’s.
It had been close to two years since he’d looked Lucy in the eye…since the two of them had spoken. Since he’d done so much as lay eyes on her, but he’d never once went a whole day in that time without thinking about her. And now she stood in front of him, the smile on her face melting away. For just a second, there was pain in her eyes, lips pursing. But then her face shuttered and she sighed.
“It’s okay, Dalton. You can go.”
Cooper stepped into the classroom, moving off to the side so Dalton could run off, but he never took his eyes off of her. “Hello Lucy.” As far as openings went, he thought, it wasn’t his best, but it was all he had.
She turned and grabbed a rag, then started wiping the chalkboard clean. “Hello.”
“How have you been?”
She snorted but didn’t answer. And…yeah, that was fair.
“Lucy…”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, voice flat.
“Just…passing through.” What a fucking lie. What was he even doing, he wondered, acting like he hadn’t just spent three months looking for her. She didn’t believe his stupid act anyway. Hell, he wouldn’t either. For an actor, he was doing a shitty job.
“Well, enjoy the settlement.”
“I was wondering if you might want to show me around.” He tried to smile…tried to sound like he wasn’t dying for her to just turn around and look at him. Desperation was dangerous…hadn’t that been beaten into him? Only now, he kind of wished it hadn’t.
“I’m sure you can find your way just fine.”
“Lucy, can…”
She turned around then, dropping the rag onto the desk. “What do you want?”
“Well, I was hoping we could talk,” he admitted.
“ You left me , Cooper,” she reminded him, voice sharp.
“I know,” he murmured, nodding to himself and dropping his eyes. “I know I did. I…”
“And I get it,” she went on, voice softening just a fraction. “You were hurting. You…it was horrible. I know.”
They’d found her daddy. They’d found the Vault. They’d gotten inside.
Everyone in the pods had been dead…there had been some kind of power failure. And Janey…
They hadn’t been more than skeletons at that point. Skeletons in blue Vault suits, illuminated by the blue lights of the pods where they’d died. And when he’d seen what was left of his little girl, something in him had died too.
Lucy’s hands had gripped his shoulders hard, pulling him back a step before she’d wrapped him in her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Cooper…”
He’d held her. For a long time. He’d held her like a little kid would hold a teddy bear, sobbing into the soft fur when they were crying too hard to do anything but cling to something. And she’d held him right back, running a hand up and down his black, dropping to her knees when he did and just sitting there on the floor with him as he’d sobbed into her shoulder, his heart feeling like it was literally breaking.
All this time. Two lifetimes, he’d been living to find his baby girl. And she was gone. She’d died in one of those pods. Alone. Without him!
Cooper didn’t know how long they’d sat there. Lucy hadn’t complained…had just rubbed his back, rocking him back and forth like he was a child. Then at some point, she’d pressed a gentle kiss to his temple, cupping his face in her hand. “Hey…do you want to go? We can go.”
He didn’t remember getting back to the hotel they’d been staying in. He didn’t remember dropping into bed, just that he’d been there at some point, and that Lucy had sat beside him, stroking his back until he’d fallen asleep.
In the morning, he’d woken to find her asleep on the bed beside him, half hanging off the bed, and when he’d looked at her…something had been wrong with him. He’d been…numb. Cold. Dead. Janey was dead and he had been too. His hands had shaken as he’d climbed out of bed…as he’d thrown the saddle bag over his shoulder. As he’d given Dogmeat’s head one last pat.
But he hadn’t felt a thing as he’d left the room, shutting the door behind him.
They were travel companions who had good sex sometimes. And now, he’d thought numbly, the journey was over. It was time to part ways. Better now, he’d told himself, than when she decided for him.
Lucy turned away, going back to the chalkboard she’d only half cleaned. “How did you even find me?”
“I’m a bounty hunter, sweetheart. It’s my job.”
She flinched a little, although he could see her trying not to even with her back to him. “What, are you here to kill me?”
“Of course I’m not here to kill you.” He said it like the very idea was stupid, even when, to her, he knew it wasn’t.
“Then what?”
“I told you…”
“Cooper, there’s nothing for us to talk about. We did what we set out to do. We went back to the hotel. Then I woke up and you were gone.” Her voice wavered, and he knew she was still hurt…knew what it sounded like when she was holding back tears.
“I wasn’t thinking straight, Lucy,” he told her softly, the words coming easier than he would have thought. “I’d just…” It still hurt to think about it. Still hurt to remember. A little skeleton in a blue Vault suit. His daughter’s name in green digital letters, half flickering and burnt out.
“I know that.” Again, her voice softened just a little, then hardened again. “But you didn’t come back.”
“I know. I…” He sighed, daring to take a step closer, drawn like a magnet even when she was angry. Even when she didn't want to see him. “I figured you’d be better off without me.” It was true. By the time he’d realized what he’d done, he hadn’t let himself think about going back. Lucy was good. She was kind. She was so fucking smart. She’d be fine without him, he’d thought. She had the dog and enough caps and…besides, what would they even do? There was no way she could ever want someone like him.
“Well, I really appreciate you asking me my opinion on that. Glad to know you respect me enough to sit down and talk to me before you just up and disappeared.” Sarcasm dripped from her words as she wiped angrily at the chalkboard, and he winced. “If that’s what you thought, why did you come find me?”
Well, he thought, what the hell did he have to lose now?
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. For almost two years, I thought about you every fucking day. Kept dreaming about you too. Then a couple of months ago, I woke up and…I realized I’d had one good thing left in my life, and I’d just fucking…thrown it away. And I couldn’t live with that, Lucy. I couldn’t. So I had to at least try to fix it.”
She went still, dropping the rag onto her desk, but she didn’t turn around.
“Please, Lucy. Just…can we talk?” He didn’t recognize his own voice. Or maybe, he thought, maybe he did. He recognized it from a man who’d lived over two hundred years ago. A man who had loved people once. Who had been happy. Who’d had a family and friends and a dog and a career he loved. He didn’t have many of those things anymore, but for a while, he’d had Lucy. And like he’d told that doctor, he wasn’t a bounty hunter anymore. He wasn’t The Ghoul anymore.
“Don’t do this to me,” she whispered, voice breaking, and he couldn’t take it…couldn’t bear to hear her in so much pain. He moved to stand behind her, close but not touching her. “I’m happy here. I’m…I like it here.”
“I’m glad,” he murmured. “It seems like a nice place.” Then, hesitantly, “where’s Dogmeat?”
“She’s back at my place.”
“You live close by?”
She nodded, sniffing softly, and fuck he ached to touch her. He wanted to pull her into his arms. Wanted to hold her. How had he walked out of that room? How had it taken him so long to go back to her?
To admit, even to himself, that he loved her?
He loved her.
Of course he loved her. But he hadn’t even let himself think it, not until that moment.
“Won’t you look at me, Lucy?”
“Please don’t do this.”
“Do what, sweetheart?”
“Act like…” she shook her head, turning to face him, and the sight of her red-rimmed eyes struck him like a knife in his heart. “Like you…look, I get it. We were doing a job together. We were just…coworkers. That’s fine. We don’t have to…”
“That’s not what we were.”
Her eyes flashed. “Yes it was! Because if we were anything else, you wouldn’t have just left me!” she snapped, pointing a finger and poking him in the chest. “I woke up alone! And you never came back! I waited for you! For days! Alone in that hotel room…and I didn’t know what to do!” Her voice cracked, eyes closing as tears ran down her cheeks, and he couldn’t stop himself…couldn’t help wrapping her in his arms. “I thought…I thought we were at least friends,” she whispered, dropping her head onto his shoulder but not lifting her arms. “Even if you didn’t feel the way I did, I thought you at least liked me.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, resting a hand on the back of her head, the other pressed to her back, holding her close. “I…fuck, Lucy, I…” He let out a breath. “I really did think it was better if I stayed away.”
“Well that was stupid!”
“Yeah,” he agreed easily. “Trust me, I’ve had plenty of time to think about that. I’ve been trying to figure out what I should say to you for months now.”
She pulled away, crossing her arms over her chest, ignoring the tears that still fell. “Well, let’s hear it then. What did you come up with?”
He just stared at her for a moment. She looked better than she ever had when they’d been walking through the wastes…her face had a little bit of fullness that told him she was able to eat regular meals. Her dress was clean, hair soft and shiny. But she was still crying. Still hurt. So, throwing out every excuse he’d thought up on the way here, he decided it was finally time to come clean.
He’d been a brave man, once. It was time to be one again.
“I’m in love with you, Lucy MacLean. I’ve been in love with you for a long time…hell, probably longer than I even realized. When we found that Vault…when we found Janey, I ran because it was the only thing I knew how to do to cope with it. And I was so sure you could never feel the same way as I did that I figured I ought to just cut my losses and run before I got hurt all over again. I know it was stupid. For close to two years, I tried to forget you, but I couldn't do it.”
She just stared at him, still crying, but he didn’t make a move to touch her. He’d said his piece. Now, if she wanted, it was her turn.
Finally, she asked, “why were you so sure I couldn’t feel the same way?”
“Look at me, darlin’.”
“We were having regular sex,” she told him, incredulous.
“Not to mention the way we met…the way I treated you…”
“Again, we were having regular sex!”
He wasn’t sure she ought to be yelling that in a classroom, but didn’t dare bring it up. “I didn’t think it meant anything to you.”
“Of course it meant something to me! You were my friend! And I thought we were…more,” she finished, voice dying in her throat. “I was in love with you.”
His brain latched onto the words out of order, heart rising and falling again.
Love.
Was.
Lucy shook her head, wiping a hand over her face, a note of finality in her voice. “I’m not leaving. I have a home here. A job and…friends. So even if…”
“I’m not asking you to leave, sweetheart.”
She paused, just looking at him, and he tried to smile. Cooper was good at reading people. He had years of practice, after all. But even after all that time spent with Lucy, he still didn’t know which way this was going to go.
“I’m asking if you’d show me around.”
Lucy swallowed. “Then what? I show you around, we catch up, you see Dogmeat…then you leave? And it’s another two or three or ten years before I see you again? And that’s if you even come back. What if you never get another bounty out this way?”
“I’m not here for a bounty.”
“Okay, but…”
“I quit bounty hunting.”
She blinked, eyes narrowing. “What? When?”
“Three months ago when I woke up and realized I needed to fix things with you.”
“So…what are you going to do?”
“Well, I always wanted a cattle ranch. Maybe I’ll try my hand at that again. I used to be a cowboy, you know?” The plan took shape as he spoke. That would work…he could raise Brahmin…get some land of his own. Make a home here.
“Okay…well, then you’d have even less of a reason to come back.”
“You’re not understanding me, sweetie. I won’t have to come back. I’m not leaving.”
She just blinked at him again.
“I’m not leaving you again. Not unless you tell me you never want to see me again. Then I’ll go. Until then, I’m here. For good.”
“But…why would you stay here?”
“I just told you. Because you’re here.”
“You haven’t seen me in two years.”
“Yeah, and it fucking sucked. I’m in no hurry to do that again.”
“How do you know that I’m not with someone else?”
Just the thought hurt more than he could stand…made him want to start shooting even if he didn’t have any right to. “I don’t. Are you?”
She shook her head, and he felt his hands relax at his sides. “No.”
“Why not?”
Her eyes told him why…practically called him stupid for needing to ask. Still, she didn’t answer out loud. “How do I know you won’t just leave again?”
“I’ve never lied to you, Lucy. So I’m telling you right now, I’m never going to leave you again. Not if you want me around.”
“I do,” she admitted after a moment. “Want you around. I…I missed you.”
This time when he pulled her into his arms, she clung to him, a fist in the back of his duster, and the relief was almost enough to bring him to his knees. “I missed you so much, Lucy.”
“I’m still mad at you.”
“I don’t blame you,” he murmured, rubbing her back. It was just the same as before…she fit perfectly in his arms.
“I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“I’m really here. You’re stuck with me now, Luce.”
Her little giggle, muffled into his shoulder, made his heart skip a beat in his chest. Cooper pulled back, cupping her face in his hands, and he knew he was smiling like an idiot, but he couldn’t stop.
“Have they got anyplace to eat in this settlement?”
She nodded, wiping a hand over her face. “Yes, um…there’s a diner.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes.”
“Let me take you out. Are you hungry?”
“I have to let Dogmeat out first.”
“Can I come?”
“Yeah…she missed you too.”
Then, because he couldn’t help it, he pulled her close again, just breathing her in as she tried to stop crying. He didn’t mind, just sat on the edge of her desk and held her as tightly as he dared. His Vaultie. His friend. The woman he loved.
“Have they got a hotel here?” he asked after a while.
“You don’t have to stay at a hotel. You can stay with me. I have a sofa. It was in the apartment when I moved in so it’s not very comfortable…”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been sleeping on the ground outside for years. Anything inside is practically luxury.”
She let out a breath of a laugh. “I still can’t believe I get to sleep inside every night,” she admitted. “It was a long walk here.”
“I want to hear about it,” he murmured, running his hands over her shoulders then down to her wrists. “Tell me everything.”
“I have to finish cleaning up in here.”
“I can help.”
She pulled back, looking up at him for a long time, like she was trying to find something. Finally, her face softened in a smile that made his chest hurt in the best way possible. Then she put a rag in his hand. “Start wiping down desks, Mr. Howard.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Lucy lived in an apartment only a little bigger than what used to be called a studio, with a couch, a coffee table, and a bookcase full of books that served as her living room, an old refrigerator and gas stove that made up her kitchen, a walled off bathroom, and in the back corner, behind a curtain, a double bed where Dogmeat had apparently been napping. She made a beeline for him, whining and yelping and practically launching herself into his arms, and he knelt beside her, wrapping her in his arms.
“Hey, girl,” he murmured, patting her back and giving up on getting her to stop licking him. “I missed you too.”
He took Lucy out, the two of them and Dogmeat going to the diner and eating just like old times. After a little coaxing, he got the story of how she’d gotten here…of hours and days spent walking through the wastes. Of hopping from settlement to settlement doing jobs and sleeping in the cheapest rooms she could get. Of a fire gecko attack that had led to her falling through a hole in the rotted out floor of an old house into the basement where she’d broken her wrist and dislocated her left shoulder.
And then she’d met Johnny Pryor. “He was passing through, on his way back here, and he told me about a job teaching. And I thought I’d give it a try. The little boy, Dalton?”
Cooper nodded.
“That’s his dad.”
He grunted.
“He’s very nice.” Her little smile told him that she was playing with him, just a little.
“Sounds like it.”
“Tall. Smart. He teaches the oldest kids. Handsome, too.”
Cooper grunted again, going back to the ear of corn he’d been eating and fighting to keep his face neutral.
“At least, his husband thinks so.”
He raised his brows, finally smiling when she grinned at him. “Good for him.”
Cooper really did intend to sleep on that sofa. He didn’t expect Lucy to welcome him into her bed after two years apart. So after she had indeed shown him around the settlement, pointing out the homes of her friends and some of her students, and after she’d coaxed him to tell her a little more about his own travels, they went back to her apartment where he took an honest to god hot shower for the first time in weeks. He wanted to ask her to join him.
He didn’t. Lucy may be happy to see him, he knew, but that didn’t mean it was all water under the bridge.
But before he could lay down on her lumpy looking sofa, Lucy caught his hand, leading him through her little apartment, nearly spotless, into the corner that was her bedroom. There was just enough room for her bed and a dresser, but he barely noticed as she crawled under the quilts, then tugged on his hand until he joined her, pulling her immediately back into his arms as Dogmeat hopped up and made herself comfortable at their feet.
“I missed you, Cooper,” she murmured, head resting on his shoulder.
“I missed you every goddamn day, Lucy,” he whispered right back, squeezing her in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was an idiot for leaving you.”
She just nodded. “Yes, you were.”
It would take time, he thought with a faint smile, for her to fully forgive him. For things between them to be okay…truly okay again. But in the meantime, he got to hold her in his arms, and he knew that over time, she’d start to trust him again. Even if it took a while, that was okay. He wasn’t going anywhere.