A Marine For His Mum. Christy Jeffries

      “Hunter.” Maxine blushed, and Cooper enjoyed seeing the pink flush stain her cheeks. It made her seem warmer somehow. “Leave his bandage alone. He probably needs his rest.”

      “I’m okay,” he said, wanting to reassure Maxine that her son didn’t bother him in the least. He pulled the sheet back so Hunter could get his curiosity fix.

      “Oh, wow, they had to shave your leg and everything. Just like a girl.” Hunter screwed up his chubby little face in disgust. “Dr. McCormick didn’t tell me about that part.”

      “When did you talk to my surgeon?” Cooper asked. Maxine’s puzzled expression must have matched his own.

      “When I called him yesterday to ask how your surgery went and to see when we could come visit. He said today was fine, so Mom brought me down.”

      Maxine raised her shoulders and shook her head, as if to tell him she had no idea her ten-year-old son was capable of navigating his way through a busy hospital’s switchboards and acquiring confidential patient information. But Cooper wasn’t the least bit surprised. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past Hunter to know what he’d had for breakfast, how many times the nurses had changed his IV bag and when his next sponge bath was scheduled.

      Looking at Maxine, whose arms were now akimbo in confusion, and whose perfectly formed breasts were on proud display under her snug white cotton top, he couldn’t help but wish that she could be the one to assist him at bath time.

      “I brought you my Lord of the Rings DVD series.” Hunter’s voice brought Cooper back to reality. “My mom got you that plant. It looked better when she picked it out in the grocery store, but Gram says Mom has a black thumb and kills everything she touches.”

      “Well, it’s the thought that counts,” Cooper said, trying to muster up something positive to say. He couldn’t very well agree with Hunter’s grandmother, could he?

      “Now you sound like Mom when she makes me wear the stupid clothes Gram picks out.”

      The little white phone by his bedside rang just then, and before Coop could move, Hunter jumped to answer it. “Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Cooper’s room.”

      “Sorry,” Maxine whispered as her son spoke into the corded receiver. “I thought you were the one who told him he could visit. I didn’t know he was calling your doctor directly.”

      “It’s okay,” Cooper whispered back, actually surprised by how much seeing them both had boosted his spirits.

      “Yeah, he’s right here.” Hunter spoke with the importance of an adjutant screening a four-star general’s call. “But he still has the same ole boring human legs. Okay, hold on, Colonel Filden.”

      Cooper grabbed the phone from Hunter’s hand and covered the mouthpiece as he spoke to his guests. “Thanks for coming to visit, but I have to take this call.”

      “Okay, I’ll come back in a couple of days,” Hunter promised, but Maxine shook her head at the boy while attempting to quietly lead him out of the room.

      He hoped they understood that he wasn’t trying to dismiss them out of rudeness. But this was possibly the call that would decide his entire future. And no matter how cool Hunter was—or how pretty his mom—Coop wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of here, stat.