The Cottage (28 page)

Taryn and Alex were lying at the pool talking about it one Saturday morning when Mark and his children came out of the guest wing. Coop was up at the main house on the terrace, reading a book. He had a cold and didn't want to swim.

Alex introduced Taryn to the Friedmans, but didn't say who she was. She didn't have to. Mark asked if she and Coop were related. He said there was an uncanny resemblance between them, and asked if Alex had noticed it. Both women laughed.

“Actually,” Taryn said calmly, “he's my father. We haven't seen each other in a long time.” It was the understatement of the century and Alex chuckled. She had handled it very well.

“I didn't know Coop had a daughter,” Mark said, looking blank.

“Neither did he,” Taryn said with a smile, and dove into the pool.

“What did she say?” Mark asked Alex, looking confused.

“It's a long story. They'll tell you about it sometime.”

And a few minutes later, Jimmy appeared. It was a hot day, and they all wanted to swim. Mark was talking to Taryn about her business and New York, and the kids were hanging out with friends who had just arrived. Alex asked them not to play their music, since Coop wasn't feeling well, and they hung out at the far end of the pool, talking and laughing. It gave her a chance to talk to Jimmy quietly for a change. There were always other people around.

“How are things?” Alex asked easily, stretched out on a lounge chair as he put sunblock on his arms. Despite his dark hair, he had fair skin. She volunteered to put some on his back, and he hesitated and then thanked her as he turned around. No one had done that for him since Maggie died, and Alex didn't give it a second thought as she handed the tube back to him.

“Okay, I guess. How about you? How's work?” Jimmy asked.

“Busy. Sometimes I think the whole world has preemies, or babies with problems. I never get to see healthy babies anymore.”

“It must be depressing work,” Jimmy said sympathetically.

“Not really. Most of them get healthy eventually. Some don't. I'm not used to that part yet.” She hated it when they lost them. It was so sad for everyone. But
the victories were sweet. “The kids you work with don't have an easy road either. It's hard to think about the things some people do to their kids.”

“I'll never get used to that either,” he admitted. They had both seen a lot in their respective lines of work. And in their own way, they were each saving lives.

“What made you want to become a doctor?” he asked, curious for the first time.

“My mother,” she said simply, and he smiled.

“Is she a doctor too?”

“No,” Alex grinned, “she leads a totally useless life. She goes shopping and goes to dinner parties and gets her nails done. And that's about it. So does my sister. I wanted to do anything but that, no matter what it took.” It had been a little bit more complicated than that, but not much. She had been exceptionally good at science too. “I used to want to be an airline pilot, when I was a kid. But that seemed pretty boring too. It's kind of like being a glorified bus driver after a while. What I do is more fun, and it's different every day.”

“Me too,” he smiled. “When I was at Harvard, I wanted to play professional ice hockey for the Bruins. But my girlfriend convinced me I'd look like shit with no teeth. I decided she was right. But I still like to skate.” He and Maggie used to skate a lot, but he tried not to think about that. “Who's the woman talking to Mark?” he asked with interest, and Alex smiled.

“Coop's daughter. She's staying with him for a while. She just came out from New York.”

“I didn't know he had a daughter.” Jimmy looked surprised.

“It came as something of a surprise to him too.”

“He seems to have a lot of those.”

“This was a good surprise. She's really nice.” Mark seemed to think so. They had been talking for an hour, and Alex could see Jessica checking her out. Jason was busy trying to drown his friends. “They're good kids,” she said about the Friedman children, and Jimmy agreed.

“Yes, they are. He's a lucky guy, with his kids at least. I guess they'll be going back to their mom soon. He's going to miss them a lot.” That seemed sad to Alex. He was so happy with them.

“Maybe he'll go back too. What about you? Are you going to stay out here, or go back East eventually?” She knew he was from Boston, and it suddenly occurred to her that he might know her cousin who had gone to Harvard at about the same time.

“I'd like to stay out here,” Jimmy said, looking pensive. “Although I feel kind of sorry for my mom. My dad died, and she's alone. And I'm all she's got.” Alex nodded, and asked him about her cousin then and he grinned. “Luke Madison was one of my best friends in school. We lived in the same dorm. We used to get drunk together every weekend senior year.”

“That sounds like Luke.” She laughed.

“I'm ashamed to admit I probably haven't seen him in ten years. I think he went to London when we graduated, and I lost track of him then.”

“He's still there. And he has six kids. All boys, I think. I don't see him much either, except at weddings, and I don't go to those a lot.”

“Any particular reason?” He was intrigued by her,
and her attachment to Coop. It didn't make sense to him, but he didn't mention it. He wasn't particularly fond of Coop. He wasn't even sure why. It was a kind of instinctive dislike. Jealousy maybe. He was such an obvious ladies' man, and all he seemed to do was indulge himself. It went totally against Jimmy's grain.

“I ate a bad one once… wedding, I mean “Alex explained and he laughed at her explanation.

“That's too bad. The right ones can be a great thing. Mine was. Not so much the wedding as the marriage. We got married at City Hall. She was a great girl.”

“I'm sorry about what happened,” Alex said, and meant it. She always felt so sorry for him, but he looked better these days. Not quite so anguished, or so pale. And he had gained a little weight. His evenings with the Friedmans had done him good, and at least he ate. But he particularly enjoyed the kids.

“It's strange. Grief. Some days you think it'll kill you. And other times, it's okay. And you can never tell which when you wake up. A good day can turn to shit. And a day that starts out so badly you want to die can suddenly turn around. It's like pain, or an illness or something, you can never tell which way it's going to go. I think I'm getting used to it. It becomes a way of life after a while.”

“I guess there's no remedy except time.” It seemed trite, but she suspected it was true. It had been nearly five months. When he'd moved in, he looked half dead himself. “A lot of things are like that, although maybe not as tough. It took me a long time to get over the marriage I nearly had. Years, in fact.”

“I think that's different, it's about trust. This is
about loss. It's cleaner. There's no one to blame. It just hurts like hell.” He was being amazingly honest about his grief, and Alex suspected it was doing him good to talk. “How much longer do you have in your residency?”

“Another year. It seems like forever sometimes. A lot of days, a lot of nights. I'll probably stay on at UCLA even when I'm through, if they'll have me. They have a terrific neonatal ICU. It's kind of a tough specialty, there aren't a lot of jobs. I was going to be a normal pediatrician originally, but I got hooked on this. High adrenaline, it keeps me focused. I think I'd get bored otherwise.” They were still talking about it when Taryn and Mark wandered back. They had been talking about tax laws, and tax shelters, and Mark was surprised by how much she knew about it. And she'd seemed interested in what he'd said. She was almost as tall as he was, and Alex smiled as they approached. They made a handsome pair, and were close to the same age.

“What are you two talking about?” Mark asked as they sat down.

“Work. What else?” Alex grinned.

“So were we.” And as they chatted, what seemed like a herd of teenagers got back in the pool. Alex was glad Coop hadn't come down. It would have driven him insane. It seemed fitting that the only child he had had stayed away until she was thirty-nine years old. It was about the right age child for him. She had said as much to Taryn the day before and they both laughed. Coop was incredibly vocal about his dislike of kids.

And five minutes later, the children in the pool
started a lively game of Marco Polo and Mark and Jimmy got in with them.

“He's a good man,” Taryn said of Mark. “I gather he was pretty devastated when his wife left. It's lucky for him his kids decided to come back.”

“Coop wasn't quite as thrilled,” Alex commented and they both laughed. “They're lovely kids,” Alex vouched for them.

“What's Jimmy like?” Taryn asked with interest.

“Sad. He lost his wife almost five months ago. I think it's been pretty tough.”

“Another one?” It seemed like an epidemic, but Alex shook her head.

“No. Cancer. She was thirty-two years old,” she whispered as Jimmy moved closer to them in the pool. He had just scored a point for his team, and threw Jason the ball, who scored yet another point. It was a very loud game, and they were splashing all over the place. And as she watched them, she saw Coop wave. He wanted them to come back up. He was ready for lunch. “I think the master calls.” Alex pointed him out to Taryn, and she looked up and smiled. Even at this distance, Alex could see he was proud of her. Taryn had been a lovely addition to his life, and she was glad for him.

“Are you happy with him, Alex?” Taryn asked her. She had been wondering what the relationship meant to her. She had heard a lot about her from Coop.

“Yes, I am. It's a shame he hates kids so much. Otherwise, he's everything I want.”

“You don't mind the difference in your age?”

“I thought about it at first, but it doesn't seem to matter. He's like a kid sometimes.”

“But he's not,” she said wisely. It would matter more in time. A lot more one day.

“That's what my father says.”

“He doesn't approve?” She wasn't surprised. Having Cooper as a son-in-law was not every father's dream, unless they were starstruck, which seemed unlikely, knowing who her father was.

“To put it in context, he doesn't approve of anything I do. Or not much. And he's worried about Coop.”

“That makes sense. He's led quite a life. Do you care about this girl who says she's having his baby?”

“Actually, I don't. Mostly because he doesn't care about her. And we don't even know yet if it's his.”

“And if it is?”

Alex shrugged. “He'll send her a check every month. He says he doesn't want to see the child. He's pretty angry at her.”

“I can understand that. It's a shame she's not willing to have an abortion. It would be simpler for everyone.”

“It would. But if your mother had done that, you wouldn't be here. I'm glad she didn't, especially for Coop. This means a lot to him,” Alex said kindly. She thought it was a blessing for both of them.

“It means a lot to me too. I didn't realize it would. Or maybe I did, and that's why I came. I was curious initially. But now I really like him. I don't know what kind of father he'd have been when I was young, but he's a wonderful friend now.” Alex could see too what
a positive effect Taryn had on Coop. It was as though he had found a missing piece of himself, a piece he never even knew was lost, but it was.

Taryn and Alex waved to the others, and walked slowly back up to the main house. Coop was waiting for them.

“They sure are loud,” he complained. He was feeling lousy with his cold.

“They'll get out of the pool pretty soon,” Alex reassured him. “They're going in for lunch.”

“What about the three of us going to the Ivy for lunch?” Coop suggested, and both women liked the idea. They went to change and came back twenty minutes later, dressed and ready to go out.

He drove them to North Robertson in the old Rolls, and the three of them chatted and laughed on the way. They sat on the terrace, and enjoyed each other's company. It was an easy, pleasant afternoon, and as Alex looked over at Coop, they exchanged a smile, and she knew that all was well in his world, and hers.

It was nearly the
end of May when Alex was working a two-day shift at the hospital, and the tech at the front desk told her she had a call. She'd had a relaxing weekend with Coop immediately before that, and things were relatively peaceful at work for a change.

“Who is it?” Alex asked, as she reached for the phone. She had just come back from lunch.

“I don't know,” the girl said, “it's in-house.” Alex figured it was probably another doc.

“Dr. Madison,” she said, in her official grown-up voice.

“I'm impressed.” She didn't recognize who it was.

“Who is this?”

“It's Jimmy. I had to come in for some lab work, and I thought I'd call. Too busy to talk?”

“No, it's fine. You picked a good time. I think everyone's asleep. I shouldn't say it out loud, but we haven't had a crisis all day. Where are you?” She was happy to hear him, she had enjoyed their most recent chat. He was such a nice guy, and he'd had such rotten luck. It always troubled her. If nothing else, he needed good friends, and she was more than willing to volunteer,
if he needed a shoulder from time to time. And he and Mark had become good friends.

“I'm in the main lab.” He sounded kind of lost, and she wondered what was happening with his health. Stress probably. And grief.

“Do you want to come up? I can't leave the floor, but I can offer you a cup of our undrinkable coffee, if your stomach's up to it.”

“I'd like that,” he said. It was what he'd been hoping for when he took the chance and called. He'd felt a little guilty disturbing her. She told him where to go, and he said he'd be right up.

She was watching for him when he got off the elevator, and waved to him from the desk. She was on the phone, talking to a mom who had just taken her baby home, and everything seemed fine. The baby was doing great. It had taken them five months to get her home. She was one of Alex's stars.

“So this is where you do your thing,” he said admiringly as he looked around. There was a glass wall behind the desk, where he could see a maze of equipment and incubators and lights and people milling around in scrubs and masks. Alex had one around her neck too, with her stethoscope at a jaunty angle, and the same green scrubs she'd been wearing all day. He was impressed. It was impossible not to be. She was in her element here, and a star in her own right.