The Sweetheart Bargain (A Sweetheart Sisters Novel) by Shirley Jump Page A

hasp at the center. The open lock sat heavy in his palm.
    In his mind, he could see what wasn’t much more than a shadowed rectangle in the dim light. He knew every inch of the black footlocker, its sturdy body, its brass hardware, the silver lock on the front. A gift from his grandmother on the day he signed up for the Coast Guard. So you have somewhere to put all those medals they’re going to give you , she’d said.
    If she only knew.
    He turned, shifted onto the floor, and lifted the lid. His hand snaked beneath the folded uniforms, the leather shoe-polishing kit, the pristine white T-shirts. He stopped when he brushed against a thick folded paper, then the glossy surface of a photograph.
    Joe.
    Like an electric spark, the memory slammed into Luke, vivid, real, as if he were back there, two months ago, taking the helo up. The SAR alarm blaring in the station, the booming of the ops watchstander’s voice. Fishing vessel taking on water, five souls on board. Weather is a bitch, snow mixed with rain, wind gusting up to forty knots, swells up to twenty feet in frigid waters off Alaska’s coast.
    “Jesus Christ, Ace. My mother could do a better job with that takeoff,” Joe said, as he settled his helmet on his head, his smile bright in the darkened interior of the helo.
    “You going to be a backseat driver again?” It was a familiar argument, one that had been raging since flight school. Every mission, the two of them debated who had the better helo skills. Neither wanted to concede or admit to a draw. Instead, they teased each other like brothers every time they were in the air.
    “Hey, if you get all tuckered out, I’ll be glad to take over the stick,” Joe said, his voice a slightly muffled staccato in Luke’s helmet. “You might need your energy for tonight when we hit the bar and score some pretty ladies to take home. That is, if you ever find a woman who meets your high dating standards.”
    “Hey, I’m just waiting for your little sister to come on the market again.”
    “My sister has taste, dude. She’d never go for a slacker like you.”
    “If she has taste, then why is she related to you?”
    Joe grinned and flattened a hand against his chest. “Because I’m irresistible.”
    That last smile hung in Luke’s memory. Heartbreaking. Bittersweet. One quick smile, and in the next moment, the shit hit the fan and Joe had never smiled again.
    Luke stumbled to his feet, clutching the paper and the photograph. The last photo he had of Joe, taken in some seedy bar near AIRSTA Kodiak, the two of them celebrating after a mission. One dark hair, one blond, raising beers to the camera, arms around each other’s shoulders, goofy grins on their faces. Mike had taken the picture, taken it a month before—
    Before Luke’s mistakes had killed his best friend.
    His fingers skimmed over the paper, thick bond paper, folded three times, then in half again, creased from being in Joe’s locker ever since they’d landed at Kodiak and realized the danger they’d be facing.
    The letter. The one almost every guy in the military wrote and hoped like hell would never get sent. Then came that day—
    The helo pitched and rolled in the violent Alaska storm, as if Mother Nature were getting revenge on the humans who had soiled her beautiful land. The rescue swimmer’s cable whipped up and down in the powerful wind, making the thick steel seem as light as dental floss. Joe turned in the co-pilot’s seat, the ending already written on his face. “Promise me, Luke. If anything happens to me—”
    “Don’t say that shit.” Luke held his death grip on the controls and issued a silent prayer. “Let’s get this mission done, get back to town, and get drunk like we always do.”
    But Joe had known. Damn it, he had known. Joe cursed a prayer as the winds tossed the helo like a stuffed animal in a dryer, and the cable jerked, and the bottom fell out of Luke’s stomach.
    Joe’s eyes gleamed bright in the darkness and his