A Soft Place to Fall (13 page)

"Don't worry," Shorty said. "I'll be finished
before you get to the store."

The smile she gave him was the one Hall had
spent most of his adult life dreaming of and the bastard took it as
his due.

She turned to Hall and became platonic
friendship personified. "Thanks so much for driving over here," she
said. "You have single-handedly saved the floral integrity of the
Sorenson-Machado nuptials. I owe you one."

"If that's the case then how about dinner
tomorrow night." The words came out as easily as if they had been
rehearsed and in a way they had. It had taken him almost two years
to get up the nerve.

She struggled not to glance over at the boy
from New York City. "I really shouldn't -- "

"You'll need a break from unpacking by then."
He sounded smooth and self- assured, the direct opposite of how he
was feeling. "We'll go to Cappy's for the fish fry. I'll get you
back here early."

Her hesitation stung like a slap in the face
but it was his own damned fault for putting her on the spot like
this in front of her new friend.

"Listen," he said, taking a step back from
the happy pair, "bad timing on my part. We can always make it some
other --"

"No," she said, looking flustered and
embarrassed and lovely all at the same time, "Cappy's is a great
idea. I can meet you there around seven."

And there you had it. With one smooth move,
she turned a date into something a whole lot less.

One quick look at Shorty and she was
gone.

They both watched as she ran across the damp
front yard and climbed into her aging SUV. They both waited until
her car disappeared around the curve then turned to each other.

"Sam Butler." Shorty put out his right
hand.

The guy not only looked familiar, he sounded
familiar too. "Have we met before?"

"I don't know," Shorty said, his hand still
outstretched. "You tell me."

It wasn't often that a stranger made Hall
feel inadequate but Shorty managed it with six little words. Time
to regroup and approach from a different angle.

"Hall Talbot." Hall extended his own right
hand. He waited until they clasped hands. "
Doctor
Hall
Talbot."

Sometimes a man had to play his best cards
early in the game.

#

It took Sam all of ten seconds to peg the
good doctor as the man he had seen with Annie in the parking lot
yesterday. The same polished good looks, same regal bearing, same
sense of entitlement that made Sam want to knock him down a peg or
three. A knee-jerk reaction left over from his teenage years back
in Queens when the gulf between the haves and have-nots had seemed
impossible to bridge.

"Don't stay on my account," Hall Talbot said
with classic lock-jawed Yankee precision. "I'll close up for
Annie."

"Sounds great," Sam said. "After you fix the
door, lock up and leave the key under the mat."

He watched as the doctor's gaze finally
landed on the kicked-in door. "What happened?"

Good going, Columbo. Took you long
enough.

"Minor mishap," Sam said. "I told Annie last
night that I'd fix it." He added a little extra spin to the words
"last night." He sounded thirty-five going on fifteen.

He had to hand it to the doctor. That fine
old Yankee breeding was a wonder to behold. The man didn't betray
any curiosity at all.

"Then I'll leave you to it," Dr. Hall Talbot
said with a slight nod of his head. "Good morning."

Sam watched as the guy climbed behind the
wheel of his $60,000 Land Rover and drove off.

Max nudged him with his nose. He reached down
and scratched the dog behind the ear.

"I'm not impressed either, Max. I had a fancy
car once and look where I ended up."

Was that what Annie Galloway's husband had
been like? A tony well-dressed WASP who never lost his cool unless
he was playing a game of extreme croquet on the back lawn. Maybe
he'd even been a doctor like the one who just got away,
well-respected in town, the one they all looked up to, the kind of
guy all women dreamed of marrying.

He glanced back at the small cottage. Scratch
that thesis. A doctor's wife wouldn't end up sharing eight hundred
square feet of precious floor space with a giant bed, two cats, and
little else.

Then again people didn't always get what they
expected out of this life or even what they deserved. Somewhere
along the way her life must have taken a sharp turn off the beaten
path and led her to this place and he couldn't help but wonder how
she felt about that.

He knew all about those sharp turns and where
they took you. Who would've thought he would've ended up halfway
through his life with nothing to show for the years.

There had never been time to pursue a wife
and family of his own, not while the futures of his brothers and
sisters had been his responsibility. He had learned to be the
master of the casual relationship. He knew how to end things before
they went too far. No angry scenes. No broken hearts. The woman in
question was usually as ready to say goodbye as he was. Most women
were when they knew there was no future involved.

No regrets. That was the funny thing. It was
over once they said goodbye and he never looked back. One day, when
the time was right and he was free from family responsibilities, he
would meet the woman he was meant to be with and it would all fall
into place: the engagement, the big wedding, the 2.5 kids and the
corner house on a big lot with the minivan in the driveway. He
would have it all: a great career, a wonderful wife, terrific
children, and an extended family of brothers and sisters who
couldn't wait to babysit.

He never figured that he would end up as a
thirty-five year old unemployed, never married, flat-broke
freeloader on the verge of falling in love.

Back out now,
he told himself as he
set to work on fixing the front door.
Let the good doctor take
the home field advantage.
Sam had always been good at ending
things before they went too far. How hard could it be to end them
before they began?

#

It was ten-fifteen when Annie burst into the
store.

"We were going to send out a search and
rescue squad," said Sweeney, the woman who ran the Artisans Co-Op
that rented display and work space from Annie. She was hanging
stained glass sun catchers in the main display window. "Claudia has
been tearing the heads off the roses."

Annie groaned. "That's what I was afraid of."
She glanced around the shop. "Where is she?"

Sweeney gestured toward the back. "Raking the
delivery girl from Bangor Blooms over the coals."

"Please don't tell me the Sorenson order was
botched."

Sweeney shrugged her caftaned shoulders.
"Don't know, dear, but the delivery girl said she was getting a
migraine."

Annie tossed her bags behind the counter.
"I'd better get back there and see what's happening. Ring the bell
if anyone comes in, would you, Sweeney?"

"I'm on top of things," Sweeney said from her
perch on the step stool then threw back her head and laughed.

Annie, who was used to Sweeney's bad jokes,
groaned then hurried past display cases, various work areas, and
the tiny kitchen where Claudia kept the soup pot simmering all
winter long. The decision to lease floor space to the Co-Op was one
of the best ones Annie ever made. Not only did the income help her
own bottom line, but she found she loved the company. Shelter Rock
Cove had a thriving artistic community of weavers, potters,
watercolorists, sculptors, glassblowers, fiber artists, and
everything in between. The ever-changing displays helped make
Annie's Flowers a popular stop for both tourists and locals.

She found Claudia on the back steps,
clipboard in hand, checking their order against what Bangor Blooms
had actually delivered. Her brow was furrowed and the girl from
Bangor, who was still unloading crates of flowers, didn't look too
happy.

"Sorry I'm late," Annie said as she joined
them. Claudia didn't look up. "Did they remember the
anthurium?"

"The anthuriums are here," Claudia said,
ripping the top sheet with the force of her checkmark.

"Good," said Annie, a bit surprised by the
vehemence of Claudia's response. "And the ginger blossoms? We
ordered –"

"Done."

Claudia was obviously annoyed with Annie for
being late and was letting her know it in no uncertain terms. She
had seen Claudia in one of her moods many times over the years and
they always passed as swiftly as they came, leaving only tiny
bruises behind. Annie left her mother-in-law to her inventory and
pitched in to help the delivery girl finish unloading the crates of
flowers.

"She scares me," the girl whispered to Annie
as they both tugged on a huge box of plumeria.

"She scares everybody," Annie whispered back
and the girl tried not to laugh. "She's all bark and no bite, I
promise you."

The girl didn't look convinced and she
continued to give Claudia a wide berth which, all things
considered, was probably a very wise idea.

"I hate to bother you when you're so busy,"
Sweeney said, poking her head out the door, "but we have a small
problem inside with a hospital order."

Claudia looked up from her clipboard. "I'll
take it," she said. "Anne seems to have everything in hand out
here."

Annie, who wasn't quite sure if she had been
complimented or reprimanded, thanked her. "If it's about the
McGowan order, let me know," she said to Claudia's retreating back.
"They moved her to intensive care and forgot to tell us to hold up
on the arrangement until she's in a private room."

Twenty minutes later the girl from Bangor was
on her way back to the turnpike and Annie was tucking her bags into
the storage bin under the order desk when Claudia finally came out
with it.

"I was worried sick about you today, Anne,"
she said. "When it got to be nine-thirty and you still hadn't shown
up, why I –" Her voice quavered and she paused to draw in a breath.
"The least you could have done was phone."

You know I love you, Claudia. Why are we
always at loggerheads these days?
"I'm so sorry," Annie began,
choosing her words with care, "but you know my phone won't be
turned on until this afternoon."

"You could have used your cellular."

"I don't have a cellular any longer,
remember? I cancelled it last spring."

"I don't know why you'd do such a ridiculous
thing. With all the driving you do, you shouldn't be without a
phone. It's a dangerous world, Anne, and –"

"—and cell phones cost an arm and a leg, and
it was time for me to cut costs. I explained this to you at the
time."

"Cut costs? The shop is doing splendidly and
you must have pocketed a pretty penny from the sale of the house.
Surely you can afford a phone."

"I don't want to talk about this with you,
Claudia. I'm sorry if you were worried about me but that won't be a
problem once my phone service at home is up and running."

Claudia's stern expression softened, which
made Annie feel more like a rebellious sixteen-year-old kid than
ever. A mother's guilt was a powerful thing, even when it was your
late husband's mother wielding the sword.

"I'm a worrier," Claudia said, patting
Annie's forearm. "I always was and I always will be. Now that
you're in that little house in the back of beyond, you need to be
more careful than ever."

"I met my new neighbor last night," Annie
said, wondering about the bag of DeeDee's Donuts near the cash
register. She could feel the extra fat cells settling themselves
around her hips and thighs just thinking about more donuts.

Claudia was measuring out lengths of shimmery
white satin ribbon. "Susan told me that a New Yorker was moving
into Ellie Bancroft's old place." She reached for the shears. "Is
he nice?"

Annie told her about their first meeting in
the parking lot of Yankee Shopper.

Claudia looked up from what she was doing. "I
hope he's going to pay to have your interior cleaned."

"He said he'd take care of it."

"Good," said Claudia, scissoring her way
through the glossy ribbon. "You have to set certain standards with
a new neighbor. Let them know where your boundaries are. Otherwise
you'll wake up one morning and he'll be sitting on your front porch
saying, 'What's for breakfast?' and you'll never get rid of him."
Claudia looked at her across the litter of ribbon and wire. "Hall
brought over some donuts this morning." She pointed her shears in
the general direction of the kitchen. "I put them next to the
coffeemaker."

Donuts as metaphor.
Hall was a local.
He knew that DeeDee's donuts were serious business around Shelter
Rock Cove, at least among townies their age. The thought gave her a
sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. And now she had a dinner
date with him for tomorrow night, all because she was so flustered
with Sam Butler's eyes on them that she said yes just to put an end
to the discussion. If Hall got the wrong idea she had nobody to
blame but herself.

"Is something wrong?" Claudia asked.

"No," she said. "Nothing at all."

They worked in silence for a while until
Sweeney drifted back into the front of the store. Sweeney didn't
believe in silence. She was always talking or singing or humming
along to the radio she kept hidden somewhere in that enormous
caftan of hers. Today she was whistling selections from
The
Sound of Music
and Annie was reasonably sure she would be
reaching for the earplugs before Sweeney launched into
"Edelweiss."

At a few minutes before one, Annie put down
her shears and stretched. "I don't know about you two ladies, but
it's my lunchtime. Why don't I go in the back and heat up some soup
for us?"