A Soft Place to Fall (24 page)

"The place is crowded," Warren observed as
Sam whipped into a parking spot at the far end of the lot. "Bet
there's plenty of room at that new steak and ribs joint."

"We're here," Sam said, turning off the
engine. "Might as well give it a try."

"Nothing like a big juicy slab of prime rib
with a baked potato piled high with sour cream." Warren sounded
downright wistful.

"Heart attack on a plate," Sam said. "You're
better off eating fish."

"Lots of cholesterol in shellfish too,"
Warren pointed out but Sam ignored him.

He was exactly where he wanted to be. Hell,
where he needed to be. Annie was in there. He'd spotted her Trooper
before he even turned into the driveway and right away he felt like
a teenager getting ready for his first date. The gaping hole in the
pit of his stomach, the sweaty palms, the fear he might walk in
there and say something they would both regret. Something
irrational and downright crazy like, "I love you." You couldn't
love somebody you didn't know. Love at first sight was a construct
of romantic fantasy. It didn't exist in a brick and mortar
world.

But try telling that to his heart. He felt
expectant, hopeful, terrified, elated, determined, uncertain, every
combination of emotion possible. He'd never done anything like this
in his life. She was in there with another guy, on something that
came pretty damn close to being a date, and he was about to crash
their party.

#

"I've had a wonderful time," Annie said as
she reached for her purse, "but it's been a long day and I'm just
about out on my feet."

"You're not going already," Hall said, in a
voice meant for her alone.

"I'm afraid so." Had he always looked at her
with so much longing or was she just seeing him for the very first
time? "There was the Sorenson wedding today and tomorrow's the
picnic." She forced a lighthearted chuckle as the cowbell announced
another new arrival. "I'm not getting any younger, you know. Long
days and late nights can do a woman in."

"Why don't you --"

He stopped speaking mid-sentence. Annie
followed his gaze. Her heart slammed hard against her ribcage. Sam
and Warren were standing by the cash register. Warren was chatting
happily with Gloria. Sam looked edgy, solitary, strange and
familiar both. She'd slept in his arms. He'd made love to her and
asked nothing in return. She knew everything about him and nothing
at all.

His dark eyes met hers.

You shouldn't have done this, Sam.
He'd heard her make plans with Hall that first morning. He knew
exactly where she would be and when and the fact that he was
standing there was the loudest declaration of intent she had ever
heard.

A thrill of unabashed delight raced through
her and she couldn't help herself. She started to laugh.

The silence at the table was deafening. They
looked at her as if she'd lost her mind and maybe she had. Maybe
this was how it felt to be crazy out of your head in love with a
man you just met. Maybe this was how it felt to be happy for the
first time in way too long.

She pushed back her chair and stood up.

Nobody said a word.

She slung her shoulder bag back across her
body.

Nobody breathed.

She put a ten dollar bill on the table then
started the long slow walk across the room to where Sam stood by
the cash register.

Nobody moved.

"I'm sorry," she said to Sam, quietly so only
he could hear. "I shouldn't have run out that way last night."

He said nothing.

She waited.

They watched.

She felt herself shape-shifting right there
in Cappy's, turning into someone she no longer recognized. A woman
who needed more than the sound of her own heartbeat for company and
who was no longer afraid to take the first step.

Say something,
she pleaded silently.
If you don't say something right now, I'll go crazy.

"Come on," he said, reaching for her hand.
"Let's get out of here."

Chapter Eleven

If a
hydrogen bomb had landed on Cappy's, the result couldn't have been
any more dramatic than the sight of Annie Lacy Galloway walking out
the door hand-in-hand with Sam Butler. Warren had seen many a fine
exit in his day but that was one of the all-time best.

"She knows him?" Roberta asked, breaking the
stunned silence.

"No," said Jack.

"I don't know," said Susan.

"Yes," said Hall and Claudia in unison.

Warren claimed Annie's seat. "That's Sam
Butler," he said easily, as if hell hadn't just frozen over. "He'll
be living in Ellie's old place for a while."

"As if that explains anything," Claudia
muttered, rapping her knuckles against the table top.

"I've known him since he was a teenager,"
Warren went on, ignoring her vexation. "A better man you won't find
anywhere."

"Oh my God!" Susan grabbed her husband's arm.
"That's the guy with the pizza-eating dog."

Jack gave her one of those looks all men
understood. "What the hell are you talking about, Susie?"

She told him the story that Annie had told
her, about a man and his dog and a stack of ruined pizzas.

"That's so romantic," Roberta said, oblivious
to the glares coming her way from Hall, Susan, and Claudia. "A cute
meet, like something from an old Rock Hudson-Doris Day movie."

"You've been watching too much AMC," Claudia
snapped. "Life was not created in Hollywood, Roberta."

"I bumped into Annie in the parking lot that
night," Hall piped up. All eyes turned toward him. "He took off
without bothering to clean up the mess."

"That's the same story I heard," Claudia
said, pleased to have a tidbit to add to the mix. She neglected to
mention the fact that he did end up cleaning the truck for Annie.
She was in no mood to be kind. "I must say he took quite a
proprietary air when he brought back the keys to her place."

The gasp at the table brought Gloria running
to see what was wrong.

"Annie?!" Susan could barely get the word out
of her mouth.

"No way," said Jack.

"Mmmm!" Roberta's eyes twinkled with envious
delight.

Mariah and Willa giggled. The boys made
gagging noises.

Hall's cheeks were bright pink but his voice
was steady, his demeanor cool. "There was something wrong with her
front door that first morning. He was there to fix it."

The girls' giggles grew louder and Hall shot
them a stern look.

"She's earned the right," said Roberta
defiantly. "She's been alone a long time. She's a young woman. Why
shouldn't she take a lover?"

"You talk like an old fool." Claudia was
rhythmically shredding the paper placemats at the table. "If you
can't see he isn't of her class, then perhaps it's time you had
your bifocals adjusted, Roberta Morgan."

Roberta glowered at her friend. "And I
suppose you never tucked
Lady
Chatterley's
Lover
under your mattress."

"And I suppose most of you fine folk went to
church this morning," Warren said, lighting up a cigar. "Wonder how
Father Luedtke feels about this kind of talk."

"The truth is the truth," Claudia shot back.
"There's nothing uncharitable about it."

"Sounds to me like the lot of you need to
find yourselves a hobby. There are better ways to spend your time
than speculating about a man you just met." His disappointment was
painfully clear. "Now I could sit here and tell you everything you
need to know about that boy and you would feel damn sorry you ever
sat judgment on him the way you just did but that wouldn't be fair
to him. His story is his to share and I'm not about to break his
trust."

Hall Talbot pushed back his chair. It was
clear he'd had enough. "It's late," he said, reaching for the check
in the middle of the table. "I'd better take the girls home.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day." The town's Labor Day picnic
began on the Green at noon and no parent worth his or her salt
dared forget it.

Willa and Mariah leaped to their feet. "Can
we play video games before we go to sleep?" Mariah asked.

"Sure," said Hall with a nod to the group
assembled there. "Whatever you want."

The doctor had barely reached the cash
register before Susan leaned across the table to grill Warren.

"So where do you know this Sam Butler from?"
she asked.

Claudia glared at her daughter. "Don't be
rude, Susan. You heard Warren. It's none of our business."

"You saw the way they looked at each other,"
Susan said. "I'd say it's going to be everybody's business by
tomorrow morning."

So that's the way the wind blows,
thought Warren as he surveyed the scene.

For a small town, things could sure get
complicated in a hurry.

He hoped Sam and Annie were smart enough to
turn off the phones.

#

They kissed at stoplights, at street signs,
and once they even pulled over to the side of the road and kissed
until they couldn't breathe any more.

"Damn stick shift," Sam muttered as they
tried to find a viable position.

Annie gasped as his hand slid under her
skirt. "The seat reclines."

They struggled with the lever and got
nowhere.

"My place," she said, hands trembling as she
clutched the wheel.

"Fast," Sam said. He sounded desperate. She
never knew how much she liked that quality in a man.

He plucked the lacy edge of her panties with
his big hands and she nearly drove off the road.

"I can't drive when you do that." Or think.
Or breathe.

"You're wet," he said, his voice low and
urgent.

They were twenty feet away from her driveway
but it might as well have been twenty miles. She hit the brakes
hard. He braced an arm against the dashboard to keep from shooting
through the windshield. She shut off the engine and turned to him
with the hunger burning in her eyes and he said, "Jesus," and
reached for her and suddenly the stick shift wasn't a problem or
the seat that refused to recline.

She told him what she wanted and how and then
she told him that this time there would be no sudden stops, no
turning back.

She straddled him and unzipped his pants.

He pulled off her panties and crushed the
damp fabric in his hand then brought them to his face.

She stroked him fast and hard, letting him
fill her hand.

He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her
and she slowly slowly opened for him engulfed him drew him deep
inside her body and she cried out first with the newness of it and
then with something else, something she had forgotten existed.

She shuddered when she climaxed and the
rhythmic contractions of her body pushed him over the edge.

And still it wasn't enough. They left the car
where it was. Still kissing and touching, still hungry for each
other, they stumbled up the driveway. They reached the porch steps
and he swept her up into his arms and carried her up the three
steps to the front door.

"The front door's always open in the movies,"
he said, while she leaned over to fit the key into the lock.

"You should've kicked it in," she said,
kissing his chin, his throat, his chest. "Very macho."

"Too soon to repeat myself." He carried her
through the dimly lit hallway to the tiny bedroom with the huge
sleigh bed and the open window and the moonlight.

And then the magic took over. Clothes slid
off the way they did in the movies. The bed sighed sweetly beneath
the weight of their bodies. She opened herself to him in heart,
soul, and body. He filled the empty spaces inside her heart and in
so doing filled the empty spaces inside his own heart as well.

Somewhere out there was the world they knew
and the people they loved but right now none of it mattered. This
bed was world enough for both of them.

#

"You folks have been a lot of fun," Gloria
said, "but we're closing up now. Hate to break up a good time but
you know how it is."

"Good Lord," said Roberta, glancing at her
narrow gold watch. "It's almost ten o'clock!" She flashed her best
smile at Warren. "Time flies when you're having fun."

Warren always did have an eye for the women
and he flashed her a damn good smile right back. "Kind of you to
put up with an old man's stories, Bobbi."

Roberta laughed, one of those throaty
chuckles that made Claudia want to hit her in the head with a
skillet. "We go way back," she said, practically batting her
eyelashes at the old fool. "You know what they say: old friends are
the best."

Susan and Jack corraled their boys and the
lot of them stepped out into the crisp night air.

"Goodnight, Ma." Susan hugged her briefly.
"We'll pick you up at noon for the picnic."

Claudia sniffed and refused to hug her back.
That innocent act simply wouldn't wash. Her daughter had had a hand
in this debacle. It was clear as the nose on her face.

Jack beeped the horn.

"Gotta run," Susan said. She waved to Warren
and Roberta and was gone.

Claudia turned and started toward Roberta's
car. Warren fell into step with her.

"Hang on too tight and you'll lose her," he
said quietly. "Don't make that mistake, Claudia."

"If I want your opinion, Warren Bancroft,
I'll ask for it. Until then, keep those bromides to yourself."

Roberta coughed delicately behind them and
Claudia reined in her emotions.

"It's late," Warren said. "I'll follow you
two ladies home, if you'd like."

Roberta thought it was a charming idea.
Claudia was deeply insulted but she kept her opinion to herself.
The headlights of Warren's ridiculous old Jeep followed them over
the bridge, up Main Street, around the curve, right into the
driveway of the house Claudia had shared with her beloved
husband.