A Soft Place to Fall (40 page)

He was going to tell her that he loved her,
that she was the home he had always longed for, that without her
the future was nothing but a string of days and nights without
meaning. He was going to tell her what he had never told a woman
before. He was going to say, "I love you."

And then he was going to pray she loved him
back.

#

"We're not taking no for an answer." Susan
said as she, Claudia, and Sweeney surrounded Annie. "You're coming
out for supper with us or we'll know the reason why."

Annie, who was seated on her stool behnd her
workbench in the back of the shop, mustered up a smile. "That's a
nice idea, really it is, but I think I'd better get some more work
done on the Selkirk-Holder wedding preparations."

Susan groaned loud enough to be heard at
Cappy's. "You need a break, Annie. You can't spend every moment
staring at CNN and waiting for the phone to ring. You need to get
out for a while."

"What if Sam –"

"He'll find you," Sweeney said, laughing.
"This is a small town and he's the number one topic of
conversation. If he shows up, I guarantee the entire population of
Shelter Rock Cove will escort him to Cappy's for the reunion."

"There's a good reason to work late," Annie
muttered.

Claudia placed a gentle hand on Annie's
shoulder. "You need to keep up your strength," she said softly.
"The baby deserves that much."

Claudia was right. They were all right. And
they would keep on hammering away at her until she agreed. "Okay,"
she said. "I give up. You've worn me down." She slid off the stool
and stood up. "Give me two minutes to wash my face and try to do
something with this hair and I'll be ready."

The three of them exchanged glances. Annie
could just imagine what those glances meant. They were worried
about her. They thought she was spending too much time brooding
over Sam who just might not decide to come back to Shelter Rock
Cove after all. He had a life down there in New York City. He had
an apartment down there and brothers and sisters and nieces and
nephews, all of whom loved and needed him. Why would he want to
leave all of that to live in some little town in Maine where it
snowed too much in the winter and rained too much in the summer and
couldn't make up its mind the rest of the year?

Because he loves you.

That would be a wonderful reason if it were
true, but was it? How could she possibly know for sure when they
had never said those words to each other, those magical words that
unlocked the heart and soul. They had danced all around them but
never once had either one of them stepped out to the edge of that
cliff and said, "I love you."

She wished she could do it all over again.
She would tell him she loved him, tell him about the baby, tell him
that in a lifetime spent searching for a home of her own she had
finally found it in his arms.

She would tell him all of that and more if
only he would come back to Shelter Rock Cove.

#

The door to Annie's Flowers swung open and
Sweeney leaned out and grabbed Sam by the sleeve. "Hurry!" she
said, dragging him inside. "Get in here!"

"That's what I tried to do five minutes ago
when you shoved me out the door."

"Shh!" she said, holding a paint-stained
finger to her lips. "We want this to be a surprise, don't we?"

It occurred to Sam that it couldn't be
anything but a surprise to Annie but he had three sisters. He knew
there was no dealing with a woman on a mission.

Claudia Galloway and her daughter Susan were
leaning against the counter. They sported matching
cat-that-ate-a-cageful-of-canaries smiles.

"Congratulations," said Susan. "I think
you'll learn to – ouch!" She turned to glare at her mother who had
administered an elbow to her ribs. "What was that for?"

"My daughter is only forty-two," Claudia said
with a wicked twinkle in her eye. "Sometimes she forgets her
manners."

Sam grinned back at her. He could learn to
like the woman. He glanced around the store. "Where's Annie?"

"Will you keep your voice down!" Sweeney
ordered. "She's in the bathroom fixing her hair. She thinks we're
going to Cappy's."

They heard footsteps moving down the
hallway.

"Quick," Sweeney said. "Hide behind that
display."

He felt like a damn fool but he let himself
be pushed behind one of those froufrou displays of flowers and
little breakables that no sane person would have in the house.

"So who's driving?" Annie sounded exhausted.
That had to mean she loved him, didn't it? "We can all go in my
Trooper, if you want."

"There's someone to see you," Sweeney
said.

"Oh no." Annie groaned. "Who is it this
time?"

Sweeney poked her head behind the display.
"Now, you dope!"

He rounded the display and there she was.
Tired, a little rumpled, the most beautiful woman he had ever
known.

"This wasn't my idea," he said but his words
were lost as ran into each other's arms.

"You're home," she said against his mouth.
"You're home!"

His heart soared. She was laughing and crying
and so was everyone around them but he only had eyes for Annie. He
drank in the sight of her, those beautiful blue eyes with the dusky
shadows beneath them, the laugh lines, the smile that told him that
he could open his heart to her and she would understand.

He heard a lot of sniffling all around him
and then the sound of footsteps heading for the door.

"I thought they'd never leave," he said.

"Just as long as you never leave me again."
The look in her eyes was so filled with love and longing that he
wondered how he had ever walked through his days without her.
"You're hurt," she said, gently tracing his battered face. "Oh Sam
–"

"You should've seen the other guy." He
gathered up the last of his courage. "I have a lot to tell you,
Annie. I'm not too proud of most of it."

"I've followed the news," she said, "and I
know the kind of man you are. When you're ready to talk, I want to
listen."

"I looked the other way when I should have
been doing something to help. I hurt innocent people."

Her eyes welled with tears. "I know all about
looking the other way, Sam. I did that for most of my marriage to
Kevin."

Her words were balm to his soul, the first
step in his journey to regain his self-respect.

"I love you," he said. "I've never said that
to a woman before." The power of those words and all they
represented – you built families on their foundation. You built
generations.

"You're my soulmate," she said softly. "I've
never said that to a man before." Her voice broke on the last word.
"I never will again."

"I'm not rich," he said, "and my prospects
these days are lousy." It would take time for his reputation to be
restored and by then, that world would have long since passed him
by.

"I'm one step up from being flat broke," she
said, "but I'd say my prospects are terrific."

"I might end up building canoes for a
living."

"Sounds good to me."

"If you'd met me this time last year, you
would've gotten a hell of a better deal." He'd had a career, a new
car, money in the bank. Now all he had was his heart on his
sleeve.

"I'll be the judge of that. I fell in love
with the guy in the ratty old Trooper, didn't I?"

"The one with the pizza-eating dog."

"Yep," she said, "that's the one. He stole my
heart and I don't want it back."

"There are a whole lot of Butlers out there
for you to meet."

She took a deep breath. "Actually there's one
more Butler even you haven't met yet."

He looked at her. "You want to say that
again?"

"One more Butler," she said, taking his hand
and placing it against her soft belly, "due to join us around June
15
^th
. That's what I was coming to tell you that
afternoon."

"But I thought you couldn't –"

"So did I," she said, "but when we found each
other more than one miracle happened." New life where there had
been none before. Laughter where there had been only silence. Joy
where sorrow had lived for too long. "I know we never talked about
this – I mean, you may not even want children. You've spent your
whole life raising kids and now here I am telling you that you're
going to be starting all over."

She looked radiant and joyful and so
uncertain his heart ached with love for her and the future she
carried deep within her beautiful body.

"Tell me again." He bent down and pressed his
lips to the roundness of her belly. "Tell me this is really
happening for us."

"It's really happening for us," she said as
her tears fell softly onto his forehead. He could feel her relief
flowing into his bones. "Just one miracle after another from the
moment we met."

He told her of the dream he had dreamed of
children with her eyes and her smile, children who would carry
their love into the future the way it was meant to be.

"And your heart," she said as he took her in
his arms and held her close. "I couldn't ask for more for our
child."

Everything he was, everything he had ever
done or dreamed of doing, came together in that moment when she
smiled at him and he saw their future in her eyes. He loved Annie
Galloway and she loved him and they were going to have a baby.

Sam Butler had finally come home.

The Way It All Ended Up

Late June

"Push, Annie!" Ellen Markowitz urged. "One
good push and you'll have your baby."

"I . . . don't . . . want . . . to push!"
Annie yelped in the voice everyone in the birthing room had come to
know. "I want to get out of here." What was the matter with these
people? Didn't they know she had been in labor for the last
eighteen hours? Weren't they paying
attention
?

Sam, who was sweating almost as much as his
wife, leaned over and brushed her lips with an ice cube. "One more
push, Annie. You can do it." Ellen had said he could be the one to
receive the baby – if Annie would only push.

Her eyes locked with his. "I can't, Sam, I
can't –"

"You can and you will. She's almost here,
Annie, all you have to do is push."

Next to her, Claudia squeezed her left hand.
"All these years and still nobody's come up with a better way to
get the job done. You can do it, Annie. I promise you, you can do
it."

"Oh, look!" Ellen cried. "We're almost there,
Annie . . . just one more push."

"Come on, Annie," Sam urged. "It's time we
met our little girl."

Annie took a deep breath and reached down
deep to a place she didn't know existed but all women somehow
found, a place where the power of love could perform miracles, and
she pushed their daughter out into Sam's waiting arms.

"Sarah Joy Butler," her husband said through
his tears, "welcome to the world."

A second later a small cry filled the room
and a new life officially began.

Annie and Sam had their miracle.

#

It hurt to look at them. Ellen had helped
deliver hundreds of babies but she had never been as deeply moved
by the experience as she was today. Sam kept kissing Annie and
telling her how much he loved her, how much love and joy she had
brought into his life, while Annie – oh God, the look of wonder and
joy on her face was so profound that Ellen turned away. She talked
Sam through cutting the cord then she went back to the work of
delivering the afterbirth and making sure the baby's vital
statistics had been duly recorded.

Then came the moment she always waited for,
that magical moment when a couple became a family. Sam laid the
baby down on Annie's chest. Sarah Joy was slick with blood and
birth fluids, a squalling little bundle of humanity whose nursing
instinct guided her right to her target. Annie's tears fell onto
the baby's fuzzy head while Sam tried to wipe away his own tears
with the back of his sleeve. There were no celestial fireworks, no
host of angels sent down from on high, but the sense of almost
heavenly wonder couldn't be denied.

Ellen waited a moment while Claudia drank in
the sight of the newborn family and then the two of them stepped
out into the waiting room where forty-two assorted Butlers,
Galloways, and their friends all jumped up at once and gathered
around them.

Warren Bancroft, who looked like he'd been in
hard labor himself, met Claudia's eyes. Claudia, who was laughing
and crying simultaneously, nodded her head and Warren shouted with
joy.

"You old coot," Claudia said. "Now don't go
taking all the credit for yourself. This was God's doing, not
yours, and don't you forget it."

Warren winked at Ellen over the top of
Claudia's head and she knew he wasn't about to share credit for Sam
and Annie's happiness with anyone, not even the Almighty.

Ellen cleared her throat. "I am very happy to
report that Sarah Joy Butler joined us at 1:28 p.m. She weighs
seven pounds two ounces and measures nineteen inches long. She has
her mother's curly hair and her father's nose and right now I think
it's safe to say she also has everyone's heart in the palm of her
little hand."

"She's healthy?" Warren asked in a
suspiciously husky voice.

"Very," Ellen said.

"And Annie," Susan said, "she's okay?"

"She did great."

Two of Sam's sisters looked at each other and
grinned. "He fainted, didn't he," the one named Marie asked. "Sam
never did like the sight of blood."

Ellen laughed. "I'm sorry to disappoint you
but your brother maintained consciousness throughout the
delivery."

Laughter and high fives and lots of happy
tears filled the room as the two families celebrated the new
addition.