A Soft Place to Fall (45 page)

Noah had been part of her life for as long as
she could remember and he had owned her heart almost as long. Even
during those years when he was away at boarding school, he was
never far from her mind. Not that he’d known she existed until he
came back to Idle Point after his father’s first heart attack and
everything fell into place. Loving him seemed as right and natural
as breathing; marrying him was simply the next step.

Noah and Gracie had been together since
senior year of high school and they had stayed together despite the
best efforts of their families to break them up. You wouldn’t think
their fathers’ paths would have crossed very often, not even in a
small town like Idle Point, but the hatred between the two men was
legendary and the poison spilled over onto their children. They had
learned through experience to keep their love hidden away from
their families. When they went off to college – Noah to B.U.,
Gracie to the University of Pennsylvania – everyone was sure
distance would put an end to their teenage love affair. Nobody but
Noah and Gracie knew of the weekends spent sharing pretzels on the
steps of the museum in Philadelphia or strolling near Independence
Hall, talking about the home they would build together, the family
they would raise. Gracie would join Doctor Jim's veterinary
practice while Noah wrote the Great American Novel.

She’d heard the whispers from some of her
so-called friends, the ones who wondered how a plain girl like
Gracie who lived over by the docks managed to land someone like
Noah. Gracie was serious and ambitious and poor. Noah was a rich
man’s son who thought life was his for the taking. He’d flunked out
of B.U. and if he had some game plan for his life, he wasn’t
sharing it. He wasn’t serious about anything, didn’t Gracie know
that? One day he'd call her up and say, "You know there'll never be
anyone else like you, Gracie, but I've met someone else and . . .
"

Everyone but Gracie knew that was going to
happen one day. Why couldn’t she get it through her head that she
was fooling herself? Their poison-tipped words hurt but a long time
ago Gramma Del had taught herself how to deflect the sting and hold
her head high. They never knew how good their aim was. Noah loved
her for who she was inside, not for how she looked, not for what
she owned. He didn’t care that she was tall and skinny and blessed
with brains, not beauty; with a heart, but not a bank account. They
loved each other and up until last night she had believed that was
all they needed.

Whoever thought it would be Gracie who broke
Noah's heart?

She had Simon Chase to thank for ruining
their lives. He’d shown up at her father’s house an hour ago. Sixty
minutes was all it took to shatter her dreams. Her future
father-in-law was an imposing man, tall and white-haired and
blessed with the natural arrogance of the born Yankee aristocrat.
His bad heart had slowed him down but the fierceness of his gaze
when he looked at Gracie hadn't softened a bit. She had always
suspected that Simon didn't like her but she'd never imagined the
depth of it until that afternoon.

Simon had connections up and down the coast
of Maine and right across into lake country. Noah and Gracie had
slipped down to Portland last week to apply for their wedding
license, figuring nobody in the city office would pay any attention
to them. They were wrong. A clerk recognized the Chase name and
mentioned it to his superior who happened to mention it over lunch
to a friend and an hour later Simon's office phone was ringing with
the news.

“You’ll do the right thing,” Simon had said
as he rose to leave. “If you love my son the way you say you do, I
know you’ll do what’s best for him. There's really no other way, is
there, Graciela?”

It wasn’t until Simon and his late model
Lincoln disappeared down the road that she found the envelope
propped up on the kitchen table between the sugar bowl and the salt
and pepper shakers. Ten thousand dollars to leave his son alone.
Ten thousand dollars to keep her from ruining Noah’s life.
Apparently that was the going rate for betrayal in Idle Point.

“I mean it, girlie,” Eb was saying. “Save
your gas money for when you're filling your tank in New Jersey.
Nobody gives anything away in New Jersey.”

“I can’t let you do that,” she said. “You
already gave me that beautiful silver mirror that belonged to Sarah
when I started college."

His eyes glistened with tears. “Sarah loved
you like one of her own grandbabies. You know she always prayed you
and Noah would end up together one day."

Oh, God, can this get any worse? Let me get
out of here before what’s left of my heart breaks in two.

She knew when she’d been bested and kissed Eb
on a weathered cheek. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re very dear to
me.”

Eb turned red beneath his grey whiskers. “You
make us proud, Gracie. Understand?”

“I’m doing the right thing,” she said as she
climbed behind the wheel. “This is the best thing for both of us.”
Simon Chase had proved that beyond a doubt less than an hour
ago.

“What did you say?” Eb asked but she only
smiled at him. She’d said too much as it was.

She gunned the engine and reached into the
glove box and withdrew an envelope thick with bills. “Here,” she
said, handing it to Eb through the open window. “Now you can take
yourself that vacation you and Sarah always talked about.”

Her wheels spun on the gravel as she roared
out of the gas station.

“Hold your horses!” Eb’s voice floated after
her. “There's money in this envelope! What do you –“

The last thing Gracie saw in her rear-view
mirror was old Eb standing in the middle of the road with Simon
Chase’s blood money dangling from his fingers like a flag of
surrender.

She didn’t slow down again until she reached
Boston.

~end of excerpt~

About the Author

BARBARA BRETTON is the USA Today bestselling,
award-winning author of more than 50 books. She currently has over
ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been
translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries and she
has received starred reviews from both PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and
BOOKLIST.

Barbara has been featured in articles in The
New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times,
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset
Gazette,,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent
Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on
NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS,
among others.

Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and
Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; a RITA nomination
from RWA, Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the
RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak.
Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary
Authors.

Barbara cooks, knits, and writes in New
Jersey.

How to contact Barbara:

Website - barbarabretton DOT com

Facebook - barbarabretton (personal site)
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Twitter - barbarabretton

Ravelry - ravelry DOT com – wickedsplitty

Barbara AT barbarabretton DOT com