RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Volume One: Blackberry Summer\Woodrose Mountain\Sweet Laurel Falls (110 page)

“I think the butterflies will be fine. Despite how lovely and
fragile they look, they're survivors, accustomed to weathering storms. A great
deal like someone else I know.” He paused, gazing intently at her, his heart
pounding in his chest like one of those horses on a racetrack. “The woman I
happen to be in love with, actually.”

She stared at him, her eyes huge in that soft, lovely face, and
he thought he saw a quick blaze of joy there before her lashes came down.
“Jack…”

“I really didn't intend to say that. Either the cigar or my
fatigue must have loosened my tongue. This isn't the time or the place, today of
all days. I just wanted you to know where my head and heart are.”

He wrapped his hand around her fingers and brought their
clasped hands to his chest. “Right here. With you.”

She still didn't say anything, only continued to gaze at him
out of those eyes as green as the new growth around them. Had he ruined
everything between them? Moved too fast? Spoken when he should have shut the
hell up?

“You don't have to say anything,” he said. “I know you're not
ready for this. Not with everything going on in your life. We can talk again
when I come back for good in a few weeks.”

“Not for good,” she whispered. “Only until you move back to San
Francisco.”

“What if I didn't have to go back to San Francisco?” He
couldn't quite believe the words were coming out of his mouth, but even as he
spoke them, he realized he meant them completely.

She stared at him, her eyes huge. “What?”

“I have a partner who handles the administrative side of things
at the main office very well. I don't see why I couldn't keep the office here in
Hope's Crossing and use that as my central base.”

Her laugh had a disbelieving edge. “You
really
must be exhausted. You do realize what you're saying,
right?”

Over the past few months, he had witnessed genuine concern and
caring in Hope's Crossing and had come to see that perhaps he had viewed the
town through the sometimes skewed perception of youth. No doubt he could still
find pockets of intolerance and small-mindedness in Hope's Crossing, but the
majority of the people he had come to know were warmly generous. Why wouldn't he
want to live here?

“I would still have to travel sometimes. That's the nature of
my job. But I would always come back to you.”

Her fingers still nestled in his and he could feel them tremble
in his grasp. He lifted them to his mouth and kissed the soft skin at the back
of her hand. “I love you, Maura. I want to be with you. Whether that's here or
in San Francisco or in Singapore. It doesn't matter to me.”

* * *

M
AURA
COULDN
'
T
SEEM
to catch hold of
any of her scattered thoughts. She could only stare at him, trying to gauge
whether he spoke truth. She was inordinately aware of their surroundings—the
fading afternoon sunlight, the soft breath of a spring breeze, the horses now
cantering through the pasture behind Jack.

Joy seemed to burst inside her, bright and lovely and
right.
Her love for him was a sweet ache in her chest,
a quiver in her stomach, but she couldn't find the words to tell him. Instead,
she did the next best thing. She reached on tiptoes and kissed him, their
still-clasped hands caught between them.

He hitched in a breath and returned the kiss, his mouth warm
with the taste of cinnamon. He kissed her with such soft tenderness she could
feel the ache of tears behind her eyes. The past weeks ran through her mind, the
late-night phone calls where neither of them wanted to be the first to hang up,
the sharing and the teasing and her inexorable journey toward falling in love
with him all over again.

“I love you, Jack,” she murmured. “Some part of me never
stopped, all these years. I had the reminder of you every day when I would look
at our daughter, so curious and determined, just like her father.”

“She's become a beautiful, strong woman. Like her mother.”

Could they really have a second chance together? It seemed a
miracle, somehow. A rare and precious gift, after the hellish year she had
endured. She smiled against his mouth, aware of a subtle shifting and settling
inside her, a quiet peace she had never expected to find with Jackson Lange, of
all people.

Over his shoulder, she caught a bright flash of
yellow-and-orange out of the corner of her gaze and she shifted in his arms for
a better view.

“Jack! Look!” she exclaimed.

He followed the direction where she pointed, to where a monarch
butterfly dipped and danced among the early-spring flowers of Harry's
landscaping.

“Do you think that's one of the butterflies from the ceremony?”
she asked. “Surely it wouldn't have made it all the way up the canyon. That's
three miles at least.”

“Stranger things have happened. Maybe he hitchhiked in
somebody's car.”

“It is. I'm sure it is.” She watched the butterfly alight on a
huge, plump peony, its wings bright and cheery, and felt the last icy fingers
around her heart crack and break away. It was almost as if Layla had sent her a
sign, promising her all would be well.

She lifted her face to the sunshine and to Jack, suddenly sure
of it.

EPILOGUE

“S
OMETHING
'
S
NOT
WORKING
. I think we might have cut the angle wrong.” Maura held up a
board that was supposed to fit against another one, but quite obviously
didn't.

Jack, looking extremely sexy in jeans, a tight T-shirt and a
low-slung leather carpenter belt, raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me. Who's the professional, again?”

Laughter bubbled up inside her. “You're an architect, not a
carpenter.”

“And you run a bookstore and coffeehouse.”

She gestured at the pile of lumber scattered around them on the
path beside Sweet Laurel Falls, where they were supposed to be helping build the
small, delicate gazebo Jack had designed.

“So we're both completely out of our league here.”

He gave her a wry look and hooked his hammer back on the loop
of his belt. “Yeah. Basically.”

She laughed and couldn't resist kissing away the disgruntled
look on his gorgeous features, wondering how it was possible for her to love him
more every moment of every day.

As usual, he was easily distracted when she kissed him, and he
wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “How about we forget this whole
thing and go back to your place and make out for a few hours?” he murmured. “We
can let Riley finish up here. He's dying to take over.”

She had to laugh. Her younger brother had gone back to the
community center for more lumber, but for the entire morning he'd been trying to
boss around all ten of the volunteers working on the gazebo for the Hope's
Crossing second annual Giving Hope Day.

“That's a very appealing idea,” she answered Jack. “But since
you designed this, don't you want to see the project through to the end?”

“I have no problem letting everyone else do the work and just
enjoying the finished product.”

She didn't believe that for a moment. The gazebo had been a
labor of love for Jack, his gift to her and to the town. Even after Harry
stepped in to donate all the materials, Jack had been excited about the design.
When it was finished, this would be a lovely place for people who wanted a shady
spot to enjoy the falls. She could even picture her and Jack—and Puck, of
course—sitting here, sheltered from the elements, in the middle of a
summer-evening rainstorm.

While she was undeniably tempted by the idea of sneaking away
to her house for some rare alone time, she knew they couldn't. “Claire would
kill me if she found out we bailed. You know Riley would rat us out to her in a
minute.”

He gave her a smile full of enticing promise. “Later,
then.”

“Deal,” she said, her voice slightly husky. The past six weeks
had been wonderful between them, filled with more joy than she could have
imagined.

A week ago, in this very spot, he had asked her to marry her.
She gazed at the falls—their spot—wishing with all her heart she had been able
to give him a wholehearted yes. Oh, how she wanted to, but she had asked him to
be patient a little while longer. With Sage's baby due in less than a month, the
timing didn't feel right. For now, she felt that they needed to concentrate on
their daughter and the difficult choices she faced.

Jack had argued a wedding might be exactly the distraction Sage
needed. Maura saw his point, but she still couldn't feel right planning the rest
of their lives together while everything in Sage's world was still
unsettled—even her choice of an adoptive couple with which to place her
baby.

In the end, he had held her close. “I've waited twenty years. I
can wait a few more months,” he had promised.

As she watched him measure the board again and recalculate the
angle, she loved him even more for his patience and his steady strength.

“You're right. The angle is wrong and now this one is going to
be too short. Can you go grab me another board and I'll recut?” he asked.

“Of course.” She hurried to the stacked lumber and picked one
of the correct size. Around her, the other volunteers were hard at work on the
base of the gazebo. As she watched them, Maura remembered the previous year's
service day, just six weeks after the accident, on what would have been Layla's
birthday.

Her emotions had been scraped raw. She had only been able to
attend a few hours before she had had to escape the crush of sympathy.

Everything was different this year. The loss would always be
part of her, an empty spot that nothing else would fill, but she had made the
choice to move forward, to live instead of hiding away in her grief.

Layla would have wanted exactly that.

She was carrying the board back to Jack's work area when her
cell phone suddenly rang with Sage's distinctive ringtone. She set the board
down on the grass with the others before she answered.

“Hey, Mom,” Sage said. She sounded breathless.

“Hi. How are things going down at the library?”

Sage was under strict orders to sit quietly and help repair
dilapidated books at the library. “Um, I guess fine. I have a…little problem.
Well, not really a problem but…”

“What's wrong?”

“I think my water just broke.”

For the first time, she recognized that what she had taken for
breathlessness in Sage's voice was actually fear.

“Are you sure? You're not due for three more weeks!”

“Yeah. Pretty sure. It's hard to mistake that when the ground
at your feet is suddenly soaked. Fortunately, I was already in the bathroom, so
it was easy to clean up with some paper towels.”

Maura fought down panic. Not yet. Not today. “Okay, just sit
tight. I'll grab your father and we'll be right there.”

“Mom, wait. Harry's with me. He's already planning to drive me
to the hospital. I was thinking you could meet us there. That will be quicker
than you coming down here first. Can you just stop at the house and grab the bag
we packed?”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Give me ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you. Honey, hang in there. It will be okay.” Though she
tried to sound confident and breezy, she didn't know how anything possibly would
be okay.

“What's wrong?” Jack asked, instantly alert the moment he saw
her face.

“Sage. Her water broke and she's heading to the hospital now.
Harry's taking her.”

He swore, some of the color leaching from his face. “Okay.
Looks like Riley gets to be in charge, after all.”

They raced to her house, stopping only long enough to make sure
Puck had food and water and to pick up Sage's bag, then Jack sped to the Hope's
Crossing hospital.

By the time they pulled into the parking lot, her hands were
shaking on the bag she clutched on her lap.

“Where do we go?” Jack asked. She quickly gave him directions
to the new women's center and its state-of-the-art birthing rooms that she had
toured with Sage during their birthing class.

At the nurses' station, a too-chipper RN told them a room was
being prepared and that in the meantime they could find Sage and Harry in a
small family waiting room down the hall.

When Maura pushed open the door the nurse had indicated, she
found Sage looking tense and upset. Her daughter jumped up from the sofa and
sagged into her arms. “I'm not ready, Mom,” she wailed. “I thought I had a few
more weeks!”

“I know, honey.”

“I can't have this baby yet. I haven't even picked an adoptive
couple. I've been trying and trying to pick the best one and…they're all good.
None is any better than another. What am I going to do? This is my baby. I can't
just flip a coin!”

She started to cry, and Maura held her closely, her heart
aching. Everything was in place legally for the adoption. Sawyer had readily
signed away any parental rights, and Sage had been working with a wonderful
adoption agency. But despite all the weeks of counseling and discussion, Sage
obviously wasn't prepared for this emotional tumult. Giving a baby up for
adoption was a courageous decision but certainly not an easy one.

She was trying to find impossible words of comfort when Harry
spoke from his spot on the sofa.

“Am I the only one with a brain in this family?” he
growled.

This was
so
not the time for one of
his cantankerous fits. Maura needed her mother here to mellow him out. Their
budding relationship had caused a shockwave of epic proportion to roll over
Hope's Crossing, but even
she
couldn't deny that
Mary Ella was good for Harry. And, amazingly, he had been good for her too.