RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Volume One: Blackberry Summer\Woodrose Mountain\Sweet Laurel Falls (94 page)

This was more than she had told Maura. Apparently Jack merited
a little additional information.

“But he was still willing to screw around on her with you? He
sounds like an ass.” His voice was hard.

“He's not. He's… We were friends and…”

“More than friends, it sounds like.”

Sage's cheeks turned pink. “Well, things went a little too far,
obviously.”

His daughter. This young woman he had only barely discovered
was now going to bring new life into the world. How the hell had his world
become so complicated in a matter of weeks?

“Is he stepping up to take care of his responsibilities?”

She looked down at her hands. “I, um, haven't told him about
the baby yet.”

“Now, that sounds familiar.” The words came out with more of an
edge than he intended. Maura winced and Sage gripped her mother's hand more
tightly.

“It's early days yet,” Maura murmured. Her cheeks looked as
pink as Sage's, and he wondered what she was thinking.

A child. His daughter, barely older than a child herself, was
pregnant. Some bastard had knocked her up and walked away, leaving her alone to
deal with the consequences.

This whole thing seemed like the echo of a particularly nasty
nightmare.

How was he supposed to react? He didn't know the first thing
about babies or pregnancies. His only experience with either had been through a
couple of his employees—a receptionist who had worked there through two
pregnancies, until she was eight or so months along, and a really talented young
associate who had ended up leaving to do consulting from home after the birth of
premature twins.

With each pregnancy, it seemed like baby talk had taken over
the office. Everybody who came in seemed to want to talk about ultrasounds and
baby names and
circumcision,
for Pete's sake.

All that opulent fertility had left him more than a little
uncomfortable. When the office chitchat had started to revolve around swollen
ankles and breast-feeding, he had struggled to find any safe, politically
correct thing he could say as the male employer that wouldn't be misconstrued.
He had finally decided he would be wise to just ignore the pregnancies as much
as possible.

He wasn't the employer here, though, and he couldn't ignore
this. Sage was his daughter—and he had no more idea of what he should say to her
than he had known what to say around the office.

He finally settled on something he thought was relatively
innocuous. “Are you, uh, feeling okay?”

“Yeah. I'm feeling pretty good. I've been so tired the last few
months, but I'm starting to get some energy again.”

She mustered a little smile. It struck him again how very
pretty she was, this child he and Maura had created together. Her smile was
almost heartbreakingly sweet, with that little dimple that seemed to peek out at
opportune moments.

In the next few months, her life would change completely. Did
she have the first idea how very much? He wasn't sure
he
did, he just knew Sage didn't look nearly mature enough to be a
mother.

“This has got to be a shock for you, right?” Her dimple peeked
out again. “I mean, it's got to be weird finding out you're a father and going
to be a grandfather, all in the space of six weeks. Two for the price of
one.”

A grandfather. Good Lord. He was only thirty-eight years old.
He stared at her and then shifted his gaze to Maura, who didn't look any more
thrilled about that than he was.

“It's certainly…unexpected. A baby. Wow. I'm still
reeling.”

“I am too, if you want to know the truth. And I've known for
several weeks.”

“Why didn't you say anything?”

“That seems to be the question of the hour,” Maura said.

Sage sighed. “I didn't want it to ruin things between us. It
won't, will it? I mean, I know everything's different now but…I would still like
to continue working for you as long as I can, if you'll let me.”

He frowned. “Did you think I would fire you and throw you out
on the streets just because you're pregnant?”

“No. Not really. I was pretty nervous about telling you, until
Mom reminded me that you came back to Hope's Crossing when you didn't want to,
only because of me. She told me I needed to trust you.”

“Did she?” He glanced at Maura and saw another hot tide of
color wash over her cheeks. Good to know she didn't think he was a complete
jerk. “Of course I want you to continue working for me. I would have to be
stupid to let a thing like an unplanned pregnancy rob me of the best office
manager I've ever had.”

“Thanks. That means a lot to me. I just don't want things to
be…weird.”

He laughed roughly. “I'm not sure my life could possibly get
any more weird, unless an alternate life form suddenly comes swarming out of my
fireplace.”

Maura and Sage laughed, and he couldn't help but notice both of
them looked more at ease than they had when he let them into the house. “Thank
you for coming in person to tell me this. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you.”

He directed his words to Sage, but he had a feeling Maura
hadn't exactly been thrilled to come to his house to break this news—yet she had
stepped up and supported her daughter anyway, despite her own personal
misgivings. He considered that very much a mark in her favor.

“It was totally the right thing to do,” Sage answered. “Talking
to you about this in the workplace somehow didn't seem right.”

Wherever she had decided to tell him, he could only imagine the
courage it must have taken her to face him. What had it been like for
Maura
after he'd left town, having to tell her family
and her friends she was pregnant? Twenty years ago, that couldn't have been an
easy task in a small town like Hope's Crossing, which could be insular and
closed-minded.

The old biddies who had been so cruel to his mother, who had
shunned her because of the inappropriate outbursts and wild mood swings caused
by her mental illness, might be dead by now but he could still remember them
clearly.

He had one particularly vivid memory of going grocery shopping
at the small store on Main Street that had been the only place to buy fresh meat
and produce before the chains had moved in. He would have been maybe eight or
nine at the time, old enough to begin to have some awareness that his mother
wasn't like the pretty women in their perfectly matched polyester pantsuits who
pushed their offspring through the store sedately, not with hair-raising twists
and circles that made him laugh but scared him at the same time.

Frances Redmond, a particularly cranky lady, had been working
at the checkout. When Bethany finally picked out her groceries and pushed the
cart to the checkout, he remembered Mrs. Redmond making snide comments about
every item.

“Nuts? Bananas? Can I get you some crackers to go with the rest
of your crazy-lady food?”

It seemed benign now, just somebody trying to make a stupid
joke about something they feared and didn't understand, but his mother had
turned red as the package of Kit Kats he had wanted, and he had realized this
was one of her bad days.

“You don't know anything. I am
not
crazy, you stupid bitch,” she had yelled, far too loudly, and had grabbed his
arm tightly and dragged him out of the store, leaving her groceries on the belt
while all the pretty ladies and their perfect children watched with horrified
fascination.

Maura had faced that den of vipers on her own. The wagging
tongues like Laura Beaumont and Frances Redmond and Elsie Whittaker. That must
have taken great courage on her part.

Why had she stayed here in Hope's Crossing? If he had been in
her shoes, he would have run as far and as fast as he could.

Hell, that's exactly what he
had
done, at the first opportunity.

Her mother would have helped her. He couldn't picture Mary
Ella, his favorite English teacher, being deliberately cruel to any of her
children. He was fiercely glad for that suddenly, grateful she could have
someone in her corner when she was a frightened teenager.

She would do the same for her own daughter. Somehow he knew
without question Maura would be a loving, supportive mother during the
challenges Sage now faced with this pregnancy.

“Where are you two off to today?” he asked, suddenly loath to
send them quickly on their way.

“Home,” Maura answered with alacrity. “I've got laundry and
grocery shopping to catch up on. Really exciting, isn't it?”

Sage wrinkled her nose. “I should do homework. I have a paper
due in my ancient-history class at the end of the week.”

“Feel like taking a drive with me first?” he asked on impulse.
“I need to head up to the site Harry wants to set aside for the recreation
center to do some measurements. I could use a couple of assistants. I actually
wanted to give you a call today, Sage. That's why I texted you, to find out what
your plans were.”

“Oh?”

“I know you mentioned you wanted to observe a project from the
outset. This might be your best opportunity.”

“I would love that! My homework can probably wait until later
this evening. How about you, Mom? Think you can you put off the laundry and
shopping for a while to help us?”

“Do you really need two assistants? Wouldn't I just be in the
way?” She was plainly reluctant to join them. “I can pick Sage up later, or you
could just drop her by the house on your way back here.”

Obviously she didn't want to spend any more time than necessary
with him. He could understand that, he supposed, but after their kiss the other
night, he was unwilling to let her slip away so easily.

“Any chance I could persuade you otherwise?” he pushed. “You've
lived in Hope's Crossing a long time now. You run a business that has become one
of the community gathering spots. You would have a unique perspective about the
town and the people who live here.”

“Oh, I don't know about that.”

“Sure you do, Mom.” Sage turned to him. “She's being modest.
One of the reasons the bookstore survives and even still thrives in this market
is because my mom has an uncanny way of knowing which books people in town are
going to want to read, which coffee blends are sure to be hot, events people
will fall all over each other to attend.”

Maura looked both flustered and pleased at her daughter's
praise, but he could still see lingering reluctance. He jumped in before she
could refuse again. “That's exactly what I need. That instinctive knowledge of
the town and the people who live here. To be honest with you, one of the
toughest things about any new project is letting go of my own perceptions to
focus on the needs of the client. I have many preconceived notions about Hope's
Crossing, as you may be aware.”

“Most of them wrong,” she muttered.

Not all of them, though. He remembered that scene at the
grocery store and a dozen more, incidents where people had shunned his sweet,
troubled mother. He wasn't quite willing to forgive everyone in Hope's Crossing
yet. Despite that, he would work his tail off to make sure the town and its
citizens, biddies or not, had the best damn recreation center their money could
buy.

“Come with us, Maura. I need to figure out what the town wants
out of this project. I need you.”

She scrutinized him, her gaze narrowed as if she were trying to
ascertain what game he was playing. If she figured it out, he had to hope she
would decide to let him in on it. He didn't quite know what was going on
himself. He only knew he was still fiercely drawn to her, just as when he had
been that stupid kid desperate for the peace he found only with her.

More than a week after their kiss, he couldn't forget the
softness of her mouth, the sweetness of her response.

He wanted more. Foolish as he knew that was, he wanted to see
if that moment outside her car had been a fluke, or if they could still generate
that same kind of heat.

“I suppose I could spare an hour or so,” she finally said. “The
laundry will still be there tomorrow. Unfortunately. And the grocery store too,
for that matter. Watching you work will be…interesting.”

“Interesting? I'm not sure about that. I'll only be taking
pictures of the site and a few measurements. Nothing too exciting.”

“But probably better than laundry,” she said.

“I guess that would depend what's in your laundry.”

She laughed and shook her head, and he was entranced by her all
over again. He had seen her smile too seldom since he had returned to Hope's
Crossing, and a laugh was a rarity indeed. He wanted more of that too.

At the same time, now that she was agreeing to go with them, he
found himself conversely uncomfortable with the idea of her observing him.

He had a sudden memory of sitting on a blanket in the canyon
with her, describing in detail the judicious development he wanted to create
there, homes that blended into the landscape, recreational opportunities that
benefited the entire town and not only the elite who could afford exorbitant ski
passes. He also suddenly remembered how heady—
erotic,
even—he had found her rapt attention.

He cleared his throat. “Just give me a few minutes to grab some
supplies and my coat.”

Trying to shake that seductive image, he headed quickly to his
office to find his camera and a fresh battery pack for it, a sketchbook and his
laser distance meter.

He thought water bottles might come in handy and headed for the
kitchen to take some from the refrigerator. To his surprise, he found Sage
standing at the stove, stirring something on one of the burners. Maura was
nowhere in sight.