A Soft Place to Fall (Shelter Rock Cove)
Page 33
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.
# #
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:
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