Freefall
Page 20
Epilogue
"You might want to use that outcropping of rocks there to frame the shot. See it, Al?"
"Yeah. I think so. Will you check the focus for me before I shoot?"
Sophie leaned closer to her niece—crouched behind some of her old camera equipment—and peered through the viewfinder. Through the lens she could see Zach and Zoe laughing and chasing each other like little puppies along the pebbled beach off their Oregon home. Warm fall sunlight flashed gold in their hair and their cheeks glowed with joy and life.
The sun was a little too high overhead for the sweet light of dusk, but she wouldn't have changed a thing in the picture. The twins looked happy, glowing with life, exactly as she hoped they would continue to appear forever.
Sophie stepped away from the tripod and gestured for Ali to come forward. "You're perfect, Al. Fire away."
Ali flashed her a grin, then pressed the shutter several times in rapid succession. The girl was a natural behind the camera, Sophie thought. In the past year she had lapped up any tips her aunt could give her with the enthusiasm of a retriever going after birds.
She had taken up her new hobby so fervently that one entire wall in the hallway of their home was devoted to Ali's photographs. There were pictures of the twins sleeping, their noses pink and their mouths ajar. Of Mrs. Cope elbow-deep in bread dough in the kitchen. Of her new friends at school on a field trip, arms slung around each other's shoulders and the sweet joy of youth in their eyes.
There were also a half-dozen photographs of Sophie and Tom together when they thought no one was watching. Kissing on the beach, kissing in the kitchen, kissing on the porch swing.
One of Sophie's favorites of Ali's photos was one she'd taken of her grandfather and Tom leaning against a rock on the Seal Point beach at Christmastime, one of the last photographs of the Canfield patriarch before he died the day before New Year's Eve of a massive stroke.
So many changes had shaped their lives in the past year, she thought, watching the twins throw stones into the soft surf.
Just a few weeks after William died—and only a month after Peter went to prison under a guilty plea agreement for the deaths of Shelly and Walter Marlowe—Tom received new orders from the Coast Guard, this new assignment to Coos Bay.
She missed Seal Point and the Monterey Peninsula and she knew Tom had struggled with the decision to sell his childhood home but she was so fiercely proud of him. After selling the estate and his interest in Canfield Investments, Tom had used most of the proceeds to repay investors his brother had swindled.
They had made a good life here. Tom loved his new assignment, she was taking the occasional magazine freelance job when she could coordinate it with his leave and school holidays so everyone could go along, and the children were thriving away from the stigma of scandal and tragedy attached to them in Monterey.
She was happy. Joyously, deliriously happy, she thought just as the twins flopped onto the blanket next to her.
"When will Uncle Tommy be home?" Zoe asked.
She leaned down to tie the flopping laces on one of Zoe's sneakers. "Probably not until late, after you're in bed."
"I wish he'd hurry," Zach said. "I want to tell him about the father-son camp-out next week. I can't wait to catch a fish and sleep in a tent and not even have to take a bath for two whole days!"
Sophie had to admit, she wanted Tom to hurry, too. For the past ten days he'd been in Texas on a training operation and she thought time had never passed so slowly. Since their marriage, they'd never been apart longer than one night and she missed him with a bone-deep ache.
"You'll see him in the morning at breakfast, I promise."
"Can we have French toast and hash browns?" Zach asked eagerly.
She laughed and tipped his baseball cap down on his forehead. "How about we wait until after we have dinner tonight before we come up with tomorrow's breakfast menu?"
"Okay," he agreed cheerfully. "I'm starving. Let's go eat."
"Sure. Ali, are you finished with that roll of film so we can go inside?"
Ali clicked off one more frame—of Sophie with the twins cuddled on her lap, she realized—then nodded. "That was the end of the roll right there."
They spent a few moments packing the gear away then walked together toward the sprawling house with its huge gleaming windows and weather-aged cedar.
They were almost to the steps leading to the deck that hugged the rear of the house when Sophie heard a car door out front.
"Uncle Tommy!" Zoe shrieked.
"I don't think so, honey. He's not supposed to be back until…"
The children didn't wait to let her finish. Even Ali lowered the photo equipment to the steps then raced around the side of the house after the twins. With a resigned sigh, Sophie followed them to see who had come to visit.
She turned the corner of the house then felt her heart give a joyful little leap. There he was standing by his Jeep in his uniform, looking dark and masculine and gorgeous with the children—their children—swarming around him. Zoe was in one arm, clinging to him like a little monkey with her arms around his neck and her legs clamped around his waist, and he held Ali and Zach close with the other arm.
Sophie couldn't breathe suddenly and had to lean against the rough cedar planking of the house for support as her muscles went weak. Would he still have this effect on her when she was eighty? she wondered. This twirling, pulsing need?
He caught sight of her then and something warm and brilliant kindled in the silver of his eyes. Their gazes held as she walked forward. When she nearly reached him, he set Zoe down.
"Zach," he murmured without taking his gaze from hers, "why don't you and your sisters take in my gear so I can kiss my girl?"
Zach groaned with disgust at the idea of anybody kissing around him but pulled a duffel out of the Jeep while Ali grabbed a garment bag. Zoe trailed after them up the steps and into the house, complaining bitterly about not having anything to carry, until finally they were inside, leaving Sophie and Tom alone.
He smiled and an instant later she was in his arms. How could his kiss still make her heart race and her blood jump like this after a year of marriage?
"I've missed you like crazy," he murmured. "I couldn't sleep the whole time I was gone because you weren't there beside me."
She thought of her own sleepless nights in their big bed, staring through the skylight and aching for him. Though it was probably small of her, she had to admit to experiencing a little satisfaction that he had suffered, too. "That makes two of us. Maybe tonight we'll both finally be able to get a good night's sleep."
Against her mouth, he grinned that slow sexy smile she loved so much. "Or maybe not."
"Okay. Tomorrow night."
He laughed and kissed her again. "I love you so much. I can't even tell you how good it is to be home."
She thought of the hectic pace of her own wandering life before Shelly's death had forced her to stop, to settle in one place for a while. She used to think she was happy wandering from country to country, village to village, with no one to answer to but herself and whatever photo editor had sent her out this time.
Now she knew that she hadn't had the first idea what true joy was until a year ago, when she had set her suitcases down in Monterey and formed this crazy, wonderful, chaotic family with him.
She smiled at this man she loved with everything inside her and settled deeper into his arms. "You don't have to tell me how good it is to be home, Tom. Believe me, I already know."
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6278-6
FREEFALL
Copyright © 2003 by RaeAnne Thayne
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Table of Contents
RAEANNE THAYNE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue