At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)

by Bretton, Barbara

  At Last

  A Contemporary Romance Novel

  by

  Barbara Bretton

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  Please Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The reverse engineering, uploading, and/or distributing of this eBook via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

  Copyright 1992, 2011 Barbara Bretton. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  More eBooks by Barbara Bretton

  Prologue

  The last person to actually see Graciela Taylor on the day she left Idle Point, Maine forever was old Eb at the Stop & Pump. Maybe if she'd planned her getaway a little better—or had any idea at all that she was going to leave her fiance standing at the altar—she would have seen to it that her gas tank was full. As it happened, the needle on her fuel gauge hovered over the E and she was forced to make a right into Stop & Pump and pray Old Eb wasn't in a talkative mood. She might have taken her chances that she'd make it to Portland before the engine sputtered then shut down, but that was too risky. The last thing she wanted was to run out of gas on Main Street and bump into Noah on his way home from the wedding that wasn't.

  Old Eb peered out from his office, and then did a double-take which didn't bode well for her speedy getaway. He'd been around since long before Gracie was born and he'd seen everything there was worth seeing around Idle Point and a few things he'd rather forget. He was the one who'd found Gracie's mother dead at the bottom of the ravine, trapped in that old Chevy with the horn blaring. He was the one who'd found Gracie, thrown clear from the wreck and crying to beat the band. He was the one who wrapped her in blankets and held her close while they waited for her father to identify his wife's body. She and Eb had a history. If he had any idea what she was up to, it would be all over.

  "You forgetting where you're supposed to be?" he asked as he ambled over to where she stood next to the old Mustang she'd bought four years ago with the money she'd saved working in the kennels for Doctor Jim. "They're down at the cove waitin' for you, Gracie. I'd be there myself if I didn't have to earn a living."

  She smiled, wishing she'd taken time to exchange her short lacy white dress for the pair of jeans and a sweater. She looked like exactly what she was: a runaway bride. "I'm on my way," she said, carefully not specifying her destination. She was too fond of Eb to lie to him.

  Eb checked his pocket watch. "Thought the clambake began at two o'clock," he said. There was a sharp note of curiosity in his voice as his faded blue eyes took in her outfit. "It's near to half-past. You can't be late for your own goodbye party." Eb knew that she was due to leave for Philadelphia the next morning to begin her first year of veterinary school at the University, the goal she'd been striving for since she was barely old enough to walk.

  "I know," she said, "but I'm running on fumes and..." She shrugged. "You know how it is. There was so much to do." He was a native New Englander, same as she. Didn't he know New Englanders were famous for minding their own business?

  Eb checked her oil and cleaned her windshield while the tank guzzled down the gallons. If he wondered why Sam the Cat was grooming herself on the passenger's seat, he never said. Gracie peered nervously over her shoulder every time she heard a car approach. A clean getaway, that was all she wanted. When the dust cleared and the hurt feelings mended, maybe then they could talk. She'd left a note for Noah on the kitchen table. She told him that she was sorry, that she hadn't planned on any of this, but wasn't it better to put an end to it now before it was too late?

  Besides, how did you explain to the boy you'd loved since kindergarten that leaving him was the best thing you could ever do for him.

  Eb screwed the gas cap back on good and tight.

  "What do I owe you?" she asked as she reached for her purse through the open car window.

  Eb plunged his gnarled hands deep into the pockets of his overalls. "Just get yourself a good education, girlie, then come back home to us where you belong. I've waited a long time to dance at your wedding. I want to see you all set up with a job and a husband and a few babies."

  He didn't have any idea what he was saying.

  You don't understand, Eb. There was supposed to be a wedding today but I backed out. We were going to throw aside all of our plans and run away to Paris together. Can you imagine, Eb? I love him and he loves me but we don't have a chance in the world of being happy together. His father has seen to that. That's why I'm going to get behind the wheel of my car and get away from here before I start believing in fairy tales.

  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 h
is 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 high school."

  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.

  Chapter One

  Gracie Taylor fell in love with Noah Chase on the first day of kindergarten. She was five-and-a-half years old and so homesick she thought her heart would stop beating when Gramma told her that she had to stay there in that cold and scary schoolroom and that she wouldn't come back for Gracie until two o'clock. She was standing near the coatroom and trying very hard not to cry when he appeared at her side. "You'd better hang up your sweater before the bell rings," he said, "or else Mrs. Cavanaugh'll give you a black star." He had bright blue eyes and thick dark lashes and when he smiled at her she thought her heart would float up to the ceiling like a birthday balloon. She'd never seen anyone like him before in her entire life except in storybooks where beautiful children lived in beautiful houses with parents who loved them forever and ever.

  He tugged at her sleeve and his smile grew even brighter. "Better do it," he said. "I'll save you a seat."

  Gracie, who never said a word unless she had to, looked deep into those twinkling blue eyes and said, "How do you know about the black stars?"

  "Everybody knows," said her new friend. "Gold stars when you're good. Black stars when you're bad."

  Gracie didn't care a bit about black stars but if he thought they were a bad thing, so did she. She hung up her favorite red sweater on the last empty hook in the coatroom. Gramma Del had given her that sweater for her last birthday and she loved it. It had always seemed special but now it only looked shabby and not special at all, hanging there with the other kids' sweaters. Their sweaters were hand-knit of the softest wool, with tiny ducks and bunnies embroidered along the edges. You couldn't buy sweaters like that at the discount store where Gramma Del bought Gracie's. Gracie was sure that each one of those special sweaters had been made by a mommy.

  The classroom was filled with noisy, laughing children, all pushing and shoving each other like puppies in a basket. She lived out by the docks, an only child in a world of adults. Her best friends were her books (especially the ones about animals), her goldfish, and her beloved hamster named Wilbur. She felt like herself around animals, not shy and quiet the way she did around people.

  Gracie jammed her hands into the pockets of her corduroy jumper. Her feet felt big and heavy, too heavy to move her into the room. Why did she have to go to kindergarten anyway? She already knew how to read and she could print out her name and her address and her telephone number with her favorite Crayola. Who wanted to sit around with a bunch of dumb kids, playing with blocks and finger paints when you could be reading about Lassie or the Cat in the Hat?

  The boy with the bright blue eyes twisted around in his seat then pointed at the desk next to him. He smiled at her like it was Christmas morning and having her sit next to him was the best present under the tree. Suddenly she was moving forward, her eyes locked with his, moving right past the other kids just like she was one of them. She slid into the cold wooden seat and folded her hands on top of the desk.

  "What's your name?" he asked, leaning across the aisle.

  "G-Gracie," she said, wishing she had a pretty name like Tiffany or Marisa. "What's yours?"

  "Noah," he said, screwing up his face like a dried-up lemon.

  She giggled. Two of the other little kids turned around and saw what Noah was doing and they giggled too and before she knew it, she was right there in the center of a group of laughing children, almost like she belonged there.

  #

  It was the best day of Gracie's life. When Mrs. Cavanaugh said, "Class dismissed!" Gracie wished she could blink her eyes and start the day all over again. She followed the other kids into the coatroom to claim her sweater and the buzz of talk and laughter all around her felt like a big hug. They all liked Noah and since Noah liked Gracie, they opened their circle wide enough to let Gracie in too. It was like being welcomed into a magic place where only good things happened and she hated to see it end.

  Gramma Del was waiting for her by the gate. She had Mondays off from her job as cook for the richest family in Idle Point. "You look real happy this afternoon, missy," she said, tugging on Gracie's stick-straight
ponytail. "Did you have a good first day of school?"

  "I taught them double Dutch," she said, bouncing in place with excitement. "We have a class parakeet and two gerbils. I had milk and cookies. We took a nap on squishy pillows and I even had my own blanket." She hadn't closed her eyes once, not even for a second. She didn't want to miss a thing.

  "Your own blanket!" Gramma Del nodded. "Now that's something." She took Gracie's hand and they started walking. Gramma Del was old and she didn't walk real fast which was fine with Gracie. She wanted the day to last forever. "Did you make any friends?"

  "Terri and Laquita and Mary Ellen and Joey and Tim and Don and Noah." She almost wasn't going to tell Gramma Del about Noah. In a way she wanted him to be her very own special secret friend but she couldn't keep anything from her grandma.

  Gramma Del stopped walking. "Noah?"

  "Yes," said Gracie. "He held a seat for me."

  Gramma Del's lips all but disappeared. "Did you know I cook for Noah's daddy?"

  "No," said Gracie. "He has blue eyes, Gramma."

  "Well, those blue eyes won't be around too long, missy. His daddy has big plans for that little boy."

  Boarding school.

  Prep school.

  Ivy League.

  Gramma Del's words swirled over Gracie's head but she wasn't paying much attention. She was thinking about Noah and the class parakeet and the gerbils and taking in all the sights as the other kids met up with their mommies or big brothers and sisters. Laquita was standing at the corner all by herself, looking like she didn't mind being alone one bit. She was a very quiet little girl with a round face and long black hair that spilled down her back. Mary Ellen and Joey, redheaded twins, waved at Gracie from the back seat of a big green station wagon. Tim and Don's big brother was yelling at them to get in the car right this minute but they were talking to Terri near the school bus. Most of the kids lived in town and had been playing together since they were little babies.