a-soft-place-to-fall - Rakhibul hasan (story books to read .TXT) 📗

shown some of the news coverage of the downfall of Mason, Marx, and Daniels and it hadn't been pretty. He had been portrayed in an unfavorable light in most of it and, the world being what it was, it wasn't very likely that his redemption would be mentioned at all. Annie had cast him early on as a hero. How would she feel about him as a man who had made mistakes a better man would have had the strength to avoid?

He had no answers for any of it. All he knew, all he cared about, was seeing her again.

Much of the last few days was a blur for him. He'd regained consciousness when they landed for refueling somewhere near Miami where he conned one of his captors into uncuffing him so he could use the john. He had managed to pry open the window over the toilet and was about to shove himself through the opening when the son of a bitch came in to see what was taking him so long.

They would both be carrying around a shitload of bruises after that encounter. The plan had been to deliver him to a designated safe house in the Bahamas where

some of Mason, Marx, and Daniels' best and brightest would try to convince him that his life would be much happier if he took them up on their generous offer of money for silence. He never did get to hear the details – or the chance to tell them to shove it – because by the time they reached the safe house it was clear that the bottom had dropped out of their scheme. The Justice Department was closing in on associates in New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and London.

They tied Sam to a chair in the middle of the safe house then took off, and that was where local cops finally found him. They turned him over to the f,eds who ferried him to a small hospital where he remained overnight for observation then spirited him back to Miami where he was subjected to intense questioning by a series of interrogators, each of whom seemed determined to prove him guilty.

He had a lot to tell Annie, but there would be time enough for all of the stories. A lifetime, if they were lucky. One day he wanted her to meet Mrs. Ruggiero; he owed the old woman a debt of gratitude even if Mrs. R didn't know it. The same act of compassion that had cost him his job had turned out to be the key to setting him free. The trail he had inadvertently created when he tried to bail out Mrs. R, Lila, and Mr. Ashkenazy ran counter to the one the company had hung his name on and only his trail stood up under questioning. His own sense of guilt ran deep but in the eyes of the law he was innocent. He would be deposed at a later date and eventually called upon to testify in court but all charges against him had been officially dropped and he was a free man.

But not for long. Life was too short and he loved her too much to wait any longer. He liked the man he was when he was with her. He liked the way she made him laugh and think and dream. He knew that in the eyes of the world he was a loser, a thirty-five year old man who could fit everything he owned in the back seat of his Trooper, but when Annie Galloway smiled at him he felt like a king.

He was going to tell her that he loved her, that she was the home he had always longed for, that without her the future was nothing but a string of days and nights without meaning. He was going to tell her what he had never told a woman before. He was going to say, "I love you."

And then he was going to pray she loved him back.

#

"We're not taking no for an answer." Susan said as she, Claudia, and Sweeney surrounded Annie. "You're coming out for supper with us or we'll know the reason why." Annie, who was seated on her stool behnd her workbench in the back of the shop, mustered up a smile. "That's a nice idea, really it is, but I think I'd better get some more

work done on the Selkirk-Holder wedding preparations."

Susan groaned loud enough to be heard at Cappy's. "You need a break, Annie. You can't spend every moment staring at CNN and waiting for the phone to ring. You need to get out for a while."

"What if Sam –"

"He'll find you," Sweeney said, laughing. "This is a small town and he's the number one topic of conversation. If he shows up, I guarantee the entire population of Shelter Rock Cove will escort him to Cappy's for the reunion."

"There's a good reason to work late," Annie muttered.

Claudia placed a gentle hand on Annie's shoulder. "You need to keep up your strength," she said softly. "The baby deserves that much."

Claudia was right. They were all right. And they would keep on hammering away at her until she agreed. "Okay," she said. "I give up. You've worn me down." She slid off the stool and stood up. "Give me two minutes to wash my face and try to do something with this hair and I'll be ready."

The three of them exchanged glances. Annie could just imagine what those glances meant. They were worried about her. They thought she was spending too much time brooding over Sam who just might not decide to come back to Shelter Rock Cove after all. He had a life down there in New York City. He had an apartment down there and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews, all of whom loved and needed him. Why would he want to leave all of that to live in some little town in Maine where it snowed too much in the winter and rained too much in the summer and couldn't make up its mind the rest of the year?

Because he loves you.

That would be a wonderful reason if it were true, but was it? How could she possibly know for sure when they had never said those words to each other, those magical words that unlocked the heart and soul. They had danced all around them but never once had either one of them stepped out to the edge of that cliff and said, "I love you."

She wished she could do it all over again. She would tell him she loved him, tell him about the baby, tell him that in a lifetime spent searching for a home of her own she had finally found it in his arms.

She would tell him all of that and more if only he would come back to Shelter Rock Cove.

#

The door to Annie's Flowers swung open and Sweeney leaned out and grabbed Sam by the sleeve. "Hurry!" she said, dragging him inside. "Get in here!"

"That's what I tried to do five minutes ago when you shoved me out the door." "Shh!" she said, holding a paint-stained finger to her lips. "We want this to be a

surprise, don't we?"

It occurred to Sam that it couldn't be anything but a surprise to Annie but he had three sisters. He knew there was no dealing with a woman on a mission.

Claudia Galloway and her daughter Susan were leaning against the counter. They sported matching cat-that-ate-a-cageful-of-canaries smiles.

"Congratulations," said Susan. "I think you'll learn to – ouch!" She turned to glare at her mother who had administered an elbow to her ribs. "What was that for?"

"My daughter is only forty-two," Claudia said with a wicked twinkle in her eye. "Sometimes she forgets her manners."

Sam grinned back at her. He could learn to like the woman. He glanced around the store. "Where's Annie?"

"Will you keep your voice down!" Sweeney ordered. "She's in the bathroom fixing her hair. She thinks we're going to Cappy's."

They heard footsteps moving down the hallway. "Quick," Sweeney said. "Hide behind that display."

He felt like a damn fool but he let himself be pushed behind one of those froufrou displays of flowers and little breakables that no sane person would have in the house.

"So who's driving?" Annie sounded exhausted. That had to mean she loved him, didn't it? "We can all go in my Trooper, if you want."

"There's someone to see you," Sweeney said. "Oh no." Annie groaned. "Who is it this time?"

Sweeney poked her head behind the display. "Now, you dope!"

He rounded the display and there she was. Tired, a little rumpled, the most beautiful woman he had ever known.

"This wasn't my idea," he said but his words were lost as ran into each other's arms. "You're home," she said against his mouth. "You're home!"

His heart soared. She was laughing and crying and so was everyone around them but he only had eyes for Annie. He drank in the sight of her, those beautiful blue eyes with the dusky shadows beneath them, the laugh lines, the smile that told him that he could open his heart to her and she would understand.

He heard a lot of sniffling all around him and then the sound of footsteps heading for the door.

"I thought they'd never leave," he said.

"Just as long as you never leave me again." The look in her eyes was so filled with love and longing that he wondered how he had ever walked through his days without her. "You're hurt," she said, gently tracing his battered face. "Oh Sam –"

"You should've seen the other guy." He gathered up the last of his courage. "I have a lot to tell you, Annie. I'm not too proud of most of it."

"I've followed the news," she said, "and I know the kind of man you are. When you're ready to talk, I want to listen."

"I looked the other way when I should have been doing something to help. I hurt innocent people."

Her eyes welled with tears. "I know all about looking the other way, Sam. I did that for most of my marriage to Kevin."

Her words were balm to his soul, the first step in his journey to regain his self-respect.

"I love you," he said. "I've never said that to a woman before." The power of those words and all they represented – you built families on their foundation. You built generations.

"You're my soulmate," she said softly. "I've never said that to a man before." Her voice broke on the last word. "I never will again."

"I'm not rich," he said, "and my prospects these days are lousy." It would take time for his reputation to be restored and by then, that world would have long since passed him by.

"I'm one step up from being flat broke," she said, "but I'd say my prospects are terrific."

"I might end up building canoes for a living." "Sounds good to me."

"If you'd met me this time last year, you would've gotten a hell of a better deal." He'd had a career, a new car, money in the bank. Now all he had was his heart on his sleeve.

"I'll be the judge of that. I fell in love with the guy in the ratty old Trooper, didn't I?" "The one with the pizza-eating dog."

"Yep," she said, "that's the one. He stole my heart and I don't want it back." "There are a whole lot of Butlers out there for you to meet."

She took a deep breath. "Actually there's one more Butler even you haven't met yet." He looked at her. "You want to say that again?"

"One more Butler," she said, taking his hand and placing it against her soft belly, "due to join us around June 15th. That's what I was coming to tell you that afternoon."

"But I thought you couldn't –"

"So did I," she said, "but when