Sweet Laurel Falls Read Online Free Page B

asked, green eyes wide with surprise. “You hate
Hope’s Crossing.”
    “I just found out I have a daughter. I’m not in any particular
hurry to walk back out of her life right away.”
    The surprise shifted to something that looked like horror, as
if she had never expected him to genuinely want to be part of their daughter’s
world on any ongoing basis. Sage, though, lifted her head from her mother’s
shoulder and gave him a watery smile. “That’s great. Really great.”
    “What do you say we meet for breakfast in the morning? Unless
you have to be here at the bookstore first thing.”
    Maybe a night’s rest would give them all a little breathing
space and offer him, at least, a chance to regain equilibrium, before any deeper
discussion about the decisions made in the past and where they would go from
here.
    “I own the place. I don’t have to punch a clock.”
    “Which usually means you’re here from about eight a.m. to ten
p.m.” Sage gave her mother a teasing look.
    “I can meet for breakfast,” Maura said. “Tomorrow I don’t have
anything pressing at the store until midmorning.”
    “Perfect. Why don’t we meet at the Center of Hope Café at
around eight-thirty? We stopped there to grab a bite at the counter before we
walked over here, and I’m happy to say their food is just as good as I
remembered.”
    “The café? I don’t know if that’s the greatest idea. You might
not want to…” she started to say, but her words trailed off.
    “Want to what?” he asked.
    She seemed to reconsider the subject of any objection on his
part. “No. On second thought, sure. Eight-thirty at the café should work just
fine.”
    “Okay. I’ll see you then. Shall we go, Sage?”
    “Yeah.” She pressed her cheek to her mother’s. “I’m still
furious you didn’t tell me about my father. I probably will be for a while. But
I still love you and I will forever and ever.”
    “Back at you,” Maura said, a catch in her voice that she
quickly cleared away.
    “Do you think she’ll be okay?” Sage asked him after they walked
through the bookstore and the lightly falling snow to the SUV, which he had
rented what seemed a lifetime ago at the Denver airport before his lecture.
    “You would know that better than I do.”
    “I thought I knew my mother. We’re best friends. I still can’t
believe she would keep this huge secret from me.”
    He wondered at Maura’s reasons for that. Why didn’t she tell
Sage? Why didn’t she tell him? Surely in the years
since he’d left, she could have found some way to tell him about his child.
    The idea of it was still overwhelming as hell.
    “You’ll have to give me directions to your place,” he said
after she fastened her seat belt.
    “Oh. Right. We live on Mountain Laurel Road. Do you remember
where that is?”
    “I think so.” If he remembered correctly, it was just past
Sweet Laurel Falls, one of his favorite places in town. The falls had been one
of their secret rendezvous points. Why he should remember that right now, he had
no idea. “I know the general direction, anyway. Be sure to tell me if I start to
head off course.”
    Traffic was busier than he expected as he drove through Hope’s
Crossing with the wipers beating back the falling snow. He hardly recognized the
downtown. When he had lived here, many of these storefronts had been empty or
had housed businesses that barely survived on the margin. Now trendy
restaurants, bustling bars catering to tourists and boutiques with elegant
holiday window displays seemed to jostle for space.
    Some of the historic buildings were still there, but he could
see new buildings as well. Much to his surprise, some faction in town had
apparently made an effort to keep the town’s historic flavor, even among the new
developments. Instead of a modern hodgepodge of architectural styles that would
be jarring and unpleasant with the mountain grandeur surrounding the town, it
looked as if restrictions had been enacted to