At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories) - By Barbara Bretton Page 0,2
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.