Sweet Laurel Falls (30 page)

EPILOGUE

“S
OMETHING
’
S
NOT
WORKING
. I think we might have cut the angle wrong.” Maura held up a
board that was supposed to fit against another one, but quite obviously
didn’t.

Jack, looking extremely sexy in jeans, a tight T-shirt and a
low-slung leather carpenter belt, raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me. Who’s the professional, again?”

Laughter bubbled up inside her. “You’re an architect, not a
carpenter.”

“And you run a bookstore and coffeehouse.”

She gestured at the pile of lumber scattered around them on the
path beside Sweet Laurel Falls, where they were supposed to be helping build the
small, delicate gazebo Jack had designed.

“So we’re both completely out of our league here.”

He gave her a wry look and hooked his hammer back on the loop
of his belt. “Yeah. Basically.”

She laughed and couldn’t resist kissing away the disgruntled
look on his gorgeous features, wondering how it was possible for her to love him
more every moment of every day.

As usual, he was easily distracted when she kissed him, and he
wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “How about we forget this whole
thing and go back to your place and make out for a few hours?” he murmured. “We
can let Riley finish up here. He’s dying to take over.”

She had to laugh. Her younger brother had gone back to the
community center for more lumber, but for the entire morning he’d been trying to
boss around all ten of the volunteers working on the gazebo for the Hope’s
Crossing second annual Giving Hope Day.

“That’s a very appealing idea,” she answered Jack. “But since
you designed this, don’t you want to see the project through to the end?”

“I have no problem letting everyone else do the work and just
enjoying the finished product.”

She didn’t believe that for a moment. The gazebo had been a
labor of love for Jack, his gift to her and to the town. Even after Harry
stepped in to donate all the materials, Jack had been excited about the design.
When it was finished, this would be a lovely place for people who wanted a shady
spot to enjoy the falls. She could even picture her and Jack—and Puck, of
course—sitting here, sheltered from the elements, in the middle of a
summer-evening rainstorm.

While she was undeniably tempted by the idea of sneaking away
to her house for some rare alone time, she knew they couldn’t. “Claire would
kill me if she found out we bailed. You know Riley would rat us out to her in a
minute.”

He gave her a smile full of enticing promise. “Later,
then.”

“Deal,” she said, her voice slightly husky. The past six weeks
had been wonderful between them, filled with more joy than she could have
imagined.

A week ago, in this very spot, he had asked her to marry her.
She gazed at the falls—their spot—wishing with all her heart she had been able
to give him a wholehearted yes. Oh, how she wanted to, but she had asked him to
be patient a little while longer. With Sage’s baby due in less than a month, the
timing didn’t feel right. For now, she felt that they needed to concentrate on
their daughter and the difficult choices she faced.

Jack had argued a wedding might be exactly the distraction Sage
needed. Maura saw his point, but she still couldn’t feel right planning the rest
of their lives together while everything in Sage’s world was still
unsettled—even her choice of an adoptive couple with which to place her
baby.

In the end, he had held her close. “I’ve waited twenty years. I
can wait a few more months,” he had promised.

As she watched him measure the board again and recalculate the
angle, she loved him even more for his patience and his steady strength.

“You’re right. The angle is wrong and now this one is going to
be too short. Can you go grab me another board and I’ll recut?” he asked.

“Of course.” She hurried to the stacked lumber and picked one
of the correct size. Around her, the other volunteers were hard at work on the
base of the gazebo. As she watched them, Maura remembered the previous year’s
service day, just six weeks after the accident, on what would have been Layla’s
birthday.

Her emotions had been scraped raw. She had only been able to
attend a few hours before she had had to escape the crush of sympathy.

Everything was different this year. The loss would always be
part of her, an empty spot that nothing else would fill, but she had made the
choice to move forward, to live instead of hiding away in her grief.

Layla would have wanted exactly that.

She was carrying the board back to Jack’s work area when her
cell phone suddenly rang with Sage’s distinctive ringtone. She set the board
down on the grass with the others before she answered.

“Hey, Mom,” Sage said. She sounded breathless.

“Hi. How are things going down at the library?”

Sage was under strict orders to sit quietly and help repair
dilapidated books at the library. “Um, I guess fine. I have a…little problem.
Well, not really a problem but…”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think my water just broke.”

For the first time, she recognized that what she had taken for
breathlessness in Sage’s voice was actually fear.

“Are you sure? You’re not due for three more weeks!”

“Yeah. Pretty sure. It’s hard to mistake that when the ground
at your feet is suddenly soaked. Fortunately, I was already in the bathroom, so
it was easy to clean up with some paper towels.”

Maura fought down panic. Not yet. Not today. “Okay, just sit
tight. I’ll grab your father and we’ll be right there.”

“Mom, wait. Harry’s with me. He’s already planning to drive me
to the hospital. I was thinking you could meet us there. That will be quicker
than you coming down here first. Can you just stop at the house and grab the bag
we packed?”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Give me ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you. Honey, hang in there. It will be okay.” Though she
tried to sound confident and breezy, she didn’t know how anything possibly would
be okay.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked, instantly alert the moment he saw
her face.

“Sage. Her water broke and she’s heading to the hospital now.
Harry’s taking her.”

He swore, some of the color leaching from his face. “Okay.
Looks like Riley gets to be in charge, after all.”

They raced to her house, stopping only long enough to make sure
Puck had food and water and to pick up Sage’s bag, then Jack sped to the Hope’s
Crossing hospital.

By the time they pulled into the parking lot, her hands were
shaking on the bag she clutched on her lap.

“Where do we go?” Jack asked. She quickly gave him directions
to the new women’s center and its state-of-the-art birthing rooms that she had
toured with Sage during their birthing class.

At the nurses’ station, a too-chipper RN told them a room was
being prepared and that in the meantime they could find Sage and Harry in a
small family waiting room down the hall.

When Maura pushed open the door the nurse had indicated, she
found Sage looking tense and upset. Her daughter jumped up from the sofa and
sagged into her arms. “I’m not ready, Mom,” she wailed. “I thought I had a few
more weeks!”

“I know, honey.”

“I can’t have this baby yet. I haven’t even picked an adoptive
couple. I’ve been trying and trying to pick the best one and…they’re all good.
None is any better than another. What am I going to do? This is my baby. I can’t
just flip a coin!”

She started to cry, and Maura held her closely, her heart
aching. Everything was in place legally for the adoption. Sawyer had readily
signed away any parental rights, and Sage had been working with a wonderful
adoption agency. But despite all the weeks of counseling and discussion, Sage
obviously wasn’t prepared for this emotional tumult. Giving a baby up for
adoption was a courageous decision but certainly not an easy one.

She was trying to find impossible words of comfort when Harry
spoke from his spot on the sofa.

“Am I the only one with a brain in this family?” he
growled.

This was
so
not the time for one of
his cantankerous fits. Maura needed her mother here to mellow him out. Their
budding relationship had caused a shockwave of epic proportion to roll over
Hope’s Crossing, but even
she
couldn’t deny that
Mary Ella was good for Harry. And, amazingly, he had been good for her too.

She was about to snap at him—the best she could manage under
the circumstances—when Harry rose, still a commanding figure. “I can’t believe
none of you have figured this out yet. For hell’s sake, the answer is obvious,
isn’t it?”

“What haven’t we figured out, Gramps?” Sage asked, her voice
small and forlorn. Harry shook his head, his eyes softening as he looked at
her.

“You two—” he gestured to Jack and Maura “—should just get
married already, and then you can raise the baby. You’re both still young. Hell,
you’re young enough to pop another one out yourselves, aren’t you?”

Maura gaped at him, aware of Jack’s features going taut beside
her. Sage stopped sniffling and pulled out of her arms to stare at her
grandfather.

Suddenly Maura’s whole life seemed to rearrange itself in her
head. Everything she thought was right for her and for Jack seemed to shift and
settle into a new picture.

A son.

She and Jack could be parents again. At last he would have the
chance she had taken from him—to be a father, from the beginning. For sticky
toddler kisses and coaching soccer games and helping with math homework, all the
things he’d never had the chance to do with Sage.

Her mind started racing with possibilities, but just as
suddenly she forced them to a screeching halt. As much as that picture suddenly
seemed perfect to her, it wouldn’t be fair to Jack. Surely he wouldn’t want to
start the rest of their lives together changing diapers and fixing bottles and
rocking a colicky baby....

“I couldn’t ask that of you,” Sage finally said into the gaping
maw of silence that stretched out between the four of them.

“Why not?” Jack asked, his voice a little ragged.

Maura stared at him. “Do you… Are you saying you would…actually
consider it?”

“I want to marry you, Maura. You know that. I want to have
forever with you. I hadn’t expected an instant family to be part of that
picture, but that’s what we would have had twenty years ago if things had worked
out differently. We’re older now. More mature. Certainly we’re both better
equipped to deal with a child.”

He smiled broadly. “Besides. This wouldn’t be the first time I
suddenly and unexpectedly became a father.”

She gave a rough laugh at that, thinking of the strange and
twisting journey their lives together had taken so far. This was a crazy idea,
adopting a child before they were even officially married, but somehow it seemed
exactly right.

Sage sank back down onto one of the sofas, gazing at them both
with a raw, almost painful hope. “I don’t want you to feel pressured or
anything, but this would be beyond perfect. Maybe that’s the reason I couldn’t
make a decision. Maybe in my heart, something like this is what I wanted all
along but was afraid to ask—or even let myself think about.”

Maura gripped Jack’s fingers. He squeezed tightly, out of
nerves or anticipation or simply love, she couldn’t tell.

“You have to be sure, darling,” she said. “And you’ll have to
be very clear in your own head that if we do this, we wouldn’t just be
babysitting for you until you’re in a better place to be a parent. This would be
our child. We would be the mother and father.”

“I can’t imagine two better parents for my baby, Mom.” Sage
gave a watery smile and Harry wrapped an arm around her. “I was a really good
big sister to Layla. I think I can be a great big sister to your son too. It
would be super cool to have a little brother.”

Without releasing her hand, Jack reached for a tissue from a
box on the table and passed it to her. That was the first moment she realized
she was crying, tears of joy and anticipation and no small amount of fear.

A baby.

Dear heavens. They were going to have a baby.

She didn’t have time to fully adjust to that before the chipper
nurse from out front bustled into the room.

“Okay. We’ve finally got your birthing room ready. If you’ll
come with me, Sage, we’ll get you settled first, and then your family can come
in.”

“Okay.” Sage gave a nervous smile and followed the nurse. She
seemed lighter somehow, freed of the fear and uncertainty she had been carrying
along with her baby.

After she left, Harry stood up, a look of sublime
self-satisfaction on his weathered features. “I parked in one of the
emergency-room spots. I should probably go move my car, even though they
wouldn’t dare ticket me.”

He headed out, leaving the two of them in the waiting room
alone.

Maura was nervous suddenly, still unable to believe the
enormity of the decision they had just made. “Are you sure about this, Jack?
It’s not too late to change your mind. We can figure something else out. I don’t
want you to feel obligated to something you didn’t want.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and she felt some of the
tension seep away. “Do you want to know a secret? The idea of adding to our
family isn’t completely foreign to me. I’m embarrassed to admit that adopting
Sage’s baby never even occurred to me, but lately I’ve caught myself wondering
what it would be like to have another child with you. Harry’s right. We’re both
young. Young enough, anyway. Plenty of couples don’t even get started until
their late-thirties. I guess I was waiting to see if you might be thinking along
the same lines, or if you figured you had done your time raising young
children.”