At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories) - By Barbara Bretton Page 0,103
you and Dad?"
"I have ten siblings," she said with a grin. "If I can't bum a ride off one of them, it's a sorry world."
Gracie thanked her then Laquita rushed off to find someone to drive her and Ben home. That was part of being a family, this kind of give and take. Here, take my car... hey, how about a ride down to the corner... it's cold... you'd better borrow my sweater... do you remember when we used to...
She could have that and more if she moved back to Idle Point. It was there for the taking, almost everything she had ever wanted from life. A big loud loving family, even if most of them were imported by marriage. A relationship with her father. The chance to work with Doctor Jim. She could even have Noah in her life—and Sophie, too—although not in the way she had always dreamed. All she had to do was say the word and it was hers.
"Do you know where Noah is?" she asked Rachel who was putting away the last of the dishes.
"He was looking for you," Rachel said, closing the glass doors to the china cabinet. "Sophie wants you to give her a bath."
Second floor, third door on the left.
Gracie flew up the stairs. The signs were all there. She had motive and she had opportunity. She was tired of living only half a life and she wished for more for Sophie and Noah. This wasn't the happy ending she had dreamed about but it was more than she had believed possible these last eight years. Tell him tonight. Tell him before you leave this house. They couldn't be lovers but they could be part of each other's lives. She could be his friend, grow old with him, watch Sophie grow up. And even though it hurt more than she sometimes believed possible, it was so much better than being without him.
She tapped on the door to Sophie's room. "I hear somebody needs a bath," she called out.
"C'mon in," Noah shouted from inside the room. "You're not a minute too soon."
She opened the door and stepped into the bedroom she wished she'd had as a little girl. Open and airy. Pink and white. A window seat. A nightstand piled high with Madeleine and Harry Potter and the Complete Dr. Seuss. Paradise!
Sophie, naked and highly annoyed, stood in the middle of the room.
Noah, fully clothed and completely at a loss, sat on the edge of her bed.
They both looked toward Gracie as if she were the answer to their prayers.
"Barbie's Dream House!" Gracie couldn't believe her eyes. There it was in all of its plastic pre-fab glory to the left of the window seat. "Sophie, you have Barbie's Dream House!" She knelt down in front of the pricey piece of real estate and admired each detail.
"Did you have Barbies when you were a little girl?" Sophie asked, clearly skeptical.
"I sure did," Gracie said. "Mine was one of the beach Barbies. She carried a surfboard and had a year-round tan."
"They had Barbies when you were little?"
"Prehistoric Barbie," Gracie said with a straight face. "Ken came with a loin cloth and a club."
"I have two Barbies and one Ken." Sophie lowered her voice and leaned closer to Gracie. "They pulled his legs off."
Gracie met Noah's eyes over the top of Sophie's head. He was trying hard not to laugh out loud.
"Sounds like they're Biker Barbies," Gracie said, inspecting the two innocent-looking blondes for signs of aggression. "A pair of tough chicks."
"They didn't mean to do it. Sometimes these things happen."
"Oh yes," said Sophie, "or something bad might happen to him."
That did it. Both Noah and Gracie burst into laughter. Sophie looked at them with annoyance at first and then she started laughing too, obviously pleased to be the source of such good-natured amusement.
"Okay, Soph.." Noah stood up. "Time for that bath you've been putting off for the last half hour."
Sophie looked toward Gracie. "Will you wash my hair for me?"
"I've never washed a little girl's hair before," Gracie said. "Are you sure you want me to do it?"
"You really never washed a little girl's hair?" Sophie asked.
"I shampooed a cocker spaniel," she said and Sophie giggled. "I shampooed poodles and Dalmatians. I even shampooed my cat once and he sneezed soap bubbles all over me."
Sophie tugged at her sleeve. "You can't shampoo a cat."
"Sure you can," said Gracie, taking her hand. "I didn't say he