At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories) - By Barbara Bretton Page 0,104

liked it but you can do it."

"I had a cat named Fred when I lived with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Hamish. He wouldn't go out in the rain."

"Uncle Hamish?" Gracie asked, wide-eyed with pretend innocence.

"No, silly!" Sophie was overcome with giggles. "Fred!"

They kept up the silly banter while Noah ran the tub and filled it with fragrant bubbles. They tried to imagine Gracie's Pyewacket swatting the bubbles with a lazy paw and that only made Sophie laugh even more.

If this was all Gracie could have of Noah, it would be enough.

#

Ruth was engrossed in the newest Dick Francis when Doctor Jim stepped into the library to say goodnight.

"Thank you for opening your home to me, Ruthie." He sat down on the edge of the sofa next to her chair. "You made my first Thanksgiving without Ellen much easier."

"There's no need to thank me, Jim, even though I loved your company. Rachel put everything together. I was nothing more than a party crasher."

Jim's smile always made Ruth feel the world was a better place. "And some party it was," he said. "I feel like everyone in town dropped by at some time or another."

"Rachel and Darnell are lucky people.”

"That they are. They raised themselves a fine group of young men and women, didn't they?"

They chatted for a bit about Laquita and Ben's upcoming wedding then talk turned quite naturally to Noah and Gracie.

"If ever a man and woman were meant for each other, it's those two," Jim said with a shake of his greying head. "I never could figure out what's been keeping them apart."

"Whatever it is, it's between them," Ruth said primly in an attempt to hide her own complicity. "I wouldn't dare ask either one of them about it."

"Not suggesting you should," Jim said easily. "Just making conversation."

Ruth slipped off her reading glasses and gently massaged the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry if I sounded sharp, Jim. The holidays stir up a lot of old memories, some of which are better left undisturbed."

"Don't I know it," he said, rising to his feet. "It's just when it comes to Gracie, I can't seem to help hoping for the best."

"I feel the same way," she said. "About both of them."

"I just wish there was something I could do to make things right." He bent down and kissed her on the left cheek. "Guess it's best left in the hands of God."

Ruth sat staring into the fire for a long time after Jim said goodnight, wishing she had the courage to try and make things right but the thought of disturbing the graves of so many long-buried secrets was more than she could contemplate.

If Noah and Gracie were meant to be, they would find their way to each other without any help.

#

For the first time in the three months he'd known Sophie, Noah felt some of the tension leave his body. It was the sound of her laughter that did it. He wasn't sure he'd ever heard it before, certainly not so much of it or so freely given.

Noah went to place Sophie in the warm tub but she wanted Gracie to do it.

"Are you a poodle?" Gracie teased his daughter.

"No!"

"Are you a cocker spaniel?"

"No!"

"Then I'm not sure I know how to give you a bath."

A moment later Sophie was immersed in bubbles with nothing but her heart-shaped face and halo of blond curls visible.

"You'd better take your coat off," Noah suggested to Gracie. "She splashes."

Gracie looked surprised. "My coat! I completely forgot I was wearing it."

She shrugged it off and hung it from the hook behind the door. "Now where were we?" She pushed her sleeves up over her elbows. "That's right. I was going to bathe a cat."

Sophie loved every second of it. Gracie claimed no prior knowledge of bathing young children but she handled it like a pro. Certainly a hell of a lot better than he had his first time around. She made sure no soap got in Sophie's eyes. She protected her ears with tiny wads of cotton. And when the bath was over she rinsed Sophie squeaky clean then wrapped her in the biggest, warmest towel she could find.

"Do you have a blow dryer?" she asked Noah.

He removed one from the vanity beneath the sink.

"Oh good," said Gracie. "It has a diffuser."

"A diffuser?"

"See this?" She pointed toward the wide attachment over the mouth of the dryer. "That's for curly hair."

"Yes, papa," said Sophie. "Everyone knows that."

"First I've heard of it," he muttered then stepped back