At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories) - By Barbara Bretton Page 0,21

Chase."

Martin laughed out loud.

"I'm not joking," she said, inspecting Wiley's shimmering coat with satisfaction. "Can you imagine Wiley here having free rein at the Chase's house? It boggles the mind."

"Mrs. Chase loves that dog." Martin removed one slide, placed it in its special container, then reached for another one. "Rumor has it she told Simon she'd leave him if he said one word against Wiley."

"I doubt that," Gracie said, giving Wiley a hug before she helped him down from the grooming table. "Ruth doesn't look like the kind of woman who gets her way very often." The image of Ruth Chase standing up to her powerful husband was almost laughable.

Still, Gracie had to admit that Ruth Chase had always been very kind to her. When Gracie was a little girl, she'd had a crush on the lovely older woman and for awhile she had fantasized that Mrs. Chase would invite her to come live with them in the big house on the hill, which was a bigger fantasy than anything Alice and the Mad Hatter had ever dreamed up.

"I'd better get up front," she said, snapping a lead to Wiley's collar. The office re-opened in ten minutes and she was the receptionist this week.

"Why don't you leave him back here with me," Martin suggested.

"Thanks," Gracie said, "but he's good company. Besides, it's good for a dog to see how the simple people live."

Martin was still laughing as Wiley led her down the hall to the waiting room. A guy stood near the window with his back toward her. He was tall and lean, dressed in the Idle Point summer uniform of cut-offs, t-shirt, and deck shoes. Wiley tugged hard at the leash but she held him back.

"Excuse me," she said. "May I help you?" You might want to start by telling me how you got in here.

"The door was open," he said, as if he'd read her mind. "I figured I'd—" His words stopped cold as he turned around. "Gracie?" He was the most beautiful human being she'd ever seen. He gleamed with an almost golden light. "Gracie Taylor?"

Gracie's entire world turned upside down as she realized who he was. "Noah?" Suddenly she was five and a half years old on the first day of kindergarten and he was her guardian angel. He was more beautiful than she'd remembered. "What are you doing here?"

He gestured toward Wiley. "Car service." His beautiful blue eyes twinkled as he said it and Gracie was afraid her heart was about to tear through her chest and tumble to the floor at his feet. Was it possible to fall in love at first sight twice with the same boy?

She knelt down and nuzzled Wiley. "Can you believe it?" she asked. "I never thought I'd see the day the Chases—" She caught herself just in time. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Hey, don't apologize," Noah said, bending down to scratch Wiley behind the left ear. "I'm a Chase and I can't believe it either."

She nuzzled Wiley again. Her face felt hot and she was afraid she was blushing. She never blushed, not even the time she tripped and fell up the stairs in front of half the student body during assembly. This wasn't like her at all.

Wiley looked up at Noah with something approaching adoration and they both laughed.

She looked at Noah over Wiley's ruff of fur. "You like dogs?"

"Love 'em." He grinned as Wiley leaned into a scratch. "When I was a kid, I wanted a houseful of 'em."

"Me too," said Gracie. "I used to look at that big house of yours and try to figure out just how many dogs and cats I could fit inside."

"You work here." He said it as a statement, not a question.

"Official dogsbody," she said, then wished she hadn't tried to be funny. What if he didn't get the reference? She didn't want to believe he was anything but perfect. Please, please, don't let him look at her with a blank expression on his face. He was already beautiful. Would it be too much to ask for him to be smart as well?

The sparkle in his eyes grew brighter and she knew that he knew exactly what she meant. Her heart, already overflowing with emotion, attached itself firmly to her sleeve.

"Part-time dogsbody or full-time?" he asked.

"Full time during the summer; part time when school's open." She leaned back on her heels and went for broke. "I'm saving up for college," she said, "and time's running out." You might as