Read Online Sweet Laurel Falls by RaeAnne Thayne - Free Book Online

school
starts up again,” Maura said. She had only eaten about four or five bites of her
French toast and one nibble of the crispy bacon that accompanied it.
    Sage suddenly looked stricken, as if she had only just
remembered that her mother might have expected to spend some of the holiday
break with her. “We could do a lot of this together, the three of us.”
    There was no “three of us.” Just two people who had once loved
each other and the child they had created together.
    “No, this will be good,” Maura assured her with a smile that
only looked slightly forced. “You know how busy I’m going to be up until
Christmas Eve and then the week after with all the holiday returns. This way I
won’t have to worry about you being bored while I’m stuck at the store.”
    She checked her watch and set down her napkin. “Speaking of
busy, I probably need to run. Mornings are hectic in December. It seems like
everyone in town decides to take a coffee break at the same time and fit in a
little shopping too.”
    The purpose of suggesting they meet for breakfast had been to
come to some sort of agreement on how their tangled relationship would proceed
from here. He wasn’t sure they had accomplished that particular goal, but they
seemed to have reached an accord of some sort, Harry’s unexpected presence
notwithstanding.
    “Do you need some extra help with the rush?” Sage asked.
    “You don’t need to come in,” Maura assured her. “You should
spend the day with your, er…with Jack while you have a chance.”
    “Well, yeah, I want to. But to tell you the truth, I haven’t
had a chance to do any Christmas shopping yet, and I could use a little extra
money. I hate to dip into my college fund for presents if I don’t have to.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” Jack assured her. “I’ve got plenty of
work to catch up on. Maybe we could always meet this evening.”
    “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Sage asked.
    “Not at all.” The two of them didn’t need to spend twenty-four
hours a day together. It was probably better to take their interactions in small
doses while he was still adjusting to the idea of even having a daughter.
    Besides, he didn’t want Maura to think he planned to monopolize
every moment with Sage while he was in Hope’s Crossing.
    “In that case,” Maura said, her features a little more relaxed,
“I would love to have you work at the store today. We’ve been slammed the last
few days, and I’m sure Ruth could use help restocking.”
    With that settled, they returned to their breakfast. He was
happy to see Maura eat a few more bites and finish off the citrus slices that
came with it. When breakfast was over, they wrangled for a moment over the bill,
but he solved the issue by taking his credit card and the ticket to the cash
register, leaving her to glower after him.
    “I’ll walk you over to the store,” he said to the two of them
after signing the credit card receipt handed him by the snowboarding academic.
“The only place I could find to park was in that alley behind your store.”
    “Parking is our big problem downtown, as you have probably
figured out. The Downtown Merchants’ Alliance is talking about building a big
parking structure a block to the west, if we can do it in an aesthetically
pleasing way that fits in with the rest of the town.”
    After leaving the café, they walked up half a block to the
light so they could cross the street. As he looked up the length of Main Street,
he was struck again by the charm of the town, with electrified reproductions of
historic gas lamps lining the street and brick-paved sidewalks instead of
concrete. The town leaders seemed to have gone to a great deal of trouble to
manage the growth in that pleasing way Maura was talking about that stayed true
to its character, with none of the jumble of styles so many communities adopted
by default.
    Beneath the wooden sign reading Dog-Eared Books & Brew, he
held the door open for the two women