a-soft-place-to-fall, Rakhibul hasan [novels to read in english .txt] 📗

You couldn't love somebody you didn't know. Love at first sight was a construct of romantic fantasy. It didn't exist in a brick and mortar world.

But try telling that to his heart. He felt expectant, hopeful, terrified, elated, determined, uncertain, every combination of emotion possible. He'd never done anything like this in his life. She was in there with another guy, on something that came pretty damn close to being a date, and he was about to crash their party.

#

"I've had a wonderful time," Annie said as she reached for her purse, "but it's been a long day and I'm just about out on my feet."

"You're not going already," Hall said, in a voice meant for her alone.

"I'm afraid so." Had he always looked at her with so much longing or was she just seeing him for the very first time? "There was the Sorenson wedding today and tomorrow's the picnic." She forced a lighthearted chuckle as the cowbell announced

another new arrival. "I'm not getting any younger, you know. Long days and late nights can do a woman in."

"Why don't you --"

He stopped speaking mid-sentence. Annie followed his gaze. Her heart slammed hard against her ribcage. Sam and Warren were standing by the cash register. Warren was chatting happily with Gloria. Sam looked edgy, solitary, strange and familiar both. She'd slept in his arms. He'd made love to her and asked nothing in return. She knew everything about him and nothing at all.

His dark eyes met hers.

You shouldn't have done this, Sam. He'd heard her make plans with Hall that first morning. He knew exactly where she would be and when and the fact that he was standing there was the loudest declaration of intent she had ever heard.

A thrill of unabashed delight raced through her and she couldn't help herself. She started to laugh.

The silence at the table was deafening. They looked at her as if she'd lost her mind and maybe she had. Maybe this was how it felt to be crazy out of your head in love with a man you just met. Maybe this was how it felt to be happy for the first time in way too long.

She pushed back her chair and stood up. Nobody said a word.

She slung her shoulder bag back across her body. Nobody breathed.

She put a ten dollar bill on the table then started the long slow walk across the room to where Sam stood by the cash register.

Nobody moved.

"I'm sorry," she said to Sam, quietly so only he could hear. "I shouldn't have run out that way last night."

He said nothing. She waited. They watched.

She felt herself shape-shifting right there in Cappy's, turning into someone she no longer recognized. A woman who needed more than the sound of her own heartbeat for company and who was no longer afraid to take the first step.

Say something, she pleaded silently. If you don't say something right now, I'll go crazy.

"Come on," he said, reaching for her hand. "Let's get out of here."

Chapter Eleven

If a hydrogen bomb had landed on Cappy's, the result couldn't have been any more dramatic than the sight of Annie Lacy Galloway walking out the door hand-in-hand with Sam Butler. Warren had seen many a fine exit in his day but that was one of the all-time best.

"She knows him?" Roberta asked, breaking the stunned silence. "No," said Jack.

"I don't know," said Susan.

"Yes," said Hall and Claudia in unison.

Warren claimed Annie's seat. "That's Sam Butler," he said easily, as if hell hadn't just frozen over. "He'll be living in Ellie's old place for a while."

"As if that explains anything," Claudia muttered, rapping her knuckles against the table top.

"I've known him since he was a teenager," Warren went on, ignoring her vexation. "A better man you won't find anywhere."

"Oh my God!" Susan grabbed her husband's arm. "That's the guy with the pizza-eating dog."

Jack gave her one of those looks all men understood. "What the hell are you talking about, Susie?"

She told him the story that Annie had told her, about a man and his dog and a stack of ruined pizzas.

"That's so romantic," Roberta said, oblivious to the glares coming her way from Hall, Susan, and Claudia. "A cute meet, like something from an old Rock Hudson-Doris Day movie."

"You've been watching too much AMC," Claudia snapped. "Life was not created in Hollywood, Roberta."

"I bumped into Annie in the parking lot that night," Hall piped up. All eyes turned toward him. "He took off without bothering to clean up the mess."

"That's the same story I heard," Claudia said, pleased to have a tidbit to add to the mix. She neglected to mention the fact that he did end up cleaning the truck for Annie. She was in no mood to be kind. "I must say he took quite a proprietary air when he brought back the keys to her place."

The gasp at the table brought Gloria running to see what was wrong. "Annie?!" Susan could barely get the word out of her mouth.

"No way," said Jack.

"Mmmm!" Roberta's eyes twinkled with envious delight. Mariah and Willa giggled. The boys made gagging noises.

Hall's cheeks were bright pink but his voice was steady, his demeanor cool. "There was something wrong with her front door that first morning. He was there to fix it."

The girls' giggles grew louder and Hall shot them a stern look.

"She's earned the right," said Roberta defiantly. "She's been alone a long time. She's a young woman. Why shouldn't she take a lover?"

"You talk like an old fool." Claudia was rhythmically shredding the paper placemats at the table. "If you can't see he isn't of her class, then perhaps it's time you had your bifocals adjusted, Roberta Morgan."

Roberta glowered at her friend. "And I suppose you never tucked Lady Chatterley's Lover under your mattress."

"And I suppose most of you fine folk went to church this morning," Warren said, lighting up a cigar. "Wonder how Father Luedtke feels about this kind of talk."

"The truth is the truth," Claudia shot back. "There's nothing uncharitable about it." "Sounds to me like the lot of you need to find yourselves a hobby. There are better

ways to spend your time than speculating about a man you just met." His disappointment was painfully clear. "Now I could sit here and tell you everything you need to know about that boy and you would feel damn sorry you ever sat judgment on him the way you just did but that wouldn't be fair to him. His story is his to share and I'm not about to break his trust."

Hall Talbot pushed back his chair. It was clear he'd had enough. "It's late," he said, reaching for the check in the middle of the table. "I'd better take the girls home. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day." The town's Labor Day picnic began on the Green at noon and no parent worth his or her salt dared forget it.

Willa and Mariah leaped to their feet. "Can we play video games before we go to sleep?" Mariah asked.

"Sure," said Hall with a nod to the group assembled there. "Whatever you want." The doctor had barely reached the cash register before Susan leaned across the table

to grill Warren.

"So where do you know this Sam Butler from?" she asked.

Claudia glared at her daughter. "Don't be rude, Susan. You heard Warren. It's none of our business."

"You saw the way they looked at each other," Susan said. "I'd say it's going to be everybody's business by tomorrow morning."

So that's the way the wind blows, thought Warren as he surveyed the scene. For a small town, things could sure get complicated in a hurry.

He hoped Sam and Annie were smart enough to turn off the phones.

#

They kissed at stoplights, at street signs, and once they even pulled over to the side of the road and kissed until they couldn't breathe any more.

"Damn stick shift," Sam muttered as they tried to find a viable position. Annie gasped as his hand slid under her skirt. "The seat reclines." They struggled with the lever and got nowhere.

"My place," she said, hands trembling as she clutched the wheel.

"Fast," Sam said. He sounded desperate. She never knew how much she liked that quality in a man.

He plucked the lacy edge of her panties with his big hands and she nearly drove off the road.

"I can't drive when you do that." Or think. Or breathe. "You're wet," he said, his voice low and urgent.

They were twenty feet away from her driveway but it might as well have been twenty miles. She hit the brakes hard. He braced an arm against the dashboard to keep from shooting through the windshield. She shut off the engine and turned to him with the

hunger burning in her eyes and he said, "Jesus," and reached for her and suddenly the stick shift wasn't a problem or the seat that refused to recline.

She told him what she wanted and how and then she told him that this time there would be no sudden stops, no turning back.

She straddled him and unzipped his pants.

He pulled off her panties and crushed the damp fabric in his hand then brought them to his face.

She stroked him fast and hard, letting him fill her hand.

He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her and she slowly slowly opened for him engulfed him drew him deep inside her body and she cried out first with the newness of it and then with something else, something she had forgotten existed.

She shuddered when she climaxed and the rhythmic contractions of her body pushed him over the edge.

And still it wasn't enough. They left the car where it was. Still kissing and touching, still hungry for each other, they stumbled up the driveway. They reached the porch steps and he swept her up into his arms and carried her up the three steps to the front door.

"The front door's always open in the movies," he said, while she leaned over to fit the key into the lock.

"You should've kicked it in," she said, kissing his chin, his throat, his chest. "Very macho."

"Too soon to repeat myself." He carried her through the dimly lit hallway to the tiny bedroom with the huge sleigh bed and the open window and the moonlight.

And then the magic took over. Clothes slid off the way they did in the movies. The bed sighed sweetly beneath the weight of their bodies. She opened herself to him in heart, soul, and body. He filled the empty spaces inside her heart and in so doing filled the empty spaces inside his own heart as well.

Somewhere out there was the world they knew and the people they loved but right now none of it mattered. This bed was world enough for both of them.

#

"You folks have been a lot of fun," Gloria said, "but we're closing up now. Hate to break up a good time but you know how it is."

"Good Lord," said Roberta, glancing at her narrow gold watch. "It's almost ten o'clock!" She flashed her best smile at Warren. "Time flies when you're having fun."

Warren always did have an eye for the women and he flashed her a damn good smile right back. "Kind of you to put up with an old man's stories, Bobbi."

Roberta laughed, one of those throaty chuckles that made Claudia want to hit her in the head with a skillet. "We go way back," she said, practically batting her eyelashes at the old fool. "You know what they say: old friends are the best."

Susan and Jack corraled their boys and the lot of them stepped out into the crisp night air.

"Goodnight, Ma." Susan hugged her briefly. "We'll pick you up at noon for the picnic."

Claudia sniffed and refused to hug her back. That innocent act simply wouldn't wash. Her daughter had had a hand in this