RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Volume One: Blackberry Summer\Woodrose Mountain\Sweet Laurel Falls (98 page)

“Sawyer was really excited about the concert, so we exchanged
emails and cell numbers,” Sage went on. “We kept in touch, nothing serious, just
fun. Maybe a little more flirty than we should have been, given his engagement,
I guess, but we were just messing around.”

She sighed. “So I got him the tickets from Chris for the
concert, but it turned out Gen had something else that night. He didn't want to
miss it, though, especially after I had gone to the trouble to get the backstage
tickets for him, so he asked if he could hang with me. I just… We went to the
concert and backstage. It was a crazy night. We hung out with Chris and the rest
of the gang, and we went back to Sawyer's hotel and, well, one thing led to
another, I guess.”

Sage looked so miserable, Maura's heart broke all over again.
“I knew he was engaged to Gen, but we had so much fun together, even before, you
know. I guess some part of me thought maybe he really liked me.”

“I'm sure he did.”

She shook her head. “No. He used me, for everything. He left
first thing in the morning.
Thanks for the fun night. See
you around
. That's all he said and then he never returned any of my
texts or calls. I was so
stupid
.”

Sawyer was gorgeous and charming and much older than Sage. He
had already passed the bar, for heaven's sake. What did he want with a
nineteen-year-old girl in her second year of undergraduate work? They were not
only in different social strata but completely different stages in their
lives.

Maura could absolutely believe he had used Sage for whatever he
could get out of her, and Sage had probably been a starry-eyed girl, overwhelmed
that someone like Sawyer wanted to be with her.

“What am I going to do?” Sage whimpered.

Maura released a heavy breath. “You're not going to like this,
but I think you need to tell him.”

“I can't! He's getting married in a month!”

This was the reason Sage had been so evasive all these weeks
when they'd pressed for the identity of the baby's father—she had to have known
the storm that would result.

“I think that's exactly why you should tell him now. He has to
know. It's only fair to him and to Genevieve.”

If possible, even more color leached out of Sage's cheeks.
“Genevieve? Why? She doesn't have anything to do with this.”

“Wrong,” Maura said gently. “Be fair. Wouldn't you want to know
if the man you were preparing to take vows with could father a child with
someone else during the engagement, when he's supposed to be head-over-heels,
can't-think-of-another-woman in love with you?”

“It was just a mistake,” Sage wailed. “We…he had too much to
drink and he wasn't thinking. This wasn't supposed to happen.”

She folded Sage's fingers in hers. They were cold and trembling
and Maura wanted to tuck them against her heart and warm them. So much pain
because of a few foolish moments between two young people who should have known
better.

“Listen to me, Sage. You and I, we have a unique perspective on
this, don't we? I can see as a woman who's been exactly in your shoes the
choices I should have made twenty years ago. I should have told Jack, no matter
the consequences. All my rationalizations and excuses are just that. My way of
making myself feel better for my cowardice in not telling him. I regret it now,
more than I can tell you. I can see now how much you needed him in your life
from the beginning. If I had only had the courage, I would have told him. He may
still have chosen to stay out of your life, but at least he would have had the
choice. I took that from him and it was wrong—for him and for you.”

She hadn't admitted that out loud before, but the words still
resonated with truth—so loudly in her head that she must have completely missed
the sound of the office door opening. Behind Sage she caught a flicker of
movement and turned.

Jack. Of course. How much had he heard? Judging by his
expression, he must have been standing there for some time. He gazed at her for
a long, charged moment and she couldn't think what to say to him.

She wouldn't call her words back, even if she could. They were
truth and she should have admitted it a long time ago. She had committed a grave
injustice against him and she didn't want to see Sage do the same thing.

Sage hadn't noticed him. She had her face pressed to Maura's
shoulder. “What's going on?” he mouthed.

“I'll explain later,” she mouthed back, holding up a finger,
before turning back to Sage and pressing her point. “I don't know what you're
going to do about the baby, whether you plan to keep it or place it with an
adoptive family. Judging from your evasiveness with the attorneys who have
called, I think you're not quite sure yourself. Either way, I think you owe it
to yourself, to Sawyer and to the child you both created to involve him in the
decision.”

“He's going to hate me. I'll ruin everything for him.”

“You didn't create this mess on your own, honey. He's a grown
man. He made his own choices all along the way.”

“But the wedding. It's next month.”

She might not particularly like Gen Beaumont—or any of her
family, for that matter—but that didn't mean she wanted to ruin the young
woman's wedding, which so many people had worked tirelessly to pull off.

But putting her grief aside, she knew this was the right thing.
Better for Genevieve to know now than to find out after they exchanged vows that
her fiancé had been unfaithful to her.

For all she knew, maybe Genevieve wouldn't care. It was no
secret around Hope's Crossing that Sawyer Danforth had political aspirations
even greater than his father's, who had once been the president of the state
senate.

Maybe, like a good political wife in training, Genevieve knew
all about any extracurricular activities—going on the logical assumption that
Sage hadn't been his only indiscretion—and had chosen to look the other way.

“I don't want to,” Sage said in a small voice that reminded
Maura of the time Sage's appendix had burst when she was nine and she had to be
rushed into emergency surgery, scared to death and fighting the whole way.

“I know, honey.” She hugged her, aware of Jack standing behind
Sage. “It's your choice, of course. I've told you what I think you should do,
but you're an adult. You can decide to say nothing if you want.”

Sage grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and sniffled
into it. “When…when I tell him, will you come with me?”

A tremendous rush of pride burst through her. “In a
heartbeat.”

“Do you have room for one more?” Jack asked in a low voice.
Sage whirled around and turned pink at the sight of her father behind her.

“I guess you heard.”

“Only the last bit. I'm surmising you encountered the, uh,
sperm donor and you're trying to decide whether to hand him a cigar.”

“It's a little more complicated than that, but, yeah,” Sage
said.

“He's supposed to be getting married in a month to the mayor's
daughter, Genevieve,” Maura explained. “It's only the biggest social event to
hit Hope's Crossing since the original Silver King Ball.”

“Ah. I don't know how much my opinion is worth in this
situation, but I agree with your mother. Telling him is the right thing to do,
even though it's going to be tough and probably ugly.”

Sage sighed. “Why does everything have to be so
hard?
”

“If doing the right thing were easy, wouldn't everybody just
naturally do it?” Maura said.

Her daughter didn't seem to appreciate that bit of maternal
wisdom, but Jack smiled a little.

“I guess we should get it over with. Find him tonight while I
can still manage the nerve.”

“Do you want me to make a few calls?” Maura offered. “I can at
least find out if he's staying at the Beaumonts or at one of the hotels while
he's in town.”

“No. I still have his number, unless he's changed it. I'll try
to text him. Ask if I can meet him somewhere. I'd rather tell him without
Genevieve there at first. Then he can decide whether to tell her or not.”

Maura wasn't sure she agreed with that, but she had meant her
earlier words—Sage was an adult and could make her own decisions about how to
handle the situation.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“R
EADY
OR
NOT
, I
GUESS
.” Sage opened the passenger door of Jack's SUV and a rush of
cold air flowed inside from the wind tunnel created under the porte cochere at
the sprawling Silver Strike Lodge.

“Are you sure you don't want us to go inside with you, honey?”
Maura leaned up from the backseat, where she had insisted on sitting so Sage
could take the front seat next to him. Her features were twisted with worry as
she watched their daughter.

Sage tucked a stray hair tossed by the wind back behind her
ear. “I really think it would be best if I go the rest of the way by myself. It
means a lot to me that you both came this far. I'm not sure I could have made it
here on my own, but I think I should talk to Sawyer first alone.”

Jack wished he could make this easier for her. Was that a
universal parental sentiment, this desire to make the world straighten itself
out around his child so her path was always smooth and even? Intellectually, he
knew that was not only impossible but would create someone unable to cope with
life's inevitable challenges, but that didn't stop him from wanting to ease her
burden.

“I'll find a parking space and we'll wait in the lobby for you,
okay?”

“You really don't have to do that. I can call you when I'm done
and you can just tell me where you parked.”

“We'll be waiting for you in the lobby.” He spoke almost
sternly, determined to do this, at least. He hadn't been here through most of
her life and all the other tough things she'd had to deal with, especially
losing her beloved little sister. He wouldn't let her down now that he had the
chance to offer support in whatever small way he could manage.

“Thanks, you guys.” After a pause, she leaned into the car and
kissed him on the cheek, then did the same to Maura.

“I'm sure I'll be out soon. I mean, come on. How long does it
take to ruin a man's life?”

She gave them both a quick, nervous smile, then closed the
door, squared her shoulders and walked into the lobby.

If Maura hadn't been there, Jack probably would have pounded
his fist on the steering wheel. At the very least. “Damn it. Why won't she let
us go with her? I'd like to have a word or two with the son of a bitch
myself.”

“Maybe that's why she insisted on talking to him by herself at
first. She didn't want you pulling the outraged father act.”

“I
am
outraged. It's no act. The
man is twenty-six years old. He's a full-fledged adult. She's not even twenty
yet and as green as a field of clover, a vulnerable kid dealing with loss and
uncertainty. He had no business messing with her.”

Maura touched his arm, just a soft brush of her fingers, and
some of his wild anger seemed to ease away. “She's knows what she's doing. Let
her handle this her way, okay?”

“What else can we do? She's a stubborn thing.”

“I'm afraid she gets that from both of us. Poor girl was doomed
from the beginning.”

He smiled a little. While he was tempted to use the valet
parking, he had the feeling Sage might want a quick getaway when they were done,
and wouldn't want to wait out in the cold for the valets to find his car, so
instead he pulled a short distance away to the parking lot.

Maura was quiet as he opened the back door for her and reached
a hand to help her out. “Careful. It's icy,” he said, and maintained his hold on
her arm, telling himself it was only out of concern for her safety.

After a pause, Maura pulled her arm away but slipped her hand
into the crook of his arm for more stability. Despite his lingering worry for
Sage and his sharp anger at Sawyer Danforth for being the catalyst for
everything Sage was going through, a sweet tenderness seeped through him at this
small indication of her trust.

The night was clear and beautiful. The mountains soared
overhead, commanding and powerful. He had forgotten how vivid the stars could be
up here. Even with the ambient light from the resort and all the development
around it, he could see their vast, glittery pattern overhead.

None of this was here in his memories. His mother often used to
paint the meadow that had been here. In the summer it would be filled only with
flowers and birds, the occasional curious mule deer. He could clearly remember
playing in the grasses, confident in the knowledge that she was nearby.

Now it was a cramped parking lot. Amazing what changes twenty
years could render.

“Looks like the lodge is doing a good business this
weekend.”

He glanced down at Maura. “You sound surprised.”

“The resort keeps the ski lifts running until April, usually,
but business slows down once March hits. The shoulder season will be here before
we know it.”

“How much of your business is tourist dependent?”

“Not as much as you might think. The locals make up about
seventy to eighty percent of our customer base. When the skiing is lousy,
though, it still hurts all of us on Main Street.”

“Good thing it's not lousy very often.”

She smiled. “That's both the beauty and the curse of living
here in the high Rockies. We can pretty much count on snow from October to
April.”