Cedar Cove Collection

He frowned at her. “Not bad? That’s it?”

“All right, lovely.”

“That’s a little more like it.” Perhaps he should try again, he mused, and without hesitation touched his lips to hers. The same thrilling sensation stole over him. In his opinion, this was a thousand times better than not bad or lovely. It was … he searched for the right word. Incredible came to mind, but Faith had to feel it, too, before he’d risk saying that.

Her eyes were still closed when he raised his head.

“Pretty good,” he said in an offhand manner.

“Pretty good?” Faith echoed. “Pretty good?” Louder this time.

“All right, it was nice.”

“Nice?” She sounded outraged.

“How about incredible?” he suggested.

Her face softened. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“Me, too.” They scooped up their shoes, then he reached for her hand and they headed back to the parking lot. The streetlights had come on, and the usual Friday-night revelers had begun to crowd the beach.

Troy drove Faith home. Just as he had when they were in high school, he walked her to the front door.

“I had a perfect evening,” she whispered. “Absolutely perfect.”

“I did, too,” Troy said. “How about a movie next?” he asked.

“When?”

“Monday?” He had the day off and wanted to see her again as soon as possible.

“Sure,” Faith answered. “Monday’s good.”

“The way Sandy and I used to do it, she’d choose a movie, generally one I wouldn’t have picked myself, and then the next time around, it’d be my turn.”

“That seems fair,” Faith agreed. “So who’ll choose the movie this time, you or me?”

“You.”

“That’s chivalrous of you, but since it was your idea, you should go first.”

“We can compromise. I’ll check the paper and get back to you with some ideas.”

“Okay.”

They still hadn’t decided whether to meet in Seattle or Cedar Cove, but that gave Troy a legitimate excuse to call her later. Not that he really needed an excuse … They kissed good-night, a brief, comfortable kiss, and Troy left. As he made his way down side streets to the freeway on-ramp, he couldn’t stop smiling.

The freeway traffic remained heavy, thanks no doubt to the holiday weekend. Driving back to Cedar Cove took nearly ninety minutes. As soon as he walked into the dark, silent house, he noticed the flashing red light on his phone. He checked the caller ID function; all four calls had come from his daughter. No surprise there.

It was close to eleven, too late to return Megan’s call. He’d phone her in the morning, when his head would be clearer and he’d be better prepared to answer her questions. He’d tell her enough to satisfy her curiosity for the moment, but he wouldn’t lie.

As he started toward his bedroom, the phone rang again. Apparently Megan wasn’t going to let this rest.

“Yes, Megan,” he said, recognizing the number. Who else would be calling him this late at night? Well, except for work, of course.

“It’s Craig,” his son-in-law said in a flat tone. “I just got back from the hospital.” He hesitated and Troy could hear him taking a deep breath. “Megan lost the baby.”

Troy felt as if he’d had a fist slammed into his belly. The first word out of his mouth was “No.”

“I’m sorry…. We tried to reach you. Apparently you had your cell turned off.”

Troy hadn’t bothered to check. “I was … out.”

“Megan’s taking the miscarriage pretty hard.”

Troy felt the sudden need to sit down. “What went wrong?” he asked, shocked by the news.

Sandy had lost two pregnancies after Megan, and both times the experience had been devastating. He couldn’t stand that this had happened to his daughter, too.

“The doctor couldn’t say for sure. Sometimes they can’t tell.”

“Is she still at the hospital?” Troy asked.

“No, she’s here.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“Of course.”

Troy heard his daughter’s tears even before she started to speak. “Daddy, where were you? We tried and tried to call, and we couldn’t get hold of you.” Megan was sobbing in earnest now. “I needed you, Daddy, I really needed you and you weren’t there.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

“I wanted this baby so much. This baby was Mom’s gift to me and now … now there isn’t a baby.”

Troy didn’t know how to comfort her, any more than he’d known how to help Sandy when she’d miscarried. While he’d been out with Faith, sipping expensive wine in a fancy restaurant, walking on the beach, kissing her, his daughter had been at the hospital losing her baby. His grandchild.

Nineteen

Bobby wants me to cut my hours,” Teri complained to Rachel as they walked along the Cedar Cove waterfront. They were on their lunch break and both felt the need to get out of the salon, into the crisp, fresh air and lovely September sunshine. Before long, the October rains would come and warm, bright days such as this would be rare.

“Is that what you want?” Rachel asked, tossing the leftover crust from her sandwich to the seagulls.

Teri didn’t reply, and Rachel glanced up from feeding the gulls.

“Do you want to work part-time?” Rachel repeated.

“I don’t know what I want anymore,” Teri confessed. “I love my job, but I love Bobby, too, and he needs me more than Mrs. Johnson needs a spiral perm or Janice Hutt a color job.”