Love in Maine (28 page)

“Good, good. Yes.” Maddie laughed. “Let me get a word in edgewise. I got a surprise
visit from Henry Gilbertson and—yes—that’s why I’m calling! Mom, we’re engaged!” Maddie
laughed again, and Hank smiled as he watched her, loved her.

“Okay. Yeah, Boston’s probably best . . . well, that’s a little stuffy, but okay . . .”
She put the phone against her chest and whispered to Hank. “They want to take us to
the Harvard Club for lunch, do you mind?”

He smiled. “Perfect.”

Maddie finished up her phone conversation and they were all set to meet the next day
at noon. “I’m so excited! It’s going to be all my favorite people in one place!”

Hank stood up and pulled her into a hug.

The next day, when the two of them walked toward the front doors of the stolid brick
and limestone building on Commonwealth Avenue, Maddie saw her parents walking down
the sidewalk from the other direction. She gave Hank’s hand a little squeeze. “Here
they come.”

A few seconds later, her parents were up the steps and they were all hugging and introducing
one another. Laura gave Maddie a big hug accompanied by a loud stage whisper, “He
is so handsome, sweet pea!”

Maddie blushed and looked at Hank. Because he was handsome. And he was hers to look
at.

“Mom, this is Henry Gilbertson. Henry, this is my mother, Laura Post.”

“Hello, Henry,” Laura said with a beaming smile. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you.
We’ve heard all sorts of wonderful things about you. This is Maddie’s father, William
Post.”

Henry and Maddie’s father shook hands, and Hank said, “Nice to meet you, sir,” in
a formal military way that gave Maddie shivers.

They went inside, and Maddie’s father spoke to the attendant behind the front desk,
then the four of them went into the private room that her dad had reserved for them
to have lunch.

“William’s been very eager to meet you in person,” Laura launched in as soon as they’d
all sat down and spread their napkins on their laps. “Since Christmas, of course,
with the wonderful coin you gave Maddie . . .”

Laura paused and looked around at the other three people, then laughed when she realized
she had been talking the entire time since they had hugged at the front door. “Oh.
I’m so sorry. We’re all a little excited.”

Maddie smiled and felt as if her whole existence had been leading up to this moment—that
all the years and split seconds of her life until now had been an act of preparation
to take Hank into her life, to receive him like this.

Hank and her father were now talking about the research that Hank had been doing when
he came upon the Greek coin. Maddie looked from one man to the other. She felt momentarily
that no matter how modern she was, there was a changing of the guard transpiring before
her eyes. Henry wanted to be responsible for Maddie in the most elemental, possessive
way. It felt almost physical, like she was being placed into his care.

It was exactly the opposite of how she had felt when she wanted to keep him away from
the “rest” of her life, to save herself from having all those independent memories
colored by her feelings for Hank. Now she wanted everything and everyone in her life
to be mixed together with those feelings. She would need her parents to tell anecdotes
about this lunch while Hank was away again for the next four months. Maddie would
need her mother to remind her how handsome and kind and smart he was. How Maddie needed
to learn patience.

They spent the rest of lunch in a happy rush of sharing information about Maddie’s
grant application, Hank’s interests in deep-sea diving, engineering, and material
physics, and eventually combining them somehow.

By the time they finished lunch it was after two, and Hank looked at his watch. “I’m
so sorry, I have to be at the airfield by three. It has been such a pleasure meeting
you both.”

They all stood up and walked to the parking garage together. Hank took Maddie’s duffle
bag out of his car and handed it to her. She set it down, and he gave her a hug and
a too-short kiss while her parents tried to look in another direction. They had agreed
that Maddie’s parents would take her back to the station to get her train to Providence
since Hank needed to catch his plane.

“August thirty-first? Okay?” He traced his finger along her jaw.

“Okay,” Maddie said, her eyes beginning to burn.

“Okay.” He hugged her again and kissed her one last time, finally releasing her and
saying another good-bye to Maddie’s parents. He took another long look at Maddie,
then got into the car and drove away.

“So. There you have it,” Maddie said to her parents. Her mom pulled her into a hug
and let her cry into her.

“You’ll be fine, sweetheart, he’ll be back before you know it.”

Maddie pulled herself together and got into the backseat of her dad’s station wagon,
feeling like she was about twelve years old.

The next few months were not nearly as miserable as Maddie had expected. Hank was
right that keeping diabolically busy helped to pass the time. She’d received the grant,
and they’d even asked her to lead a small team of researchers who would be in charge
of drawing up and analyzing the findings for an archaeological group in Cyprus. She
received the list of possible candidates in the middle of July and worked closely
with the head of the Cypriot university team to decide on the best-qualified people.

By the middle of August, she was frantic with wanting to see Hank. Maddie had spent
a week in Maine in June with Janet and Phil before their marriage ceremony. Hank had
managed to get in a long Skype call the morning of the wedding, so that had been something.
But not nearly enough.

After making some additional arrangements with her colleagues in Cyprus and Boston,
Maddie decided to take matters into her own hands.

The twenty-two hours of travel with a layover at Heathrow got her into Larnaca in
the middle of a scorching afternoon on August twenty-ninth. A car was waiting for
her at the airport when she arrived and took her to the small house in the hills that
she received as part of her academic housing stipend.

The next morning, she showered and called a taxi to take her to the university to
meet with her team leader, the professor who was running the entire operation. Maddie
was shown a small office. “This is where you can leave your things and write up your
findings, but I suspect you won’t be spending much time here as the bulk of your research
will be compiled while you are at sea.”

Maddie smiled. “Yes. It will.”

Both women looked up at the sound of two men arguing behind a partially closed door
at the far end of the hall.

“I don’t care if she’s Hypatia of fucking Alexandria. I have been on a fucking submarine
for months and just got orders to come here straight from the docks, and I need to
be back in Boston tomorrow, and I’ll turn in my resignation if you don’t let me out
of this goddamned office right now—”

“She is going to be the head of the accompanying research team, and Lodge demanded
that you be here to meet her on her first day,” a more rational voice replied.

“Well, she sounds like a controlling pain in the ass and I’m—”

Maddie stood in the door, her arms folded across her chest.

Hank stared at her.

The Cypriot professor who had been showing her around smiled and patted Maddie on
the shoulder. “Looks like you surprised him, yes?”

“Yes,” Maddie said, not taking her eyes off Hank.

The other man, one of Mr. Lodge’s top advisors on the project—and Maddie’s accomplice—came
around from behind his desk and shook Maddie’s hand. “Nicely done.” Then he left the
room and shut the door, leaving Hank and Maddie alone in the small, cluttered office.

Maddie felt her heart begin to hammer. First at the mere sight of him—Hank was tanned
and still sort of throbbing and fuming from his loss of temper—then at the sizzling
energy that crackled between them. She twisted her engagement ring with her thumb,
a comforting habit she’d fallen into over the past few months.

“What are you doing here?” Hank finally asked.

“I’m the controlling bitch who’s heading up the other team. I thought we should meet.”

He walked slowly toward her, and Maddie felt like her heart was going to pound right
out of her chest.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He was close now, smiling and predatory.

Maddie shrugged. When she spoke, her voice was thin and sounded as desperate for him
as she felt, as desperate as the need she saw in the clear green eyes staring back
at her. “I figured I could tell you later.”

He reached out and pulled her into his arms.

The publisher wishes to thank
General Hospital
executive producer, Frank Valentini, and head writer, Ron Carlivati, for their extraordinary
creativity, support, and efforts on behalf of this book.

Connie Falconeri hails from Bensonhurst, in Brooklyn, NY, where she had a colorful
youth. After taking many years off to find herself, she’s back and better than ever.
This is her first novel.

Author photo credit: ©American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./Craig Sjodin

Copyright © 2013 Hyperion and ABC

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 1500 Broadway, New
York, New York 10036.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the original print edition
has been applied for.

eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-0538-3

Cover design by Anet Khayat and Michael Bassett

Cover photo © GettyImages

First eBook Edition

Original trade paperback edition printed in the United States of America.

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