"You wanted that six-month engagement," he reminded her. "Which was more of a probation period."
"Oh...yes." She did busywork in the kitchen, folding the Cedar Cove Chronicle and tossing it into the recycling bin, then smoothing out a towel that lay on the counter. "So what you're saying is you want out of the engagement?"
He hesitated and swallowed hard. "That might be for the best."
"Fine." She hung the towel on the oven door. "You said I knew marriage wasn't right for us, but you obviously did, too."
He frowned.
"You didn't tell your parents, remember? That must've been why."
Perhaps, but he doubted it. He took another long drink of his iced tea and set the empty glass aside. "Then we understand each other?" he asked.
She gestured weakly. "I'm sorry, I guess I don't. What is our relationship, Mack?"
Good question. He shrugged.
"We're neighbors," she began.
"Well, of course," he said. As well as landlord and tenant. He quickly decided this wasn't the appropriate time to divulge that. And it wasn't as though it was hurting him financially. Plus, he rationalized, the fact that he owned the duplex meant she'd been able to attain at least a degree of independence.
"Friends."
"I certainly hope so."
His response seemed to reassure her.
"But you'd like the freedom to...to see other women, wouldn't you?" she asked, her voice sharpening. "That's really what this is all about, isn't it?"
He stiffened. "If you're suggesting I've met someone else, then you're wrong." He didn't want her to think he was another David, a man who'd discard her without a care.
"But you want the freedom to see others," she said.
"That goes for you, too." Again the words nearly stuck in his throat. "You'd be free to date other men if you wished." He hoped that wasn't the case. It would be hell on earth to watch some other man stroll into her life, and stand idly by. Mack didn't know if he could do it.
She looked down at her bare hand. "I guess it's just as well we never got around to shopping for rings."
"Just as well," he repeated.
"Perhaps that was another instance of us both knowing that marriage wasn't right for us."
"Maybe so," he agreed.
They seemed to run out of things to say at the same time. But Mack couldn't bring himself to leave. In the pit of his stomach he knew that once he walked out the door, invitations to visit would be few and far between.
"Do you feel better?" Mary Jo asked after a lengthy silence. "I always do when I've finally told someone the truth."
"Yeah," he said and forced a smile at the irony of her statement. He started toward the door, then abruptly turned back. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to call, okay?"
"Okay."
"Promise me you won't let pride get in the way."
"I can't, not where Noelle's concerned," she said. "Anyway, I know how important she is to you, and I wouldn't keep you apart."
"I'm grateful."
She walked with him and held open the door. Head down, long hair hiding her face, she said, "I'm grateful, too-that you're my...friend."
Mack found he couldn't leave without kissing her. Slipping his finger beneath her chin, he raised her face and then, after a single heartbeat, lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was slow and tender. When he lifted his head, Mack could hardly speak. "Friends and neighbors and...perhaps more." He wanted to be sure she understood that the possibility existed. What he hoped, what he needed, was some indication from Mary Jo that she wanted him as part of her life. Then and only then could they move forward.
Mary Jo closed the door after Mack, then sank onto the living room sofa, almost too stunned to think. She supposed Mack was right to break the engagement. She liked him a great deal and was already half in love with him-maybe all the way in love with him. So much had happened in the past year, so much she didn't fully understand. If her mother had been alive she could've talked things over with her. And there wasn't anyone else. She wouldn't dream of burdening Grace or Olivia.
Her life was completely different from what it had been a few months ago. She had little in common these days with even her closest friends. Yes, they chatted and stayed in touch, but Mary Jo had a baby and could no longer take off at a moment's notice to go to a movie or shop or do anything else. Her whole life, and therefore all her relationships, had changed since Noelle's birth.
In a relatively short time she'd become a mother, left her family home, moved to a new town, taken a new job. Now she had one more item to add to that list. She'd become engaged and unengaged within a month. But like everything else, she'd deal with that and with Mack's confused feelings for her.
He was right, of course; it was better to be honest, although she was still unsure exactly where their relationship stood. One thing she did feel sure about, though, was the fact that Mack would move heaven and earth to protect Noelle.
The baby stirred from her afternoon nap and Mary Jo went into her room. After changing Noelle's diaper and feeding her, she set her in her baby seat and began doing what she always did when she felt troubled. She cleaned house.
While she was hanging up her clothes in the bedroom closet, the nail from a loose board caught on the toe of her sock. It wasn't the first time she'd snagged a sock on that nail. Under other circumstances, she'd ask Mack to hammer it down for her, since he acted as the rental manager on behalf of his friend. But she couldn't go to him just now. Besides, she was fairly competent. All she really needed was something to pound the nail. A shoe with a solid heel would work equally well.
"Your mother is no dunce," she told Noelle as she knelt on the floor and found an appropriate shoe. Once down on all fours, Mary Jo saw that more than one board was loose. Retrieving a flashlight from her drawer, she aimed it at the closet floor, ready to pound away, when an object of some kind caught her attention.
"Noelle," she said, her voice rising. "There's something underneath this board."
The baby cooed from the other side of the bedroom.
Mary Jo used her fingers to wiggle the nail out, then managed to free the second one. Once the board was loose, she lifted it up and discovered, still partially hidden, what seemed to be a wooden box.
Mary Jo worked at the remaining floorboards in the closet until she could retrieve the box. Breathless, she sat on the floor, holding it in her lap. The wooden box was old; that much was apparent. It was larger than a cigar box and light. The writing on it had faded long ago to the point that it was unreadable.
"Shall I peek inside?" she asked Noelle.
The baby returned her look with wide-eyed wonder.
"I'm curious, too," Mary Jo said. Holding her breath, she raised the lid. There were letters inside, old letters. She picked up the first envelope and turned to Noelle. Reading the postmark, she said, "These are letters written in 1943 by..." The ink on the blue airmail envelope had faded. "Major Jacob Dennison." The letters were addressed to Miss Joan Manry, 1022 Evergreen Place, Cedar Cove, Washington.
"I'm going to read it," Mary Jo told her daughter. "I can't imagine why Joan would hide them like this." She carefully opened the flimsy paper.
The spidery handwriting was difficult to read, and some of it was obscured by black marks. "It's written by Jacob-Jake-during the war," Mary Jo said. "He's in Europe...a pilot flying out of England, it looks like." She bit her lip. "It's a love letter. Oh, Noelle, he's about to go on a bombing mission over Germany and he's afraid he's going to die and he wants Joan to know that if he doesn't survive, he'll find a way to come to her...that he'll always love her."
For an hour or more, Mary Jo lost herself in the letters. Sitting on the bedroom floor beside Noelle, she read one after another, her eyes often filling with tears.
She was startled into awareness by the ringing of her doorbell, followed by a knock. That signal immediately identified her visitor as Mack. Immersed as she was in the letters, she wiped her eyes and hurriedly got to her feet, excited about sharing her discovery with him.
She threw open the door.
"Mary Jo, listen, I think I might've given you the wrong impression."
"No, no, it's fine," she said. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him inside. "I found something I need to show you."
Mack frowned. "What?"
"There was this loose board in the closet and-"
"You should've told me. I would have taken care of it."
"That isn't important, Mack. The letters are." She couldn't contain her excitement. "I came across a box hidden in the closet. It has the most beautiful love letters, all written during World War II."
"You read them?"
"Well, of course. Anyone would have... You have to read them, too! Once I started I couldn't stop. They're so eloquent, so moving... I want to know what happened to Jake and Joan. I want to find out if Jacob Dennison returned from the war and if they married and had children. You need to talk to your friend right away."
"My friend?" Mack sounded confused and, little wonder, the way she'd dragged him into the room, talking nonstop.
"The man who owns the duplex," she elaborated. "They might be related to him. He'll want these letters-they're a treasure."
Mack shook his head. "That isn't possible. My...friend, the owner, can't be related. He only recently purchased the place."
"Then maybe whoever he bought it from will know."
"I can find out, if you want."
Mary Jo nodded eagerly. "Please."
He grinned. "I'll see who might have owned the house during the war years."
"Thank you, Mack," she said.
Suddenly the uneasiness returned. "I apologize," Mary Jo said stiffly. "I didn't really give you a chance to explain why you came over."
Mack shrugged. "No reason. I just wanted to be sure everything's okay between us."
"It is," Mary Jo assured him.
Reading these letters had put everything in perspective-although she couldn't have said exactly how that had happened.
Thirty-Six.
"Are you okay, Dad?" Megan asked, studying Troy closely. "You're pale."
Troy couldn't remember being this nervous about anything in his life. "It isn't every day a man asks a woman to be his wife."
"What's there to be nervous about?" Megan asked. As a child, she'd thought there wasn't anything her daddy couldn't do and she sometimes still seemed to believe it. "We both know Faith's going to say yes."
Troy wished he shared his daughter's confidence. He hoped and prayed Faith would accept his proposal, and yet he had doubts. On the one hand he felt optimistic, certain there'd been signs that she wanted him in her life. On the other...there'd been a few serious setbacks, and he wasn't assuming anything.
"Okay, Daddy, go out there and get your woman," Megan said, kissing his cheek. She steered him toward the front door. "You're sure Faith is home?"
Troy hadn't stopped to think that Faith would be anywhere else on a Friday night. They'd spoken a couple of times since the arrest, more than a week ago, but their conversations had been mostly related to that.
"I think so."
"Dad!" Megan's elbows jutted out as she put her hands on her hips. "You mean to say you didn't phone ahead?"
"Actually, no."
Without a word, Megan stalked over to the telephone and punched in Faith's number. She placed her hand over the receiver and looked up at him. "It'd serve you right if Faith's gone out for the evening."
That got his hackles up. "Who with?" If Faith was seeing another man, Will Jefferson, for example, he...he...
"No answer, Dad," Megan said, shaking her head. "I can't believe you didn't phone and say you wanted to talk to her. You aren't even married and you're already taking Faith for granted." Megan sounded more amused than annoyed.
"Who could she be with?" Troy wondered out loud.
"How am I supposed to know?"
Talk about taking the wind out of his sails. Troy left his daughter's house, calling himself every name for stupid that he could remember. He should've phoned, instead of assuming Faith had nothing better to do on a Friday night than sit home waiting for him.
He was back at his place and feeling miserable when Megan phoned.
"Don't ask me how I know, but Faith's at the movies with Olivia and Grace."
"Right now?"
"Yes, now!"
"Which movie?"
Megan told him and then with a smile in her voice, asked, "Do you have a burning desire to see Clive Owen all of a sudden?"
"I sure do! Bye, sweetheart, and thanks."
"Good luck!"
Troy was out the door so fast he nearly ran to his car. The theater parking lot was full and he had to circle twice before he found an empty slot. He purchased his ticket; then, wanting it to look as if their meeting was accidental, he bought popcorn and a soda.
The movie had already started and the theater was so dark he couldn't see anything beyond his own two feet. He slipped into the first available seat and scanned the backs of people's heads, hoping to find Faith.