1022 Evergreen Place - Debbie Macomber [31]
The problem was that she wanted to trust Mack. But she’d yearned to believe in David, too. She’d clung for much too long to the fiction that her baby’s father loved her and welcomed their child, refusing to accept what was obvious to everyone else…and should’ve been to her.
Even her brothers knew what kind of man David was without ever meeting him. When she’d finally recognized the truth, Mary Jo had been devastated. Yet, despite everything, she’d never regret having Noelle. The baby gave her life purpose. And hope.
Because of Noelle, there was more to think about than herself. Any decision she made, any action she took, would have an impact on her daughter, too.
To his credit Mack had tried to make amends. Monday afternoon Mary Jo arrived home from her job at Allan Harris’s law firm to find a large bouquet of flowers on her doorstep. The card that accompanied it said simply, “I’m sorry,” and was signed by Mack.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights he was at the fire station, but on Thursday there was another gift. A set of cake pans.
Cake pans! Of all the silly things to remember she needed. She wanted to bake a coconut cake using a recipe Charlotte Rhodes had generously shared. Mary Jo had purchased the ingredients, but when she reached home, she realized she didn’t have circular cake pans. By then she didn’t feel like returning to the store. She’d bake it another time.
Mack was working so hard to convince her to forgive him. Again, every instinct told her she should. She’d always be grateful for his help in finding a home for her and Noelle—even though she firmly disagreed with his deception, regardless of how well-intentioned it was. Without him, she might still be living with her three overbearing brothers. She loved them—they were her family—but they were suffocating her.
When she’d lost her job with the insurance company, she’d flown into a panic, although it was a blessing in disguise if ever there was one. Her fear was that once she returned from maternity leave she’d be forced to see David Rhodes again, since he worked for the same company. But her employer had taken that worry off her hands and presented her with another—no job at all. A friend had recently told her that David was no longer employed by the company, either.
The opportunity to move to Cedar Cove had come at the perfect time. Mack had been instrumental in that decision. Grace Harding and Olivia Griffin, who’d also befriended her, had made the transition as effortless as possible. The two women had helped her find a new job, and Grace’s younger daughter, Kelly, provided day care for Noelle.
Once she’d secured employment and child care, all Mary Jo needed was an affordable place to live. She knew housing costs would be significantly lower than Seattle prices, and she’d been delighted that rent on a refurbished duplex was so reasonable. No wonder. Mack could’ve rented it for twice what he charged her. Well, she’d taken care of that, although it put a serious strain on her budget. She’d checked with a real-estate agent Grace recommended and come up with an appropriate amount. Mack obviously saw that she wasn’t changing her mind on this, since he hadn’t argued when she’d insisted on paying full rent. She also planned to repay him the balance for the months she’d already lived there.
At one point after she’d been confronted by David, Mack had offered to marry her, which had felt…weird, but she’d said yes, anyway. Fortunately, they’d both recognized what a mistake that was and called it off before they’d made any family announcements. She could only imagine how Linc would react if he’d learned about that.
Linc.
Thinking about her brother, Mary Jo smiled as she rolled onto her side and punched her feather pillow to reshape it. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her brother this happy. She wouldn’t have guessed it, but marriage suited him. He and Lori hadn’t known each