1022 Evergreen Place - Debbie Macomber [32]
Linc wasn’t an impulsive man, but in the past couple of months he’d made two drastic changes to his life. The first was marrying Lori Bellamy. The second was moving to Cedar Cove and starting a branch of the auto body and repair business their father had established more than forty years earlier. Mel and Ned, the two younger brothers, were now in charge of the Seattle shop.
The fact that Linc had handed over the business to his siblings said he believed they were capable of handling it without him. Apparently he, too, had felt the restraints imposed by family and was ready to move ahead with his life. Good for him!
At first Mary Jo had suspected that Linc’s reason for coming to Cedar Cove was to stand guard over her. That, however, didn’t appear to be the case. The truth was, she rarely saw him. He was busy setting up his business, equipping and renovating the commercial garage he’d purchased, and enjoying married life.
Mary Jo must have fallen asleep again because the alarm woke her abruptly at seven. Immediately Noelle woke up, too, hungry and badly in need of a diaper change. Mary Jo gave her a bath, fed and dressed her and took her to Kelly’s house on her way to the office.
Mary Jo was tired all day, no doubt because of the hours she’d lain awake, thinking about Mack and David Rhodes and Linc…. “Well, at least it’s Friday,” she muttered to herself as she corrected a document for the third time.
When she finally got home that afternoon, she saw Mack’s truck in their shared driveway. He must’ve been waiting for her because he came onto the porch as soon as she climbed out of the car. She gave him a cursory wave, then lifted Noelle from her carrier in the backseat.
“Hi,” he said, looking unsettled and yet eager to talk. He’d slid his hands in his hip pockets, a habit that signaled he was ill at ease.
“Hello, Mack.”
“Are you still angry?” he asked.
“I don’t think angry is the right word. I think disappointed says it better.”
He took a moment to consider her reply. “I really am sorry.”
“I know.” Mary Jo had sensed his guilt and regret the minute he’d confessed. “I just wish you’d been honest with me from the beginning.”
“I will from now on.”
Mary Jo nodded. She really didn’t have anything more to say. She figured everyone was entitled to one mistake; if anything else happened, she’d know it was time to move on.
“Can we let bygones be bygones, then?”
She nodded again. “Yes, let’s do that.”
“Thank you.” His relief was obvious. He stepped down from the porch and started toward her. “I wanted to tell you—I went to the library this afternoon.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t remember that much about World War II from my high school history class, so I took out a couple of books on the war. I’d like to familiarize myself with some of the details.”
Mary Jo smiled. “I talked to Charlotte this Wednesday and also last week, when I took Noelle over there,” she told him. “And I did an online search of every high school in the area, but I didn’t find a single Jacob Dennison in the 1930s or early forties. I’ll expand my search the next chance I get.” She shifted Noelle from her right arm to her left.
“Did Charlotte have any information?” Mack asked, reaching inside her car for the baby seat and diaper bag.
“Oh, yeah. She thought Joan Manry might have attended Cedar Cove High School, so I went online and checked out the names of everyone who graduated during the war years. She wasn’t there.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I want to look online for telephone directories from that era, too, but I haven’t had time.”
“Is that even possible?”
“We won’t know until we try.”
Mack’s face broke into a bright smile.
Mary Jo frowned, wondering what he found so amusing.
“I love that you said ‘we,’” Mack explained, clearly understanding her question. “I want us to work together to track down those two. I don’t understand why Joan would hide the letters. I’m grateful she did, but it makes me wonder.”
“All I can think is that her family objected to her