1105 Yakima Street - Debbie Macomber [106]
Bruce took her hand again. “Don’t, please.” He breathed slowly, eyes closed. “Rachel, I’m sorry. What I said about Nate was out of line.” Then he opened his eyes, meeting hers, and tugged gently at her hand. “Let me show you the bedroom Jolene and I painted for the baby.”
Rachel went with him to the third bedroom. When Bruce turned on the light, Rachel gasped in surprise. The baby’s nursery was totally furnished.
“Jolene helped me pick out the crib and dresser and changing table.”
“This is…perfect. All of it.”
He walked over to the dresser, opened one of the drawers and pulled out a tiny T-shirt. “Who would’ve thought anyone could possibly be this small?”
Rachel smiled. Bruce and Jolene had seen to everything.
“When Jolene said you might be leaving the state, I had to do something. Otherwise, I would’ve gone crazy. So I focused all my energy on preparing for the baby.”
Rachel stood in the middle of the bedroom on the round white rug and looked steadily at her husband. “I know this is hard.”
“Hard?” he repeated. “You have no idea.”
“You’re wrong, Bruce. Do you think I wanted to leave you? Do you think it was easy to pack my suitcase and walk out that door? I can assure you, it wasn’t. It nearly killed me to walk away from you and Jolene, but I had to because Jolene—”
“She’s doing better now. She’s been to the counselor and—”
“And she’s come a long way,” Rachel finished for him. “But she isn’t quite ready and if we rush things now, like we did with the wedding last Christmas, we could be making another mistake. I’d rather play it safe and wait.”
“We can’t cater to Jolene’s whims,” he insisted. “This is where you belong. You and the baby.”
“And this is where I want to be. But I don’t feel that giving Jolene time to understand that she has to share you with me and the baby is catering to her.”
Shaking his head, Bruce walked out of the bedroom. She knew that wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear, but he had no choice other than to accept her decision.
Rachel found him standing in front of the fireplace with one hand braced against the mantel and his back to her. She stood behind him. “I’m sorry, Bruce, but we really can’t rush this.”
“I thought you’d only be gone a week or two, and that seemed unbearable. Now it’s three months and you’re still saying the time isn’t right. I’m afraid it’ll never be right again. I feel like I’ve lost you.”
“You haven’t,” she whispered, placing her hand on his back. “I’m not going anywhere. More than anything I want to be with you and Jolene. I want our baby to be part of our family.”
Bruce turned and studied her for a long time before he held out his arms to her. She slipped into his embrace.
“Will you come back and visit again…soon?” he asked.
“Okay. When?”
“Next weekend. Jolene and I are putting up our Christmas tree and I’d like you to be here.”
Rachel nodded. That would be especially revealing. She’d be intruding on Christmas traditions that had always been reserved for Jolene and her father. If they could make it through that without Jolene getting upset and territorial, then maybe, just maybe, she could move back before Christmas.
Thirty-Three
Feeling good, Gloria climbed the steps to her second-floor apartment. She’d had lunch out with her mother, who’d recently returned from North Dakota. They’d chatted about Christmas and a couple of family events planned for the season. Gloria loved being included. She felt more like family than at any other time since she’d come into their lives.
As she inserted her key into the lock, Gloria noticed a woman getting out of a car in the parking lot below. She didn’t think too much of it, although the blonde looked somewhat familiar.
She was inside and had just hung up her coat when there was a knock at her door. Checking the peephole, Gloria recognized the woman she’d seen in the parking lot.
Seeing her up close Gloria realized why the blonde woman seemed familiar. This was Joni, the woman she’d seen Chad kissing that day at the hospital in Tacoma. The woman he