92 Pacific Boulevard - Debbie Macomber [124]
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.
Chapter 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