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She turned the notebook toward him so he could see all the names. “We should probably start with the uncle’s name. Find out the name of the company he owned in Nevada. Then see if we can get a list of former employees?”
“Good idea.” Wyatt tapped the paper with the names. “We could call the city hall of the town and find out if we can access any marriage records.”
“Okay, I like it.” She paused.
He looked at her expectantly. “Do you want to get together tomorrow afternoon? Join forces with our phone calls?”
“What time can you get off?” she asked. “Most businesses will close by five. At least Nevada is in the same time zone as we are.”
“I’ll go into work extra early so I can leave close to three. Then I’ll head over to your place, unless you and Carly want to come to mine?”
“My place will be faster,” Anita said. “I won’t have to wait for Carly to get home from school.”
Just the thought of Wyatt walking into her house had her thinking of all the things she should probably straighten up or clean. Not that she intended to deep clean or anything, but she wanted things more decent than what they were.
“All right,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll plan on being to your place no later than three thirty tomorrow. If anything changes, I’ll give you a call.”
Anita bit her lip and nodded. It was a plan. Her week was definitely turning out to be much different than she could have predicted.
1921-ish
SAM GOT OFF WORK A few minutes earlier than usual, and it only put an extra spring in his step as he headed to the café for something to eat. He wasn’t fooling himself that he hoped Norma would be there. They’d become good friends, he surmised. He’d told her about Susan, and she told him a little about David.
A couple of weeks earlier, he’d received a letter from Susan saying that she was engaged to her fellow. Sam knew she’d been going steady with a guy for a few months. But he was taken aback when her letter came. It seemed that things had moved very fast between them...And now they were going to get married?
He’d shown up at the café carrying a whirlwind of emotions. Norma had let him blow off his steam, and when he’d calmed, she helped him see that the Susan of today was probably not the Susan of high school. Years had passed, and although they’d kept up their letter writing, neither of them had made the huge effort to travel across several states to see each other.
“That’s because every time I make a plan, something happens to derail it,” Sam had defended. Then he’d gone quiet. He’d let the canceled plans put him into a funk until he came up with another way to visit Susan. A few times she’d had hopes that she might be able to return to Seattle too, but money always stood in her way. Even when Sam had offered to send her a ticket, she’d told him to keep it for tuition. Which he really did need to pay, but had continuing his crush on Susan been unrealistic?
Talking to Norma had helped him see things in a different way. So when news of Susan’s engagement came, she was the one he confided in. Because it meant that any hope he’d had as a teenager of spending the rest of his life with Susan had died once and for all.
Tonight though, he had good news to share with her. He’d passed his check ride for a monoplane, which meant he’d be starting the next phase of the aviation program. He entered the café to find Norma at her usual table. She had a drink in front of her, absently stirring it with a straw, but her expression told him she was upset about something. So instead of ordering right away, he headed toward the table in the corner.
She glanced up at him as he slid into the booth across from her, then lowered her eyes again.
“Hey,” he said gently.
“Hey,” she whispered.
He waited a moment, but when she didn’t say anything more, he continued. “What’s wrong, Norma?”
She blinked and tears fell on her cheeks, then her face crumpled.
Sam rose from his spot and sat on her bench. “What’s going on?” he asked, setting his arm about her shoulders.
She leaned against him, her shoulders shaking with her mostly silent crying. “I . . . it’s . . .”
“David?” he guessed.
She nodded against his chest.
“Did he break up with you?”
Another nod.
“He’s a piece of work,” Sam said on an angry exhale. “Don’t give him a second thought. You can do way better than the likes of him.”
Norma wrapped her arms about his torso, and he tightened his hold on her. He’d never touched her before, never hugged her, but this felt nice—comforting. She smelled faintly of roses—maybe it was her shampoo or perfume she’d put on that morning.
