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Love,
Jacob and Sarah and the boys
“Do you want to reply to it now?” Michael asked.
“No. I want you to read me the others first.”
She listened as he read the letter from Eli and his wife, Bobby Sue, and now from Peter and his wife, Bella.
Dear Selina,
I just wanted to let you know that Pastor Hickens and I were thinking about you and praying that all is well with you. Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Albin send their love. Just so you know, you can stop worrying about both of them now because they are being taken care of almost as well as when you were taking care of them. Aimee has been helping them. She…
At the mention of Aimee’s name, she jerked her attention onto Michael to see his reaction. Wrinkles lined his forehead but he kept right on a reading. Only Selina didn’t hear another word, she was too busy wondering what he was feeling.
There was one letter left. She watched as Michael ran his finger under the seal and removed the letter from its envelope. The muscle in his jaw worked back and forth and his brows furrowed. Whoever it was from had him mighty worked up. Only she couldn’t tell if it was anger or something else. He excused himself to get some firewood and was gone for almost an hour. She could hardly wait to see who the letter was from.
Ever since Selina had arrived, Michael had shoveled his anger at himself and her friend into a deep hole, burying and hiding it as well as he could. But seeing the signature on the letter he held, all the bitterness, resentment and anger resurfaced.
He sucked in a deep breath and willed none of those things to show while he read to Selina. Selina felt bad enough about the whole situation and he didn’t want her feeling worse. Living with her had proved she wasn’t capable of the deception that had led to their ill-begotten marriage.
To deal with the anger he had toward himself and Aimee, he had taken it out on the firewood when he split it, pounded harder than necessary on the nails when he repaired the corrals, and shoveled the muck in the barn with a vengeance. The stench of it was as bad as the stench of his anger, anger that needed to be purged like the dung in the barn. When none of those things worked, and actually exacerbated things, he had finally turned to prayer. That was the only thing that helped him deal with it enough to go back inside the house. He offered up a quick prayer and then turned to the letter.
My dearest friend,
I hope you and Michael are settled into your new life together. I’m so happy for you, Selina. I only wish I could find someone as wonderful as your Michael seems to be. You are so blessed to have someone like him, as is he to have someone like you. Both you and he deserve the best, and I wish you both all the happiness in the world.
Michael continued to read, his voice monotone even though a gamut of emotions stirred inside him. Emotions he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
Things are not the same around here without you. Rather boring, actually. Father is planning another party. I so hate those things. Everyone here is so phony. Unlike you, Selina. You are the one and only genuine person I know. Don’t ever change. For anyone. You hear me. Oh, before I forget, Bosley had her puppies. Seven of them. I think of you every time I look at them. They’re so sweet and loving and accepting. Just like you, my dear friend. You are truly one of a kind. I am planning a visit real soon as I cannot wait to see you again. I love you and miss you terribly.
Give Michael my love.
No thanks. He wanted no part of the deceptive woman.
Your forever friend,
Aimee
Michael folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. Though the room was quiet, the ticking of the grandfather clock and Selina’s breathing roared like a violent stampede.
Selina set the rocking chair into motion. “I sure don’t understand her.” He barely heard her, her voice was so soft.
“You don’t understand what?” he asked equally as quiet.
“She acts like she ain’t done nothin’ wrong.”
That’s what he was thinking, too. Aimee seemed to think that he and Selina deserved each other. Why would the woman think he would like Selina? He’d told her what type of woman he was looking for. And Selina was far from it.
Would he ever be able to truly forgive Aimee for deceiving them?
And would he ever be able to love Selina the way he had loved who he’d thought she was?
Selina struggled with Aimee’s letter. It surprised Selina that Aimee acted like Michael and Selina belonged together. If only she had kept Michael’s letters, then she’d have asked Rainee to read them to her. To find out what they really said. But she hadn’t kept them because she couldn’t read them herself anyway.
