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He listened to her and was ashamed. She was right.
“You should have come to me, out of respect for our friendship, and said that it was a mistake. Or a one-night stand, or however you perceived it. I admit that I was irrational, following you around, watching her. Now I have to further humiliate myself and tell her I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I disrespected you,” he finally said, truly repentant.
“I’m sorry I hurt your relationship with Maggie.” There was nothing more to say. “Goodbye, Justin.”
She ended the call, throwing her phone onto the couch. The fantasy she’d built around being the veterinarian’s wife had dissipated like smoke. Imagining living with Justin and Vic, managing the cook and housekeeper, but being integral to the running of the clinic, mucking out stalls on their ranch—all dreams that would never materialize.
Then, like a firework, a cherry bomb specifically, the thought arose that they weren’t the only vet clinic in the area. If she had her sights on nabbing a vet, she could look elsewhere. She could even go back to school to be a vet tech. There wasn’t the money for vet school. She could make her dreams come true without a guy if she worked at it hard enough.
For the first time in a long while, Amber Greely got excited about her future.
While Amber looked up vet tech programs online, Maggie Angel remembered the box of letters belonging to her aunt Elizabeth. Preparing a cup of coffee, she got on the couch with Brulee and called her aunt.
“You’ll never believe everything that’s gone on in the past twenty-four hours.”
She told her all the stories, from the water’s edge romance to the break-in to the sad breakup.
“Oh, honey, it wasn’t his fault.”
“I know that, but he could have told me, and I would have been more careful about outdoor fornicatory activities.”
“Oh, who cares what she saw? Maggie, Maggie, you need to reevaluate ending that relationship. I’m afraid you’re making a big mistake. You are trying to control this relationship because the one with Russ was out of your control. Two wrongs aren’t going to make a right.”
She didn’t want to talk about it any longer. Remembering her initial reason for calling, she told her about the letters.
“Oh my, I had forgotten all about those. But I don’t want them. You know, my dear, it’s rather serendipitous that you found those letters. You might learn a thing or two. Be my guest and read them. I have nothing to hide.”
Giggling together, Maggie teased her aunt about being a party girl, and the aunt teased her niece about being a recluse, so they were even. After hanging up, Maggie ran upstairs to retrieve the letters. It was too hot to read them there, so she dragged the box down to the living room.
Rather than disturb the order they were in, she flipped the box upside down and simply took the letter that had been at the very bottom and slid the folded paper out of an unmarked envelope.
August 1972 Cypress Cove
Dear Betty.
Hmmm. There was that Betty again. Only the second time she’d heard it used.
Saturday afternoon exceeded my expectations for anything I could ever imagine would be possible between mortal human beings.I hope you’ll consider having dinner with me tonight. With your permission, and when Lonnie Langtry is out of sight, I’ll call for you at Bayou Cottage at six p.m.
Forever in secret,
Val Amotte
So! Aunt Elizabeth had already admitted she’d had sex with him behind the train station, in broad daylight. Is that the secret to which the letter was referring?
Eager to find more letters from Val Amotte, she carefully sifted through the pile, searching for similar envelopes, and came up with almost a dozen more.
Val Amotte had been in love with her aunt. She read the vivid details of their sordid romance, Val using descriptive language painting a colorful picture of the acts they performed on each other, some of it comical, but much of it tantalizing, leaving her a little breathless and a lot lonely.
Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, Maggie’s grandfather Lonnie Langtry, didn’t approve of Val, so until she turned eighteen, they snuck around, the grass behind the train station a favorite spot because the train company was known to spray for flying insects back there.
The following year after getting drafted into the army, he received orders for Vietnam, and the plain envelopes stopped at number ten. Now, they had an APO address on them and were addressed to Miss Elizabeth Bonnet, In Care of the Postmistress, Cypress Cove, Louisiana.
Suddenly, a year later, the airmail letters from Val ended. Maggie carefully rifled through the box, and the next dated letters were from Alfonso Casson. Maggie frowned, trying to place the name. Then bingo! It was Steve Casson’s father, the man who owned the hardware store.
Dear Elizabeth Bonnet,
