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“I just know. I’ve known him forever. And Gus and I already have a date for a card game. I talked to Alfonso, so that leaves Val and your father, Vic.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note. “Val.”
Handing the folded paper to her, she opened it and, without hesitation, began to read out loud.
“‘Dearest Betty,
I heard news today that thrilled me, that you are coming to the cove to visit your niece. I met her at the hardware store and asked her to say hello. I didn’t think you’d come here again to visit. It’s not as though you live thousands of miles away. But sometimes a short distance seems like forever from Cypress Cove.
You may have heard that Linh died last year. She got sick in May, and by September, she was gone. I quickly sold the restaurant we built together because I had no interest in running it alone.
In June, at the beginning of a heat wave, I bought Gus Hebert’s family place on Main Street. If you’re going to be in town long enough, I’d be honored to take you on a tour of the old place. Most of the renovations are finished, and now I’m working on the landscaping.
Please send me a text if you want to get together.
Val’”
The three of them looked at each other. “He added his phone number. You know I was in love with him about fifty years ago. He broke my heart. I can honestly say that I never got married because of Val Amotte.”
Maggie grabbed her hand, sensing what her aunt had just confessed was something no other human beings had heard from her.
“It’s okay. Because I want to see him. I want to see if it’s still there, in my heart. How’d he look when you saw him?”
“He’s distinguished, don’t you think so, Justin?”
“He is. Reminds me of a dignitary. The Broussard mansion is a perfect home for Val.”
“But I don’t understand why you would even look his way again,” Maggie said, realizing she was exposing the anguish she was feeling at the moment and not really caring whether Justin caught on that he was partly to blame.
“Like I said, I want to see. I understand what happened to us. He was in the war and he fell in love with another woman. It happens. I don’t want to lose out again. I’m living the last years of my life. Who knows? Maybe he’d like another go-around with me. But maybe that’s not what he’s interested in, either. I’m aiming to find out.”
A little anger brewed in Maggie, but she stifled it. Her aunt had ostensibly wasted her existence pining after a man who chose someone else with whom to spend his life. Why?
“What about all the other men who wanted you, Aunt Elizabeth? Why didn’t you give them a chance?”
She thought for a moment, pensive. “I wanted Val,” she finally said, firm. “I was willing to wait.” She looked sidelong at Maggie. “Believe it or not, I have had a full life with you and Rose. I never regretted not finding someone else or having a family, none of that. I had a family with you and your mom and dad. I’ve always lived with my family. Greta and Lonnie insisted I live with them, you know that, correct? You know how they were.”
“I do,” Maggie admitted.
She just couldn’t believe a woman would be satisfied living out someone else’s life.
“I’ll run you into town if you’d like,” Justin said. “If you’re going to answer him.”
“Is that the plan?” Elizabeth asked, smiling. “Are you supposed to deliver me?”
“Only if you want to come along. He’s at the café, waiting.”
“So you were going to come here whether or not the dog visited the clinic.” Maggie looked at him, slightly annoyed. Justin always had an agenda.
“Pretty much,” Justin said, grinning.
“I’ll go with you. Let me send the man a text.”
Sensing a little increasing tension, Elizabeth pushed back from the table after she finished texting. “Let me clean up here. Then I’m going back into town with you.”
“Aunt, go ahead,” Maggie said, annoyed. Her aunt surprised her with a visit, and now was going to dump her to go see a guy who’d jilted her fifty years ago. “I’ll clean up.”
“Okay, if you’re sure, dear.”
