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“Uh . . .” she said. “Tell me about Lucy. I never could get anything out of her about her personal life, and Tristan doesn’t—I mean, he didn’t know.” She had to stop that or she’d be bawling again.
“I don’t know,” Joe said. “Lucy won’t tell me anything either.”
“But you want to marry her?”
“Yeah. I moved my job to where the woman I love is.” He locked his eyes onto hers.
She knew he was criticizing, judging, chastising her, and especially telling her what he thought of her running away from Tristan. “Dad,” Jecca said, “you decided to open a new hardware store before you even met Lucy.”
“Think so?” He pulled his cell phone out of the pouch at his side. His background photo was the one of Lucy that Jecca had sent him. SUNDAY AT THE WINGATE HOUSE, she’d written.
Jecca had to admit that Lucy looked very good, and she thought of all that she’d told her father about her. Lucy could cook as well as sew. And then there was the pole dancing. Can’ng.mit that forget that. Yes, Jecca could see that her dad could fall in love with Lucy before he met her.
“Where are you living now?” She hated hearing herself ask that. Her father had always lived in the same house, worked at the same store. It was disconcerting to think of him being anywhere else.
“In Livie’s house.”
“In my apartment?”
“No, I’m in the one that was empty. Mostly, I stay with Lucy.” His eyes sparkled.
“Don’t even think of elaborating on that,” Jecca said. She took a deep breath. “If you’re in Edilean, why haven’t you seen Tristan?”
“I told you that he left.”
“What do you mean that he left?”
“A few days after you ran off, he left town. That other doctor boy, Roger—”
“Reede.”
“Yeah, him. Reede has been doing the doctoring for the town. Kim said he’s the one that broke your heart the first time you went to Edilean. You sure moped around when you got home.”
“Reede didn’t break my heart, and anyway, I was just a kid.”
/> “Not according to you back then. To hear you talk you were forty-five and a woman of the world.”
Jecca opened her mouth to defend herself, but then she laughed. “I’ve missed you.”
“Yeah?” He was cleaning his plate with his second bagel. “I’ve had a few thoughts about you too. You ready to come home?”
Home, she thought. Did that now mean Edilean? Jecca couldn’t help but feel that if Tristan had really wanted her he would have, well . . . at least called her. But then, she was the one who ran away. She was the one who freaked out and fled.
As always, her dad knew what she was thinking. “That boy gives up pretty easy, doesn’t he?”
Jecca had to work to keep from bursting into tears again. “I deserved it,” she managed to say. “I’m the one who dumped him.”
“Any man who let you get away without the fight of his life isn’t worth you.”
“Oh, Dad,” she said, then she did begin crying again.
Joe led her to the couch and handed her the last of the tissues from the box.
“Before you flood the place, I have something to show you.” He reached into the tool belt he was still wearing—later she’d have to ask him how he got past security in the building—and pulled out a folded letter. It was dirty, worn, and wrinkled.
“Had it awhile?” she asked, an eyebrow raised.
“I would have come sooner, but that boy made me swear not to see you for six weeks. He said you needed time away from all of us so you could calm down.”
