"This morning," Maryellen told him. "They decided to stay in town until the end of the month."

He nodded.

"Daddy, Daddy, come see." Katie grabbed her father's hand, pulling him toward the puzzle she'd completed before her nap.

Seeing that the young family was busy, Grace decided to leave. She put a ca.s.serole in the oven, then said her farewells and kissed both her grandchildren.

By the time she pulled into the yard at her home with Cliff in nearby Olalla, she still hadn't decided what she should do about Will Jefferson. Sooner or later her husband would learn that Will was retiring in Cedar Cove. If she mentioned the fact, it might place more significance on the event than warranted. She didn't care where Will Jefferson chose to live. He could take up residence on Mars if he wanted to.

But by the same token, not telling Cliff might make it seem significant in a different way-as if she had something to hide.

When Cliff heard her car, he came out of the barn, smiling. b.u.t.tercup, her golden retriever, wandered over from her perch on the front steps, plumy tail wagging.

Her husband opened the car door for her. "Welcome home," he said.

Grace slipped her arms around his middle and kissed him warmly. When they broke contact, Cliff leaned his head back. "Wow! What did I do to deserve this?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

Arm in arm, they strolled toward the house. "You're late," he said casually.

"I went to see Maryellen after work."

"Ah."

"Missed me, did you?" she asked with a teasing smile.

Grace suddenly realized that if she told Cliff about Will, he'd suspect she was with the other man anytime she was late. She couldn't bring herself to tell him. And yet...Eventually he'd find out. What then?

Eight.

Troy Davis walked into the house and dejectedly tossed the mail on the kitchen counter. He hadn't even bothered to look at it. He already knew it was nothing but junk with a couple of bills thrown in. Just like it always was. He felt bored, depressed, lonely. In fact, he was downright crumpy, a word Sandy had invented-grumpy plus cranky-to describe him when he was feeling low. Whenever she'd said it, he'd had to smile.

Sandy. He missed her, missed her so much.

Although she'd been in the nursing home for two years, he'd gone there almost every day after work and weekends, too. The nursing home had become an extension of his own home and, apart from his job, visiting Sandy was his routine, his life. Now that she was gone he had time on his hands. Time he didn't know how to fill.

Turning on the television, he sat in his favorite chair and watched ten minutes of a Seattle news broadcast. There had to be more to life than this...this emptiness. Because Sandy had required so much of his time, he'd never developed hobbies. He supposed he could now, but he couldn't think of a single thing that interested him enough to devote his efforts and resources to. This didn't bode well for retirement.

Restless, he got up and wandered into the kitchen. He'd been preparing his own meals for years now. Generally he picked up something easy at the grocery store or got takeout from a fast-food place. He'd learned basic cooking skills and mastered the microwave. He could barbecue a steak, nuke a potato and pour salad dressing over lettuce with the best of 'em. Nothing fancy, though.

His stomach growled, reminding him that he should eat. But even the thought of a T-bone steak didn't excite him. With no energy and no inspiration, he opened the bread drawer and pulled out the peanut b.u.t.ter and jelly. The bread was relatively fresh, and the peanut b.u.t.ter would provide some protein-something Sandy constantly used to harp on. Good enough. He'd make do with a sandwich.

Sandy would be horrified to see him eating over the kitchen sink. But that way, if the jelly dripped, he didn't have to worry about wiping off the counter.

His wife had been a real stickler about sitting down for meals. He felt guilty as he wolfed down his dinner staring out the window into the backyard. When he'd finished, he chased the sandwich with a gla.s.s of milk. It smelled a little sour and he should probably check the expiry date. On second thought, better just to empty the rest of it down the drain.

Moving to the counter, he flipped up the lid of the garbage can-the "circular file," as Sandy used to joke-and started sorting through the mail. As he'd suspected, the top three pieces were advertis.e.m.e.nts. Without reading any of the chance-of-a-lifetime offers, he flicked them into the garbage. The fourth piece was the water bill and the fifth was a card. Probably a belated sympathy card. They were still trickling in.

The return address read Seattle, but F. Beckwith wasn't a name he recognized. A friend of Sandy's? He stared at it for a moment and set it aside while he looked through the last few pieces. Then he picked up the envelope, tore it open and removed the card. His gaze immediately went to the signature.

Faith Beckwith.

Faith Beckwith? Troy didn't know anyone named Beckwith. He'd known a Faith, but that was years ago. He glanced at the opposite side of the card and read, Dear Troy, I was so sorry to hear about your wife. How very special she must have been. I've almost forgiven her for stealing you away from me.

My husband died three years ago and I truly understand how difficult the adjustment can be.

Faith Beckwith was the married name of Faith Carroll, his high-school sweetheart. Faith had mailed him a sympathy card? He smiled and almost before he could rationalize what he was doing, Troy reached for the phone. Directory a.s.sistance gave him the Seattle number he sought and without hesitation he dialed it.

Not until it began to ring did he consider what he should say. He'd never been an impulsive man. But he didn't need to think about what he was doing. Instinctively he knew this was right.

"h.e.l.lo," a soft female voice answered.

"Faith, this is Troy Davis."

The line went silent, and Troy felt her shock.

"Troy, my heavens, is it really you?"

She sounded exactly the same as she had when they were high-school seniors. Back then, they'd talked on the phone for hours nearly every night. They'd been in love. The summer after their graduation, he'd gone into the service. Faith had seen him off with kisses and tears, promising to write every day, and in the beginning she had.

Then the correspondence had abruptly stopped. He still had no idea what had gone wrong. Soon afterward, a friend told him Faith was dating someone else. It'd hurt, the way she'd handled their breakup, but that was easy to forgive now. They'd both been so young. Besides, Troy wouldn't have married Sandy if Faith hadn't severed their relationship. And he couldn't imagine his life without Sandy....

"I got your sympathy card," he said, explaining the reason for his call. "How did you know?"

"My son lives in Cedar Cove," Faith said. "I was visiting him and the grandkids, and I saw the Chronicle. I always read the obituaries and..."

"That's where you read about Sandy?"

"It is. I'm really sorry about your loss, Troy. I wasn't sure you'd want to hear from me. That's why I didn't mail the card right away."

Troy didn't know what else to say until he glanced down at the sympathy card and reread her short message. "What did you mean when you said Sandy stole me away?" His memory of their breakup was quite the opposite. Faith had dumped him.

Her laugh drifted over the phone. "Come on, Troy. You have to know you broke my heart."

"What?" He shook his head in bewilderment. She couldn't have forgotten the callous way she'd treated him. "As I recall, you're the one who broke up with me."

There was a silence. "How can you say that?" she said. "You quit writing to me."

"I most certainly did not," he returned. He'd always wondered what had happened and wasn't too proud to admit she'd hurt him badly. But none of that was important anymore. Hadn't been in years.

"Hold on," Faith said. "One of us seems to have developed a selective memory."

"That's what I was thinking." Strangely, Troy found he was enjoying this. He knew beyond a doubt that the selective memory was Faith's-but he was willing to forgive her.

"Yes," she said, "and it's not me."

"Well, then," he said, "let's review the events of that summer."

"Good idea," she concurred. "Practically as soon as we graduated from high school, you went into basic training."

"Right." Troy was with her so far. "I remember clearly that you promised me your undying love when we said goodbye."

"I did and I meant it." She spoke without hesitation. "I wrote you every single day."

"In the beginning." He'd lived for Faith's letters, and when she'd stopped writing he hadn't known what to think.

"Every day," she reiterated, "and then you stopped writing."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

Troy grew quiet. "I didn't stop writing you, Faith."

"I didn't stop writing you, either."

"I phoned," he said, "and your mother said you were out. Later, someone else told me you were seeing some other guy. I got the message."

"I didn't date anyone other than you until after I left for college that September."

The silence seemed to hum between them.

"My mother," she breathed slowly. "My mother was the one who took out the mail every day and collected it, too."

"She didn't like me?" Troy couldn't remember Mrs. Carroll being particularly hostile toward him.

"She liked you fine, but she thought we were too young to be serious," Faith said. "I made the mistake of telling her I hoped you'd give me an engagement ring for Christmas."

The irony was, Troy had planned on doing exactly that.

"You mean to say you believed I'd just stopped writing?" Faith asked. "Without saying a word? You honestly believed I'd do that to you?"

"Well, yes," Troy admitted. "Just like you believed I'd given up sending you letters."

She hesitated, then reluctantly agreed. "Did you try to get in touch with me when you finished basic training?" she asked. "You came home on leave, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Troy told her. "I went to your house-that was in late August-but by then you'd already left for college. I wanted to talk to you, but when I asked for your new address, your mother said it was probably best not to contact you."

"My mother," Faith groaned. "I never suspected she'd do anything like that."

"I didn't, either."

They both seemed at a loss as to what to say next.

Finally she whispered, "You broke my heart."

He hadn't come out of the relationship unscathed, either. "You broke mine," he told her.

Faith exhaled softly, then said, "It seems my mother has a great deal to answer for."

"Is she still alive?" Troy didn't figure there was much point in dwelling on the sins of the past.

"No. She died ten years ago."

"Despite everything, our lives worked out well, didn't they?" he said. "Maybe not the way we expected, but..."

"Yes," Faith said. "I met Carl at Central Washington and we got married in 1970."

Funny little coincidences. "Sandy and I were married the same year. In June."

"What day?"

"The twenty-third. What about you?"

"The twenty-third."

This was too weird. They'd each been married on the same day and in the same year-to someone else.

"Children?" he asked.

"Two-a boy, Scott, and a girl, Jay Lynn. Scottie lives in Cedar Cove, like I said, and teaches at the high school. Jay Lynn's married and the mother of two. She's currently a stay-at-home mom. What about you?"

"One daughter, Megan. She works at the framing shop down by the waterfront."

"Oh, my goodness! Scottie just had her frame a picture I gave him of his great-grandparents. It was taken in the 1930s on the family farm in Kansas."

Their lives had intersected more than once. And in the last few years, she'd visited town to see her family; they could have run into each other at any time, yet never had.

"So you're the sheriff these days," Faith said.

"Yeah, Cedar Cove's always been my home. I never wanted to live anywhere else. There aren't that many of us from our graduating cla.s.s around anymore."

"I heard about Dan Sherman's death," Faith told him. "Poor Grace. Scottie called me when his body was discovered."

"That was a rough one," Troy said. He knew Dan but they'd never been close friends. "Grace is remarried-to a local rancher." He paused. "You'd like Cliff. He's a down-to-earth, no-nonsense kind of guy."

"What about Olivia?"

As he recalled, Faith and Olivia had been fairly good friends in high school.