LITMIR.BIZ

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the years. Although he had ten years’ sobriety now, the consequences of those hard-drinking years still lingered. Only now had Eric begun to trust him.

      “I thought we’d eat out on the patio tonight,” Peggy announced, joining the two men.

      That suited Jack just fine. After a week of intermittent rainfall, the evening was clear and warm. A soft breeze came off the water, and with it the faint scent of the sea.

      “So,” Peggy said, taking the wicker chair next to Bob. “How’s the paper doing?”

      “It’s thriving.” Jack was proud of that. He’d made a lot of changes in the last eight months, added a second edition each week and followed his instincts. One of his most popular innovations had come from Charlotte Jefferson. Her Seniors’ Page had become a huge hit with the community. Olivia’s mother was a natural. Her chatty column every Wednesday was full of tidbits about local happenings. If Mrs. Samuel’s grandson was visiting, Charlotte reported the news. If the Robertsons’ dog had puppies, she wrote about them, guaranteeing the litter good homes. She passed on recipes and some great old-fashioned household hints. Who would’ve guessed vinegar had so many uses? She wrote about the past, discussing local history, especially events that took place around World War II. And she threw in bits and pieces of her own wisdom.

      “What about you?” Peggy asked. “Are you thriving, too?”

      “Me?”

      “Are you happy?”

      “I’m sane and sober, and that’s about as good as it gets for me.”

      “What about Olivia?” Bob asked.

      His buddy would ask the one question he didn’t want to answer. Jack shrugged.

      “What kind of answer is that?” Peggy scolded. “A few weeks ago, you had lots to say about the judge.”

      “She’s in love with her ex-husband,” he said bleakly. He’d seen it the day Olivia returned home from her trip to California. Since then he’d only heard from her once, when she called to break their date for the following Wednesday. There’d been no contact between them after that. He sighed, remembering how she’d come back from the airport with her ex, the top down on a fancy red convertible, music blaring. They’d had eyes only for each other. Anyone looking at them would think they were lovers. Jack wasn’t a man who walked away from a challenge, but he was smart enough to avoid a losing proposition—like falling for a woman still involved with her ex.

      “I thought Stan remarried,” Bob said, turning to Peggy.

      “He did.”

      “That doesn’t change the way Olivia feels about him,” Jack insisted.

      “Did you ask her about it?”

      Jack shook his head. More than willing to move on to another subject, he said, “What do you hear from the kids?” Bob and Peggy had two children; Hollie, their oldest, lived in Seattle and their youngest, Marc, was in Kansas.

      “They’re both fine,” Peggy told him. “What do you hear from Eric?”

      His son didn’t make any effort to keep in touch with Jack, which he supposed was fair. For a good portion of Eric’s life, Jack had been absent, if not in body, then in spirit.

      “Not much,” Jack confessed.

      “When was the last time you talked to him?”

      Jack had to think about that. After their dinner with Olivia, he’d phoned to invite Eric to Cedar Cove, but his son had refused, offering a convenient excuse. He had a date. This wasn’t the first time Eric had mentioned the girl he was seeing. Shirley or Shelly—her name was something along those lines. It seemed Eric might be serious about this one, and Jack had made the mistake of saying so. He’d suggested it was time Eric thought about marrying and settling down. His son had nearly snapped his head off.

      There was a reason for Eric’s reactions. He couldn’t father children, due to the massive doses of drugs he’d been given as a child, and had never gotten around to telling Shirley…or Shelly, who apparently wanted a family. The conversation had ended on that sour note, and Jack hadn’t called him since.

      He would soon enough, but he needed to give Eric time to forgive him for his careless remark. He longed to forge a path to his son, not destroy the fragile groundwork that had painstakingly been laid.

      “Dinner will be ready in half an hour,” Peggy said, leaving the two of them. She returned a moment later, carrying out a large salad.

      “Let me help,” Jack said.

      “Nonsense.” Peggy waved aside his offer. “You two play cribbage. Bob’s been looking forward to it all day.”

      Jack was more than willing to comply. Bob had the cribbage board set up on the table, and Jack sat down opposite him, his back to the sea. He didn’t want to be distracted. Bob was a good player, quick and decisive, and Jack needed all his wits about him.

      “Is Peggy all right?” Jack asked after Bob had dealt the first hand.

      Bob put aside the deck and reached for the seven cards. “What makes you ask?”

      Jack wasn’t sure. Peggy was as warm and welcoming as ever, but he sensed that something was troubling her.

      Although he appeared to be studying his cards, Bob had the look of a man deep in thought.

      “That bad?” Jack teased.

      Bob frowned in confusion.

      “The cards,” Jack explained.

      “No, no.” His smile seemed forced.

      Jack set his cards aside. “Everything’s all right with you and Peg, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice worried.

      “After thirty-two years, it should be, don’t you think?”

      “You never know.” He desperately wanted evidence of one solid marriage, just to prove it was still possible in these days of easy divorce. One marriage that could survive a crisis… He thought of his ex-wife—and he thought of Olivia. He’d never wanted a woman with the intensity he wanted her. He—

      “Jack?” Bob’s voice broke his concentration.

      He glanced up.

      “Are you going to stare at your cards all night or are you going to discard?”

      “Discard.”

      “Something on your mind?” Bob asked.

      “Like what?” Jack said.

      Bob grinned, obviously a man capable of reading all the signs. “Like Olivia.”

      Jack gave an exaggerated shrug. “That readable, am I?”

      Bob chuckled. “No more readable than Peg and me.”

      “Nothing wrong, is there?” He didn’t mean to belabor the point, but the thought of problems between Bob and Peggy depressed him. They were the one couple he knew who’d found happiness and clung to it through all the years, both good and bad.

      “We’re fine. What about you?”

      “I’m okay, just a bit disappointed.”

      “Olivia?”

      Jack nodded, and nothing more was said.

      They finished the first game, and by then Peggy had dinner dished up and ready to serve. Good food and good friends. It was the best meal he’d had in weeks, but Jack decided that the company was even more satisfying than the food.

      The accident aboard the John F. Reynolds made headlines on the national news for several days. Cecilia was in daily contact with Ian. Some days she couldn’t get to a computer, so she wrote out her thoughts. These letters would take a week or longer to reach him, but Ian said he enjoyed hearing from her in any form.

      With

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