bruce released rachel and sighed. "i guess that means misty won't be spending friday night with us."

rachel didn't know if he was joking or simply unobservant. either way, the only response she could manage was to roll her eyes.

eight

mary jo wyse woke, startled out of a deep sleep. she wasn't sure if that was because of a dream she'd been having or because noelle had made some small noise as she slept. at almost five months, the baby was sleeping through the night-well, practically every night. mary jo was grateful for that. noelle slept in a crib in her room; mary jo wasn't ready to move her to the nursery yet.

as she lay in bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, mary jo mulled over what she'd discovered the previous weekend. mack owned the duplex. he'd wanted her living close by and, in order to make that happen, he'd misled her into thinking a distant friend of his was the owner.

his lie disappointed her deeply. she liked mack; in fact, she liked him a great deal. nevertheless, she was wary of embarking on another relationship. david rhodes had taught her several painful lessons and she'd be a fool if she didn't take those lessons to heart.

the problem was that she wanted to trust mack. but she'd yearned to believe in david, too. she'd clung for much too long to the fiction that her baby's father loved her and welcomed their child, refusing to accept what was obvious to everyone else...and should've been to her.

even her brothers knew what kind of man david was without ever meeting him. when she'd finally recognized the truth, mary jo had been devastated. yet, despite everything, she'd never regret having noelle. the baby gave her life purpose. and hope.

because of noelle, there was more to think about than herself. any decision she made, any action she took, would have an impact on her daughter, too.

to his credit mack had tried to make amends. monday afternoon mary jo arrived home from her job at allan harris's law firm to find a large bouquet of flowers on her doorstep. the card that accompanied it said simply, "i'm sorry," and was signed by mack.

tuesday and wednesday nights he was at the fire station, but on thursday there was another gift. a set of cake pans.

cake pans! of all the silly things to remember she needed. she wanted to bake a coconut cake using a recipe charlotte rhodes had generously shared. mary jo had purchased the ingredients, but when she reached home, she realized she didn't have circular cake pans. by then she didn't feel like returning to the store. she'd bake it another time.

mack was working so hard to convince her to forgive him. again, every instinct told her she should. she'd always be grateful for his help in finding a home for her and noelle-even though she firmly disagreed with his deception, regardless of how well-intentioned it was. without him, she might still be living with her three overbearing brothers. she loved them-they were her family-but they were suffocating her.

when she'd lost her job with the insurance company, she'd flown into a panic, although it was a blessing in disguise if ever there was one. her fear was that once she returned from maternity leave she'd be forced to see david rhodes again, since he worked for the same company. but her employer had taken that worry off her hands and presented her with another-no job at all. a friend had recently told her that david was no longer employed by the company, either.

the opportunity to move to cedar cove had come at the perfect time. mack had been instrumental in that decision. grace harding and olivia griffin, who'd also befriended her, had made the transition as effortless as possible. the two women had helped her find a new job, and grace's younger daughter, kelly, provided day care for noelle.

once she'd secured employment and child care, all mary jo needed was an affordable place to live. she knew housing costs would be significantly lower than seattle prices, and she'd been delighted that rent on a refurbished duplex was so reasonable. no wonder. mack could've rented it for twice what he charged her. well, she'd taken care of that, although it put a serious strain on her budget. she'd checked with a real-estate agent grace recommended and come up with an appropriate amount. mack obviously saw that she wasn't changing her mind on this, since he hadn't argued when she'd insisted on paying full rent. she also planned to repay him the balance for the months she'd already lived there.

at one point after she'd been confronted by david, mack had offered to marry her, which had felt...weird, but she'd said yes, anyway. fortunately, they'd both recognized what a mistake that was and called it off before they'd made any family announcements. she could only imagine how linc would react if he'd learned about that.

linc.

thinking about her brother, mary jo smiled as she rolled onto her side and punched her feather pillow to reshape it. she couldn't remember ever seeing her brother this happy. she wouldn't have guessed it, but marriage suited him. he and lori hadn't known each other long-a shorter time, even, than she'd known mack-but they seemed to complement each other well.

linc wasn't an impulsive man, but in the past couple of months he'd made two drastic changes to his life. the first was marrying lori bellamy. the second was moving to cedar cove and starting a branch of the auto body and repair business their father had established more than forty years earlier. mel and ned, the two younger brothers, were now in charge of the seattle shop.

the fact that linc had handed over the business to his siblings said he believed they were capable of handling it without him. apparently he, too, had felt the restraints imposed by family and was ready to move ahead with his life. good for him!

at first mary jo had suspected that linc's reason for coming to cedar cove was to stand guard over her. that, however, didn't appear to be the case. the truth was, she rarely saw him. he was busy setting up his business, equipping and renovating the commercial garage he'd purchased, and enjoying married life.

mary jo must have fallen asleep again because the alarm woke her abruptly at seven. immediately noelle woke up, too, hungry and badly in need of a diaper change. mary jo gave her a bath, fed and dressed her and took her to kelly's house on her way to the office.

mary jo was tired all day, no doubt because of the hours she'd lain awake, thinking about mack and david rhodes and linc.... "well, at least it's friday," she muttered to herself as she corrected a document for the third time.

when she finally got home that afternoon, she saw mack's truck in their shared driveway. he must've been waiting for her because he came onto the porch as soon as she climbed out of the car. she gave him a cursory wave, then lifted noelle from her carrier in the backseat.

"hi," he said, looking unsettled and yet eager to talk. he'd slid his hands in his hip pockets, a habit that signaled he was ill at ease.

"hello, mack."

"are you still angry?" he asked.

"i don't think angry is the right word. i think disappointed says it better."

he took a moment to consider her reply. "i really am sorry."

"i know." mary jo had sensed his guilt and regret the minute he'd confessed. "i just wish you'd been honest with me from the beginning."

"i will from now on."

mary jo nodded. she really didn't have anything more to say. she figured everyone was entitled to one mistake; if anything else happened, she'd know it was time to move on.

"can we let bygones be bygones, then?"

she nodded again. "yes, let's do that."

"thank you." his relief was obvious. he stepped down from the porch and started toward her. "i wanted to tell you-i went to the library this afternoon."

"oh?"

"i don't remember that much about world war ii from my high school history class, so i took out a couple of books on the war. i'd like to familiarize myself with some of the details."

mary jo smiled. "i talked to charlotte this wednesday and also last week, when i took noelle over there," she told him. "and i did an online search of every high school in the area, but i didn't find a single jacob dennison in the 1930s or early forties. i'll expand my search the next chance i get." she shifted noelle from her right arm to her left.

"did charlotte have any information?" mack asked, reaching inside her car for the baby seat and diaper bag.

"oh, yeah. she thought joan manry might have attended cedar cove high school, so i went online and checked out the names of everyone who graduated during the war years. she wasn't there."

"that's too bad."

"i want to look online for telephone directories from that era, too, but i haven't had time."

"is that even possible?"

"we won't know until we try."

mack's face broke into a bright smile.

mary jo frowned, wondering what he found so amusing.

"i love that you said 'we,'" mack explained, clearly understanding her question. "i want us to work together to track down those two. i don't understand why joan would hide the letters. i'm grateful she did, but it makes me wonder."

"all i can think is that her family objected to her soldier boy and this was the only way to keep his letters to herself."

"hmm. jacob did say something about her sister not liking him, didn't he?"

"yes, and i have no idea why. although i gather the two of them-joan and elaine-didn't get along that well."

"you said she lived with her sister here in cedar cove? what about their parents?"

"not sure. what i've picked up from the letters is that she and elaine did live here, but i haven't seen anything about their parents. it's difficult to follow everything just reading his half of the correspondence." mary jo held her door open for mack. "do you want to come in? stay for dinner?" she could tell right away that the invitation pleased him.

"how about if i order pizza? that way we can look at the letters and check the dates against the books i got from the library."

"pizza sounds fabulous." mary jo had planned to make clam chowder, but she was exhausted at even the prospect of cooking. a broken night and a long week took their toll, and the strain between her and mack hadn't helped. "just make sure none of those anchovies you like so much end up on my half of the pizza," she warned laughingly.

"i'll try," mack said with a grin.

an hour later, they sat at her kitchen table, the pizza box open on the counter. noelle lay on her stomach in the playpen nearby, gurgling and chewing on her toys. both history books were on the table, along with the cigar box of letters. mack and mary jo had finished eating and were prepared to start their research.

"okay, check this date," mary jo said, unfolding a letter. "june 3, 1944. that's the last one in the box. listen to what he has to say." she began to read.