Harbor Street (Cedar Cove #5)(46)

What she’d wanted to tell him, what he hadn’t been interested in hearing, was that she was pregnant.

Rejected and alone, Corrie didn’t know what to do. She turned to her parents, who gave her unconditional support. At the end of the first term, they drove up to Washington and packed her things.

Corrie didn’t contact Roy again. As far as she was concerned, he was out of her life. Without telling any of her friends why she was dropping out of college, she went home to Oregon. Her parents at her side, she’d attended a series of counseling sessions. Together, as a family, they’d decided she should give up her baby for adoption. That was the most difficult decision of her life.

Her mother had been in the labor room with her. At her own request, Corrie wasn’t told whether she’d had a boy or a girl. It was painful enough to sign the adoption papers, and she feared that if she knew the baby’s sex she’d envision him or her growing up. Not knowing was easier.

In September of the following year, when she’d returned to college, Corrie was a different person. Her friends seemed childish and superficial. Nothing was the same. She studied hard and kept to herself. She knew that eventually she’d see Roy on campus and was mentally prepared for it.

What she hadn’t expected was that he’d seek her out. In her junior year, Roy sat with her in the library one day and asked if they could talk. Even after all the time that had passed and everything that had happened, her feelings for him hadn’t died. She still loved him. They’d been foolish and immature, but they’d both changed. That afternoon they’d talked for hours. Roy noticed the difference in her and claimed he wasn’t the same boy she knew, either.

A new star athlete had replaced him as quarterback, and overnight he’d gone from being pro material to a has-been. It was hard on his ego for a few months, but he recovered. She’d believed Roy was out of her life for good—and then almost overnight he was back.

Not until Roy bought her an engagement ring did she tell him about the baby. At first Roy didn’t believe her, then he was angry, and after that, overwhelmed by sadness. He wept with her, and held her and begged her forgiveness. He went to see her parents, and Corrie never knew what was said, but when she accepted his engagement ring, Roy was welcomed into the family. The night of their wedding, they’d made a second vow to each other, and that was never to discuss their child again. Now Corrie couldn’t help wondering if it was that child who’d come to find them.

“Corrie,” Roy whispered, “are you asleep?”

“Just thinking,” she whispered back.

She might have been deep in thought but Cliff Harding was snoring up a storm. Grace woke him and he gave a start, then settled down to watch the movie. Ten minutes later, Cliff was snoring again. Two-thirds of the way through, Grace stood and led Cliff out of the theater. On her way to the aisle, she smiled apologetically at Corrie and Roy.

Corrie had to admit she wasn’t following the movie, either. Her thoughts weren’t on the rather complicated caper plot but on the child she’d never known. The child she’d given up for adoption.

Twenty-Three

“I’m ordering cheesecake,” Grace said as she slid into a booth at the Pancake Palace. She and Olivia had finished their Wednesday night aerobics class and decided to talk over coffee and pie. Coconut cream, however, wasn’t going to do it for Grace. She was disgruntled and unhappy, and one look told her Olivia felt the same way.

“We’re both ordering cheesecake,” Olivia said as she took the seat across from Grace.

“You first,” Grace said. They’d been best friends since grade school and were still as close as sisters. She kept almost nothing from Olivia and knew her friend trusted her unequivocally. Theirs was a special friendship.

“It’s Jack,” Olivia said with a groan. “Does that surprise you?”

“No.”

Goldie, their favorite waitress, came over, carrying a pot of decaf. “The usual?” she asked, as she filled their mugs. Olivia and Grace were creatures of habit. Every Wednesday night, they attended their exercise class and afterward went directly to the Pancake Palace for pie and coffee.

Grace hesitated at the waitress’s question and shrugged.

Olivia did, too.

“We’ve got mincemeat this week,” Goldie told them in a tempting voice.

“No, thanks,” Olivia said automatically.

Grace considered it for a second. “Coconut cream,” she muttered, half angry with herself for being so unwilling to venture from the tried and true. If she couldn’t make such a small change, then how could she manage a truly significant one?

Goldie returned a moment later with one slice of coconut cream pie and the other of lemon meringue, plus the check.

“You’re upset with Jack?” Grace said, prompting Olivia to resume their conversation.

“Damn straight I am. Good grief, I hardly see him! I was so annoyed when he broke our movie date. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to the four of us going out. We hardly ever do that.”

“I was disappointed, too,” Grace said. Who’d believe that dinner and a movie would be the highlight of the Christmas season for them both?

Olivia seemed to rally. “Did you and Cliff have a good time?” she asked.

“We’ll discuss that later. Finish telling me what happened between you and Jack.”