Susannah's Garden (Blossom Street #3)(100)

“You might prepare her,” Joe suggested.

Susannah agreed, and when she’d answered the front door, she kept Carolyn in the living room.

“What’s all this about?” Carolyn looked terrible, her face pale and ravaged, as if she’d been crying for hours.

“What’s wrong?” Susannah asked.

Fighting tears, Carolyn sat down on the one remaining chair and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m an emotional mess. Dave’s leaving. He gave his notice. I thought I’d try to reason with him. I tried to call him, but I couldn’t get through. I’m sure he’s already gone. I’m having trouble dealing with it. I’ll be all right. It’s just that I so badly wanted this to work….”

Squatting in front of her, Susannah reached for her friend’s hands and held them in her own. “What I’ve got to tell you has to do with Dave Langevin.”

Carolyn was instantly alarmed. “Has something happened?”

“He’s here.”

“Here?” Carolyn looked around and not seeing him, turned questioning eyes to Susannah.

“Dave is an assumed name.”

“What?” Carolyn’s gaze bore into hers.

“Hello, Carolyn,” Doug said, coming to stand in the doorway.

“Dave?” she gasped.

He nodded. “You probably remember me as someone else.”

“I remember you as Dave. What’s going on?” she demanded, glancing from one to the other.

“May I introduce you to my long-lost, once-dead brother, Doug,” Susannah said, slipping her arm around his waist.

The blood drained from Carolyn’s face and she brought her hand to her mouth. “Doug?” she repeated in a hushed whisper. “Doug?”

He nodded again. “I wanted to tell you. I’m so sorry to let you find out like this.”

Carolyn didn’t wait to hear more. She rushed into his arms and soon they were locked in a tight embrace.

Joe stood next to Susannah, his arm around her shoulders. Jake was dead and that saddened her, but Doug, her beloved brother, Doug, was alive.

Susannah had returned to her childhood home, confused, uncertain and in many ways lost. Over the course of the last month she’d found her way home—to her true home, her true self. She didn’t know what the future held for her brother and Carolyn, but she’d let them work that out themselves. Whatever Doug decided was fine by her; she’d stand by him. And, it went without saying, so would Carolyn.

“Are you still feeling shocked?” Joe asked, whispering close to her ear.

She had been at first, but the thing about finding your way home was that while the path might be familiar, it sometimes took unexpected twists and turns. Doug’s return was one, the happiest of endings; her new knowledge of her father was another. And so was her rediscovered vision of Joe and their marriage.

CHAPTER 44

Now that she and Doug were alone, Carolyn couldn’t stop crying. They’d driven to her home, where they could talk without the fear of constant interruptions. They’d barely made it to the laundry room off the garage when Carolyn broke down.

“I’m sorry, so sorry,” Doug said, bringing her into his arms. “I would’ve done anything to spare you this shock, but I couldn’t tell you before I told Susannah and her family.”

“I know, I know.” She buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him. “You don’t understand.”

“What?”

Nothing felt as good as the way Doug ran his fingers through her hair, as if he couldn’t get enough of the feel of her, as if he couldn’t bring her close enough.

“I have always loved you…. I still have the letters we exchanged. When I found out you’d been killed, I wanted to die, too. If Susannah hadn’t been in France with me, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“I’d come to love you, too,” Doug whispered, kissing her temple. “I felt bad about what I was doing. Patricia and I had dated for quite a while and I hated the fact that I was writing to you and still seeing her. I felt guilty about both of you. I planned to break it off with her.”

“I wrote you almost every day,” she reminded him.

“And I treasured every letter.” His hold tightened briefly. “At first I thought there might be a way for me to get to Paris, find you, convince you to go into hiding with me.”

“I would’ve done it.” She knew it was true. “But you didn’t come…you didn’t ask.”

Doug shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you or your parents. If I loved you, and I did, Carolyn, with all my heart, I couldn’t do anything to hurt you. I couldn’t take you into this hell with me.”

Although she knew he was right, it was hard to forget about the years they’d lived apart.

“I told myself when I came back to Colville that I wouldn’t get involved with you.” She felt his smile against her forehead. “You don’t know the hell I went through when I was assigned lawn care at the mill and then later at your home. The minute I saw you, I knew all the resolve in the world wouldn’t be enough to keep me away.”

Carolyn stroked his back through the thin T-shirt, so grateful he was with her and unwilling to relinquish even one moment with him. “This morning when I discovered you hadn’t shown up for work, I was so afraid you’d left town. All morning I had the same horrible feeling I did when I heard that you—Doug—were dead. As if nothing mattered anymore.”