The Will(199)

I’d never seen him before in my life and, although he looked kindly, I didn’t want visitors.

I needed to find a tape recorder, listen to that tape, call Alyssa, ask her how you admitted to your man that you’d been an idiot and then find Jake and, well…handle him.

Nevertheless, since doing the first part of that required access to Lavender House, I had to get out of my car and approach the house.

This I did and I did it calling, “Hello.”

“Josie,” a somewhat familiar voice replied.

He knew me.

But upon closer study, I again noted I did not know him.

“I’m sorry, have we met?” I asked.

“Tom,” he answered.

I blinked.

Tom?

The mysterious Tom from The Shack?

“Jake missed you at The Shack this morning,” he went on.

Oh my.

It was the no longer mysterious Tom from The Shack.

At my door to tell me Jake had been there and I had not.

Oh dear.

“Um…” I began.

“It was me,” he stated.

I blinked at him again.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“Me,” he repeated. “Me who told Lydia you should be with Jake.”

At this shocking news, I drew in such a deep breath I was forced back on a foot to do it.

“I’m sorry?” I asked, sounding winded.

“Worried about you, she was. Worried about you all the time. Wanted you to be happy. Wanted someone to look out for you. Make you laugh. Give you a good life. Came to The Shack a lot. Liked my coffee. We got to talkin’ and she told me. She told me what you needed. Said they had to be tall. Good-lookin’. Smart. Protective. Fierce. Said they had to live local so she could have you but mostly so you could have Magdalene and Lavender House. She told me all that, I told her about Jake.”

Oh my God.

He kept talking.

“Jake was married to Sloane back then but I still told her about him. Probably more hope than anything, but I didn’t think it would last with Sloane seein’ as she was not a good woman. Looked good. Could turn a man’s eye, not like you ‘a course,” he said complimentarily, grinning and tipping his head at me. “But she was pretty enough. All about Jake in the beginning. Then again, they always are. See a man like that, way he looks, way he is, think it’s gonna be smooth sailin’. A strong man like that, he’ll pound out all the kinks of life and all you gotta do is sit back, enjoy the life he gives you and let him. But, you know, life is life and, pardon my French, but shit happens. Shit even a man like Jake can’t make not happen.”

When he stopped speaking and it seemed something was required of me, I said, “Of course.”

But before I could invite him inside or say more, he kept going.

“So, I still told Lydia about Jake, kind of hopin’ that he’d get quit of Sloane. Now,”—he raised his hand—“don’t be thinkin’ I don’t believe in the sanctity of marriage. I do. Just not a marriage that involved Sloane.”

At this, I had the hysterical need to giggle and nearly choked when I swallowed it down.

Tom kept going.

“Think Lydia had a gander at Jake, probably caught sight of Sloane and definitely had the same idea as me. Think that because the next thing I know, Jake’s over at her house cleaning out the gutters. Kids are over there after school and on the weekends. Jake’s in her garden helpin’ her out ‘cause we all know, Lydia liked fresh veggies from her garden.”

Jake.

It was Jake, who had worked the garden for Gran.

Because, no matter how busy he was, no matter all the plates he had spinning in the air, that was what Jake would do because Gran liked fresh veggies from her garden and he loved Gran.

I felt my eyes begin to sting.

“Now, don’t know, even though Jake and I know each other real well. I was his father’s best friend, best man at his dad’s wedding, watched Jake grow up. And Lydia and I could have a good natter over a coffee when she could still get around and when she couldn’t, I’d find occasion to bring her a coffee and gab with her here. But even with all that, still don’t know, when he got shot of Sloane, why she didn’t get him to you,” Tom said. “Years, I waited to see if that would happen.”

I held my breath.

Tom kept speaking.

“Didn’t.”

I swallowed.

Tom continued.

“Then I saw you.”

“You saw me?” I forced out.

“Pretty thing you are,” he told me on another grin. “Pure class.”

“I…” I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me for statin’ the truth,” he said. “Figure Jake got a good look at you too, what with all those fancy pictures of you in Lydia’s house.”

My throat closed again.

Tom held my eyes, doing it intently, and went on.

“Man could fall in love with a girl, just like that.” He snapped his fingers and I was so engrossed in what he was saying I jumped. “If that girl looked like you do in those pictures.”

Oh…my…God.

“So pretty, like a movie star,” Tom carried on.

Oh my God.

“Tom,” I whispered.