With the greatest of care she picked up each one of them in turn and examined them front to back. She paid special attention to the dates in which they were sent. Tears fell freely down her cheeks. Tears she didn’t even notice. She closed her eyes while trembling fingers covered her mouth.
Katie fastened her dewy gaze to William. He covered her hand with his and gave her a wink as they awaited Rachel’s response.
“Please, you must tell me—where did you find these?” she whispered.
“I didn’t find them,” Katie said. “Quinn gave them to me so I could give them to you.”
Chapter Fourteen
“How long have you had them?”
“Since yesterday.” Katie waited for some kind of reaction.
Rachel’s gaze traveled away from hers and again dropped to the letters on her lap. She laid her hand on top of them and caressed the edges with her thumb. During the silent interval, Katie studied the lovely woman’s delicate features. She could still see a fair amount of the prom queen Donnie loved so deeply. Yes, a few silver streaks had woven themselves throughout her dark brown hair. The faint lines around the corners of her eyes and mouth whispered that her youth had faded away. None of it distracted from her beauty. If Donnie could see her now, he wouldn’t in any way be disappointed.
At length, Rachel again gazed into her eyes. The tears that remained on her face, she brushed away with a graceful hand. “You have my undivided attention, Katie.”
“I know the claim must seem a strange one. I’m not sure if our positions were reversed I’d believe a single word you said. I might even wonder over your motives. Nonetheless, I’m not here to stir up painful memories or hurt you in any way. I’m here that I might set the record straight, and maybe, just maybe, provide a far happier ending to this tale.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed as she turned her head to the side. “Are you clairvoyant? Is this something you do for a living?”
She shook her head. “Oh, heavens, no, not at all. I hope you don’t think I’m some sort of charlatan, come to swindle you out of money or anything else. This is my one and only visit. I won’t ask you for a thing while I’m here, nor will I disturb you again.”
The silence that followed bordered on the uncomfortable. As Katie waited it out, she gazed at the simple beauty of the room. Although the Victorian-style furnishings were quite lovely, they didn’t speak of her vast wealth. This home could belong to almost anyone.
At length Rachel nodded. “Your claim doesn’t sound as strange as you might think. So please, I’d like to hear what you have to say.”
Now the moment of truth had finally arrived, words escaped her. She hadn’t prepared for anything beyond the question she had asked. Once again Katie looked at William for some kind of guidance. Right now she didn’t know how she could possibly explain her involvement without giving him away.
William shrugged. “There’s no getting around it, Katie. In order for her to understand why we’ve come, she’ll at least need some of the details of your journey. Whether or not she’ll believe what you share is something we’ll take a chance on, all right?”
“Okay, here goes. My…um…my…” She stopped. Her what? Her ghost soldier? Phantom boyfriend? Her other worldly soul mate? They all sounded just as ridiculous as they did impossible. Katie raised a hand to her forehead and gave it a rub. “Oh, boy.”
As Rachel leaned toward her, she breathed out a touch of quiet laughter. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to make this so hard for you.”
Katie waved her concern aside. “No, it’s not that it’s hard. It’s just that…well, you see I uh…have someone who is…who is very dear to me. William is a soldier. My soldier. He’s not only handsome, he’s also kindhearted and courageous—” Once again she stopped short. Why on earth did she say that? Katie felt like she babbled with no real purpose or destination. Come on, get yourself together, girl.
A touch of humor filled Rachel’s eyes. “I think I can follow all of that without too much difficulty.”
Katie turned her gaze toward William. Rachel had merely found amusement over her struggle. On the other hand, from the ear-to-ear grin on William’s face, he thought the whole thing downright hilarious. That annoyed her to no end. Really?
She gritted her teeth. Fine then. “The thing is—my soldier died on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. What do you think of that?”
Rachel pursed her lips and nodded. “I’d say that’s a little bit before your time. Unless, of course, you’re very well preserved. Are you?”
“No. D-Day is well before my time, I assure you. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist or that we don’t speak to each other more often than you might think.”
“Even though I find the prospect of that quite fascinating, I don’t see what it has to do with—”
“William is very good friends with your Donnie Martin. Because of that friendship, William asked me to find you.” There. She said it. “That search led me to your home in West Columbia and an encounter with your brother.”
Rachel took in a ragged breath and slowly released it. “Why did this soldier of yours want to find me?”
“Ah, Rachel,” she said. “Don’t you get it? Your father never paid Don off. In fact, he never even sought him out. His letters to you are proof of that. Donnie loved you with his dying breath. He loves you still. The problem we have is that because of those letters you never answered, he thinks you’re quite out of his grasp. Whether or not you are is a question only you can answer.”
A new set of tears filled her eyes. “Have you spoken to Donnie about…about me?”
Katie shook her head. “No, I haven’t, but William has. Because of what he said during that conversation, William and I began our search for you. We did this without Don’s knowledge for several reasons. There is far more to this story than what I’ve told you so far.”
Rachel nodded. “I can only imagine what you must’ve gone through in tracking me down. So I thank you for all of your efforts, Katie. I’m grateful for the letters regardless of how or where you got them. But if you don’t mind, I need some time alone right now. Martha will see you out.”
Katie’s heart fell to the bottom of her stomach. A dismissal wasn’t what she expected. They were far from any kind of hope or message they could give Don. She gazed at William. He shook his head.
“You must respect her choices, Katie,” he said. “Keep in mind she has years of sorrow, bitterness, falsehoods, and betrayal she must wade through. That will take time. We can’t hurry the process.”
With more reluctance than she thought possible, Katie rose from her seat. She turned toward Rachel and smiled. “Of course. If nothing else, I hope the letters will bring you some comfort in the days ahead. I’m sure that’s what Quinn intended.”
Rachel didn’t respond, but then Katie truly didn’t think she would. The moment she stepped outside, the twins scrambled to their feet.
Jared offered her his arm as he escorted her down the steps. “All is well?”
She shrugged. “I suppose as well as can be expected. We came to give her the letters and now she has them.”
“Did you get that one very important question answered?”
“Yes.” She nodded and dropped her gaze. “Yes, I did.”
“So you’re saying you’ve accomplished everything you came here to do, right?”
They stopped at the bottom of the steps.
Jared turned toward her and fastened his gaze to hers. “No more haunted houses, gruesome ghosts, or rich heiresses? We’re done with all that?”
“Yep, all done.”
They resumed their journey down the walkway. “Good, because from here, we’re heading off to Minute Maid Park where we will watch the Astros play an ordinary game of baseball with some ordinary friends of ours. We will stuff ourselves with ordinary hotdogs and get something ordinary to drink. Throughout the game, we will also yell ordinary insults at the umpire, whether or not they make stupid calls. You are required to t
ake part in all of the above. Got that?”
“Got it.”
“Good.” Justin opened the back door to the pickup. “We need some normal fun and recreation before you go home. You did notice I said normal, right?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Excuse me, Miss Adelton?”
Katie turned. “Yes?”
Martha hurried toward her with a notepad and pen in hand. “Miss Jameson asked if you would be kind enough to give her your contact information, dear.”
“I’d be happy to.” Katie glanced at William and then wrote down her name, address, email, and phone number. “There you go. Please tell her she can get a hold of me anytime she wants and for any reason she might have.”
“Thank you, I’ll let her know.”
The small hope she now carried made the baseball game with her cousins and all their raucous friends far more enjoyable. As did the dinner that followed, when their group took almost every available seat in the restaurant.
They followed up with a movie. All the while, William held her hand and whispered various comments that made her laugh in the most inappropriate places. After the movie ended, he leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss. He told her he was sorry, but that he had to go. With a promise to see her soon, he disappeared.
Did duty call or did it have something to do with Donnie? If so, what could William say at this moment in time that would make him feel any better?
****
The questions nagged her throughout the night. They remained a steadfast companion as she ate her breakfast. She pondered over them as her cousins took her back to the airport. Yet all throughout, she kept up with their uproarious play, just as she always had.
Jared gave her a silly grin as they all stopped short of the security check point. “Well this is it I guess—at least until next time anyway. So thank you, Katie. I can’t think of the last time I had so much fun and adventure over a weekend.”
“Yeah, that goes for me too.” Justin bobbed his head in agreement. “This is one for the grandkids. One day, we’ll tell them all about our awesome experience while they bounce on our knees with wide-eyed wonder. Monsters underneath the bed and in the closets will be a piece of cake after that.”
“In order for you to pass it down to your grandchildren, you should get married first and produce a child, don’t you think?”
Jared and Justin looked at each other and shrugged. “Nah,” they said in unison.
She never could figure out how they did that. Did they have some sort of secret look or hand signal? If they did, she could never catch it.
Justin rubbed a hand against his chin. “I think we’ll just go ahead and skip that part.”
She raised a brow. “Which part? Marriage or the children?”
“Both,” Jared replied. “We’ll just borrow some nieces and nephews from time to time. We can pretend they’re ours and destroy all sense of security when they go to bed at night.”
“That, because it has become painfully obvious we can’t nab any second-hand cousins from you,” Justin said.
“And why is that? Is it because I am now and have ever been your favorite? Therefore you wouldn’t want to scare the tar out of my children with a tale you and I both know you’ll blow all out of proportion?”
“Sweet sentiment, but no, that isn’t the reason. We just don’t see how you can have any children of your own when your boyfriend is a ghost. I mean—well—you know.” Jared bounced his eyebrows and winked.
Justin cleared his throat in a most exaggerated manner but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. His expression said it all.
Could one blush, and at the same time have the color drain from one’s face? Because that’s what it felt like she just did. Her mouth dropped as her gaze drifted back and forth between them. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
The boys burst out laughing. In fact they laughed so hard she quite expected them to drop onto the floor and roll all over the airport. Instead Jared ruffled her hair, pulled her in tight against his side, and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry. As always, your secret is safe with us.”
“What secret? I mean, you’re speaking complete and utter nonsense.” Why, oh why did she even try? By those smirks they sported, they didn’t buy a word she said.
Justin shook his head and tsked. “I know you don’t know this, so I’ll go ahead and tell you. The window behind Rachel’s porch swing is very thin. Very. Thin. We could hear every word you said.”
“Oh, and uh, don’t forget all the conversations you were having within earshot. You remember those, don’t you? The ones where you insisted you were speaking to yourself?” Jared gave her another smug little smile. “Yeah, those. Top that off with those times you looked at someone in silent communication that we couldn’t see. A dead giveaway, if I ever saw one.”
“That’s right. You also forget how well we know you. So I wouldn’t deny it anymore, if I were you,” Justin added. “Just makes you look rather foolish.”
“All right then, I won’t.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed them both on the cheek. “Thank you both for diving headlong into the wild and woolly town of cahoots with me. No one could’ve seen me through the events of our unexpected adventure any better than you did. I’ll be forever grateful you remained at my side throughout the entire ordeal.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun,” Jared replied.
“Yes. Let’s do it again soon,” Justin said, “Like in another millennium or so.”
She laughed. “Okay, you’re on. Only next time, you’ll have to visit me. I think I know a spooky road that leads to a spooky house we can investigate during the dead of night. The legends about that particular street will turn your hair white.”
Jared grinned. “Sounds like great fun. Oh, and when you’re ready, we’d like to know a little bit more about that soldier of yours. William will, after all, have to meet with our approval.”
“All right. Maybe one day in the not too distant future, I’ll tell you all about him.”
“We’ll hold you to that too,” Justin said. “After all, you didn’t do so well on your own last time around and we had to take matters into our own hands.”
She shook her head. “Don’t get me started on Chad or I’ll miss my plane. Still, let me thank you for what you did at the restaurant and at that hayfield. The dweeb never bothered me again.”
“Our pleasure.” They tipped their hats in a cowboy salute before she headed for her gate.
Her smile didn’t fade until she boarded the plane that took her back to New Mexico. All the way home she reviewed the experiences of the weekend. If nothing else, they had freed Quinn of his earthbound existence and finished what he couldn’t do himself. Did William tell him they had found Rachel? Did he know they had given her the letters he gave his life to protect? She must’ve read them by now. What kind of difference, if any, did they make?
****
Rachel never strayed far from Katie’s mind in the days that followed. She couldn’t even dismiss her while she studied. Katie sighed and closed the cover on her psychology book. Breathing deeply, she filled her lungs with the musty odor of the old library’s basement floor. Because of that aroma, most people avoided the area. She didn’t mind it though. Katie liked the seclusion and quiet she could find down here.
“What is a gorgeous woman like you doing in a stuffy old place like this?” William now sat in the chair across from hers. He had his elbow on the table while his chin rested on top of his curled fingers.
No matter how hard she tried, Katie couldn’t hide her joy. Her heart took flight. Her body tingled with the liquid warmth that pulsated throughout. Even though it had only been a few days, she had missed him far more than she thought she would. She leaned toward him and raised a brow. “Is that the best you’ve got? You may not know this, but that line is older than Methuselah and probably just as tired.”
He chuckled. “That very well may be, but if I were to one up it, I might get myself in more trouble than I care to get into.”
“Oh well, we can’t have that now, can we?”
“We shouldn’t have that, is a better fit.” He winked. “Now, what do you say we quit this place and go for a horseback ride? The fall colors in the mountain forests and hills are nothing short of amazing.”
Katie stood up and gathered her books. “I suppose I’ll just have to see that for myself. So tell me, where did you park your horse, cowboy?”
As he rose to his feet he put a hand over his stomach and bowed. “Right next to yours, my love, right next to yours.”
****
As they rode their horses side by side, she took in the beauty of the fall colors. They were indeed amazing. She enjoyed them as much as she did the chill in the air, for that meant the holidays were just around the corner. Underneath dark, cloudy skies, the threat of rain intensified the scent of dampened earth and autumn leaves discarded by the colorful trees. She loved this time of year. After all, it meant that she and William would have their first real Christmas together. She could hardly wait.
Their laughter died down a bit as they rounded the final curve, and headed for home. Her gaze lingered on him. He might not be a knight in the true sense of the word, but he was a warrior nonetheless. Even more enchanting, he rode that stallion her childish heart had always expected and rode him better than any knight ever could. Katie settled her gaze on his horse. “You know, I’m willing to bet that when you were a kid—and played cowboys with your friends—you didn’t ride a broomstick. You rode a real, honest-to-goodness, hay-devouring, oat-munching, horse.”
“Careful now. The last time you made a bet, you forked over twenty bucks of hard-earned money to your brother because you lost.”
She leaned forward and patted Shahar on the neck. “You saw that one, did you?”
“Yep, I sure did. I must say I’m happy to see you’re an honest woman who pays her debts.”
She giggled. “I’m happy you’re happy. Nonetheless, I’m sticking by the bet as stated. Double or nothing. Are you game?”
Love Letters from Heaven Page 16
