Page 114 of The River We Remember

Garnet held rigid for a moment more, then melted. “I’ve loved him since I was seventeen.”

“Yet you married his brother.”

“I love him, too. I do.” She looked down at the journals. “We all do things in our lives that we’ll never really understand. I thought about showing these to Brody. I was going to, in fact.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Garnet looked up again, and now Angie believed she saw a softening in all the features of the woman’s face, especially her eyes, and believed she could read sadness there. “Did you love Christian Madison?”

“He was sweet and kind and gentle,” Angie said. “I loved him as much as I was able in the short time we were married. And in the time since, I’ve loved him through Scott, if that makes sense to you.”

“Do you love Brody?”

“I believe I could.”

“Do you think if he knew who you really are he could love you?”

“Only Brody can answer that.”

Garnet glanced down at the journals she held. “He deserves to know. But if it came from me, it wouldn’t do Brody or me any good. I thought it might even turn him against me. He has a good heart and I know that somewhere in that heart is a love for me. Whatever else I might give up, I don’t want to lose that.”

Garnet held out the journals.

Angie took them and asked, “Does anyone else know?”

Garnet shook her head.

“If I tell Brody, will that be the end of it?”

Garnet stared at Angie, as if this was a question she wasn’t prepared to answer yet. “Tell him,” she said at last. “That’s all I want.”

Garnet turned and reached for the doorknob, in a hurry, it seemed, to be done with this business.

“Thank you,” Angie said.

Garnet hesitated, then turned back. “If he wants you, you do right by him, do you understand?”

Angie nodded. “If he wants me.”

Garnet Dern walked out the door and closed it behind her.

BRODY DIDN’T COME, not at the time they’d agreed on. Angie sat waiting, worried that Garnet Dern had lied to her and told Brody everything, and now he wanted nothing to do with her. What man would?

He pulled his cruiser to the curb a few minutes after seven. Angie watched him through the front window. He wore dark slacks, a short-sleeved blue shirt, a broad indigo tie. He came up the sidewalk and knocked on the screen door. Evangeline Madison stood frozen and couldn’t ever remember having been so afraid.

When his knock wasn’t answered, Brody called, “Angie? Ida? Anybody there?”

“Just a minute.” Angie took three deep breaths.

Brody smiled as she opened the door. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “Got a last-minute call I needed to see to. We might miss a few minutes of the show, but we can still make most of it.”