Page 90 of The Forever Christmas Tree

First, there had been the shock of Wendy’s leaving.

“Dad, she had to go. She does important work, you know. It’s not because she wanted to leave us so quickly.”

Sad that he had to be reassured by his almost twelve-year-old daughter.

There had been a few chatty text messages from her, like he was her new BFF:

Arrived safely bk in CA. Miss OBX already.

Hmpfh! She missed the island, but no mention of me.

Then, days later:

Op completed. All good.

She must have known that I’d be worried. Nice of her to let me know, but, face it: I would worry every time she went out on an “op” . . . if I knew where she was going or exactly what an “op” is.

Cold & rainy here. How’s the island?

Great! Now we’re reduced to talking about the weather!

How’s my tree?

A bloody pain in the ass, that’s how it is. I picked 117 mites off it yesterday.

Geek just gave notice. He’ll be a Bell Cove-ite by June.

And what will you be by June, Flipper? Where will you be?

He may have had all these thoughts, but he never answered any of her text messages. Not because he was sulking or to prove any stupid point. He was just so confused. Honestly, he didn’t know what to say. He knew how he felt, but was unsure about Wendy. To him, it felt as if the ball was in her court.

“You’re a fool,” Matt told him over lunch at the Cracked Crab one day when they’d met to discuss some issues that had come up with the land deal over on the mainland. He was referring to his “lack of action” regarding Wendy, not the surveyor’s report. “There aren’t many people who get a second chance, pal.”

“What do I have to offer a woman accustomed to a life of adventure? Hell, I’m the same Ethan Rutledge I was twelve years ago, but Wendy is an entirely different person now.”

“So the hell what?”

“This new Wendy does exciting things, meets exciting people, travels to exciting places.”

“Yada, yada, yada.”

“Case in point, I personally witnessed her taking off on a moment’s notice when Uncle Sam called. And she was picked up by a military transport helicopter, for God’s sake. How expensive is that? Which shows just how important she and her gang are to this country. Then she shoots off to some mountains in Afghanistan to rescue three Marines being held by the Taliban.”

“Wendy told you that?”

“No, but from the CNN news footage of a special forces mission a few days after she left, I put the pieces together.”

“I saw that report. Wow! Do you suppose Wendy was one of those yahoos parachuting out of a moving plane?”

“I don’t want to know,” Ethan said. “Face it, Wendy would be bored stiff in Bell Cove where the most exciting thing that happens is a grinch contest. And the most interesting person in town is Abe Bernstein and his Reuben sandwich.”

“You have a point there.”

Matt wasn’t the only one calling him a fool. Laura called him a fool every time she saw him, for no particular reason, when she wasn’t alternating it with moron, idiot, and mush brain.

Then lots of other things took precedence.

Firstly, the fire on the new land he’d purchased, which might possibly be arson. Apparently, Jeb Parkins, a prime suspect, was having second thoughts about the sale after a failed trip to the Bahamas with his girlfriend.