Page 44 of Promise of a New Beginning
“I’m so glad you made it,” she said.
“I meant what I said, Elise. I’m ready to do this. It’s time.”
She led him into the expansive foyer, then across the ceramic-tiled floor to a grand living room decorated with velvet and ornately carved wooden couches covered in rich mulberry, greens, and blues. The walls were lined with cherry bookshelves, and a marble fireplace filled the space between two enormous bay windows. Everything looked just as Jack remembered. Everything except the addition of the hospital bed placed just beside the grand piano on the left side of the room. Jack swallowed past the sadness that pressed in on him. Ralph Gray’s skin was ashen. His once virile body lay shrunken and diminished beneath white cotton sheets. The strength Jack had taken solace in on his way up the driveway fell away, and he felt another fissure form in his heart. He felt like he was in a sick game of tug-of-war. On one side was a life waiting to be lived.And Savannah.On the other side was the guilt not just of losing Linda, but of losing all the people he’d turned his back on. How was a man supposed to survive such heartache and enjoy the awaiting pleasure?
“Jack?” Ralph’s voice was barely above a whisper, scratchy and painful.
“Yes. I’m here.” He went to Ralph’s side, and all the anger he’d felt for the last two years was replaced with sadness and regret. Ralph had welcomed him into his family, treated him like a son, and respected him, and Jack had thrown it away. Jack thought he’d cried all the tears he’d had in him over the past twenty-four hours, but as his tears returned, he knew the well had not been tapped dry.
He took Ralph’s frail hand in his own.
“Jack.” Ralph’s eyes were already damp. “I’m glad you’re here, you sorry bastard.”
“Dad!” Elise chided him.
Jack’s heart warmed, glad to see a remnant of his friend return. “I’m here, Ralph, and I’m sorry for all the time I missed.”
Ralph drew his eyebrows together. “Cut the poppycock,” Ralph said in a weak tone. “You listen to me. I don’t have much breath left. This cancer crap really sucks. But you need to know that I never blamed you for Linda’s death.”
Jack’s muscles tensed as a tear tumbled down his cheek. “Ralph—”
“You’re the same old stubborn bastard as you’ve always been. I told you to listen.” He sputtered a cough. “I’m still plenty of years your senior, so shut up and listen. You are a good man, Jack. You were a great husband, and I know Linda felt the same way. I couldn’t have asked for a better son-in-law. She loved you, Jack. For all your stubbornness, for all the love you have in that gigantic heart of yours, and for all the things you had hoped to become.”
Jack blinked away tears, but he could not ebb the flow of them. “Thank you,” he managed.
“I’m not done yet.” Ralph drew in a long, slow inhalation; then his body shook with another phlegmy cough. Elise came to his side with a box of tissues and helped him clean the gunk from his mouth.
Elise brushed her father’s hair from his forehead. “You okay, Dad?”
Ralph nodded. “You’re a good egg, Elise. Thank you.” He turned to Jack. “Just like Linda, right?”
Jack nodded, afraid that if he spoke he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from sobbing.
“There’s one more thing that I want to say, and I know this is going to kick you in the gut, Jack, but you need to hear it. This baloney you’ve pulled of running away to a cabin in the woods and hiding from life, that’s not who you are. You’re a survivor, all right, but a survivor of a different kind, and I think you know that by now; otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
“You know about my cabin?”The cabin I haven’t told a soul about?
“Never underestimate people, Jack. You know that from your military career. Do you think I’d have let Linda down by letting you go from our lives forever? Of course not. Don’t ever forget that there’s nothing a man can’t do if he really wants to do it. I had to know you were okay. Even if not emotionally. I needed to know where you were in case you really did need someone.” He held up his palm to stop Jack from even thinking about refuting his words. “A good private investigator is worth every penny. I know where you’ve been, and I’m pretty certain I know where you’re headed now.”
“Headed?” Jack was blown away by the lengths Ralph had gone to after the way Jack had treated him.
“Remember Elizabeth and Lou?”
Jack narrowed his eyes. “Yes.”
“They’re my friends, Jack.” Elise touched his arm.
Elise continued. “We didn’t spy on you. She and Lou had registered for your course, and I found out about it after the fact but before she left. Dad really wanted to talk to you, and we weren’t sure if you would be approachable. You were so angry for so long. I asked Elizabeth to let me know if you seemed okay enough for Dad to talk to you. I’m sorry, Jack. It was like fate stepped in.”
“You went to that extent to make sure I was okay?”
She nodded. “And their son, Aiden, adores you.”
Jack thought of how drawn he’d been to the little blond boy and how natural it had felt to teach him. Then the fear the day he went missing and how Jack had felt as if his world were crashing down upon him until he’d found Aiden, safe and sound in his makeshift shelter.
“Jack, Elizabeth told us about a woman. Savannah,” Ralph said in a frail voice.
Ralph held his gaze, and Jack could not turn away. His chest constricted. “Yes.”
