Page 130 of My Heart Will Find You

She knew he meant her, but that wasn’t going to happen. “I think he has. He carries photos of a beautiful young woman named Mandy.”

Henry looked like he was trying to figure out how to say something.

“What is it you’re trying to tell me?”

“I know you were annoyed by all the questions I asked you, but I wanted to know things that I couldn’t tell you about.”

“Such as?”

“I wanted to know if your Max was like mine.”

“Was he?”

“I think that at the beginning he was. But my Max has always had a deep streak of melancholy in him. He was like that even when I met him as a child. Maybe it was because his father died when Max was so young. Whatever it was, the emptiness has never left him, and he’s searched the world trying to fill it.”

“Maybe he has with Mandy.”

“He hasn’t seen her in months, and he doesn’t miss her at all. I asked.”

When Henry was silent, she said, “Max and Ben want me to stay on and look after you.” She saw him smile. “That means I’d be stuck with going through that mess of files you have hidden under the stairs. Including the ones I dumped out.”

“I hope you’ll say yes. You are wonderful company and your food is divine.”

“Your Max said I should open a restaurant.”

“Ah,” Henry said. “You two. Maybe you will—”

“No,” she said firmly. “There is nothing between your Max and me, and there never will be. He looks at me differently than my Max did.” Her eyes lightened. “But if I grew a trunk and had really long eyelashes, he might be interested.”

Henry laughed. “Oh, Etta, I’ve grown to love you so much. Please stay. If you want a boyfriend, I’ll find you one. I have lots of friends.”

“Some nerdy guy who never looks up from a book? I am spoiled by the sight of a buffalo hunter in a breechcloth.”

Henry looked away from the phone, then back. “They’ve come to get me. What did you think of the church?”

She knew he was asking about the dedication. “It nearly broke my heart, but I’m glad that my friends are remembered.”

“Me too,” he said.

A woman’s voice said, “You need to close that now.”

“Please stay with me at least until I get the book done,” he said quickly.

“Only if we change the names. I get to be Rowena with violet eyes and Max is—” She didn’t finish as a hand took the phone away from Henry and cut off contact.

Etta turned her phone off and put it in the picnic basket. She didn’t want to talk to any more people. She just wanted to enjoy where she was—and maybe think about where her life was headed.

When Max returned, she was by the water and she’d set the food out on a pretty cloth.

“How was it?” she asked.

“Unsettling. I was struck with strong déjà vu, like I’d been there before. I felt a mixture of misery and happiness.” He gave a crooked grin. “And sex. That was there too. And love. I don’t mean to sound too wimpy, but I felt an all-consuming, do-or-die love. I envy whoever lived there.”

Again, Etta felt that tingle when looking at him. It was almost like her Max was somewhere deep inside him. She turned away.

Max shook his head as though trying to rid himself of his thoughts, then looked at the basket. “You made all this in the minutes before we left?”

“Yes.”

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