Chapter 8
Josh wasn’t the settling-down type. Hadn’t Maggie watched him move through woman after woman all his life? And his marriage
had lasted all of four years. She wasn’t sure how a man who’d been raised by such a loving couple ended up with major commitment
issues.
But then again, given her background, it defied reason that she’d found herself in a loving, committed marriage to a wonderful
man. A miracle if ever there’d been one.
The sound of the back door slamming jarred Maggie from her reverie.
“Mommy, Pokey licked my mouth! And then he jumped on Uncle Josh and got mud on his pants and he barked and barked at him.”
She barreled into Maggie smelling of outdoors and sunshine.
“Is that so?”
“Miss Laura said Pokey loves me. She’s not sure about Uncle Josh, though.”
Speaking of... Josh leaned against the wall at the room’s threshold, grinning affectionately at Zoey. His hair was wind
tousled and those broad shoulders hadn’t happened by accident.
The memory of his kiss washed over her, making heat flush her limbs.
“Huh, Mommy, can they?”
Maggie gave her head a shake. “What, honey?”
“Can doggies love people? Or can only people love people?”
Josh’s lips tipped in humor as he quirked a brow at Maggie.
Because yes, her daughter asked great questions. “I think doggies are capable of love too.”
“That’s good. ’Cause I love Pokey and I want him to love me too.”
Maggie kissed Zoey on the cheek. “How could he not?”
And just like that, Zoey whirled, made a beeline for Josh, and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the hall. “Let’s play
princess, Uncle Josh! You can be the prince ’cause you’re a boy.”
“Do I get to wear a crown?”
“I only have tiaras, but I get the one with the pink jewels ’cause it’s my favorite.”
Their voices faded as they entered Zoey’s room.
Maggie glanced down at the letter she’d been reading. Or at least staring at while her mind strayed into forbidden territory.
She shook off the memory of that kiss—and the guilt it induced—and began reading. She had a crucial mystery to solve and needed
to focus if she hoped to find answers.
Maggie wasn’t sure how long she’d been reading, but she was down to the last few letters. Hope drained like water from an
unplugged bathtub. If they didn’t find more to go on, how would they ever find Ethan’s friend? And if they never found his
friend, how would they find closure?
She was midway through the second to last letter when Rocky’s name caught her eye. She devoured the words like a starving
woman. Her heart leapt in her chest. “Josh,” she called. “Come here.”
She read the passage a second time while she waited for him to extract himself from her daughter.
“What’d you find?” Josh entered the room wearing a golden tiara atop his head and a mint-green baby blanket draped around his shoulders and secured with a hair clip.
Maggie was too excited to give him a hard time. “Listen to this. ‘We spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about
the food. I dream about your meatloaf and lasagna every day. I never realized what a glutton I was until I joined up. Rocky’s
family has a diner in Rock Hill and he describes the food in meticulous detail. He has us all salivating by the time he’s
finished describing the cuisine they serve up.’”
Josh beamed at her. “They own a diner in Rock Hill, South Carolina.”
“How many diners can there possibly be in the town?”
He was already on his phone. “He didn’t give the diner’s name later?”
“No, that’s all he says about it. But that really narrows it down. Surely we can find his family.”
“There are only two restaurant names containing the word diner . But there are quite a few that seem like they might be actual diners.”
“Let me get through the last letter and see if there’s anything else. If not, we can start calling.” She grinned widely, her
body buzzing with excitement at the thought.
Josh joined her on the love seat as she read the last letter. It was hard to concentrate when they were so close to finding
Rocky.
Eventually she reached the end. “Nothing else here. But we have what we need.” She pulled out her phone. “We should start
with the ones with diner in the name.”
“Wait. Supposing we find the right restaurant... have you thought about what you’ll say?”
“I don’t know. I guess something like ‘My husband knew your son in the Army, and could I get his phone number so I could ask some questions?’”
“You think his family would give out his contact information so easily?”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I could just ask them to give him my contact info. They’d know Rocky was his nickname
so they’d know I’m telling the truth.”
“That only proves you know someone who knew him over there.”
She huffed. “Stop being such a downer. We’re this close.”
“I know, but... I was just sitting over here thinking this is too big to mess up. What if we make them suspicious and get
their guard up? We might never find him then.”
“You think we should drive over there?”
His gaze locked on hers for a long moment. “They’re more likely to take us seriously and believe us. Plus, provided we do
actually get to talk with Rocky, this won’t exactly be an easy conversation. A lot of vets avoid talking about this stuff.
And depending on what he says, it might not be so easy to hear either. Seeing you in person might compel him to talk—and to
tell the truth, whatever that is.”
Her spirits flagged. He had some good points, but she was so eager to get answers.
He was tapping the keyboard on his phone. “Rock Hill’s only four hours away. We could leave Sunday morning.”
“Are diners even open on Sundays?”
“Let me check.”
She entertained the idea of calling. Surely his family, once they found them, would be willing to pass her name and number
to Rocky.
“Some of them are open Sundays and some aren’t. If we don’t find Rocky’s family on Sunday, we could hit the other diners early
on Monday and still have time to drive home that night.”
That seemed like a logical plan. But it also meant waiting a whole week. Not knowing was going to drive her crazy.
Josh took her hand. “What are you thinking?”
“That I can hardly bear the thought of waiting a whole week to figure this out.” To put this behind her.
“Tell you what. In the meantime we’ll keep searching for the guy, showing his picture around. Not just at the carnival but
all over town, at the beaches and restaurants.”
“But not to anyone who knows your family.”
“Yeah, we have to be careful about that. Sound like a plan?”
She mulled it over for a long moment. “All right.”
Maggie checked her watch. It was going on seven o’clock. “Would you mind if we stopped at my mom’s on the way out of town?
I still haven’t heard back and I want to check on her.”
“No problem. I’ll go help Zoey clean her room.”
“Good luck with that.”