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He kept his hand at her elbow as they walked along the waterfront The scent of Puget Sound led with that of fried fish froht air The cold nipped at Jody’s cheeks and she buried her hands deep within the silk lining of her coat pockets
"Here," Glen said, wrapping thehera chill"
How thoughtful he was, she noted This was exactly the type of thing Jeff would have done Jody forced all thoughts of her dead husband froo, time to put the past behind her and look forward, not back
Reht came from, it was as if someone had whispered it into her ear Lot’s wife? Why she would even think of the Biblical character was beyond her All Jody could remember was that Lot’s wife had turned into a pillar of salt when she fled Sodoel’s command, she’d stopped and looked back
That was it, Jody realized with a sudden burst of insight Instead of setting her course for the future, Lot’s wife had looked back over the life that she’d once had In , and in the process she’d become frozen, unable to move forward to whatever awaited her
They arrived at the ferry tere dock, headed toward Bainbridge Island Holding hands and laughing, Jody and Glen raced through the ter bullets in the stillness of the night
While Jody found them a table in the small cafeteria section, Glen ordered their caffé lattes She was lucky enough to find a booth by theSurprisingly, there didn’t seeers The majority of the co
"Here we go," Glen said, slipping into the seat across fro her the thick paper cup
Jody trained her gaze out of the atching the city lights grow set Sound She lowered her gaze to the hot drink cradled in her hands The tiht with Glen
"You ht that you’d learned I don’t date reed
"I’m a "
"I know that too, with a nine-year-old son I was sorry to havehim"
"Timmy and my mother went to McDonald’s for dinner I’et back" She didn’thim about baseball and other sports To be fair she should warn Glen about her son’s inquisitiveness, but before she could he spoke again
"No one seeenerally don’t combine my home life with business"
"I understand," Glen was quick to assure her "If you’d rather not talk about yourself, that’s fine I don’t want you to think I’entleness and how hard he worked to please her "It’s only fair that I tell you about Jeffhe was my husband"
"Only if you want," he said and sipped from his coffee As he did, Jody noticed what nice hands he had Large, but gentle They were the kind of hands that comforted a child, that shook on fair deals, and were rarely clenched in anger
"I e," Jody continued "I was going into my junior year and we fell deeply in love We dated for severalI knew Jeff had sold his car so he could buy " She paused as she reiven it to her For weeks afterward he took a bus to job interviews "To ot a job with Boeing and shortly after that ere nancy, but I’ve thanked God for ht since I lost Jeff II don’t knohat I would have done if it hadn’t been for Tiavea moment to collect herself
"Jeff’s job entailed a lot of traveling He was always very good about keeping in touch with nment to Berlin We set a convenient time for hi I knew i I tried his hotel room several times, but there wasn’t any answer"
Her voice wobbled and Glen reached for her hand
"A week passed with no word Nothing I was frantic and so was Jeff’s ether we traveled to Germany We stayed there nearly a month, in an effort to learn e could"
"You mean he just disappeared into thin air?" Glen asked as they pulled into Winslow, the dock on Bainbridge Island The sound of the cars driving off the ferry was followed by those boarding The activity in the cafeteria increased
"It see, made a nuisance of ourselves at the police station and the Aure then was that Jeff had gone for a walk along the Spree River, which was close to the hotel There’d been a string of s that year The only scenario the authorities could give was that Jeff had been the victim of such a crime and either been thrown or had fallen into the river I toured every hospital in the city Gloria, Jeff’s mother, did as well She insisted Jeff was alive, and refused to give up hope"