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Mary shook her head "No I didn’t know"
"You were too beautiful for the nice boys in town to have the nerve to approach you, but I saw the way the dangerous ones watched you I was terrified that you would be swept off your feet, but not by a good ood head on your shoulders, but he didn’t knohat it was like to be a young girl, especially one anted so ive her All I wanted was for you to find true love and have a faave me But when you caent and that he wanted you to go to New York City with him--"
"All of your fears came true"
"With every aord I hurled at you, it was as if I atching hter I tried to hold on to you, the further you were going to slip away"
"I’m sorry," Mary said, "so sorry we both hurt each other so badly"
Lucia gently wiped away the tears falling down Mary’s cheeks "Go to the closet and bring me the red box on the top shelf" The box was the size of a large hat and was quite heavy "Look inside"
Inside the box was a photo albuether of photos from Mary’s childhood She smiled as she looked at the photo on the cover--herself as a chubby-cheeked baby Her first thought was that Jack would love to see it
"You and your Jack will have beautiful children Sirls and boys that will fill your arms and hearts with endless joy"
As they went through the pictures one by one, Mary watched herself grow froirl with skinned knees, to lanky teenager, to young woes of the photo albuain as she closed the leather-bound book
"I never stopped collecting pictures of my baby," her mother said as she lifted a thick divider froazine covers and photo spreads
Mary was beyond amazed to find a print froet these?"
"Your agent, Randy, mailed these to us At first, I think it was to reassure us that you had come to no harm with him But when your father wrote to tell hie every week"
"I can’t believe he never told ht have insisted he stop, si that she couldn’t see beyond the before now, Mama" Just as Jack had told her, family as important Both she and her mother had done what they felt they had to do, and both of thee about decisions they’dtrue to theain, her , too "You’re hoh her tears, as happy as Mary could ever re," she began, and this tiet her mother to save her breath and rest
Lucia Ferrer had been waiting for , and Mary knew her excitement and joy over the celebration would heal her illness faster than any pills or hours of bed rest possibly could
Chapter Twenty-Three
The moon had fully risen in the winter sky by the time everyone in the house settled down to sleep Mary had waited impatiently for her father to finally tire and join her mother in the master bedroom
It had been less than a month since she’d met Jack in don San Francisco, but there was no question in Mary’s mind that she was utterly, coh town and the tih it had only been aher close on the airplane and in the taxi, it felt like forever And if she wasn’troom when her father had insisted on onewith her
That evening, she’d told him and her father about her conversation with herthe pictures her parents had collected of her over the years Her father had teared up with the sa herself all day Jack’s eyes, and his hand over hers, had been full of so much love for her that she could still hardly think what she could have done right in her life to find hi bath, dried off, then wrapped herself in the soft silk robe she’d packed in her bag Feeling like a naughty teenager, instead of heading for her own bedroo roouest room on the far side of the house Her heart pounded hard with delicious anticipation as she put her hand on the doorknob
Making sure to open the door quietly so that the hinges didn’t creak and give her away, she alot to close the door as she stared in wonder at the beautifulhis chest gloriously bare Jack was s just beneath the surface
"I thought o to bed All this time I believed my mother was the one desperate for me to marry Now I realize my father was quite possibly even more desperate for a son-in-law"