Page 20 of Wait for Me

The more important thing right now was for their family—their son, primarily—to be in God’s perfect will. Logan’s pastor at Midtown Chapel back in Atlanta had said that God could restitch all these torn sections of the tapestry.

Logan feared it might be too late for Jonas. They had already ruined his young life. Still, he felt that he and Marie had made some progress—what little progress this might be. “Would you…”

Marie looked at him.

“Would you walk with me again before this cruise is over?” Logan asked.

Ask not, get not.

“Why not? We’re pretty much stuck together until Saturday,” Marie said.

“After dinner tomorrow night?”

“An excuse to stuff ourselves with Baked Alaska and so forth?”

“It’s the meringue,” Logan explained. “Light and fluffy it might be, but it has devastating effects.”

Marie grinned. “That’s one thing I like about you.”

“Just one thing?”

“Don’t push it.”

“And what might be that one thing, pray tell?”

“You make life sound easy,” Marie said. “My job is difficult and dangerous. You provide the counterpunch.”

Dangerous? “What’s dangerous about being a translator? I can’t imagine…”

“Any job can be dangerous, metaphorically speaking.”

She had backtracked.

“Uh-huh.” Logan didn’t like what he heard, but he wasn’t about to spoil the night. He didn’t know why he had asked her to walk with him again.

And she had said yes.

Let’s not ruin future moments.

Marie said nothing else, and neither did Logan ask her any more questions, as they spent the next moments looking out to sea in silence.

Chapter Nine

Marie held one of Jonas’s hands, and Logan held the other, making their son as happy as a bee, as they walked from the tour bus to the picnic area outside Juneau, where the aroma of smoked and grilled salmon mingled in the air, weaving in and out of the large crowd waiting for the lunch this Monday.

Marie almost talked over Jonas’s head, but she’d have to shout to be heard. Besides, she didn’t want to be the first to talk to Logan. So far, he had initiated conversations with her.

Whatever had happened between them still simmered below the surface. They could have tension at any time. Why instigate that?

Logan was on the phone now, and Marie could clearly hear the conversation. If she could advise him, she’d tell him not to discuss multi-million-dollar acquisitions on an unsecured cell phone in a tourist spot with at least a thousand people waiting for their baked wild Alaskan salmon.

Then again, Logan hadn’t asked for her opinion.

He had never once asked for her thoughts on anything other than where to eat out on the Friday evenings he let his personal chef take the night off.

Perhaps in his mind, Marie was nothing more than a translator. A businesswoman she might not be, but she sure knew how to be discreet, right?

There was so much Marie wanted to tell Logan about what she really did in real life. But he wouldn’t believe her nor understand. Perhaps he wouldn’t even care. After all, he hadn’t bothered to find out the truth. Or he hadn’t tried hard enough.

---