Page 69 of Wait for Me

Velcro. The invention for all ages.

“Well, good. We need to go now if we want to see the glaciers.” Marie put her notebook and pen into Jonas’s backpack, next to the drawing pad and crayons.

“You’re going to need your jacket,” Marie said.

Logan let out a giant sigh.

“We’re going outside?” Jonas asked.

“We are all going to put on our jackets, but your job is to take notes with my pen,” Marie said. “In order to take notes, you’re going to need to sit at a table so that you can have nice handwriting.”

Jonas nodded. “I hope they have tables outside.”

Marie smiled. “We will find a table, where we can still hear the geologist when he explains this and that.”

“So that I can write down this and that.”

“Exactly.”

Mrs. Ping held Jonas’s hand as they walked toward the door. A worried look was on her face. “Where to?”

“We’ll go together. Take the elevator up to the top deck.” Marie zipped up her own jacket.

She was following Mrs. Ping out of the stateroom when she felt someone grab her arm. Before she could ask Logan what he wanted, he answered her question without a word.

As soon as their lips met, Marie could see their wedding day on Cumberland Island once again, barefoot in the sand, surrounded by wild horses and old ruins. She could see the way Logan had stared at her in her simple wedding gown, with only a sheer veil separating him from claiming her lips.

She could hear the preacher pronounce them husband and wife. The cheers of their family. Their happy reception at the historic home across the water in the small town of St. Mary’s. Their excited dash to the private plane that flew them to London for their honeymoon.

Three years later, they were divorced.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“If you stay close to Mommy and Daddy, like holding our hands all the time, we can be safe. Okay?” Marie said to Jonas.

Her voice sounded so serious, like it was the most important thing in all the world.

Logan wasn’t sure what to do at this point. He had specifically told Jonas they were not going outside. And here they were, in the elevator, going to the top deck.

He glanced at Marie, but could not read what was on her mind. To be honest, all he could think of were her warm lips—

He cleared his throat.

To be fair to Marie, he had no idea if she was going to lead them outside. Also, the lounge was on the top deck.

On the one hand, Logan could insist that he was the head of this household, and that Marie—who did not have custody of their son—should not have overridden his instructions to his own son. It made him look bad in front of both Jonas and Mrs. Ping. The latter might think that Marie had undermined his authority.

“Daddy, you better hold my hand.” Jonas reached for Logan’s right hand. “We don’t want you to fall over since you only have one arm left.”

Logan chuckled. Thanks to the painkillers, his broken elbow-in-a-cast didn’t hurt.

He almost forgot what he was thinking.

Logan wished he knew more about what was going on in Marie’s life—whether her job would continue to endanger all of them. He wanted her to quit. He earned enough to support all three of them for the rest of their lives. They didn’t need Marie’s salary.

He whispered in Marie’s ear, “I need to talk to you tonight about something.”

As if misreading him, Marie said something else. “This is the only time we get to see the glaciers up close. Tomorrow we’ll be in Victoria, then Seattle, then home.”

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