Page 54 of When I'm Gone
“I ... I didn’t plan it,” Luke said, coming up beside her. “And I think I could say the same thing of you, stepping between me and Andy. That was ... bold.” Not a word he’d usually use to describe Annie. A few months ago she couldn’t get a word out when that bartender was coming on to her. Today, she was strong and stood up to both Luke and Andy.
“I know.” Annie stopped at the curb to look both ways. Luke wanted to laugh because the road was visibly empty, plus the speed Nazi, Mr. Slattery, strictly enforced the ten-miles-per-hour speed limit. If he still lived there, he’d call the police if anyone edged above twelve. But Luke wasn’t ready to make jokes, so he paused and pretended to look up and down Winter Lane. “Once you two started arguing, it was obvious Andy knew more than he was telling us. Something snapped. I didn’t expect his story, though, did you? About Natalie’s pastor helping Andy and his girlfriend? Then the picture of the girl who looked creepily like Andy.”
“I still don’t know what to believe.” Luke’s foot hit asphalt as Andy’s car beeped open in the background. There was something about his story that struck a nerve. It wasn’t Nancy hiding away at Maranatha or Andy keeping the whole thing a secret from his wife or even Natalie helping them in a difficult situation. Luke pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them to Annie. “I’ll be right back,” he said and took off across the street without looking before she could respond.
Andy was already buckled in his seat, window up. He’d barely clicked the gearshift into reverse when Luke reached his door. Luke beat against the glass with an open palm. The music was loud inside the car, so it took three attempts to get Andy’s attention. Noticing Luke on the other side of the window, Andy rolled the window down with a whir, letting out a gush of cool, conditioned air.
“Uh, did you forget something?” Andy asked, holding the wheel tightly, the gold band on his left hand catching the light.
“I had one more question.” Luke took a few deep breaths, still worn out from running. Andy didn’t look eager to wait, so Luke blew out his last breath and leaned into the car window. “The pastor you mentioned, the one Natalie referred you to ...” Andy nodded. “What was his name?”
“Uh, that was a long time ago. Natalie contacted him when we were looking for Jill. His name was”—Andy scratched the top of his bare head—“Townsend, I think.”
Luke let out a breath and cracked a very brief smile. He was being silly, thinking Andy and Natalie had some big adoption scheme going on. Stupid.
“Yeah, that was it,” Andy added, rolling up the window. “Pastor Neal Townsend, but Natalie always called him Pastor Neal.”
CHAPTER 21
Luke pushed the power button on the side of his phone and put it back in the front pocket of his jeans. He wouldn’t check the profile again. There were only so many times he could look at the few snippets of information he had tracked down on the Internet. He’d searched Pastor Neal Townsend, Dr. Neal Townsend, Dr. Townsend, and the all-too-familiar: Dr. Neal. All searches brought him back to the same man—the man in Natalie’s contacts list.
Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of online info about the former pastor turned college professor. A grainy photo on the Eastern Michigan University website, a brief and seemingly outdated bio of Dr. Neal Townsend, and the words “associate professor” underneath. Luke had even pushed the boundaries on crazy and paid for a background check, but the guy was a saint. Not even a traffic ticket.
The mystery of Maranatha House was all but over. This Neal still bothered Luke though. He couldn’t put his finger onwhy, but it did.
Luke scanned the sandwich shop for Felicity. They were meeting for dinner and a movie, and he was so nervous he’d ended up getting there early. This was their third official date, not counting the cinnamon rolls in her office. It wasn’t until halfway through their second date that Luke felt comfortable being alone with Felicity. Sure, he spent plenty of time with Annie, but that was ... different.
Luke and Annie had already been through the “getting to know you” phase and the “seeing you at your worst” phase of friendship. He could be in the same room with Annie for an hour without feeling the need to say a word. At the same time, there were a few nights when they spent the entire evening texting about almost nothing. She was his main accomplice in the hunt for Neal’s digital footprint, which was nearly nonexistent; his association with Maranatha House must have been in the pre-Internet days. They’d been in touch constantly, even though there hadn’t been a reason to see one another since the visit to Pentwater, which was probably for the best. The new job at Tanglewood was nearly a sure thing. A dream house had been selected in Virginia and a realtor hired in Michigan. Luke hoped the move would wait until after the kids got back in a few weeks.
Even while ignoring the impending move, Luke was thankful for the distraction of Annie’s friendship. The few letters of Natalie’s he’d received recently were shorter than ever. Her handwriting was sloppy and light, as if she didn’t have enough energy to press the pen down on the page. Those letters used to be the highlight of his week. Now they were only a reminder of how she slowly faded away from him and turned into a shell of her former self. Exactly the fear she’d written about on her first day of chemo.
Today’s letter was dated from the end of October. She’d caught a cold from one of the kids, and it nearly killed her. She came home to the hospital bed in the front room, knowing they’d set the stage for her death. That day she wrote six sentences.
DAY 294
Dear Luke,
I’m finally home from the hospital. Thought I might never see these walls again. It feels right that I’ll leave this world surrounded by those I love. You are doing such a good job taking care of us all. I know now I should’ve told you the truth a long time ago. Now it might be too late.
Love,
Natalie
She mentioned her secret more and more the closer she got to her death. If it wasn’t about Will and Andy, Luke was certain the mysterious Dr. Neal was involved in this big secret somehow. Annie almost had him convinced that no matter what Natalie had been hiding, it didn’t matter anymore.
Felicity yanked open the heavy glass door into the sandwich shop, stunning as always. Today her unruly curls were somehow tamed and flowed out in curly rivulets from under a paisley scarf. The blue in the scarf headband matched her eyelet sundress.
“Hey there!” She waved. Luke pushed his chair out and stood. Felicity crossed the room and put her arm around his shoulders, went to her toes, and kissed his cheek.
“You look nice.” Luke tried to remember all the right things to say to your date.
“You too.” She pulled back and looked him over, smiling broadly. He wasn’t sure how jeans and a polo could constitute “looking nice.” He had put on some cologne, so maybe her olfactory senses were overriding her sense of sight. “You ready to order?” she asked. “The movie starts at eight, so we only have an hour.”
“Yeah, I’m ready. Actually, I’m starving. What’s good here?” Luke asked, glancing up at the counter, where a sign suspended from the ceiling readORDERHERE. As he squinted to get a better view of the menu, Felicity slipped her petite hand into his, interlacing their fingers. His pulse raced, and he still wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or dread.
A group of teenagers poured in through the door, and Felicity tugged him forward, into line just ahead of the horde. Like it or not, he had to make some choices soon. Kisses on the cheek and playful handholding wouldn’t suffice forever. Soon Felicity would want a real relationship, and Luke needed to decide if he was ready to put the letters and his suspicions down and pick up a new phase in his life.
Half an hour later they were sitting across from each other, both with half-empty cups of pop and empty sandwich wrappers. Luke found it easy to banter back and forth with Felicity. As Luke sucked up his last bit of Diet Coke, the real questions started.
