One Lavender Ribbon by Heather Burch Read Free Book Online Page A

again the next day. As he was a well-known Bonita Springs character, Adrienne had heard the stories. She’d only visited the diner a couple times, but he’d made it a point to greet her and offer her coffee on both occasions.
    Already having been warned about the brew, now she’d opted for iced tea. She took a seat near the front door and waited to speak with him. It was nearly two o’clock when he finally made his way over. With an upturned palm, she motioned for him to sit. He put the coffee pot down on the Formica table, as was his custom when he’d visit and joke with customers.
    They exchanged pleasantries, but she wasn’t here for chit-chat. She got right to business and handed him the picture. “Do you know him?”
    “Sure do. William Bryant,” he said, studying the photo. “I haven’t thought about him in years. But we were pretty tight way back when. Several of us local boys enlisted together.”
    Adrienne leaned closer, heart racing at the confirmation that this was the man she’d hoped was William.
    Smoke-stained fingers pointed to the girl. “That would be Sara.”
    “So, that’s what Sara looks like. Can you tell me about Sara and Gracie?”
    “William was like me. Poor. His dad owned a local business, but it went under, leaving the family with nothing. William could play ball, though. Probably had a shot at the big time if he hadn’t enlisted.” He leaned back a little. “’Course, no one knew at the time what the future would hold for baseball. Some said it’d end ’cause of the war.”
    She thought back to the letters. “He enlisted to please Grace’s parents?”
    “Gracie’s momma. Gracie was her trophy daughter. ’Cause she’d run out of money herself, it was up to Gracie to marry well. William came along and ruined that. Enlisting was his way of being respectable enough to marry. We all had our reasons for signing up.”
    Leo slid the photo across the table to her. “Why do you want to know all this?”
    Adrienne opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She couldn’t really explain her obsession or why it was so monumentally important to know that this one solitary man got what he so deserved. “I just . . . I found some things in the attic of my house that belong to her. I thought maybe she might like to have them. I don’t think they were meant to be left.”
    For a moment he didn’t speak, just studied her with watery gray eyes.
    The diner around them grew quiet as the few families that had come in for a late lunch exited the restaurant. She watched a couple of beachgoers slip out the door, the scent of coconut suntan lotion lingering in the air. Her attention went back to Leo. With the deep wrinkles that creased his face and throat, the older man looked every bit of his eighty-three years.
    “Gracie’s dead. She died in ’45.”
    He continued speaking, but Adrienne heard nothing but the single word that rolled over and over in her mind. Dead. A quick breath escaped her mouth. Regret surged through her, because she’d built the couple a neat little love story in her mind: William returning, the two marrying, having maybe a half-dozen kids, and living out a wonderful life. The tingling sensation started in her nose; tears would follow if she didn’t get a grip. She fisted her hands. She should have just read the letters and left it at that. Of course, in the back of her mind she’d known the likelihood of an eighty-something woman still being alive was a fifty-fifty shot at best. But dead since 1945? That meant she’d died just a couple of short years after William left to serve his country.
    Sun beaming in the large windows made the restaurant feel stuffy. Suffocating. “How?” she finally managed.
    Leo studied her for a long moment. “Look, I don’t know why you want to know about Gracie. Honestly, she wasn’t worth the time you’re spending on her.”
    Adrienne’s eyes widened. How could he say that? Gracie was the woman William Bryant fell in