Love One, Then Another: Love Through the Ages, #3

By R.J. Will

Love One, Then Another; A Contemporary Romance Novella

Book 3 of a 5-Book Series

Evan Hatch and Emily Moore lived next door to each other and grew up together in the mid-sized city of Neehawk, Nebraska. They became best friends almost as soon as they learned to talk, and you seldom saw one without seeing the other. They started dating officially when they were freshmen in high school. They were smart, beautiful, personable and deeply in love. Everyone, including Evan and Emily, assumed they would eventually get married and live happily ever after.

All was not well in the Moore household, however, a dark secret that Emily kept hidden from everyone, including Evan. Emily's father was a disturbed, angry man who regularly beat his wife and who sexually abused Emily for years, starting when she was 5 years old.

Shortly after Evan and Emily graduated from high school, Emily's father got up in the middle of the night, took a gun and blew his wife's brains out as she slept. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The day after her father's guilty verdict came down, Emily disappeared, leaving only a cryptic note for Evan, telling him she was fine and not to worry about her.

The years went by, and Evan wound up in Seattle, where he became a free-lance writer and fell in love with Jane Martin, an editor who helped him with his writing. Meanwhile, although he got used to life without Emily, he never quite got over her.

Then, 17 years after Emily's disappearance, Evan's mother died. He flew to Nebraska for the funeral, and on the flight back to Seattle an incredible piece of serendipity gave him a clue to Emily's whereabouts. The search for her began and was focused on the arid reaches of southeast Oregon – "The Big Empty" – and even Jane pitched in to help.

Would they find Emily? Why did she leave Evan with scarcely a word? Would he fall in love with her all over again? Or would he remain true to Jane?

The answers lay hidden in the Oregon desert.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.J. Will
• Release date: Dec 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781507022665

Book preview

Love One,

Then Another

Love Through the Ages, Vol. 3

The Neehawk Chronicles

Ages: mid-30s

Love has no age, no limit, and no death.

– John Galsworthy

R.J. WILL

About Love Through the Ages

Love Through the Ages is not an ordinary series. Each book in the five-book bundle is a stand-alone. The setting for each book is the same, the fictitious city of Neehawk, Nebraska. But the characters in each book are different, and they are older in each succeeding book – thus love through the ages. The main characters in Vol. 1, The Virgin Conquest, are 18-20 years old. The main characters in Love One, Then Another, Vol. 3, are in their mid 30s. The main characters in Vol. 5 of the bundle are in their 70s.

But love is the same throughout.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Mother's Death

Chapter 2: Going Home

Chapter 3: Home Again

Chapter 4: The Funeral

Chapter 5: Stunned, 1956

Chapter 6: The Search Begins

Chapter 7: The Search Narrows

Chapter 8: The Big Empty

Chapter 9: Wednesday's Child

Epilogue

About R.J. WILL

Other Books by R.J. WILL

R.J. WILL Recommends

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Copyright © 2014 by R.J. Will

All Rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known, hereinafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Chapter 1

A Mother's Death

Evan Hatch sat with bowed head, thinking of his mother, who died minutes ago.

His Dad had called from Nebraska with the news. Their conversation lasted only a few seconds. Evan told his father he would fly home as soon as possible.

Even though the call came as no surprise, death and mother together had a discordant sound for Evan. He would try to straighten out the conflict later. For now, he pictured his mother, the perfect obedient, loyal, small-town wife, rebelling against her Midwest, good-Christian image by sipping wine and swearing on the veranda of his Seattle condo. In any case, he would mourn later. His practical side told him he had to do something ordinary, so he made a list and put each item into action.

● He called the airline to reschedule the flight to Nebraska he had booked for next week. He wanted to say goodbye to his mother, and he missed his chance. Damn the luck, he said aloud. By some small miracle he got a seat on a flight from Seattle to Omaha. He would leave in the morning. When he got to Omaha he would rent a car and drive 200 miles north to Neehawk, where he was born and reared, and where his mother lived until colon cancer took her away.

● He called Jane Martin at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer copy desk. She wouldn't get off work until around midnight, but he asked whether she would come over afterward. Of course, she said. He didn't tell her about his mother, but he figured she probably guessed what had happened. He didn't want to be alone tonight, and Jane almost always obliged him.

● He called and left a message for the editor of Homeward Bound magazine in New York. He owed them a story ab out a street woman in Seattle, and his trip to Nebraska meant he would need more time to finish the job. Evan considered the editor a decent guy who would understand.

● He called his Dad and said he would arrive in Neehawk in late afternoon the next day.

●●●

Evan had whiskey sours ready when Jane arrived at his fifth-floor condo on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill. She let herself in with the key he gave her some months ago when they decided to hang out together from time to time, whenever the spirit moved them. As a copy editor, Jane often put her talent to work on Evan's stories, a good arrangement for a free-lance writer like him, especially since she worked free of charge.

He handed her a drink after she took her coat off. She thanked him with a kiss.

Want to go out on the balcony? he asked.

Sure.

Seattle's cool nights sometimes discouraged Evan from going out on his balcony, but he paid for his territorial view, and he wasn't about let his investment go to waste, personal comfort be damned. The view didn't actually meet Seattle standards. No mountains, no water, only a lot of lights on the back side of the hill and a good shot of the Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Union, although no view of the lake itself.

They settled into upholstered chaise longues. How are you tonight? Jane asked. She seldom said anything so pedestrian.

Well... Dad called tonight.

Oh, god, bad news?

Somewhere in the distance a siren. Someone in trouble, a heart attack, a car crash, an old woman who slipped and fell in the bathroom.

A mother who died.

Bad news is everywhere, any hour of the day or night.

Tell me, Evan.

Mom died.

I'm so sorry, Evan. She rose from her chaise longue, knelt beside him and put her head on his chest. I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

I loved your mother. I loved her.

Mom used to sit out here. A lot. As you are aware. Long after the cold had driven me inside she'd still be out here. Something she liked to do, I guess. She would sit and listen to country-western, her favorite music, oddly enough. Anyway, this is where she had her first drink. As you also are aware.

Jane smiled, got up and went back to her chaise longue.

"This also is where she said her first swear word. As you might not be aware of."

No, not. Are you joking?

Nope. The truth. The sins of the son visited upon the mother.

They laughed a little, followed by a brief silence.

Should I go home, Evan? Do you want to be alone?

He wrinkled his nose. What are you nuts? Do you think I would ask you over and then tell you to go home?

Well, no, she said with a laugh. I don't... I'm not very good... how to act or what to say in times like this when... a really good friend like you.

Jane.

The one-word reply did the job. Jane got the message.

"I got philosophical tonight, which might be expected, and I thought about a dog I had back in Nebraska. Buck by name. Great dog. A stray mutt, but a gentler, more loyal mutt you'll never find. He wandered into our yard one day and stayed for the next 14 years. I had barely turned 4 years old when he showed up, and I begged Mom to let me keep him. She did, God rest her soul.

So I grew up with Buck. He died on my 18th birthday.

Evan sipped his whiskey sour. Jane gave a little moan of sympathy.

He had grown old and thin. Kind of arthritic. Had that old-dog heavy breathing. I would take him for a walk every day, and he had moments when he would prance along like a pup. Not for a long distance, of course, but long enough so I started calling him 'Mr. Jaunty.'

Jane smiled.

"He had this thing he did. Whenever I sat at my desk, he would come and lay his head on my knee and look up at me with those big brown eyes of his. I would scratch his head for a while, and he'd go lie down again.

Then one evening in late August, a few days before I had to go off to college, he couldn't get up. I mean, dinner time came, and he just lay there looking at me. Dying.

Evan's eyes filled with tears.

Well, Dad wanted the vet to put him down, but I said absolutely not. He paused. "This might sound silly,