After a long, deafeningly silent moment, Zeke answered, “Because I don’t know if Brenda’s baby was yours or mine.”
Daisy heard Jonas gasp as if Zeke had punched him in his solar plexus. In that one statement Zeke just might have changed Jonas’s attitude about life, about love, and about moving forward.
Chapter Nineteen
Daisy was scooping scones onto a cookie sheet the following morning when her phone played its tuba sound.
Eva slipped over next to her to take her place. “Go ahead and take it,” she said. “I know your life requires spinning many plates right now.”
Spinning plates was putting it kindly. When Daisy checked her screen, she saw that Jonas had placed the call. She absolutely wanted to take this.
She answered, “Good morning, Jonas. Give me a minute. I want to take this in my office where I can hear.”
As she made her way to her office across the hall from the kitchen, she thought about the bonfire last night and what had happened. Zeke had quieted down after he’d blurted out that Brenda’s baby might have been his child. Jonas had turned away from him, his face showing complete control.
However, Daisy knew Jonas’s emotions had to be roiling. He’d thought that baby had been his child. Brenda had told him so. Now he had to be plagued with a feeling of betrayal as well as loss.
They’d driven back to her house from the bonfire in a resounding silence. Finally, after Jonas pulled up in her driveway, she’d asked, “Do you want to come in and talk?”
His No had been immediate and vehement. But she hadn’t let it deter her from the possibility that he’d completely close down his emotions. “Do you want to stay here and talk?”
“Daisy, let it go.”
That’s what he’d wanted her to do. “Are you going to let it go?” she’d asked him.
“I don’t know what I’m thinking right now. And I definitely don’t want to have a feelings talk.”
In a slow, gentle voice, she’d protested. “The fact that you think of a possible discussion that way tells me you’ve already dissociated from your feelings.”
With an exasperated tone, he’d advised, “Using that lingo on me isn’t going to help either.”
She’d reached over and touched his arm. “Jonas.”
Turning toward her, he’d let out a long sigh. “All I can tell you is that I need to be alone.”
Although she hadn’t wanted to, although she’d wanted to hug him, she’d accepted his words at face value.
However, now in the morning light, possibly he was ready to share with her. “Okay, Jonas. I’m in my office. How can I help?”
After silence for a few beats, she knew she’d probably said the wrong thing. She suspected he wasn’t going to want her help.
Without commenting on her question, he turned to the topic he wanted to talk about. “I heard from my friend in New York.”
It took her a moment to remember what that was all about—the photograph that Vanna had showed her and she’d taken a photo of . . . the photo that Jonas had sent to his friend.
“Did he recognize where it was taken?”
“He did. It was shot at Chelsea Market.”
“What do you think I should do next? How can we find out if Margaret lived around there . . . and what she was doing then?”
“There is one way,” he said as if he’d expected her question and considered it. “It depends on how much Margaret shared with Rowan. They would have had to file their income taxes separately until they were married, and my guess is maybe even after they were married. As precise and responsible as Margaret was, she might have had copies of her income tax forms from even the time before she met Rowan. It’s quite possible he could have them at the house. If he does, he could look up her addresses and you could check if any of them were near Chelsea Market.”
Thinking about what had happened since she’d last spoken with Rowan, she responded, “I don’t know if he’ll do that.”
“If he wants to find out who killed Margaret, he will.”
If Rowan wanted to clear himself, he would agree. Even if he wanted to clear Glenda because they were having an affair, that would give him even more reason. “I’ll call him and ask. Right now.”
She waited a beat to see if Jonas would jump into the awkward silence. Silences hadn’t been awkward between them for a very long time. Last night could have changed that. Last night might have put Jonas back on the road he’d been on when she’d first met him—closed off, guarded, not sure he wanted to be involved in a relationship. The fact that he now could feel betrayed by a woman he’d loved didn’t bode well for the two of them.
The aroma of cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar wafted into Daisy’s office, even with the door closed. Instead of asking a question that Jonas might find intrusive, she jumped into what might be a normal conversation for them. “If you were here, I’d offer you a just-baked cinnamon scone.”
She thought she heard a sigh of relief when he said, “I’d tell you to save one for me, but I’m driving up toward Caledonia today to see a man about walnut timber. I’ll probably be gone all day. I might even stay over up there. He has a cabin.”
Without putting his thoughts or feelings into words, Jonas was telling her that he needed to get away. He needed to be in a different location—away from people he would normally see. He needed to be alone in a cabin with his cell phone turned off. All of that could be what he thought he needed.
She didn’t agree.
“If you change your mind and you want company tonight, you know where I’ll be.”
“Thanks, Daisy.” His voice was husky when he added, “But I need time to myself.”
After Daisy said good-bye, she couldn’t think about Jonas without
