“It’s… complicated. I thought it best that I just disappear. If everyone thought I was dead, so much the better.”
“Were you in some kind of trouble?” He frowned, not following all his uncle’s words.
“I…” Jonah’s forehead crinkled. “Let’s say it was a matter of the heart. And if people found out I was alive, and found out about it—well, about my little matter—it could complicate my parents’ lives too. So we all decided to move away. My parents moved to Miami with Joanie. I ended up going overseas. Working in different ports in Europe.”
“Didn’t you come back and visit?”
“Only once. Before Joanie married. I got sporadic letters from home. It usually took the letters quite a while to catch up with me. And phone calls were way out of our budgets, not that I really had a phone in most places I stayed.” Jonah looked up as sadness clouded his eyes. “I got a letter from Dad telling me Mom died. I got home as soon as I could, but it had been almost a year since he sent the letter. Dad was gone by then too. New people lived in their house, and all my parents’ things were gone. Their neighbor told me that Joanie had died too. The shock of that crushed me. And I think the loss of both of them was too much for Dad. I should have been there for him.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been very hard.”
“It was. I went back to Europe to work because I couldn’t bear being home. But eventually, I moved back to the States. Got a job here at the port. Been here for years.”
“And you never went back to Magnolia Key?”
“Not once. There’s no reason to. Any reason for me to return was taken away from me.”
He started to put the pieces together. “So you were in love with someone on the island? Was that it?”
Jonah nodded with a hint of reluctance. “I was. But she was to marry someone else. She chose him over me. It broke my heart, but I understood. I had nothing to give her… but my love. Ellie came from money. And she never would have gone against her family’s wishes.”
He frowned. “Ellie?” No, it couldn’t be? Could it?
“Yes, my Ellie. Eleanor Whitmore. Though I supposed she’s Eleanor Griffin now since she married Theodore Griffin.”
He sat back in his seat, his mouth dropping open. “You and Miss Eleanor?”
Jonah’s lips curved in a small smile. “I know. An unlikely match. But we fell in love. But Eleanor was supposed to marry Theodore, a much more suitable match. So when everyone thought I was drowned in the storm, well, it made sense to just let them keep believing that, and to disappear. It made her choice easier.”
Jonah and Miss Eleanor. He could barely wrap his mind around the thought.
“So you know Ellie?”
“I… do. She’s, ah, not pleased with me right now, but that’s another story for another time.”
“How is she?”
“She’s fine, I guess. Lives alone with her dog, Winston.”
“Alone? Where’s Theodore?”
“I take it he’s been gone for many years.”
Jonah sat back in his seat. “Really?”
He leaned forward. “Yes. She’s alone now.” He paused, treading carefully. “Why don’t you drive back with me to the island? Wouldn’t you like to see it again? I’m staying at the Bayside B&B. It’s a nice place. Right on the bay.”
“The old boardinghouse?”
He smiled. “Yes, the very one.”
Jonah rubbed his face, then looked out the window. “Go and visit the island again?”
“Yes, come with me. We can talk more. We’ll get you a room at the B&B. Come stay for a bit. We can get to know each other. I still have so many questions.”
Jonah nodded slowly. “I think that just might be a fine idea. Maybe it’s time to face the past. I haven’t seen the island since the day the hurricane hit.”
Chapter22
