“That’s what I’ll do,” he said, giving a resolute nod of his head. “Will you help?”
“Do you even have to ask? Of course, I will.” She returned the note to the plastic bag. Once it was secure, she drank the remainder of her coffee.
“What’s first?”
“That’s tricky. We’ll need to search census records and such for anyone named Edwin during that time frame. I have to warn you, it can be tedious for someone who doesn’t enjoy genealogy, and there is no guarantee we’ll find answers.”
“We have to try. I can’t explain why, but I believe I was meant to find this while I was out this morning.” He rubbed his jaw. “Do you think Edwin and D are locals?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to say. With the water currents, it doesn’t seem likely, but after a hundred plus years? That’s anyone’s guess.”
He let out a long breath. “Why do I get the feeling we’re embarking on a wild goose chase?”
Reaching across the sofa, she touched his shoulder. She could see how important this had become to him. “If you were meant to find the bottle, you were meant to find the story.”
“Thank you.”
“When do you want to start?” she asked.
A hesitant smile surfaced on his mouth. “Is now too soon?”
“Now is perfect.”
His resulting wide grin sent tiny shivers of pleasure through her. What, oh, what, had she gotten herself into?
Chapter Three
“My vision is a blur of old-fashioned names and dates.” Jack set the tablet aside and stretched his arms before rubbing his eyes.
“Mine, too. Time for a break.” Anna set her laptop aside. She’d used that, while she gave him the tablet to use with her login information for the program she had for tracing ancestry.
“Have we made any progress?” he asked, having no idea how any of this worked.
“We’ve started a list of possibilities. That’s something.” Her gentle smile was full of confidence.
“And at least our guy wasn’t named John. Then we’d really have our work cut out.” His neck hurt, and he massaged the muscles with the tips of his fingers. His posture while sitting on the sofa staring at a tablet did nothing positive for his neck.
“Isn’t that the truth.” She glanced his way. “Speaking of names, I did a search for possible D names. Assuming we’re searching for a female, the most popular names for that era beginning with D were Dorothy, Dora, Della and Daisy. We can’t know for sure, but that gives us a starting point to search for D.”
“Good idea.”
Her stomach growled, loud enough he could hear it from several feet away. She blushed. “I guess that bagel wore off.”
“What time is it?” He glanced at his watch. “Three o’clock? We’ve been at this for hours.”
“No wonder I’m hungry.”
“I’m sorry. You’ve lost your entire Saturday thanks to me.” A small wave of guilt nudged him. He hated inconveniencing anyone, but he truly hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
“No apologies needed. I do this for fun, and I’ve enjoyed the time. To be honest, I’ll probably continue after you leave.”
“In that case, why don’t I buy us a late lunch, and we’ll continue. If you were going to anyway. Or you aren’t sick of me.” He was reluctant to leave, despite the hours of tedious poring over old records. To his surprise, he enjoyed the process, and Anna was good company.
“Sounds good. I’d offer to make us a meal, but unless you want a peanut butter and jelly, we’re out of luck.”
“Not that I don’t occasionally love an old-fashionedPBandJ,but I wouldn’t want to put you out any further. How about I run to the deli across the street and grab a few more hearty sandwiches.”
“Their turkey and pepperjack on ciabatta is to die for.”
