If he wanted to save his marriage, he had major work to do. Diane may have let him have the upper hand on the home front since he’d taken over at the mill, but that wasn’t the woman he’d married. While the bride he’d promised to love and honor a quarter of a century ago had never been overly assertive thanks to the oppressive father inherlife, she’d stood up for the principles she believed in. It was one of the attributes he’d loved about her. Respected her for.
Until she’d given up confronting him to preserve peace in their household.
But the woman he’d married appeared to be back now.
And unless his gut was wrong, she wasn’t going to change her mind and come home to the status quo.
Slowly he rose. Walked over to the door. Flipped off the light.
There wasn’t much appeal in going back to the empty showplace house he’d built as a physical representation of his success after he’d put the mill back on the road to profitability. The house Diane had never wanted. Nor had she cared about the designerclothes and fancy trips and expensive cars. As she’d often tried to impress on him before she’d written him off as a lost cause, all she wanted was him. The way he’d been when he’d wooed and won her.
He watched the debarker on the floor below strip the logs of their tough exterior covering, exposing the raw wood beneath.
Would it have made any difference in her attitude if he’d shared the difficulties at the mill with her? Let her know they were on the cusp of going under?
Hard to say.
But for a woman who’d grown up in a household where money was always tight, surely such information would have kept her up at nights, as it had kept him up. His decision to protect her from worry had seemed appropriate during the crisis.
It was harder to justify his increasingly surly attitude, however. Yes, stress had taken a toll. So had the problems with Lucas and his disappointment in his son.
Still, it was hard to pinpoint exactly when the downward trajectory of their marriage had become a runaway train.
All he knew was that Diane’s abrupt departure had rocked his world.
The question now was whether he could save their marriage ... and the relationship with his son.
Or had both already crashed and burned, leaving him with nothing to salvage?
10
Devyn surveyed the scene in the Grace Christian fellowship hall on Thursday night as she tugged on her ballet slippers.
It wasn’t a professional setup, but the enthusiasm—and nerves—at theOklahomaauditions crackled through the air.
While the choir director from St. Francis listened to the final singers, offering an encouraging smile when a pitch went awry or a voice squeaked, she reviewed her notes for the general dance audition. The simple combination she’d put together would test rhythm more than dancing skills, but it would also allow her to identify any skilled dancers for the more complex routine that would follow. Hopefully one of the leotard-clad young women waiting in the room would be proficient enough to pull off the demanding dream ballet sequence in the musical.
After the teenager who was singing finished his audition song, Shaun jotted a few notes and called the next person.
When a late-fortyish blond woman rose, a slight murmur ran through the assembly.
Curious.
She’d have to ask someone later who Diane Fisher was and why her presence had evoked a reaction.
As the woman took her place beside the piano and launched into her song, the side door of the hall opened to admit three latecomers.
Devyn flicked them a glance ... then did a double take.
It was the tall man and the young girl who’d been walking hand-in-hand at the wharf a few days after she’d arrived. No mom in sight on that occasion, either, but the older man who accompanied them this evening bore a strong resemblance to the mid-thirties guy beside him.
The three of them stopped at the table where the audition forms were arrayed, and the two men each picked one up. After claiming seats near the back, they began filling them out while the blond woman finished her song and Shaun called the next person.
None other than Father Murphy.
The St. Francis pastor ambled forward and faced the crowd with a grin. “Eat your heart out, Gordon MacRae.”
That drew a laugh.
