“No. Should I?”
“It’s an invitation to Aunt Jilly’s wedding. There’s a note from her and she suggested that you write a letter, include a copy of this chart, and invite your newly found cousin to the wedding.”
It took Hallie moments to realize what he was saying. “That’s a wonderful idea! Oh, Jamie! You are great. Your whole family is fabulous.” Bending across the papers spread out on him, she put her hands on each side of his face and kissed him hard, then got up.
“You can do better than that,” he said.
Hallie was standing in front of the fireplace and didn’t seem to hear him. “Where will he stay? If he can come, that is. He might be on a job and can’t make it. Or maybe he wouldn’t be interested in meeting some distant cousin. Should I tell him about the ghosts? No! Definitely not. He’d never come if I told that. Maybe…” She looked at Jamie.
Jamie was smiling at her enthusiasm. “I know! I’ll sic Mom on him. She’ll call him and tell him about you and she’ll get him to come. She’s very persuasive.”
“She’d do that? For me, I mean?”
There was so much to answer in that question that he didn’t know where to begin. Hallie had made Jamie laugh, and for that he knew his mother would do anything for her. “Yeah, she’ll do it. But she’ll want to hear every detail of the story, so be prepared.”
Hallie put her hands behind her back and began to pace.
Jamie smiled as he watched her, amused by the deep frown of concentration she was wearing. But after a few minutes his smile began to fade. He could afford to laugh about this idea of wanting a family because he had one in abundance. But what would it truly be like to have no one?
When he was in Afghanistan, the thought of family and home kept him going. At every mail call there were letters from his family. His parents wrote constantly. His mother’s letters were full of funny, loving stories about everyone. His siblings, even little Cory and Max, had sent him drawings, gifts, and food.
When he saw that some people with him never received any mail, he’d sent a plea to his mother to get the relatives to write to them. Within a week, Montgomery-Taggert letters were coming in by the bagful.
Jamie watched as Hallie picked up the paper that told about her one and only cousin and read it again. She seemed to be memorizing it, studying it, trying to get a real person ou
t of it.
He remembered what Todd had told him about her stepsister, and Hallie had made some rather horrific offhand comments about her life after her father had remarried. What had happened to her?
As he watched Hallie, he realized that her wounds weren’t visible, as his were. She didn’t have to wear long sleeves to cover the scars, but right now he was thinking that it was possible she was as deeply scarred as he was.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and punched the button for his mother’s number. She answered instantly.
“Jamie!” Cale said, her voice on the verge of panic. “Are you all right? Do you need me? I’m just next door. Tildy has me buried in ribbons, but I’ll gladly leave. I can—”
“Mom!” Jamie said, making Hallie stop pacing and look at him. “I’m fine. I feel better than I have since—Anyway, yes, I’m great.”
Hallie sat down on the end of the couch and watched him.
“I know you’re busy,” Jamie said, “but I have some urgent business I want you to do. Did you see that Aunt Jilly found Hallie’s relative?”
“No,” Cale said, her voice serious. “What’s going on?”
“I want you to bring him here. Now.”
Hallie drew in her breath.
“Can she hear me?” Cale whispered.
“No,” Jamie said cheerfully. “Not at all.”
“You said ‘relative’ singular and ‘him,’ also singular. Is there just one—besides that stepsister I heard about?”
“Yes, Mom, you’re exactly right.” Jamie gave Hallie a thumbs-up. If there was anything on earth his mother knew about, it was rotten families. He’d only met people from her side once and it had been a disaster. A sister had threatened to write a tell-all book of lies about Cale if she didn’t pay millions. Jamie didn’t know what his father did, but the sister went away and was never heard from again. “You think you could get this guy here for the wedding?”
“If it’s possible, I’ll do it.” Cale lowered her voice. “But first I’ll make some calls and find someone who knows him. After I verify that he’s a good guy, I’ll send the jet to pick him up.”
“Brilliant,” Jamie said. “Let me know everything as it happens.”