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“Like what?”

“Will it be a happy ending or a sad one?”

“I think that’ll depend on how you look at it when you read it,” Abby replied and stood up then. “I’m going to head home and get to work on this, but DM me later with your email address.”

“Okay.”

She watched Abby walk out the front of the shop and wondered why seeing the woman in the military uniform had had her seeing a vision of another woman making popcorn on the stove before she put it in a bowl, set it at the table, and watched the first woman and a little boy snack on it together.

CHAPTER 15

1942

“Jacob’s going in. I can’t let him go alone,” John David told her.

“Jacob lost his brother at Pearl. You didn’t.”

“I can’t lose the man I love in the war, Debbie,” John David argued.

“You can get out of going, JD. You own the farm now, and you’re needed here.”

“I don’t want to get out of it. I want to do my duty.”

He stood up and refilled his coffee.

“You know you can’t be with Jacob over there, wherever the Army sends you. They won’t let you two have a moment alone. You’ll be fighting or training to fight.”

“I know that. But I can’t let him go to war alone. I love him, Debbie. What would you do if it was Harriet?”

Deb sat at the table, a cup of coffee in her hands, and she almost broke the cup from squeezing it so hard.

“She’s a woman, so she doesn’t get to go, but men do,” John David continued. “While I might be able to file some paperwork or something, I don’t want to. If he’s going over there, I’m going with him. Besides, it’s the right thing to do. He lost a brother at Pearl, yes, but they attacked our country, Debbie. We’re at war. I gotta do my duty.”

“You have a son. You have a wife.”

“You’re not really my wife, and you and I both know that. I’m Jacob’s husband, and you’re Harriet’s wife. You need to look at it this way. You can have Harriet here now to help you out. She’s still not married, and you’ll need help around the house and the farm with Paul. She can move in, and you two can be together. I’ll be with Jacob. No Delilah around to make him spend more time with her than me. I know it’s not ideal, but–”

“Not ideal, JD? You could die.”

“If I did, it would be in service of my country, wouldn’t it?”

“What about the farm? Paul is only four years old.”

“I’ve already got my will done up, Debbie. I’ll give it to the Army. You’d get ten thousand dollars if something happened to me, and you’d own the farm until he’s old enough to take it over for you. I’ve got you farmhands, and we’ve been turning a decent crop this year. Plus, the cattle is good, and you’ve got the chickens and pigs. I’ve seen to it that you and Paul are taken care of. Your mama is gone now, like your papa, and both of my parents are gone, too. There’s no one around to question what I want and what I put in my will.”

Deb took a slow sip of her coffee.

“JD, I may not love you how I love Harriet or how you love Jacob, but I do still love you. You’re my best friend. You’re the best husband I ever could have asked for, and you’re the father of my son. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want more time with Harriet because it means you’re gone. Do you understand that?”

“I know. I love you, too. I love my boy. I’m proud of him. You tell him that when I go; that I love him and that I’m proud of him. You tell him that I want him to take care of his mama, too. I’ll write you letters and some for him that you can read to him. I want him to know those things, Deb.”

“He will because you’ll tell him when you get home.”

“Maybe. But just in case, you promise me that you’ll tell him? I want him to be a good man when he grows up; take care of his wife and children, provide for them, and take care of you if you need it. Well, youandHarriet.”

“You’re not going to promise me that you’re going to come home, are you?” she asked.

“I can’t. You know I don’t like to break my promises to you. I promised you that I’d only touch you to have a baby because we had to and that it would be over before we both knew it, and I kept that promise. Then, I promised that if we had a boy, I wouldn’t want another, and I’ve kept that promise,too. Now, I can’t promise you that I’ll come home because I don’t know. Idoknow that they’ll need to train me up, and they keep sayin’ it’ll be a quick war, so maybe it’ll all be over before I ship out, and I’ll come home sooner than you know it.”