1022 Evergreen Place by Debbie Macomber

minutes, you know.” With that, she stormed down the hallway and banged her bedroom door shut for the second time that night.
    Bruce released Rachel and sighed. “I guess that means Misty won’t be spending Friday night with us.”
    Rachel didn’t know if he was joking or simply unobservant. Either way, the only response she could manage was to roll her eyes.

Eight
    M ary Jo Wyse woke, startled out of a deep sleep. She wasn’t sure if that was because of a dream she’d been having or because Noelle had made some small noise as she slept. At almost five months, the baby was sleeping through the night—well, practically every night. Mary Jo was grateful for that. Noelle slept in a crib in her room; Mary Jo wasn’t ready to move her to the nursery yet.
    As she lay in bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, Mary Jo mulled over what she’d discovered the previous weekend. Mack owned the duplex. He’d wanted her living close by and, in order to make that happen, he’d misled her into thinking a distant friend of his was the owner.
    His lie disappointed her deeply. She liked Mack; in fact, she liked him a great deal. Nevertheless, she was wary of embarking on another relationship. David Rhodes had taught her several painful lessons and she’d be a fool if she didn’t take those lessons to heart.
    The problem was that she wanted to trust Mack. But she’d yearned to believe in David, too. She’d clung for much too long to the fiction that her baby’s father loved her and welcomed their child, refusing to accept what was obvious to everyone else…and should’ve been to her.
    Even her brothers knew what kind of man David was without ever meeting him. When she’d finally recognized the truth, Mary Jo had been devastated. Yet, despite everything, she’d never regret having Noelle. The baby gave her life purpose. And hope.
    Because of Noelle, there was more to think about than herself. Any decision she made, any action she took, would have an impact on her daughter, too.
    To his credit Mack had tried to make amends. Monday afternoon Mary Jo arrived home from her job at Allan Harris’s law firm to find a large bouquet of flowers on her doorstep. The card that accompanied it said simply, “I’m sorry,” and was signed by Mack.
    Tuesday and Wednesday nights he was at the fire station, but on Thursday there was another gift. A set of cake pans.
    Cake pans! Of all the silly things to remember she needed. She wanted to bake a coconut cake using a recipe Charlotte Rhodes had generously shared. Mary Jo had purchased the ingredients, but when she reached home, she realized she didn’t have circular cake pans. By then she didn’t feel like returning to the store. She’d bake it another time.
    Mack was working so hard to convince her to forgive him. Again, every instinct told her she should. She’d always be grateful for his help in finding a home for her and Noelle—even though she firmly disagreed with his deception, regardless of how well-intentioned it was. Without him, she might still be living with her three overbearing brothers. She loved them—they were her family—but they were suffocating her.
    When she’d lost her job with the insurance company, she’d flown into a panic, although it was a blessing in disguise if ever there was one. Her fear was that once she returned from maternity leave she’d be forced to seeDavid Rhodes again, since he worked for the same company. But her employer had taken that worry off her hands and presented her with another—no job at all. A friend had recently told her that David was no longer employed by the company, either.
    The opportunity to move to Cedar Cove had come at the perfect time. Mack had been instrumental in that decision. Grace Harding and Olivia Griffin, who’d also befriended her, had made the transition as effortless as possible. The two women had