Free Lost and Found: (A Ripple Effect Romance Novella) by Karey White Page B

the missed family events. She hadn’t been affected by the long work days that often stretched into night. These were things he’d rather she didn’t see, especially in this context. Blake wanted to rationalize it away, just as his grandfather had tried to do in these letters. He wanted to defend himself from what felt like an accusation from beyond the grave. He didn’t want Lydia to think less of him.
    The thing that kept him quiet was the knowledge that his grandpa had loved him. He’d sent Blake to find this box because he had thought it would teach him something. He couldn’t ignore it, even if it made him uncomfortable. What he’d do with it, he wasn’t sure.
    Blake looked at Lydia. She was leaning over the letters, carefully putting the ones they’d read back in the box. Her strawberry blond hair fell in front of her face, and she tucked it behind her ear. Blake resisted the urge to pull her close to him, to touch her face, to hold her hand. She probably wouldn’t want him to. She was reading these letters and seeing what Elliott had done to his relationship. She knew Blake was like his grandfather, that he’d made the same mistakes as Elliott. He had put work before family. He’d let his job keep him from this message from his grandfather. Blake felt a strange sadness that this thing that had started with Lydia, whatever it was, was probably over before it had even begun.
     

Blake was visibly upset, and Lydia didn’t know what to do about it. She couldn’t gloss it over. These letters were a message from his grandfather, a lesson he’d felt was important enough to send Blake across the country. To tell him it was no big deal and everything was fine would be to undermine his grandfather, and she wouldn’t do that.
    “Do you want to read now or would you like me to keep going?” she asked quietly.
    “Could you?” he asked.
    “Yes. The next two are from Gladys’s to Elliott. Do you want me to read them in order or just finish his?”
    “Let’s finish them all.”
    “Okay. Gladys wrote this to Elliott on January 22, 1948.”
     
    Dear Elliott,
    I know how disappointed you are, and I hate being the cause, but I’m just so torn. I love you so much and can’t picture my life with anyone but you, but I also can’t picture my life living so far from my family and being married to someone who’s never home.
    I know it’s hard for you to understand. You’re a man, and you had no trouble picking up your life and moving to a faraway city, but you’ve got your job. You’re at work every day doing important things like saving people’s lives. The month I was there was the loneliest month of my life. I think I missed you even more while I was there than I had when I was here in Charlotte. At least when I was here, there was a reason to miss you. There, it felt like I should see you more than just a few scattered hours here and there.
    Maybe I’m just immature and childish. Maybe you were right when you called me spoiled and selfish, but I can’t help how I feel. I was terribly hurt when you’d take extra shifts when you could have been with me. Over and over, Eloise called me to the phone so you could tell me you wouldn’t be coming by because you’d picked up another shift. I just kept thinking the people you were working for were going home and you weren’t. It wasn’t what I expected when I came to Denver, and I was miserable.
    I love you, Elliott Knowles, and I know you love me. I just don’t know if I want to live with the kind of love you want to give me. I don’t know if I want to have children whose father is gone when they get up and doesn’t come home until long after they’re in bed. It hurts me to say these things to you. I’m sorry.
    Gladys
     
    Blake’s face looked pained. Lydia wanted to be done with it, but she didn’t want to leave him to finish alone, so she hurried to the next one.“This one is also from Gladys. She wrote it on April 24, 1948.”
     
    Dear