Mal and the children had gone to bed, but Rose was waiting up when Jo got home. There was a low fire under the kettle on the stove and two mugs on the kitchen table, each with a bag of Sleepytime tea hung over the lip.
Rose turned up the flame under the kettle. “Have a good evening?”
“A weird evening.”
“You can tell me all about it in a minute. First you need to call Cork.”
“He called?”
“Yes. Not long after you left.”
“What did you tell him?”
Rose looked a little puzzled by Jo’s concern. “That you went out for a drink with Ben Jacoby. What is it, Jo?”
“Let me call Cork, then we’ll talk.”
She tried him at home and got voice mail. She called the sheriff’s office and Bos told her Cork was on a call. Routine.
“Routine?” Jo said. “It’s almost ten o’clock, Bos.”
“I can radio and let him know you called. Want a call back?”
“Yes. Please. As soon as he can.”
“Sure thing. Miss him, do you?”
“Like crazy.”
“I’ll let him know.”
When Jo returned to the kitchen, the kettle was just starting to whistle. Rose poured hot water into the mugs and sat down at the table with her sister. All their lives, long before Jo met Cork, before Rose fell in love with Mal, it had been like this, the two sisters and tea. In the places their mother, an army nurse whom they called the Captain, had dragged them, the desolate bases, the bleak military housing. None of that mattered because they’d had the comfort of their love for each other, embodied in late night cups of tea and talk.
“All right,” Rose said. “What don’t I know about Ben Jacoby?”
Jo told her the whole story.
“And I thought I knew everything about you.” Rose sipped her tea. “But your relationship with him was a long time ago.”
“I thought so, too. Then I saw him in Aurora, Rose, and for just a little while all the old feelings, I don’t know, tried to come back.”
“And?”
“I let myself feel them. And I realized absolutely there was room only for Cork in my life.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“For Ben it’s been different, all these years.”
“He’s carried a torch?”
“That’s what he says. I need to talk to Cork as soon as possible. God only knows what he must be thinking.”
Stevie wandered into the kitchen looking half asleep. “I had a bad dream.”
“Well, come on, big guy, let’s get you back into bed.” Jo took his hand. “Thanks for the company, Rose. You know I miss you in Aurora.”
“I miss you, too. If Cork calls…?”
“Wake me.”
She led Stevie back to bed, got ready herself, and slipped under the covers. She tried to stay awake, waiting for Cork’s call. Finally, sleep overtook her.
The call she was waiting for never came.