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words were reaching the private places in his soul. “But you can’t fool me, John Baxter.
    You’re worried sick.”
    John gritted his teeth and lifted his head just enough so that their eyes met.
    “I … I feel like a part of me won’t start breathing again until we get him back. The way he used to be.”
    Elizabeth didn’t want to voice the obvious, that sometimes children make a choice to walk away and never return. That truth had hung like a sword over every conversation about Luke since he moved out. Instead she remembered once more her talk with Luke’s old girlfriend.
    “Reagan called the other day.”
    John straightened at the news, and his eyes searched hers. “Reagan?”
    “Yes. She … she said she wanted to talk to Luke. She had something to tell him.”
    “Did you tell her? About how he’s changed?”
    Elizabeth nodded. “I had to. It didn’t seem fair after all these months to let her think he was the same.”
    John opened his mouth, but only uttered a tired sigh. He took Elizabeth’s hand and led her to the love seat near the fireplace. Two logs blazed just beyond the fireplace screen, and the heat warmed the room. “Are you going to tell Luke?”
    “That’s just it.” Elizabeth stretched out her legs, enjoying how her body felt next to her husband’s. Three decades, and she still reveled in the quiet intimacy of being alone with him. “Reagan practically begged me not to tell Luke that she’d called.”
    “I thought you said she called because she needed to talk to him.”
    Elizabeth leaned her head on John’s shoulder. “That’s what she said at the beginning of the call, but by the end-after she knew the truth about Luke-she didn’t want me to say a thing about her or the phone call.”
    “Hmmm.” John was quiet. “Makes you wonder what she had 28
    to say.” He angled himself so he could see her better. “Are you going to tell him?”
    “I don’t know.” Elizabeth slid to the edge of the sofa and held her hands closer to the fire. She looked at John over her shoul der. “Should I?”
    He bit his lip. “Normally, I’d say no. If the girl doesn’t want Luke knowing that she called, so be it.” He turned and gave a long look at the photo of him and Luke. “But right now I’d do anything to get Luke’s attention. Anything at all.”
    Elizabeth stood and faced her husband. It was the answer she’d hoped he would give, because ever since dinner she’d been desperate for a reason to call Luke.
    She felt the corners of her mouth lift in a tentative smile. “So, I should tell him?”
    John stood and pulled her into a long embrace. When they were finished hugging, he drew back and uttered words strained with emotion. “Please, Elizabeth. Please tell him.”
    She nodded and checked her watch. It wasn’t quite nine o’clock; Luke would be awake. Maybe if she let him know about Reagan’s phone call he’d snap to his senses, leave this new girl who’d filled his head with so many lies, come home, and pour his heart out to her and John. He could call Reagan and find out she still loved him, get back on track with his faith and his fu ture, and everything would be the way it had been before Sep tember 11, before the World Trade Center collapsed with Reagan’s father still inside.
    Elizabeth crossed the room and picked up the telephone re ceiver. It was a good idea, telling Luke about Reagan’s call. After all, he’d been different with her, different than he’d been with any other girl. Every other time when Luke had dated a girl, he’d done so more as a way to pass the time. “In like,” Elizabeth used to call it. “Luke’s in like again.”
    Not so with Reagan. Something about her had made Luke’s eyes sparkle every day of the week, and Elizabeth knew exactly why. Luke hadn’t just liked Reagan Decker. He’d loved her.
    He probably still did.
    That alone was enough to make Elizabeth break the promise she’d made to Reagan.
    She drew a deep breath. Her hands