1105 Yakima Street. Debbie Macomber

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       1105 Yakima Street

       Debbie Macomber

       www.mirabooks.co.uk

      To my very special cousins,

       Teresa Seibert and Cherie Adler.

      Dear Friends,

      Well, here it is: 1105 Yakima Street, book eleven of the Cedar Cove series. Each of these books is special to me in one way or another. I chose the name Yakima Street because I was born in the town of Yakima, Washington, and the first seventeen years of my life were spent in this central Washington community. To me it will always represent home. It’s where my roots are, my parents are buried and where several of my cousins still live.

      This will be the second-last book in the series. In the final story, 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, I’ll revisit every Cedar Cove family and tie up all the loose ends.

      The last eleven years—during which I wrote this series—have been some of the best of my career. You probably know that I based Cedar Cove on my hometown of Port Orchard, Washington, where Wayne and I have lived since 1986. We raised our children there and it’s where we continue to make our home. To my great delight, the people of Port Orchard embraced the books and in 2009 held a five-day event called Cedar Cove Days. It’s an occasion I’ll always treasure, since I was able to meet so many of my wonderful readers.

      These novels have allowed me to create a universe that’s very much like mine—and yet Cedar Cove also became a place that took on its own reality, as readers have been kind enough to point out. As well, the Cedar Cove books led directly to Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook, compiled by Charlotte Jefferson Rhodes, which launched my first foray into the fascinating world of cookbooks. I always knew that collecting—and trying—all those recipes would pay off one day!

      Saying good-bye to these characters, the people of Cedar Cove, is difficult for me, but it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to share the town with you, my readers. I know you’ll enjoy Rachel and Bruce’s story (and Jolene’s), along with those of all your Cedar Cove friends. They’re waiting for you to turn the pages.

      As always, I’d be delighted to hear from you. I can be reached at www.DebbieMacomber.com or PO Box 1458, Port Orchard, WA 98366, USA.

      Sincerely,

       One

      Sunshine splashed into the windows of the Bremerton waterfront café. Rachel Peyton sat in a booth, gazing out at the street and taking occasional sips of the apple juice she’d ordered. It was Friday, late afternoon, and she’d come here after work to meet a friend. She couldn’t stop thinking about her marriage to Bruce, wondering how it had disintegrated so fast. They’d gone from an impromptu wedding last December to separation less than ten months later. She turned her head to look in the direction of Cedar Cove. The town was situated on the other side of Sinclair Inlet but might as well have been across the Pacific.

      Rachel felt she couldn’t go back home to Cedar Cove—to Yakima Street—and yet she had no other viable choice. She’d left after the latest argument with her stepdaughter, Jolene. Although Bruce was aware of the tension between her and Rachel, he’d never adequately addressed it, believing it would eventually resolve itself. Oh, sure, he’d made a halfhearted offer to go to counseling with, or more likely without, Jolene. But that was too little, too late. Nothing had changed, and, as a result, the stress in their home had become intolerable. Now that she was pregnant, Rachel had decided to leave … for the sake of her sanity and for her own health and that of her baby.

      She’d lied to Bruce, saying she had a place to stay—with an unidentified friend. Instead, she’d checked into a Bremerton hotel.

      The problem was, she needed her job if she was going to support herself, which meant she’d need to find an apartment in Cedar Cove or at least nearby. Everything was complicated by the fact that this hadn’t been an easy pregnancy. She had severe morning sickness and her blood pressure was dangerously high. That was understandable, considering the tension in the house. If not for the baby, Rachel might have found the strength to deal with Jolene. She might’ve been willing to devote all her energy to sorting out the complicated tangle of the girl’s emotions, giving her the constant reassurance she seemed to require.

      Since Jolene had learned about the baby, the whole situation had become that much more difficult. Not only did her stepdaughter see her as competition for Bruce’s affections, but now Rachel had committed an even worse crime by bringing another child into the family, robbing the girl of his undivided attention.

      What shocked Rachel was how close she and Jolene had been before she married Bruce. As a motherless child herself, Rachel had taken a special interest in Jolene, part maternal, part friendly. They’d bonded when the girl was just six, a year after Jolene’s mother was killed in a car accident. Bruce had brought Jolene into the salon for a haircut and Jolene had sadly told her how much she missed her mommy. Rachel had been drawn to the child because she’d identified with Jolene. She still recalled in vivid detail how she’d felt when her own mother had died and she’d gone to live with her mother’s sister, a woman she barely knew.

      Through the years, the closeness between Rachel and Jolene had grown—until she’d made the mistake of marrying Jolene’s father. To be fair to the teenager, Jolene had wanted Rachel and Bruce to wait until she’d had time to get used to the idea. Bruce, however, wouldn’t hear of it. He’d wanted them married. Well, so did Rachel, although she’d asked Bruce to delay the wedding because of Jolene’s qualms. But by then … the momentum of their plans had taken over.

      In the beginning, after first meeting Bruce, she hadn’t considered him anything more than a friend. He was Jolene’s dad. He relied on her help with his daughter. For years there hadn’t been the slightest indication of romantic interest on either part. Rachel was seeing Nate Olsen, a navy warrant officer she’d met after bidding on him at a fundraiser for the local humane society—the Dog and Bachelor Auction. Shortly after the wedding, Nate was deployed out of state, but now he was back. They’d been in contact recently and, in fact, he was the friend she’d arranged to meet here.

      For a while she and Nate had seriously thought about marriage. However, by the time he’d asked her to make a decision, Rachel had come to realize she was in love with Bruce. Surprisingly, miraculously, Bruce loved her, too. From there everything had moved quickly. Too quickly.

      She had to acknowledge the truth of that old cliché about marrying in haste. Rachel had been all too willing to accept Bruce’s assurances that Jolene would adjust. After all, he’d pointed out, it wasn’t as though Rachel was a stranger.

      But Jolene hadn’t adjusted. Whatever affection she’d had for Rachel had changed into passive-aggressive behavior and then escalated to open antagonism. Not wanting to distress her husband, Rachel had done her best to deflect Jolene’s hostility. The pregnancy was unplanned, and she’d hoped to keep it a secret for a few months, but Bruce insisted it was only right to tell Jolene. That, too, had backfired. And it had led to this.

      The café door opened but Rachel didn’t look up until Nate Olsen slid into the booth across from her.

      “Rachel?”

      She glanced up and offered him a weak smile.

      Nate’s blue eyes narrowed slightly. “You okay?” he asked, sounding concerned.

      “You don’t have to say it. I look terrible.”

      “Not terrible,” he said. “Just … very pale.”

      Nate had emailed her when he returned to Bremerton. He felt she should know so that if they inadvertently ran into each other,