He omitted certain details, and told Dolly only that Anne had lain with him on his bed and offered comfort. Kisses on the eyes and such. Of course, both he and Anne had wanted to go further, but they were stopped by the strength of their respect for Harry, though Anne whispered to JJ that she’d been in love with him from the first moment she saw him. She was just too honorable to break her engagement. Though he would have liked to fight for Anne, he, too, had done the honorable thing and let her go. She had insisted on it, and he cared for her enough to respect her wishes. She left that night because she couldn’t bear to feel the way she did about him, when she was obligated to marry Harry.

His voice cracked when he told Dolly that part.

“Why, you really loved her!” Dolly said.

He was standing at the parlor window, looking out at the fir trees basking in the sun-drenched August afternoon. He shrugged, and blew out smoke, wishing he hadn’t mentioned Anne at all. He didn’t know why he had. “Well, that was a long time ago,” he said, trying to extricate himself from his lies. He lifted his cigarette to his mouth, and smoked. He felt a little better, then, and exhaled. “Besides, I was an idiot. To even imagine a girl like her—when she just felt sorry for me, that was all.”

“Goodness,” said Dolly. “You are an idiot, JJ. Of course she loved you! A girl doesn’t say all that just because she feels sorry for you.”

JJ remembered the look in Anne’s eyes when she told him she couldn’t bear it about his leg, the look on her face as she packed her suitcase to leave him. Then he took another drag of his cigarette, and grinned. “Well, maybe she was just a more sympathetic girl than you.”

Dolly rolled her eyes and reached for the pack of cigarettes he’d left lying on the coffee table. She drew one out; he crossed to her with his lighter and lit it for her. He let his wrist brush hers again, liking its warmth.

“So, are she and Harry together now?” she asked, leaning back on the sofa. “Or did he find out how she felt about you?”

JJ stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table. He limped around and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa from her; his leg was getting tired. He was getting tired all over, and he didn’t like thinking about the letter that he had received from Anne a couple weeks after he got to the Great Lakes Naval Station Hospital.