A Misty Harbor Wedding by Marcia Evanick Page A

father.
    â€œYou’re not odd.” Gordon seemed insulted by the very idea.
    â€œNo, I guess I’m not.” She had to smile at it now. “I did follow in my father’s footsteps after all. Mom told me you were teaching English lit when you two met.” Her mother really told her that she had been one of Professor Hanley’s students.
    Gordon cringed. “It wasn’t as bad as that sounds. I was only twenty-nine, and your mother wasn’t some nineteen-year-old freshman. She was twenty-six, intelligent, and a beautiful woman.”
    â€œI also understand that she did most of the chasing.” Her mother hadn’t portrayed Gordon as a seducer of young, naive coeds. “The story I heard was that you gave her quite a chase.”
    â€œIt only appeared that way.” Gordon shrugged. “I didn’t run that hard or that fast. Victoria Knox stole my breath the first day in class. I knew I was in trouble. I knew it was wrong.”
    â€œWhat happened?” She knew what her mother had told her, but she wanted to hear Gordon’s side.
    â€œBy Christmas we were having a secret affair. I would have lost my teaching job and messed up my career if the school had found out. Victoria said she didn’t mind, but I knew she did. I hated the sneaking around. By May the school year was drawing to a close, and I broke off the relationship. Victoria was going home for the summer and I was heading to England. I thought it would be for the best. Time and distance would take care of the rest.”
    â€œDid it?” She knew her mother had loved Ken Carlyle and their marriage had been a happy one. But there had been something special in the way her mother had talked about Gordon Hanley.
    â€œIn August, when I returned to teach I discovered Victoria hadn’t returned for her senior year. I made some inquiries and discovered she had gotten married during the summer.”
    Juliet was the one to cringe now. “Ouch.” She knew why her mother had married Ken in July of that summer. She had been born on December 11. “That must have hurt.”
    â€œI figured our relationship hadn’t really meant that much to Victoria.”
    â€œWhy did you leave teaching?” Juliet loved teaching, and from what her mother told her, so had her father.
    Gordon shrugged. “I was born and raised in a town near here, East Sullivan. The coast was in my blood, and I was ready to return.” Gordon took a long drink of his soda. “During spring break I discovered this shop was going up for sale. By June my name was on the deed.”
    There was a lot left unspoken. She knew it, and he knew it. What right did she have to poke into her father’s private business? “Why give up teaching? I’m sure there must have been a school somewhere in the area that could have used your experience, your love of Shakespeare.”
    â€œYou know about my obsession with the Bard?”
    â€œMy mother named me Juliet.” She raised a brow and bit her lip to keep from smiling. When she had been younger, she had taken quite a bit of ribbing on the name. “Romeo, Romeo” had been shouted frequently within her hearing. By today’s standards, Juliet was a very normal name. In the three years she had been teaching she had seen and heard kids named after just about every state, mythical god, and constellation that dotted the universe.
    â€œJuliet is a beautiful name.”
    â€œMy sister is named Miranda, from the Tempest. Thankfully, Dad got to name the boys, or they would have ended up with names like Hamlet or Othello.”
    Gordon chuckled. “Victoria always did love Shakespeare.”
    â€œShe still does. Mom volunteers a lot of her time directing at a theater for underprivileged and troubled teens. Most of her time is usually spent fund-raising, though. And she’s not above getting the rest of the family involved when she’s shorthanded. I spent