Longings From the Past

By J. Barnes

When a young, strangely familiar woman named Luisa shows up on the doorstep of professor, widower, and single dad David Evans, he's taken by surprise; when she shows him what's in the shoebox that she's brought with her, he's shocked. She has questions he never thought he'd need to answer, and he finds himself drawn to her. But are his feelings real, or are they just Longings From the Past?

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Barnes
• Release date: Jul 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223653288

J. Barnes

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Longings From the Past

J. Barnes

Published by J. Barnes, 2023.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

LONGINGS FROM THE PAST

First edition. July 6, 2023.

Copyright © 2023 J. Barnes.

Written by J. Barnes.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Longings From the Past

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Mr. Evans? Mal Evans?

The young woman on my doorstep looked at me expectantly. She was familiar, in a slightly unsettling way. Something about her eyes, her stance, the shoebox she was carrying; she was like a dream almost forgotten, one that left a cloud over the rest of the day upon waking.

No one’s called me Mal in quite some time.

The woman– not much more than a girl, really– was too beautiful to be easily forgotten, for sure. Not a student of mine. Someone from campus? Maybe, but I didn’t think so. Too old to be one of the kids’ friends. Too young to be one of Sue’s coworkers. And none of that felt right. She was from somewhere else in the past.

I’m sorry, sir. But...  The lid came off the box, and a rush of memories overcame me. That was the name on all the letters you wrote to my mother.

My heart pounded. Julia. You’re... Julia and Trevor’s... I swallowed. You’re their daughter.

Yes, sir. Luisa White. She held out her hand, and I took it.

I absentmindedly muttered, After her abuela.

Her face brightened, a broad smile appearing on it. Julia’s smile. Julia’s deep, dark eyes. She was tall like her father, just a little shorter than me, but not lanky like him; she’d gotten her mother’s curves, too. Her skin was a lovely café au lait color, a midpoint between Trevor and Julia.

That’s right!

I nodded, trying to play for time. I knew that was the name she had planned on, but... Then questions bubbled to the surface, too fast for her to answer. Wait, why– I haven’t talked to them in years. Why are you here? How did you find me? Why do you have those?

Luisa’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, presumably trying to decide which question to answer first. I wanted to ask you some questions, sir.

David. Malcolm was my middle name; I hadn’t gone by Mal in over 20 years.

"David. The letters are why I’m here, the– the reason I needed to seek you out. I don’t know how you fit into my parents’ past; I actually don’t know a lot about their past, but I didn’t realize that until recently. And I wanted to find out more. More about them, and– and the man who wrote these letters to my mother.

"As to how, that’s...  It took a while. And it was as much luck as anything else that I