I thought that Joel might have known that Ronnie was pregnant at the time as when his friend Lee saw her at the school reunion he asked if she was going to give Joel a picture of the kid; or something along those lines. I've always thought also that Archie would have threatened Joel into staying away.

With the letter; I've been curious as to why Joel hasn't queried why Ronnie didn't answer his letter. She clearly wanted to speak to him as she made the first move. If Joel had said anything nasty in the letter and didn't want Ronnie to contact him again I would have expected Archie to push her into visiting Joel somehow so that Joel would be cruel to her face and Ronnie would be hurt some more.