Page 20 of Willow in the Wind

She must be pregnant,James decided.It’s the only explanation.

What am I going to do?

But James kept his voice steady. “That sounds good. You pick the place, and I’ll call and make a reservation.”

“No need. I can make the reservation,” she said.

James took a staggered breath.If she’s pregnant, then what? I’ll just move back to Manhattan. I’ll co-parent. Again. The kids are great. Really, they are. Taylor will be a brilliant older sibling. Nancy will laugh at me, but I deserve to be laughed at.

Children are a joy.

Or maybe Kinsey and I can make a go of it again. Maybe we can find a way to be happy. We loved each other, didn’t we? Sort of?

“So I’ll see you next week,” Kinsey said.

“Looking forward.” James’s voice was overly bright.

They hung up the phone right as the server arrived with James’s usual—butter chicken with extra spice. His heart hammered. He wasn’t sure if he could eat anything.

I have something to tell you.

“Can I take this to go, actually?” he asked in a meek voice.

He didn’t feel very well.

Change was coming.

Chapter Seven

June 2024

It had been a surprise to learn Bruce Tyler had a sailboat. Seeing him at a distance for so many years, both as parents of sons in the same grade, Stella had assumed him to be slightly nerdy, bookish, and unathletic. But when he’d first taken her out on his sailboat—Karina—she’d seen him for the complex, resilient, and powerful man he truly was.Nobody was simple. Everyone had a secret side.

Now, beneath the beating Nantucket sun, Bruce whipped up and down the boat, unleashing sails to the winds, securing them so that they were scooped out of the harbor and into a world of blue, blue, blue turquoise, cerulean, and everything in between. They’d been officially a couple for a little more than a year at that point—after an awkward yet sweet dating season between January and April 2023. They’d wanted to take things slow. It offered them more stability.

Still, Bruce hadn’t told Stella where his first wife had gone. It felt like a crater between them. What did it mean that he didn’t offer up that information readily? Did it mean he was stillhung up on her? Or did it mean that something so heinous had occurred between them to break them up that he didn’t want to revisit it?

It confused her far more than she wanted it to. She wanted to put the past to bed. She wanted to move on.

Or did she? She’d written that entire memoir about her past. Maybe that meant she wanted tolive in the pastfor good.

Stella was draped along a cushioned chair on deck, wearing a white bikini. Her dark hair whipped around her in the wind. Her skin was warm.

“Look at her!” Bruce called from the ropes. “The soon-to-be-famous novelist!”

Stella laughed and tried to pull her hair into a messy bun. But she lost control of her hair tie. It fluttered into the ocean and was lost forever. She imagined it dropping to the bottom.

The past year and a half had been exhausting, exhilarating, heart-wrenching, and creative. It had taken her to the darkest depths of herself. Together with her agent, Gwen, she’d editedA Brief Greek Loveand then sent it off to twenty-five editors at publishing houses across the United States and the United Kingdom. Together, she and Gwen had waited, biting their nails with nerves. And then, in September of 2023, an editor at a publishing house reached out to sayA Brief Greek Lovewas one of the most beautiful books she’d ever read. She wanted to bring it into the world. “But we need a new title,” she’d said via Zoom.

She couldn’t believe it. She was going to be a published author.

At forty-three, she would achieve something that felt beyond her wildest dreams.

Bruce took the sailboat to a beautiful cove on the opposite side of the island. From there, they could see one of the more exclusive and massive mansions on the island, which a very wealthy actor was rumored to have purchased earlier this year. The lawn surrounding it was the lushest green Stella had ever seen. It was as though they’d invented a new, better type of grass that “normal” people weren’t allowed to know about yet.

Bruce secured the boat with an anchor and popped a bottle of champagne. He poured into two flutes and handed one to Stella. He then sat beside her and raised his glass.

“To a beautiful summer,” he said. “And to finally getting your book into the world.”

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