Page 26 of Willow in the Wind

Maybe Bruce had hated her the entire time.

Stella dropped her head onto the table as her heart throbbed. She had half a mind to get into her car and drive to Bruce’s, to knock on the door and demand answers. But it was four in the morning. Bruce had every right to call the cops if she did that.

Stella knew Matt was an early riser. She also knew that Mandy was still in the city, hoping to make up the meeting she’d missed due to traffic yesterday.

At five fifteen, Stella braced herself and called her ex-husband. He answered with a surprised, “Hello?” She could practically smell the coffee on his breath. He’d always been an optimist in the morning.

“Hey.” She sounded raggedy. “Can you talk?”

“Sure I can,” Matt said. “Everything okay?” He sounded gentle and loving.

Stella took a staggered breath. “Bruce says he wants to talk today. I haven’t been able to sleep.”

“He didn’t say what it was about?”

“Nope.”

Matt sighed. “Oh, Stella. That must be so disconcerting.”

“I thought things were going really well,” she offered. She did not add,I thought we were almost as happy as you and Mandy!Because she didn’t want it to be a silly contest.

“You don’t know what’s going on in his head,” Matt assured her. “Maybe he wants to talk about something silly. Maybe he wants to talk about the future.”

“Ugh. The future,” Stella tried to joke.

“We’re in a weird age range,” Matt said. “You remember what it was like when we broke up. We asked ourselves what we wanted from the rest of our lives.”

Stella’s heart cracked at the edges of the memory. She could still see them in the living room, sniveling and coughing with COVID, deciding to divorce.

“And it was a great decision in many respects,” Matt reminded her. “You’ve gone after your dreams of writing a novel. We’re both better parents than ever.”

“Are you suggesting that change is sometimes a good thing?” Stella said with a small laugh.

Matt chuckled. “I hate to say it, but it’s true.”

Despite the ache of her heart, chatting with Matt emboldened Stella. She let him go a few minutes later and headed upstairs to take a quick power nap and shower. By the time eight o’clock hit, she was in front of her laptop, composing emails and making notes about the next book she wanted to write. Her agent and editor were already excited about pre-orders for her book. They wanted to get another Stella Sutton original on shelves by late next year. It would be frantic.

Chloe and Logan were both busy with work and friends and left the house before noon that day. Stella hugged them goodbye and promised herself not to cry in front of them after her talk with Bruce. She wanted them to know that dating in your forties wasn’t scary. Connecting with people was always a good thing, even when it didn’t work out.

Stella agreed to meet Bruce that evening at five. She dressed in a simple white dress and styled her hair and makeup before driving over. A part of her thought that if she looked good enough, Bruce would forget their talk altogether. He’d make her dinner, and they’d kiss in the moonlight.

But Bruce’s face was grim when he opened the door.

“Hi,” he said, reaching to hug her.

Stella felt a shiver down her spine. She carried her bottle of white wine into the kitchen and watched him nervously open itand pour the two glasses. She considered asking him about his day but couldn’t find the words.

“Let’s go outside,” she said finally. She didn’t want him to break up with her in his kitchen, where they’d had so many happy times. The kitchen was so often the heart of every relationship.

“Good idea,” he said.

They walked in bare feet along the sand, watching the water drift closer and closer to the house. Bruce’s son wasn’t home, but he often wasn’t. He worked at the docks during the summertime. Bruce had said early on he believed teenagers should learn how to work and care about their own money. Stella agreed. And both Chloe and Logan really liked their jobs. They liked having responsibilities.

Bruce stopped short on the sand. His eyes were stormy. “I never told you what happened with Simon’s mother.”

Stella’s heart was a butterfly. “You didn’t.”

“That must have been strange,” Bruce said.

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