Page 44 of Willow in the Wind

Stella rubbed her temples. “Wine sounds amazing.” She’d had only half a glass at the book launch, which had been hours ago.

“I’ll have a glass, too,” Matt said.

Matt got into the wine cabinet as Stella clambered onto the sofa with her daughter. Matt spoke to himself as he decided on which bottle to open. Many of them had been purchased throughout their travels over the years to wineries and wine bars across the States. They’d wanted to develop an “intellectual” taste for wine. When Matt moved out, Stella reminded him that the wine collection was half his. She hadn’t added to it.

It meant they were divorced from each other in every way—save for the wine collection and their children.

With a jolt, Stella remembered Mandy.

“Where’s Mandy?”

Matt’s tone was easy. “She had a little more work to do back at home. But she wanted me to pass along another congratulations.”

Stella’s heart sank the slightest bit. But soon, Matt appeared with a glass of wine, and she let herself relax into the evening. She and Matt clinked glasses, then clinked with Chloe’s diet soda. Logan sent another round of text messages to congratulate Stella. She felt floaty. She refused to read the messages from her agent, editor, and friends, though. She didn’t want to engage in conversation aboutthat mystery man.

Was James on the island right now? Had he stayed? Something told her he hadn’t.

Matt stayed till after Chloe went upstairs. This was a surprise to Stella. His eyes were shadowed.

“You okay?” Stella asked under her breath. Chloe liked to eavesdrop.

Matt took a sip of wine. “I wanted to ask you the same thing.”

Stella’s heartbeat quickened. She shifted to the other side of the couch. A cavern opened between them.

How many times have we cuddled on this sofa? Thousands of times?

Maybe I should get a new sofa.

“I wanted to ask him what his deal was,” Matt said. “I approached him and introduced myself. I asked him if he was him.”

Stella raised her eyebrows. They were already in James territory. “You told him you were my ex-husband?”

Matt nodded.

“Huh.” Stella didn’t know what to make of this. She filled her mouth with wine.

“So he is the guy?” Matt asked.

Stella blinked at him. They’d never spoken about Greece. She’d never shared a single detail about her time there.

Does this mean Matt read my memoir?

“You know, I always knew something big happened to you over there,” Matt said quietly. He looked pained. “I could never get my mind around it. I wanted to ask you questions about it, but I knew you had closed that part of your brain off.”

Stella was amazed. They’d been married for fifteen years. They’d had two children. And Matt had always been nervous about asking Stella about a brief love affair she’d had in Greece.

“I wasn’t jealous, exactly,” Matt said, hemming and hawing. “I just knew you left a piece of yourself there when you came back. And I knew I would never get to know that part.”

Matt reached forward to touch a copy ofThe Athens Affairon the coffee table. “Your book let me through that window and into that part of you.”

Stella swallowed. She couldn’t believe Matt was being so open to her about this.

A part of her wondered,If we’d talked about this earlier, would we have been able to save our marriage?

But that was ridiculous, wasn’t it?

Matt cracked a smile and set down his empty glass of wine. “I probably sound stupid to you. But even after everything, it makes me sad to know you could never love me like that.”

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