Page 52 of Willow in the Wind

“Okay?” Stella was surprised. And then she asked, “What’s going on?” Her heart fluttered.Why does Chloe want privacy from her father?

“Listen, I think something is going on with Dad and Mandy,” Chloe muttered.

Stella felt a pressure on her chest. She sat up and leaned against the fluffy pillows on the bed. “Oh no.”

“I heard them talking outside earlier,” Chloe went on in a whisper. “Mandy sounded really upset.”

“Honey, I’m sure they were just having a disagreement,” Stella said.

“But that isn’t the first time. They’ve been having these, um, disagreements all summer,” Chloe said. “At first, I thought they were flukes. But this time, I heard Dad say something about breaking up.”

Stella’s eyes widened with surprise.

She’d thought Matt and Mandy were in it for the long haul.

She’d thought they would get married!

She felt the crushing weight of Matt’s disappointment. And she felt sorry for Mandy, too. Failed love was always a trial.

“You’d better get downstairs and spend time with your father,” Stella said now. “If they really broke up, I’m sure he’s having a hard time.” She frowned. “Maybe make him a bowl of ice cream? Butter pecan.” It was his favorite.

“Good idea,” Chloe said.

“You must be upset,” Stella said. “I know how much you like Mandy.”

“She’s fine,” Chloe said. “I’m just worried about Dad.”

“Me too.”

Chloe got off the phone to tend to her father and left Stella alone in the shadows of her hotel room. She felt anonymous and soft and sad.

A part of her wanted to reach out to Matt and tell him how sorry she was. But Matt would tell her about the breakup when he was ready.

If they really broke up.

Maybe they worked it out.

It occurred to Stella now that she’d hardly thought of Bruce Tyler at all in the past few weeks. It had been a year and a half of her life. And she’d let her love—or something like love—slip through her fingers.

Stella fell asleep a little after ten and woke up at three to take off her robe and put on her pajamas. She checked her phone. Still no message from James.

I have to put thoughts of James to rest.

I have to stop this.

But the next afternoon, after Stella got out of a video interview with a Brooklyn broadcast station, she turned her phone back on and immediately received a call. It almost seemed like a fluke, like somebody was watching her.

It was James.

Stella stared down at his name on her screen. Her heart pounded. Again, during that interview, they’d asked her about James, and again, she’d had to tell them she had no contact with him whatsoever.I want to protect his privacy.

But here he was, reaching out.

Did he want to yell at her for pulling him into the public eye?

Stella suddenly felt as though she were aboard theStellasailboat. The sidewalk beneath her feet felt uneven. Sweat bubbled across her upper lip.

The phone rang on and on. A few people on the sidewalk turned back to look at her, wondering why she didn’t answer it. She probably looked insane.

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