Page 60 of Willow in the Wind

“He came up to me at the book launch,” James said. “I could see in his eyes that he still loves you. A lot.”

“We’re good friends,” Stella said.

James shook his head. “He loves you.”

Stella didn’t know what to say. She continued to hold James’s hand. But she was beginning to question why.

“We got divorced four years ago,” Stella said. “It was during the pandemic, but we hadn’t really been together in a while.”

“Can you say why?”

“Why does anyone get divorced? I think we were exhausted. We spent all our energy raising children and worrying about the house, our careers, and our money. We lost something. We stopped trying to get it back.”

James raised his shoulders. “Maybe that something was just asleep for a while. Maybe you can still get it back.” He laughed. “Love is all we have, you know? And I know for a fact that you really know how to love. I’ve felt it myself.”

Stella couldn’t believe this. Here she was in Manhattan, on her book tour, talking to herfirst true loveabout her ex-husband.

“I messed up big with my ex,” James said.

“Nancy?”

“Kinsey,” he said. “Nancy and I got divorced many years ago. She’s married now.” He swallowed. “But Kinsey was one of the best people I’d ever been with. We worked. We really did. But Icouldn’t fully show her how I felt. It was like I was underwater. After we broke up, she read your book and said she couldn’t believe I was capable of so much love.”

Stella squeezed his hand. “It doesn’t feel like you’re underwater anymore. Maybe there’s still time to show her what kind of man you really are. You’re still the passionate, loving man from the book. It just took you some time to find yourself again.”

James shook his head. “I can’t believe you helped me. Again.”

Stella laughed. “You helped me, too. It’s pretty insane, isn’t it?”

“It’s like we’re soulmates,” James said. “But we’re not meant to be together forever.”

Stella took a breath. She knew he was right.

And she was surprised how little it hurt her to hear it.

Stella and James talked for another two hours that night. They shared memories of their time in Greece; they ordered Greek food up to their room and drank wine. They talked about the joys and mysteries of parenting, their hopes for their children, and their goals for the future.

They talked until the clock hit midnight, and James said it was time to go.

Stella walked him to the hotel door and hugged him with tears in her eyes.

A part of her wanted to say,If it doesn’t work with anyone else, let’s call each other in five years and make a go of it.

But this story wasn’t a romance novel.

It was real.

Then she remembered something.

“I have a question for you,” she said.

James offered a sad smile. “You can ask me anything.”

“Remember that first morning? You rented that sailboat from a man named Kostos. I asked you how he knew youwouldn’t steal the boat, and you said you’d given him something precious.”

James nodded somberly.

“What was it?”

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