Page 63 of Willow in the Wind

The bar windows fogged up because it was so much warmer inside than out.

Stella could feel curious eyes upon them. They’d gone to high school with a few people in the bar, and she sensed that they were talking about her, saying how “obvious” it was that Stella and Matt had gotten back together.

But during the date, they talked about how young they’d been when they were first together.

“I feel like we were just kids back then,” Matt said.

“We were, what? Fourteen?”

“Fourteen to eighteen,” Matt said. “Formative years.”

Stella laughed and sipped her beer. “I think I learned more about myself during college and the summer after.”In Greece.

“I know what you mean,” Matt said. “Here in Nantucket, we were our parents’ children; we fit the mold of a Nantucket childhood. But out there, we had to make our own choices. We had to become what we really wanted to become.”

“And now?” Stella asked.

Matt shrugged. “Now we can be a weird mix of everything.”

Stella laughed. “Life is confusing, isn’t it?”

“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever known,” Matt agreed. He took her hand over the table and gazed into her eyes.

Stella fell in love with Matt far quicker than she’d thought possible.

Her love for James remained in a separate room of her heart, heavy with sorrow and regret and questions. But her love for Matt took over the active part of her heart. It was a different kindof love. It was an everyday love. It was a lived-in love. It was a love unafraid of opening up, talking, and sharing hardships.

Of course, she never told Matt about James.

But something told her Matt already knew something had happened in Greece. He respected her privacy enough to let her keep it to herself.

Knowing that Matt was a man who respected her that much only added to the texture of their relationship.

Women were jealous of Stella. Trish said, “You were always going to get exactly what you wanted.” They didn’t stay friends much longer after that.

But Stella wasn’t sure if that was true. Hadn’t she wanted James with her entire body and soul? Hadn’t she lost him?

When Matt asked Stella to marry him, there was a big celebration at her parents’ house. Her mother and father hugged her and said, “We always knew you’d settle down with someone great.”

And at that moment, James’s face flickered into her mind’s eye. She wondered what her parents might have thought of James if only she’d been able to bring him home. She wondered what kind of life they would have been able to build.

But she knew James just wasn’t the “settling down” type. Not now, anyway. He was the “sailing around the world” type. He was the “staying out all night” type. He was the adventurous type who always forgot to bring the milk home and got caught up in a daydream rather than paying attention to what you were saying.

Matt’s love was sure and strong and steady.

Matt’s love was what she needed.

She wanted to start a family.

She wanted to build a home.

Chapter Twenty-Five

September 2024

Stella sat in stunned silence in her hotel room in Manhattan. James Atkinson had just left her alone—maybe for the last time. He’d left her with a startling reminder.

James had never been the one.

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