Page 65 of Willow in the Wind

It’s just the man I married and had children with.

It’s just the safest person I know in the world.

“Good morning,” he said. “How are you?”

Stella laughed gently. “I’m complicated. And you?”

“Same,” Matt said. “But I have a hunch Chloe already told you.”

Stella considered lying. “She might have mentioned something.”

“I figured. She made me a huge bowl of ice cream and watched me eat it. It felt like you were in the room with us,” Matt said with a laugh. “Making sure we’re all okay, as ever.”

Stella had forgotten the ice cream. “Chloe loves her father.”

“I guess that’s why she’s worried about me,” Matt said. “But I’m going to talk to her about it later.”

“She’s older. She gets it,” Stella said.

“Yeah.” Matt sighed.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Mandy and I have been breaking up and getting back together since the beginning of the year,” Matt confessed. “We really wanted to make it work because she gets along with you and the kids so well. But in the end, she isn’t that happy in Nantucket anymore. She has a job opportunity out West, and she wants to take it.” He sighed again. “She asked me to come.”

Alarm bells rang through Stella’s head.She asked him to leave Chloe behind!

“I told her there was no way,” he said. “Not before Chloe leaves for college. And you know how I feel about Nantucket. It’s home. I wanted to come back from Chicago for a reason.”

Stella breathed a sigh of relief. “I know you really love her. I’m sorry.”

“I guess I loved her,” Matt said. “But all that breaking up and getting back together did a real number on my heart.”

Stella closed her eyes.

“And you?” Matt asked. “What’s going on?”

There was a tentative nature to his voice. It was like he knew she’d seen James.

“I did see him,” she confessed. “James Atkinson.”

Matt made a noise in his throat. “Wow.”

“I know.”

“How did that go?”

Stella sipped her coffee and watched the sun lift higher over Central Park. “We had a great conversation.”

“Was it like no time had passed? Like you were back in Greece together?”

“No,” Stella admitted. “I felt every bit of time between us. It very much felt like we were in our forties in Manhattan.”

Matt was quiet for a moment.

“Are you going to try again?”

It sounded like the mere idea of it would break his heart.

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