Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I got home, I pulled out everything I'd bought for Ethan and started packing it into boxes.

The lock clicked. Ethan walked in, took one look at the boxes all over the floor, and frowned again.

"You're still doing this?"

I taped up the last box and stood.

"I'm not doing anything."

A week earlier, Ethan had defended his dissertation. He called to tell me he'd officially gotten his PhD and would be moving home the next month.

I was so happy I couldn't sleep that night. I went through our shared photo album, looking for old pictures to put in a welcome-home frame.

At the top of the album was a photo that had just synced.

His bedroom in that London apartment. A woman lying in his bed, her cheek pressed to his shoulder while he slept, making a heart with her fingers at the camera. A selfie, taken on his phone. She probably had no idea the phone was still synced to our shared album.

"Brooke's gone back to her place."

Ethan came over and reached for my hand. I stepped away.

"When she followed me to London, I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"And then... she did a lot for me. You weren't there, I was under so much pressure, and I guess I just got used to having her around..."

I looked up at him. "Did a lot for you? Like keeping your bed warm?"

His handsome face flushed with irritation.

"Hannah, do you have to make it sound so ugly?"

"I'm human. I get lonely. I hit walls. I wanted someone around. Is that so wrong?"

"Besides, are you telling me nothing's going on with you and that student?"

I looked at him, and the cold started in my chest and spread all the way to my fingertips.

"You believe the lies Brooke's spreading about me?"

"I didn't say that."

He closed his eyes, then opened them again, tired. "I'm just saying people have needs. Ten years apart is hard. You of all people should understand that."

I pressed my lips together and pushed the ache down.

"Don't put me in the same category as you. Ethan, I spent those ten years faithful to you."

"As for what Brooke's saying about me, I'm keeping my options open. That goes for you too."

He put a hand on my shoulder.

His palm was warm. It was a warmth I hadn't felt in years.

"Okay. I was wrong to accuse you. I was angry and I said things I shouldn't have."

"Don't be mad, okay? Come to lunch with my parents tomorrow. I have a surprise for you."

He left before I could say no.

The next day, I went to the steakhouse anyway.

Brooke was sitting at the table with Ethan and his parents.

Mrs. Cole glanced at me without much interest. Then she turned to Brooke with a big smile, took her hand, and pressed a manila envelope into it.

"Brooke, when Ethan crashed his bike in the Alps and broke his leg, you took care of him every single day. He wouldn't have healed half as well without you. This is the deed to our cabin on the lake out in Hood River. It's just a small thank-you, and I won't take no for an answer."

My hands tightened in my lap. I turned to look at Ethan.

He had never told me anything about an accident.

I let out a short laugh at myself. Mrs. Cole caught it, and she didn't like it.

"Hannah, you're going to make a fuss over a cabin? You've kept Ethan on a string for ten years. What have you ever done for him? Brooke is the one who took care of my son."

I looked at Ethan. He kept his eyes down. He didn't say a single word for me.

Brooke sat there looking sweet and humble, the corners of her mouth twitching up.

I stood. My chair scraped hard across the floor.

"Mrs. Cole, you've got it wrong. Ethan and I broke up. There's nothing for me to make a fuss over."

"You obviously love Brooke so much you'd hand her the house you were saving for your son. So go ahead. Make her your daughter-in-law."

I'd barely made it out of the restaurant when Ethan came after me.

He grabbed my wrist, hard. "You said you were done with this. If it weren't for Brooke, I might have lost that leg."

"It's a cabin, Hannah. Does it really matter more to you than my leg?"

He took the velvet box out of his pocket, dropped to one knee, and opened it.

It was the ring I'd given him when I was eighteen. A plain silver band I bought with two months of lifeguard pay from the community pool, our initials engraved inside. Now there was a two-carat diamond set on top.

He saw something soften in my eyes, and he smiled.

"Hannah, marry me. I'll talk to Brooke. I'll make it clear..."

"Don't bother."

I pulled my hand free. The calm in my face stopped him cold, for the first time.

"We're broken up. Who you marry, who you sleep with, none of it has anything to do with me anymore."