she was a cousin to Brooke, his former fiancée.
She was married to a police officer in the next town over, he remembered. In the year of his engagement, he and Brooke had attended two or three of the same social occasions with Cora and her husband.
“Cora. Hi. Nice to see you again. Your team’s creation is looking great.”
“This is my bunco club. We did this last year and had so much fun, we decided to come again.”
“It looks good. I like the octopus there.”
“Thank you.”
She took a step toward him with an expression that instantly put him on edge. That feeling was confirmed when she reached out and placed a hand on his arm.
“How are you?” she asked in that overly solicitous tone that people usually reserved for the recently bereaved.
“Fine,” he answered a little warily. Why wouldn’t he be?
“I never had a chance to talk to you after...well, after things went south,” Cora went on in a low voice. “I just want you to know that Jim and I both think Brooke was crazy to break things off with you. Oh, I know you said in the letter you both sent out right after you broke up that it was a mutual decision, but I don’t think anybody missed putting two and two together when four months later she marries somebody else and has a baby less than a year after that.”
Ethan could feel himself go rigid, annoyed with Cora for bringing this up now, amid the festivities for Rodrigo’s birthday.
He felt the usual sting at the reminder of Brooke and the life she had so quickly gone on to build without him, but he could acknowledge that sting wasn’t hurt but injured pride.
He hadn’t loved Brooke, as she had so accurately pointed out when she ended the engagement.
Her words seemed to ring through his memory.
Something is broken inside you, Ethan, she had said, tears streaming down her cheeks. I thought I could live with a man who doesn’t love me as much as I love him. I know you care about me but not the way I need. I told myself you would let me all the way into your heart eventually. But we’re supposed to be married in a month and nothing has changed. I can’t take the risk that nothing ever will. I deserve better.
She must have found what she needed in Marcos Palmer, the professional basketball player she had married only months after she was supposed to marry Ethan.
He had seen pictures of them in various tabloids, and she had glowed in a way she never had with him.
“Brooke and I had an amicable separation,” he said carefully now to Cora, though he wanted to tell her none of it was her damn business. “I’m glad she found happiness with Marcos.”
“He’s nice enough, I guess. And their baby girl is adorable, at least the pictures I’ve seen. But I still think it was wrong, what she did to you.”
He didn’t want to be having this conversation with a woman who was a virtual stranger to him. “Thank you for your concern,” he said as calmly as he could manage, “but I wish your cousin nothing but the best.”
He started to ease away, hoping that would be the end of it, but Cora apparently wasn’t done causing trouble.
“Did you know she’s coming to town to spend the holidays with her folks?”
Great. Now he could look forward to more gossip and more of those pitying looks. He gave a forced smile.
“That’s terrific. There’s no better place to spend the holidays than here in Silver Bells. I hope your family has a joyous season. Give her my best if you see her, won’t you?”
Cora seemed a little deflated by his reaction, as if she were hoping for more drama. She must be one of those people who loved to make trouble, stirring pots that had long ago gone cold.
He wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of a reaction. “Will you excuse me? One of my staff members is trying to get my attention.”
It was a lie but gave him the excuse to turn his back and walk over to José, who was talking to one of his sisters. When he reached them, he stopped to chat to give his lie the ring of truth, all while his thoughts raced.
He had accepted over this past year that he and Brooke would have made each other miserable. He would have been constantly disappointing her. If they had married, they