likely would have ended in divorce. At least they hadn’t had kids who would pay the price for his poor choices.
His gaze shifted again to Abby. She was smiling down at something Christopher had said. The light hit her just so, making her face glow with life and grace. He felt a hard tug in his chest, an ache he didn’t want to feel.
She was leaving soon. As much as he would miss her, it was for the best.
Something is broken inside you.
He didn’t know if that was true or not. He only knew he had already hurt Brooke. He didn’t want to do the same thing to Abby and Christopher.
He deliberately turned away, hoping this ache would go away as soon as they left Silver Bells.
* * *
Ordinarily the town gingerbread contest was Lucy’s favorite event of the year.
This year, it was torture.
Oh, she and Rodrigo were having fun building their house. He had come prepared with drawings he had obviously been working on for a long time, and they now had a two-story masterpiece that looked like the house in the Disney movie Up, complete with hundreds of little gumdrop balloons.
It was gorgeous, if she did say so herself. It made her want to climb inside and float away.
Rodrigo was having the time of his life, greeting many friends who stopped by to offer him birthday greetings. Even people who didn’t know him stopped to wish him well.
Rodrigo was one of the most popular people in town. People loved his cheerful attitude and the way he embraced each day with joy.
As always when she came to the gingerbread competition and saw the outpouring of affection for her friend, part of a group historically marginalized, she thought her heart would burst.
How she loved Silver Bells and the good people here. Before she was in high school, her visits with her grandparents had been limited to a few weeks every summer and six months during one glorious year when her parents had been fighting over custody.
Unlike most custody disputes, her parents hadn’t been fighting because each of them wanted her and Ethan with them. Of course it wouldn’t be anything as straightforward as that. Instead, Rick and Terri both happened to be involved with someone new and wanted honeymoon time. They had each wanted the other parent to have custody.
She had probably been ten, Ethan thirteen. In the end, Winnie had stepped in and they had been gloriously happy at Holiday House for several months. That had been a short-term solution, and they were soon back to being traded back and forth like Christmas fruitcake.
Winnie had also finally put her foot down a few years later, when Ethan was a senior in high school and Lucy just starting. Her grandfather had just died and Winnie claimed she needed company in the big house.
“Also, it will do them good to stay in one place for a change,” Winnie had said.
Oh, how she had loved that time, when she and Ethan lived with Winnie during the school year and had to deal with their parents’ endless drama only in the summer.
When people asked her where she was from, she always told them Silver Bells, Colorado. This place called her home, no matter where else she was living.
Rodrigo and his family were part of the reason for that.
“Hey, Lucy, look at where I’m putting the chimney.”
“Looks perfect, Rod,” she said. She and Ethan had often talked about how wonderful it would be if everyone in the world had someone like Rod in their lives, someone who embodied pure, unspoiled love.
“Our house is cool.” Rodrigo beamed from ear to ear. “We always have the best one.”
“You rocked it, as usual. Every year, our house looks better and better.”
He beamed at her. “I’m glad you’re here, Lucy,” he said. “Everything is always more fun when you’re here.”
She smiled, touched to her soul. “Thank you, dude. Being with you is the best part of my whole year.”
Though they were working hard on their gingerbread house, Rodrigo insisted on stopping construction so he could hug her, sugar-sticky hands and all. She laughed, hugging him back. When she looked up, she saw José standing a short distance away, watching them.
His expression made her shiver—until Lucy realized he was standing next to Quinn Bellamy, who was smiling up at him and chattering about something Lucy couldn’t hear.
José and Quinn hadn’t come together, Lucy knew that, but they had connected shortly after José arrived with his sister, and Quinn hadn’t