that all the blame rested with her. She was the one who had insisted on waiting.
“This is all my fault. You wanted to tell them months ago.”
“And you wanted to wait.”
“And that was the wrong decision.”
“I don’t believe it was.” He shook his head. “The last few days have been the most fun we’ve had in years. We’ve talked more than we have in years. I feel as if I know you better than I have in years. I’m sorry Katie walked in when she did, but I’m not sorry for any of the rest of it.”
Everything he said was true. But what did that mean? What did it change?
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
She understood his confusion because she felt it, too. “It doesn’t even matter. All that matters is Katie.”
Frustration crossed his face. “Do you really think Katie is what matters here? What about us? We have to talk about us, Mags—”
“—and we will, but first we have to check on our daughter. I’m worried about her.” She grabbed her phone and called Katie’s number but predictably it went straight to voice mail. “I can’t focus on anything else until I know she’s okay, don’t you understand that?”
He was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he said. “I understand that.” His tone said that he understood it but didn’t like it, and his body language said the same thing as he clomped to the door and reached for his coat. His shoulders were slumped. He looked defeated, and she felt as if she was being tugged in two directions.
She felt a moment of loss, followed by panic. “Where are you going?”
“To find our daughter. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” He shrugged on his coat and reached for his scarf. While he wrestled with layers and wool, she wrestled with guilt and questioned her priorities.
“She’s probably gone back to the tree house to tell Rosie.” They all protected Rosie. And now Katie, her strong, determined, reliable Katie was hurting and alone. Of course they should put her needs first.
“Katie isn’t the sort to sob out her problems on someone’s shoulder. She never has been. And she’d want to protect Rosie. It’s what she does. It’s what she’s always done. My guess is that she’s gone for a walk to let off steam.”
They were talking about the girls, but she was thinking about him. About them. About their evening together. And now the closeness had gone, and she was the one who’d killed it. She badly wanted it back but it was like trying to grab handfuls of that steam he’d mentioned.
She felt numb. If Katie hadn’t walked in when she had, what would she and Nick be talking about now? Would the closeness, the intimacy, have continued?
Had there ever been an example of worse timing?
And what was he going to say to Katie when he found her?
They were getting a divorce. That was a fact and it was a fact that stayed the same no matter who had the conversation. “Nick—”
“I know, you’re worried and want me to hurry up.” He tugged open the door and she felt a rush of desperation. She could stop him. She could call him back now and maybe, somehow, they could find their way back to that place they’d been when Katie had walked in.
But then what about Katie?
She opened her mouth but before she could decide what to say the door slammed and Nick stomped off into the snowy forest to look for their daughter.
Katie
She was lost.
Katie turned to look behind her, and then to the sides. She’d been on the trail, but then she’d seen a couple of people snowshoeing up ahead, and because she’d been crying and her cheeks were wet and her eyes were red and the last thing she wanted was to engage with another human being, she’d turned onto an unmarked trail that led into the forest. She hadn’t meant to go far, but she’d walked and taken another couple of turns and now she was definitely lost.
The trail climbed steeply uphill, guarded by towering trees, the forest thick in parts and coated with fresh snow.
It had been easy to walk on the main trail in her snowshoes, but harder here where the snow was deeper and the surface untouched. Sunlight poked through the trees, making the surface of the snow glisten.
Katie closed her eyes and breathed in the air and the peace. She