Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,102
him only a few more days to store up memories of them.
He opened the door to the sporting goods store and had just headed down the aisle toward the bikes when someone jostled him.
“Oh. Excuse me,” a woman said.
Ethan turned around and nearly dropped his bags.
The woman had a baby carrier over one arm and a bunch of packages over the other...and a huge diamond wedding ring on the hand where his own engagement ring used to be.
“Ethan!” Brooke Fielding Palmer exclaimed.
“Hello. Someone mentioned you were coming back to town for the holidays. How are you?”
At one time, she was his future. She was as lovely as ever, her makeup perfect, her hair looking salon-shiny. But he didn’t feel a single thing.
“Good. So good. This is my daughter, Mia.”
The baby was beautiful, with round cheeks, huge dark eyes and curly dark hair pinned back with a pink bow.
“Hi,” he said softly to the child, who looked far too small and fragile to be out in the cold, even with her quilted wrap and little beanie.
“How are things?” he asked. “How’s life being married to an NBA player?”
She gave a bright smile that looked genuine, he was happy to see. “Great. Really great. Mia has made something that was already good into something fantastic. I feel so blessed.”
“I’m glad.” He was, he realized. He had wondered how he would react to seeing her again, if he would feel hurt or betrayal or sadness. He felt none of those things. Only a strange sense of...relief.
He didn’t have time to examine it.
“What about you? I see you have a bag there from a women’s boutique. Does that mean you have a special someone?”
Ethan looked down at the hand-painted scarf he had picked out for Abby, nestled against an exquisite jeweled Christmas tree ornament created by a glass artist of some renown.
“This is for a...friend.”
“Oh.” She looked slightly disappointed. After a moment, she reached out and touched his arm. “I’m actually really glad I bumped into you. I feel like I owe you an apology. It’s been bothering me for a long time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started to text you or even call you, but I didn’t know exactly what to say or where to start.”
“You don’t owe me any apology.”
“I do. I should never have said such harsh things to you when I gave you back your ring. I cringe every time I remember them.”
“You only said what you had been thinking.”
“The thing is, I had been having doubts for several months. Not just about you but about me, too. I was afraid to admit I might have made a mistake when I agreed to marry you. It was easier to blame you than it was to face that. Because of my cowardice, I waited too long and made everything so much harder than it should have been.”
Her little girl made a cooing sound and blew a bubble.
He looked at the baby and then back up at Brooke. “We wouldn’t have made a good match, would we?”
She shook her head a little sadly. “On paper, we should have been perfect together. You are a terrific guy and I did love you. But no. We weren’t a good match. We would have made each other crazy within a year. I need to be needed and you...you don’t really need anyone.”
That wasn’t true.
A month ago he might have agreed with her. Not now.
An image of Abby’s sweet smile and warm green eyes flashed in his head. He remembered her courage as she faced the ski slopes, her exhilaration despite herself, the tenderness of her kiss.
He needed her, more than he ever believed it was possible to need another person.
That she happened to have a son Ethan also already cared about deeply was simply a bonus.
“You don’t hate me, do you?” Brooke went on, her voice hesitant.
Being liked had always been the most important thing to Brooke. It was the reason she was obsessive on her social media properties.
“Not for a minute,” he said honestly. “I always only wanted the best for you. I’m glad you found it with Marcos.”
“Thank you for teaching me some important lessons about myself, things I think I had to learn about who I was and what I needed before I could be in a healthy enough place to meet and fall for Marcos. If not for you, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.”