‘mommy and me’ groups. It was probably for the best,” she added quickly. “It took me longer to make friends, but they were the real ones in the end.”
She flashed another smile, but Aidan could see there were some lonely memories behind her eyes. It struck him for the first time that despite how capable and confident Stella seemed now, it hadn’t been an easy road, starting out alone. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. If he’d wound up with a baby at her age… He wanted to ask about Matty’s father, but before he could find the right words, Stella looked around. Her expression changed.
“I know this neighborhood,” she said. “I grew up right around here.”
She led him down a side-street and up the hill, where the houses became larger and grand, fringed with old oak trees and screened from prying eyes by privacy gates out front. Stella came to a stop at the top of the hill, in front of the largest, grandest house of all. She let his hand drop as she stood in front of the wrought iron gates, with an unreadable expression on her face.
“That was my bedroom, up there,” she said, pointing to a window on the far side of the house. “I used to daydream about sneaking out after curfew, but the tree was just out of reach. Besides,” she added, her lips twisting in an ironic smile. “I always followed the rules.”
“Where did your parents move?” Aidan asked, realizing for the first time that she hadn’t ever mentioned her family before.
“They didn’t.” Stella said simply, staring through the gates. “They still live here.”
Then she turned on her heel, and walked away.
9
Stella stayed silent for the rest of the walk down to the river, wishing with all her heart she could take back the last ten minutes.
She shouldn’t have come here. She should have recognized the route that they were taking, but she’d been so caught up in their easy conversation, and the way Aidan’s hand in hers did strange things to her heart rate, that she hadn’t even noticed until they were at the end of her old street. Then, curiosity had taken over.
Well, she knew what they said about curiosity. It led nowhere good.
Now, she wracked her brain, trying to think of something to say. The silence stretched, until by the time they reached the riverbanks, she was half-tempted to leap into the water just to change the subject. “Well, this is awkward,” she announced instead – and immediately cringed.
Way to make an even bigger deal over things.
But Aidan gave a chuckle of what seemed like relief. “It doesn’t have to be,” he said. “I mean, whatever happened with your family, you don’t need to talk about it. We can... discuss the weather instead,” he offered.
“The weather?” Stella asked, relaxing a little. He didn’t seem put off by her fraught trip down memory lane, at least.
“Sure.” Aidan gave her a playful smile. “It’s been pretty hot lately, don’t you think?”
“Indeed,” Stella replied, feeling like a character in one of those costume dramas that Matty always complained about her wanting to watch. “Unseasonably so.”
Aidan grinned. “But I hear the forecast is for rain this weekend.”
“I’ll have to check the gutters.” Stella couldn’t help smiling. “OK, we can stop. This is officially the most boring conversation of all time.”
“Who are you calling dull?” Aidan shot back, teasing. “I happen to find gutters a thrilling topic of conversation. Tell me more, do you use a ladder to clean them or one of those long grabby tools?”
She laughed, despite herself, and just like that, the whirl of old hurt and family pain didn’t seem so shameful. “I haven’t been back there in fifteen years,” she admitted. “We haven’t talked in almost that long.”
Aidan paused, and when she glanced over, she could tell, he was actually thinking about what that meant. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “My family can be annoying sometimes, and feel like a burden, but I can’t imagine being without them. Being on my own.”
Stella swallowed. “I wasn’t alone. I had Matty,” she said quietly, but still, Aidan gave her a look of understanding.
“They didn’t support you?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t the life they’d pictured for me. The kind of life they could brag about in their holiday newsletter,” she added, with a bitter pang.
“And… Matty’s father?”
She looked out over the water. “A summer romance that was never meant to be anything more. When I told him I was pregnant, he