Page 13 of The Matchmaker's Cottage

“Nothing!” Julia chirped, wondering how much he had heard. “Are you ready for the tour?”

“Well, since I’m here now anyway,” Ethan replied, smiling in what Julia recognized as his best wheedling look, “I’d really like to just get changed and settle in for a few minutes before we do the whole tour.” Was it her imagination, or did his tone change with the wordtour? “Is this—my room?”

There was no question about it this time—definitely a tone change. Just a flicker perhaps, the slightest hesitation. “His” room had meant something different once in this place. Now itwas unfamiliar territory to him and exceedingly familiar to her, which was how she wanted it—to her advantage.

She hadn’t given him the Cabin Room by accident. Not that she wanted him to have a bad impression or that she was trying to prove a point—no, certainly not. But also, it served him right, showing up with barely any notice, placing demands, however polite they were, of what his needs were for his job and his success. He had important clientele coming;theywould get the good rooms. And if one of the other, better rooms stayed empty, well, that was something that she could deal with if it ever came up. Cabin was one of the rooms that had been created in the renovation that had turned the three bedrooms upstairs into four, each with its own en suite, which had shrunk them down even further. Cabin was also the only room whose en suite had a stand-up shower rather than a more luxurious tub. She wondered briefly, considering his height and broad shoulders, if he would even fit in it—then immediately forced herself to stop thinking about him in the shower.

“Yup!” she said cheerily. “This is it. You can absolutely get settled in. Maggie and I will check on supper while you do that. When you’re ready for the tour, come find me. I’m sure I’ll be around somewhere. Dinner service starts at five p.m. and goes until seven.”

“Oh, did we also include—?”

“The price of your stay includes breakfast and dinner,” Julia interrupted with another one of her customer-service smiles. “It was all in the price detailed to your secretary that was agreed upon by both of you.”

“Gayle isn’t my—” Ethan seemed to think better of what he was about to say and just smiled back at Julia instead, that same polite smile she was giving him reflected back at her, none ofthe radiance he’d bestowed upon Maggie evident any longer. “That’s perfect. Can’t wait.”

“All right, well, if that’s everything…” Julia trailed off, then looked around, expecting to usher Maggie out with her.

However, like a phantom or housekeeping ninja of some sort, Maggie appeared to have snuck out while Julia and Ethan had been talking and was no longer anywhere to be found in the room.

It was probably for the best, as three people in the Cabin Room tended to shrink its already small proportions to comically minuscule sizes. At least with just the two of them, there was the illusion of space, particularly with Julia on the side that had the slanted ceiling and Ethan standing closer to the spot between the double bed and the bathroom door.

“Yup, all good. I’ll be down in a bit.”

“Great.”Smile, smile, smile. The phoniness of it was starting to wear on her, more than it normally did as someone in the hospitality and service industry who literally behaved this way day in and day out.

Maybe because with her actual guests it felt more genuine and not so contrived. Maybe because guests didn’t usually come with loaded histories that walloped her in the chest with nostalgia, the shared joy and pain of memories both happy and devastating.

“See you,” she added quickly before brushing past him and leaving the room, realizing belatedly that she hadn’t yet given him a key. But for now she needed to just go and keep going before she did something really embarrassing, something infinitely worse than just fake smiling. Because the way she was feeling at the moment, it was almost as if she might just…

Cry.

5

2004

“Come on, Gem.”

It was a scorching-hot summer day, one of the hottest of the year so far. The sun beat down relentlessly, making the gravel pathway and the wooden dock feel like hot coals beneath Ethan’s feet as he and Gem raced to the water.

By the time they had reached the weathered cedar, the short walk from the cottage had felt like an arduous journey, and the sweat clung to his skin, the heavy air making it almost difficult to breathe. Immediately, Ethan had divested himself of almost all his clothing, down to his swim trunks, which he’d conveniently put on underneath so he could just dive into the cool, clear water.

Which was exactly what he did.

The relief was instantaneous, cold and refreshing, and he stayed under for a beat or two longer than he normally would, just to enjoy it. When he surfaced, he turned to look for Gembeside him, anticipated the splash of water in his face that she was known to greet him with every time he came up for air. He realized after a beat, however, that she hadn’t joined him.

Instead, she had chosen to stay on the dock. And whether it was delirium from the heat or the shock of the cold water surrounding him, he found himself very still for a moment. Just—looking at her. She was almost glowing in the midday heat and the shimmer of the sun reflecting off the water, framed by the tall trees. The cottage rose up behind her from the slope, its cedar shingles worn but still effervescent in the afternoon sun, the white-trimmed gables sharp against the sky, and the stone base securing the house to the hill like it was something born from the earth rather than placed there. A wide porch wrapped around one side, its railings bright and inviting, one of his favorite spots in the whole place, and the hill rolled down toward the walk-out basement, stone steps firmly embedded in its greenery as though they grew there as naturally as the grass itself. He couldn’t see them from where he was in the water, but he knew that at the bottom of those steps the French doors would be glinting in the light, the cool shadows of the hidden space leading into the cellar part of the house.

As much as he appreciated and enjoyed it, to Ethan, it was simply The Cottage—familiar in the easy, unquestioned way of things that had always been there. And beyond the trees, tucked into the greenery, sat another cottage a short walk away—the one that had belonged to Julia’s family. Even now, the two places felt connected somehow, linked by a narrow, tree-covered stretch of land and the years they’d spent moving between them.

Julia still hadn’t said anything, sitting quietly on the dock as she stared down at her book. The stillness clung heavy in theheat, blocking Ethan’s throat until he forced himself to cut through the moment, his voice drifting across the water to try to coax her off the dock.

“Honestly, it’s so nice in here. Aren’t you hot?”

“I’m fine, Ethan.” Her voice was tense, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees as she doggedly looked at her book instead of at him. “Enjoy your swim.”

“You should swim, too!” Even as he suggested it, he began looking around for any other form of entertainment for either of them. In previous years, her family would have been there, too, and Ethan and Gem could maybe derive some entertainment from their parents or the friends they sometimes invited up or the kids of said friends. It wasn’t often, but there was usually a chance of some form of external entertainment. This year, though, with the Schaeffer cottage having finally been sold off to strangers, Julia’s dad had no inclination to go up, instead agreeing to send Gem along with Ethan’s family for the third year in a row, continuing the trend of relieving himself of the responsibility of occupying her for a chunk of time in the summer.

If he had ever thought it might be odd, sending his daughter to stay next door to the cottage that his family had occupied for all those years, he didn’t acknowledge it, and neither did anyone else. At least not out loud.