Page 24 of The Matchmaker's Cottage

He rubbed the rainwater from his eyes with his free hand and watched as she tentatively took a step forward—

And almost lurched back to the ground with a cry of pain.

Holding her arm tighter, he pulled her toward him again, half lifting her in an attempt to get the weight off her sore foot.

“Okay, that’s enough of this.” He swiped at his face again, rain impeding his vision even more. “You’re not going to be happy with what I’m about to do.”

“What—no.” She tried to stumble away from him, but he held her firmly in his grasp. “Ethan, don’t you dare—”

He was absolutely soaked to the skin, freezing cold, and unbearably uncomfortable. The rain was showing no sign of abating, and he was about thirty yards away from clean clothes,a warm fireplace, and a stew that had smelled delicious. The only thing standing in his way was five feet two inches of obstinance with a sprained ankle and a lot of pent-up spite. So he did exactly what she didn’t want him to do.

He leaned down and scooped her up into his arms before beginning to walk up the hill toward the inn.

10

2007

“It’s fucking freezing.”

Ethan blew out a puff of smoke from his contraband cigarette as they sat at the edge of the dock, watching the sun make its descent toward the horizon. The sky was splashed in tones of purple, blue, and orange, the surface of the water reflecting the same colors. The line blurred between the two, so it was almost indiscernible where one ended and the other began unless you focused on the land on the other side—small dark mounds that seemed far enough away as to be nonexistent.

Lost in his thoughts, and pretending to enjoy the cigarette he had stolen from his father’s stash, Ethan almost didn’t realize how quiet Gem was being.

It was early October, and the initial plan had been for Ethan to come up with his dad to winterize the cottage. Normally Ethan avoided the task—it was too cold, pointless, boring—butthis year, Gem had agreed to tag along, and suddenly it didn’t seem like a horrible idea. Maybe it was because they had been promised a day off school to avoid the traffic on the drive home. Or maybe, privately, in the dark corners of his mind, Ethan had to admit it was because he hadn’t seen Gem enough that summer—or at all, really. She’d gotten a job that year that had continued into the summer months. Ethan knew she’d been saving up to pay for college, and leaving for days or weeks at a time was simply not conducive to her goals.

Ethan had gotten a job as well. One he’d promptly quit once school had ended for the summer. He’d already saved up a decent amount in his mind, and his parents had promised to help out a bit when it came to schooling. Plus, college was still over a year away. He wasn’t stressed.

Hazarding a glance to his left, he worried that he couldn’t say the same about Julia.

She was sitting beside him in the flared fitted track pants that were popular among girls their age and an oversized sweater that he was pretty sure had belonged to him once upon a time, feet bare, with her flip-flops beside her. He watched for a beat as she curled and uncurled her toes unconsciously, her eyes trained on the horizon.

“Earth to Gem? Hello?” He flicked the ash from his cigarette toward the water, blowing the smoke out of the side of his mouth.

She turned to him, her gaze snagging on the cloud of smoke dissipating in the air.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’resooocool?” The sarcasm was half-hearted at best, not quite holding its usual bite. Still, her lip hooked up in a half smirk as she regarded him. “Just wait till I tell Susan.”

At the mention of his mother, Ethan almost stubbed out the cigarette then and there. “Don’t, you narc.”

She laughed, her face lightening, looking a bit like her old self and not the version of her that had gone somewhere else for a minute or two.

He didn’t want to spoil the moment, wanted her to remain carefree, laughing, looking as though she had no worries or stresses aside from the chill in the air and what she planned to do with her day off tomorrow, but the words slipped out of him anyway, unbidden.

“She probably wouldn’t even clue in to what you’re saying.” The self-deprecating humor was there as always, clouded by a hint of bitterness. He rarely raised the topic of his mom, especially not in front of Gem, with whom he tried to avoid the topic of moms altogether. But sometimes it was too much for him to pretend, even for a little while, even for the sake of a joke, that she was an okay mom—the mom he remembered. He knew she had been through a lot and that things hadn’t been easy on her. Still, it was hard not to miss the version of her that had existed before—the one who laughed easily, who seemed to still believe in things turning out okay.

Julia, instead of offering platitudes or sympathy, simply shrugged.

“Maybe not,” she acquiesced, and they fell into silence again for a moment or two.

Then she held out her hand and gently pried the cigarette out from between his fingers, bringing it to her own lips and inhaling.

To her credit, only a couple of sputtering coughs came out with the puff of smoke she released, which she quickly subdued. Grimacing, she handed it back to him, and he found himselfgrinning at her as he accepted it, finding her charming and endearing and all the soft things he never really associated with her. Usually she was simpler than that for him—commonplace. Familiar. But now she was more, she was almost…

Cute?

Before he could contemplate it any further, she was standing up and peeling off her—his?—sweater to reveal a white T-shirt underneath.

“I’m actually hot,” she said, a belated reply to his forgotten comment about how cold it was.