“I thought you were going to bed,” Liz said. “Is everything all right?”

Abby shook her head.

Liz pointed to the sofa. “Want to have a seat?”

“Okay.”

The preteen got up and walked to the sofa. Liz settled next to her, put an arm around her and kissed the top of Abby’s head.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she coaxed gently. “You feeling all right?”

“I’m okay.” The girl snuggled close. “Don’t be mad, but I don’t want to go.”

Go? As in… “You don’t want to move to San Francisco?”

Abby nodded. “Can’t we stay here? I like it here. I feel safe. I have friends and Melissa has friends. Tyler likes it, too. Everybody wants to stay here but you.”

Talk about a kick in the stomach.

The worst of it was, Abby told the truth. Everyone did want to stay here. It would make things easier for Tyler and Ethan. Technically, Liz could work anywhere. The town accepted her-with the occasional dig at her choices. But they’d also come to her rescue. She had a past here, and while that wasn’t necessarily a good thing, maybe it was something she couldn’t escape. Maybe she should stop trying.

But staying meant facing Ethan and now that she was willing to accept what seemed like her fate, she could also be honest. At first leaving had been about not belonging, but later she’d wanted to go to get away from him. Being around him when she loved him was like living with an open wound.

“We’ll be really, really good,” Abby promised.

Liz wrapped her other arm around the girl. “You’re already that. I know it would mean a lot to both of you if we stayed here. I guess…” She drew in a breath. “I guess we can do that.”

Abby sat up and beamed at her. “Really?”

Liz nodded.

“I can’t believe it. Are we going to live in this house? If we do, you need a real bed and we need another bedroom. Or do you want me and Melissa to share? We can. She won’t like it, but I don’t mind.”

Liz hadn’t gotten that far. Given the choice, she would prefer a house without so many memories. “Moving might be easier.”

“We can move. We’ll help pack.” Abby threw both her arms around Liz and hung on. “Thank you so much, Liz. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Abby rose and spun in a circle, her bright red hair flying around her face. “I’m so happy! We’re staying. We’re staying!”

Liz reached for her cell phone and handed it to the girl. “Why don’t you text your sister and tell her?”

“Can I? Thanks. I will. This is the best.”

Liz wondered how long it would take Abby to wind down enough to sleep. Staying in Fool’s Gold. Who would have thought? When Ethan returned Tyler, she would tell them both. Then Ethan could take back his stupid, thoughtless, practical proposal. The town was small enough that she and Ethan could co-parent their son. He could spend equal time with each of them. That should satisfy Ethan and the judge.

It was, she told herself, the right thing to do.


ETHAN STOOD IN TYLER’S ROOM at his house and watched his son sleep. After a morning of bike riding and afternoon of failing to get peanut butter cookies to bake right and an evening of watching the first two Harry Potter movies back to back, Tyler had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Now, as he stared at his son, he felt a warmth in his chest. Love was there. Real love, born of time and frustration and a sense of being a complete failure as a dad, but still wanting to get it right. Tyler was everything he’d wanted his son to be-and he wasn’t easy. He got the latter from his mother.

Ethan stepped out of the room and went downstairs. In the quiet living room, he sank onto the couch and tried to figure out what he was going to do next.

He missed Liz.

He hadn’t realized how much he’d gotten used to having her in his life until she was gone. He missed talking to her, seeing her, having her smile at him. He missed her in his bed, but that was the least of it. While he would want her until the day he died, the ache inside him wasn’t just about getting laid. It was about having a conversation, hearing her laugh, watching her with Tyler and Melissa and Abby.

He wanted her in his life. He wanted her to be his family.

He wasn’t the only one. Tyler had gone from being mad at his mom to talking about her all the time. Today he’d regularly counted down the number of hours until he saw her again. Both of them had learned a lesson in the past few days. Which was probably the point.

Tyler had learned to show his mother a little more respect and Ethan had learned that Liz was everything to him. His eyes sank closed as he realized he loved her.

What should have been a stellar moment in his life made him instead want to put a fist through the wall. He loved Liz. He loved her. And instead of making her feel like a princess, instead of promising to love and adore her forever, he’d offered marriage as a practical solution.

“Oh, crap.”

He rolled onto his side, his face in the cushion. Talk about stupid.

He lay there, mentally beating himself up, then straightened. Fine. He’d screwed up. He would fix it. There had to be a way. Liz was a great woman-and he would fight for her. Figure out how to do it right. How to be the man she deserved. She’d loved him once, maybe she could again. Everything wasn’t lost.

He understood what she didn’t like about Fool’s Gold. While he didn’t like the idea of leaving everything behind, it didn’t have to be like that. He could run his business from San Francisco. Make a few trips in a week. Maybe they could have a second house here and spend summers in town. That would be a good compromise. Liz wasn’t looking to make him miserable. She would meet him halfway.

As long as she was willing to give him another chance.

She had to, he told himself. He would convince her. Somehow he would show her that they belonged together.

The decision made, he rose and started for the front door. Halfway across the porch, he stopped. Showing up at her house in the middle of the night probably wasn’t smart. Nor was leaving Tyler home alone. So Ethan would wait. He could come up with a plan and this time, he would get it right.


LIZ WATCHED THE CLOCK anxiously. Ethan was supposed to bring Tyler home on Sunday. It was only a little after eleven. At this rate, she would give herself a heart attack in the next hour. She needed to keep busy.

Both Melissa and Abby had run off to spend the morning with friends, celebrating her decision to keep them in town. They were beyond happy and seeing their joy confirmed that she’d made the right decision. Tyler would appreciate it, too. The chance to be with his dad more, and with his family.

She’d wanted to call Denise but had decided that Ethan and Tyler should hear it first. So she’d spent a restless night and a bad morning. Writing would be impossible. There was no way she could focus.

The thought of cleaning made her shudder, so she grabbed a big straw hat and a few garden tools from the back porch then went outside to see what she could do to spruce up the garden. She’d barely begun weeding when she heard someone calling for her.

“Mom? Mom? Where are you?”

Still on her knees, she straightened. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest as her son burst through the back door and raced toward her.

“Mom!”

He flew into her arms and hugged her so hard, she couldn’t breathe. She held on to him, doing her best not to cry, letting the familiar feel of his body ease her fears that she’d lost him forever.

“Hey, you,” she whispered, when he’d released her and stepped back. She pulled off her gardening gloves and shoved them into her pocket.

He stared into her eyes, then hugged her again. “I really missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

He glanced back at his father and then at her. “Maybe I could still live here, you know. More of the time.”

“I think that could be arranged. Your dad and I will work things out.”

“Yeah?” His dark eyes-Ethan’s eyes-lit up.

She stood and ruffled his hair. “It’ll be a grown-up thing. Melissa and Abby will be back soon and we’re going to the pool. Want to get changed and go with us?”

“Sure.”

He dashed toward the house, then paused and looked at his dad. He ran back, hugged Ethan, then took off again.

Liz stared after him, feeling her world right itself. Denise had called it exactly as everything had played out. At least from Tyler’s point of view.

She turned to Ethan. “How did it go?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Damn, I missed you, Liz.”

She thought about their last conversation. How he’d hurt her with his thoughtless words. It wasn’t his fault, she told herself. Why would he offer more? She’d never bothered to tell him how she felt and now she never would. Not when she was staying in town.

“Did you two get along okay?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Great. He’s a good kid. But there’s a whole lot more work involved than I realized. A few hours here and there is easier than taking care of him full-time.”

“I know.”

“I don’t think I’m nearly as exciting as he thought I’d be. Regular life taught us both something.”

“That was the point.”

He moved closer. “Liz, I never wanted to take him from you. Okay, maybe at first, but not now. I care about you both. We have to work something out.”

She held up a hand to stop him. It was oddly difficult to be this close to him, to hear him talk. Probably because as much as she’d hated how he’d proposed, there was a part of her that couldn’t help dreaming about how it could have been. If he’d loved her back.

“We have to talk about it,” he continued, ignoring her gesture to stop. “We meet with the judge next week.”

“It won’t be a problem,” she said. “I’m staying in Fool’s Gold.”