“Exactly what you think: me and Sherry are done.” Jack rolled his eyes, and Serena thought he looked tired. “Being with her twenty-four seven, no work to escape to, it was like...a hurricane and my first grade teacher rolled into one. She never sat still, and she never stopped talking. I couldn’t open my mouth without her finding fault. I’m a Neanderthal, and Henry the Eighth. I’m freakin’ Don Draper, whoever that is. I started faking calls from the office, just to get—”

  “It didn’t work out. But why are you here?”

  Jack did a helpless shrug. “Why do you think?”

  Because your fetus fling dumped you and you have nowhere to go? Serena bit her tongue hard. She didn’t want to fight, but what could she say?

  “You were so good to me,” said Jack. “You’d always run the dryer right before I got up. Then you’d swap out my shower towel for a warm one from the dryer. I’d get out of the shower and, boom, warm towel. When I told that to Sherry, she said ‘Who’s Serena? Your maid?’”

  Serena fought back sudden laughter. “So...you miss your hot towels?”

  “I miss you.” Jack reached across the table and grasped both her hands. “You and the kids, this family we built. I got caught up in Sherry, lost my head for a bit, but I know where I belong now—and it’s right here, with you.”

  Serena wrenched her hands away and clenched her fists under the table. Jack frowned in that way he did when he didn’t get his way—surprise, disbelief, a touch of outrage.

  “You’re angry,” he said. “But you’ll see that I’m right. We’re supposed to be together, you and me, meant to be.”

  Serena got up and went to the window. Outside, the sky was gray, threatening snow. “You’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “Long enough I’ve had time to think. Time to move on.”

  “What, that little job of yours? Answering phones at the salon?”

  “That was two jobs ago. I work for Will Harvey now.” Serena stood straighter, anger churning in her guts. “You remember Will Harvey from back in high school. He runs the vet clinic now, and I’m helping him.”

  “Helping him, pff.” Jack stood up too, thumped his hands on the table. “I guess that guy’d need your help, little wuss that he was.”

  “Will isn’t a wuss,” said Serena. “He’s done a lot for this family. More than you’ve done, sipping mai-tais on the beach.”

  “Come on, now. Be reasonable.” Jack edged up behind her, and Serena’s hackles rose. He’d dragged his Mr. Rogers voice out of mothballs, that maddening singsong, let me ‘splain this real slow. “You’ve done good on your own, kept the kids clothed and fed. But your car looks like it’s on its last legs, and Nathan needs new shoes. I can take care of that. Take care of you.” He slipped his arms around her, his breath hot on her ear. “Now, I know you’re mad, and you’ve got your pride. You can’t give in just like that. But you know we were good, and we could be again.”

  “We were,” said Serena. It wasn’t worth arguing. Their relationship had been stable. It had chugged along fine. Good was maybe an overstatement, but— “But then you walked out.” She shook him off and grabbed a washcloth. “I have dishes to do, so if you’re through with your speech...”

  “I am, for now.” Jack grabbed his coat and slung it over his arm. “I’m going to meet my buddies, give you space to think. But make sure you do think. Weigh your options real good.” He leaned in and kissed her, just behind her ear. “We’ll talk again later, once you’ve cooled down.”

  Serena stood fuming as Jack made his exit. He could still push her buttons, every last one. Did that mean she still cared? Or—

  “Mom?” Nathan was hovering in the doorway, his eyes wide and worried. “Where did Dad go?”

  “Just to see his friends.”

  “So he’ll come see us again?” Nathan bounced where he stood, and that look in his eyes wasn’t worry. It was hope, faint but bright, and Serena felt sick.

  “Were you listening just now?”

  Nathan bobbed his head. “I heard Sherry’s gone. Does that mean Dad’s coming back for good?”

  Serena swallowed hard. “I don’t know,” she said, and that was the truth. Did she want him back? No. But Nathan did, badly, and with Jack around, would his life not be better? And Julie’s, as well? They’d have financial security, all the perks they could want…and the cherry on top, her undivided attention. It was a mom’s job to sacrifice for her kids, but going back to her old life, was that really the way?

  “I don’t know,” she said again, and the words tasted bitter.

  “Sit, Luna. Good girl.” Will fumbled for his keys, fingers numb in the early-morning chill. Even Luna was shivering under her thick winter coat.

  “Wes Harvey, right?”

  Will looked up sharply, nearly dropping his keys. He scowled as he recognized Serena’s ex, then smoothed out his features into a bland, empty smile.

  “It’s Will,” he said. He looked Jack up and down, as though trying to place him. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”

  “Cut the act, Will. You know who I am.”

  “Right, Jack, from high school.” He unlocked the door and held it open for Luna. She stayed where she was, eyes fixed on Jack. Her ears were pricked forward, her hair standing up. Will set his hand on her collar, ready to pull her back. “So, you hiding a pet somewhere? Little hamster in your pocket?”

  “No pet. Just a warning.” Jack’s brows shot up as Luna loosed a growl. “Not that kind of warning. I’m not gonna hit you. I’m just here to tell you you’ll be needing a new receptionist. Me and Serena are working on our marriage, so she’ll be going back to staying home with the kids.”

  Will gripped Luna’s collar, breathing slow to stay calm. “Did she say that?”

  “She didn’t need to,” said Jack. “I know my Serena, and she’s no working girl. She loves taking care of us. That’s who she is.”

  “Well, thanks for the heads-up.” Will shooed Luna inside and stood blocking the door. “But if it’s all the same to you, I’ll wait to hear that from her.”

  “And I’m sure she’ll tell you soon.” Jack smiled, tight and mean. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “You don’t have a pet, and last I checked, we’re not friends. So, if you’re quite through, I’d like to start my day.” Will stalked inside and let the door slam behind him. It made a loud bang, and Will bared his teeth. He’d have loved to sock Jack, but high school was over. Jack might not have grown much past his meathead jock days, but Will was an adult with a reputation to think of.

  Still, if ever a nose was just begging for a punch...

  He fed Luna a snausage, then took her upstairs. By the time he came down again, Serena was at her desk, puttering around with Daytimer like nothing had happened.

  “Hey, Serena. All good?”

  She shot him the thumbs-up, still peering at the screen. “Your day’s looking busy, but that’s what we want, right?”

  “Sure is.” Will sauntered up to her desk, casual as he could. Bringing up Jack felt like the wrong move, but still, he had to know. “So that bakery, I was thinking...”

  “Mm?” Serena didn’t look up. Was she being dismissive, or just distracted?

  “Well, if someone else buys it, they might not keep it a bakery. They might put in a diner or a laundry or a bank.”

  “A bank? In that little space?”

  “Okay, not a bank.” Will leaned on the counter, trying to catch her eye. “But I’d miss that smell of baking, heading out for a walk. Luna’d miss it too. You should see her sniffing, like do I smell treats?”

  Serena looked up at last. “What are you trying to say?”

  Will stepped back, surprised. Serena looked frazzled, like she’d barely slept. Still, he had started this. He couldn’t stop now. “I was just wondering, have you given it any thought?”

  “No. No, I haven’t.” Serena hit her spacebar, a sharp, angry sound. Her eyes had gone empty, her bright spark dimmed. “Look, it was a nice dream. But dreams just get painful when you hold on too long. You start to believe, but that’s not how life is.”

  Will stood stunned, staring. She’d dismissed the idea before, but never with such force. Was this Jack’s influence? Was she really giving up?

  “I ran into Jack,” he said, frustration boiling over. “Why didn’t you tell me he was back in town?”

  Serena exhaled sharply. “Because he just got back yesterday. Because I didn’t think it mattered. Because he doesn’t matter, so what’s your point?”

  “I guess I don’t have one.” Will backed off, hands raised. He didn’t want to fight with Serena. She had to be stressed, with Jack back in town. The last thing she needed was Will getting jealous. “I’ll let you get back to work,” he said.

  Serena just nodded, bent over her keyboard. Will retreated to his office, and by God, he was jealous. He hated to admit it—such a petty reaction felt childish, beneath him—but this time with Serena had been a dream come true. It had all been so perfect, that sleigh ride, their first kiss. That night in his bed, so warm and contented, holding Serena as she nestled in his arms. She’d kept his love letter from high school. That had to mean something—or was this what she meant by dreams getting painful when you held on too long? Had he been living a fantasy, and Jack was real life?

  Outside, the bell rang, his first patient of the day. Will squared his shoulders and coughed to clear his head. This was his reality, and his dream as well—this life, this clinic, doing good where he could. Anything else would just have to wait.

  14

  Serena stared at her dessert, some fancy layered confection from the bakery in Redfield. Ma had brought it over, and maybe she hadn’t meant anything by it, but dessert was Serena’s thing. Everyone knew that. She couldn’t spoil her kids like she wanted, or be home all the time, but she could do dessert like nobody else. She had done dessert, strawberry pie, but rainbow crepe cake had won out.

  “The layers actually taste different,” said Julie. “Cherry, orange, lemon, lime. I can’t tell what blue is. Maybe grape?”

  “I think it’s blueberry,” said Nathan. He downed his last bite and brushed crumbs off his chin. “Can we check out the Xbox? I ate all my peas.”

  Serena smiled through clenched teeth. She’d gone all out for Christmas, within the confines of her budget—a teetering pile of gifts stacked under the tree—but even on that front, Ma and Dad had upstaged her.

  “Go play,” she said. “But you share with your sister. I don’t want to hear fighting.”

  “I’ll watch them,” said Dad, and he got up as well. Serena sat fuming as the three of them filed out. She felt small and slighted, like the last kid picked for baseball. Ma finished her own cake and set her fork on her plate.

  “We’ll do the dishes,” she said. “I’ll wash, you dry.”

  “We just need to rinse them. I’ll put them in the dishwasher.”

  “Sure, if you want streaks.” Ma set to work gathering the plates. Serena joined in, too tired to argue. It had been a long day—a long week, if she was honest. Everything had been tense since Jack had showed up. He’d wasted no time ingratiating himself with the kids, and Serena’s stress at home had translated to fumbles on the job.

  “So, these husbands of ours...” Ma set down her dishes and reached for the detergent. “This is almost empty. Do you not keep a spare?”

  “Under the sink.” Serena bent down and got it herself. Ma scrubbed the first dish and passed it her way.

  “As I was saying, our husbands—we forgive them a lot.”

  Serena made a grunting sound: uh-huh. Sure, Ma.

  “It’s hard to do sometimes, when you still hurt inside. But you can’t start to heal if you keep poking that wound.”

  Serena dried off her dish and set it on the rack. Ma passed her another and squirted more soap.

  “We’ve spoken with Jack, your father and I. The thing to remember is, Jack’s a young man. Young men make mistakes. Ideally, they do it before they get married, but you two were kids back then. He never had a chance to sow his wild oats.”

  “Wild oats!” Serena snorted laughter. “Sherry’s not a mistake. She’s not a wild oat. They were together six months, and—”

  “And now they’re over.” Ma glanced toward the living room and lowered her voice. “It’s not fair on the children, drawing out this feud. And I don’t just mean their broken hearts. What kind of life can you give them? Think of college, their weddings, helping them start out their lives. How can you do all that, all by yourself?”

  “I’m opening a bakery.” The words popped out unbidden, and Serena bit her tongue. Ma’s laughter rang out like a slap in the face.

  “A bakery? Are you kidding me? How’re you going to do that?”

  Serena ground her teeth. “I haven’t worked out all the details. But—”

  “But you already have a job, the most important job in the world.” Ma set down the dish soap and gripped Serena by the arm. “Those kids in there need you, and they need their dad. You can’t quit on them. Moms do not quit.”

  “I’m not quitting. I’m...”

  “What?”

  Serena shook her head. What could she say? Will might believe in her, but no one else did. Not even her parents, who’d known her all her life. Maybe they were right. Maybe they’d seen something in her, something she couldn’t see in herself—some weakness, some shortfall baked into who she was.

  “You’re a great mom,” said Ma. “And Jack’s been a good husband. You can forgive him one slip.”

  Serena thought of Will, all his talk of dragons and going off the map. It had all seemed so possible, caught up in his spell. Now it felt ridiculous, a child’s fantasy.

  “Let’s finish the dishes,” she said.

  Ma shot her a narrow look, but she set to work. She hummed as she scrubbed, “Stand by Your Man.”

  Serena stifled a bitter chuckle. Real subtle, Ma.

  Will paused on the porch, one hand on the rail. Inside the ranch house, dinner preparations were underway, Juniper and Serena chatting as they worked. Their cheerful laughter carried across the yard. Outside, the kids were playing, riding toboggans down the hill.

  Will frowned to himself. He could go in, check on dinner, maybe steal a snack. But he wasn’t sure how to act around Serena. He’d invited her over before Jack had come back. Would she still have come if he’d asked her today? He had no idea where their relationship stood. Things had been awkward since she’d shut him down on the bakery.

  “Hey! Uncle Will!” Denver was waving from the top of the hill. Will waved back and ambled over to join him and the others.

  “You kids having fun?”

  “Uh-huh. Watch this.” Denver flung down his toboggan and jumped on head-first. He took off like an arrow, flying down the hill. Will braced himself for a crash at the bottom, but Denver glided to a graceful halt just shy of the snowbank.

  “You want to try mine?” Nathan held out his toboggan, but Will shook his head.

  “I think I’m too big for that. I’d snap it in two.”

  “Mom tried it earlier. You’re not much bigger than her.”

  Will burst out laughing. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”

  Nathan frowned for a moment, as though thinking that over. But the next words out of his mouth caught Will off guard. “Why didn’t you invite Dad tonight?”

  Will tensed. “You mean your father? Did he want to come?”

  “Maybe, if you asked him.” Nathan set down his toboggan and perched himself on top. “They’re getting back together, you know—him and my mom.”

  “What?”

  Rather than answering, Nathan pushed off and went streaking down the hill. Julie ran after him, kicking snow at his head. She gave up after a shot or two and trudged back up the hill.

  “Dad says a lot of things,” she said. “Like, he says we’ll be a family again, but if you ask me, he should go back to Hawai’i.” She kicked up more snow, a great sparkling cloud. Lizzie tugged at her sleeve, and they rode down the hill together. Will watched them go, troubled. Nathan’s announcement could’ve been a kid’s wishful thinking, but coming from Julie…it felt real, concrete. There’d been a Big Conversation about Jack coming home. Had Serena been part of that? Was she on board with Jack moving back in? He didn’t want to believe it, but if it was true, what then?

  He left the kids to their games and turned back toward the house. They had been a family once, Jack and Serena and the kids. They’d probably been happy more often than they hadn’t. Kids like Nathan and Julie didn’t come from troubled homes. Maybe he was the bad guy here, getting in the way of a family that belonged together.

  “Hey, Will.” Alex caught up to him, headed up the steps. “Whoa, look at you. Why the long face?”

  “This is my regular face.”

  Alex pushed out in front of him, barring his way. “Nope. That’s a pout. Come on, what’s wrong?”

  “I told you, it’s nothing.” He sat down on the porch swing to unlace his boots. Alex plopped down next to him, jouncing the swing on its chains.

  “Maybe it’s Jack Douglas. He’s back in town, right?” He elbowed Will in the ribs. Will shrugged him off.

  “Yeah, he’s around. But him and Serena, that’s none of my business.”

  Alex made a humming sound. “Maybe, maybe not. I hear he’s been bothering you, hanging around the clinic.”

  “He dropped by,” said Will. “But I told him where to stick it, and he hasn’t been back.”

  “You’d let me know, wouldn’t you? If you had a problem?”

  Will huffed out white breath. “Sure. Yeah. I’d tell you. But there’s no problem here.” He bent to untie his laces and Alex got up.

  “She’s a good woman,” he said. “If I was in your shoes, I’d want to fight for her, but I guess you know best.”

  Will sat back, frustrated, and watched Alex march off. Of course he’d fight for Serena, if it was just him and Jack. But with the kids in the picture, what could he do? He and Serena had shared an enchanted few weeks. She and Jack had built a life together, something real, with deep roots. Had Will’s time with Serena been too good to be true? Thinking on it now, it felt like a dream—a sweet dream, a tempting one—but it was time to wake up.