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yourselves.”
     
    Clare walked with Jack to the parking lot. The feelings generated by what they’d just done left Clare feeling bruised. She was the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind million-dollar home, but all she felt was a gnawing, aching emptiness.
    “Thank you, Jack,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “I know that wasn’t easy for you.”
    He shrugged. “It’s your house. Always was. It was only in my name so I could surprise you with it.”
    When her eyes burned with tears, Clare wanted to swear out loud. Her body had once again betrayed her fierce desire to show him none of what she felt.
    He reached for her hand. “There’s something I need to say to you.”
    Looking up at him, she was stunned to see his eyes had filled, too. “What?” she asked in a whisper.
    He appeared to struggle for the right words and for control of his emotions. “This life of ours, it was taken from me, too, Clare,” he said in a slow, soft tone. “What we had together—it was mine, too, and just because I have Andi now doesn’t mean I don’t mourn what I lost with you. What was stolen from us. I’ve just had a lot more time to get used to being without it than you have. I don’t want you to think I walked away without a single look back, because I didn’t. I couldn’t have.”
    Tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked, brought on by the raw pain she saw on his face.
    “I will always love you.” He wiped away her tears with his thumbs and then wrapped his arms around her. “I needed you to know that.”
    “Jack.” Crying softly, she rested her face on his chest and wallowed in the familiar scent of him. “I don’t know what to do without you and our life together. I sound so pathetic even saying it, but I just don’t know.”
    “You’ll figure it out. I know you will. Go to Vermont. Do what you need to do, and I’ll take care of things here. It’s going to be okay, though. Somehow, someway, we’ll get through this.”
    She reached up to caress his face. “I’ll always love you, too. Maybe if I can make peace with that, I might just be able to find a life for myself without you.”
    He hugged her again. “Then go find some peace.”
     

C hapter 8

    T he next week was a flurry of activity as Clare helped Kate pack and make final preparations for her move to Nashville. Jack’s college friend, Reid Matthews, had come through with an apartment for Kate in the city’s trendy Green Hills neighborhood, which was close to Belmont University where she’d registered for classes.
    Friday morning dawned cold and gray, and the weather forecast called for snow flurries. Clare awoke with a sense of dread. The party was that night, and Kate would be leaving with Jack early the next morning.
    Clare got up to shower and get dressed. In the kitchen, her mother was already sipping a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper.
    “Morning,” Anna said.
    “Anything in the news?”
    “Same old doom and gloom.” Anna pushed the paper aside. Her short gray hair was still damp from the shower. “What time’s the party tonight?”
    “I don’t know.” Clare poured a cup of coffee and looked out at the stormy-looking ocean.
    “We’ll have to ask Kate.”
    “I’m not going.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I talked to Kate about it. She understands.”
    “Really?” Anna crossed her arms, and her bright blue eyes narrowed with displeasure. “What exactly does she understand?”
    “That I don’t feel up to being in the company of her father and his new wife just yet.”
    Anna snorted. “Grow up, Clare. This isn’t about you. This is about your daughter —the daughter who had to celebrate three birthdays without her mother.”
    Stunned by her mother’s outburst, Clare stared at her. “If you’re trying to make me feel guilty, you’re succeeding.”
    “Good. Then you’ll come?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “I’ve tried to mind my own business during all of this, but I can’t sit by and let you do this to