“My God, Emma. You didn’t take away my choices. I chose you.”

“When you saw Sydney again, didn’t you think about what could have been? Didn’t you compare her to me? Didn’t you think for just a moment what your life would have been like without me?”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, sounding honestly confused. “I haven’t spared her more than a moment’s thought in ten years. And barely that since she’s been back. But you keep bringing her up. You think that her being back has changed things. But it hasn’t changed anything for me.”

“Oh,” she said, turning her face away to wipe under her eyes, where tears were pooling, threatening to fall.

He hooked a finger under her chin and made her look at him. “I wouldn’t change a thing, Emma. I have a great life with you. You are a joy and a wonder to me, every single day. You make me laugh, you make me think, you make me hot. There are times when you confuse the hell out of me, but it’s a pleasure to wake up to you in the mornings, to come home to you and the boys in the evening. I am the luckiest man in the world. I love you so much, more than I thought it was possible to love another human being.”

“Sydney—”

“No!” he said harshly, dropping his hand. “No. Don’t start that again. What have I ever done to make you think I regretted my choice? I’ve spent days trying to figure out how I could have prevented this from happening, but you know what I realized? This isn’t between me and you. This is between you and Sydney. I also suspect this might be between you and your mother. I love you. I don’t love Sydney. I want a life with you. I don’t want a life with Sydney. We’re not those people anymore.” He closed the yearbook in front of him, closing the book on childhood dreams of football stardom and backpacking through France. “At least I’m not that person anymore.”

She put her hands on his leg, high on his leg because that was who she was and she couldn’t help herself. “I don’t want to be that person, Hunter John. I really don’t.”

His eyes searched her face. “I think she’s here to stay, Emma.”

“I think so too.”

“I mean in town,” he said. “Not in our lives.”

“Oh.”

He shook his head. “Try, Emma. That’s all I’m asking.”

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER

13

Fred sat at his desk in his office, staring at the mango splitter in front of him.

What did it mean?

James liked mangoes. This could mean that Fred was supposed to call him and…invite him to eat fruit?

Why couldn’t this have been clearer?

Why couldn’t it have come earlier?