“He’s that guy you met at that dance back before we started dating, isn’t he? I couldn’t think who else you might have known with an accent like that.”

“Yes,” she said, looking at her hands, which were folded in her lap. If she was praying, she wasn’t sure for what.

“I thought he was engaged before.”

“That was a mistake. It wasn’t true.”

She heard him coming closer, felt his presence as he sat down next to her. “Liss, were you—happy to see him?” he asked.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She thought maybe she’d marry Ty on New Year’s, after all, to make this foolishness up to him. What was the point of finishing her cadet nurse training, anyway, if she was just going to move back to Pine Rapids and start a family?

“I love you,” Ty said. “I guess I don’t have to tell you, it was the thought of you that got me back home.”

“I love you, too, Ty.”

“But I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep you here if you’re in love with him,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I’ll have you stay with me just because you feel obligated.”

“Ty?”

“I’m not an idiot, Lissa. I saw the look on your face when you came downstairs. When you saw me was the first time you thought of me. If I hadn’t come out just then, you’d be halfway downtown by now, running after him.”

“No, Ty,” she objected. It sounded so awful, when he put it that way.

“If I wanted to, I guess I could ignore it. He’s gone, right? I win! But I know I’d always wonder. So—tell me.”

She looked up into the soft brown eyes that she had missed so much the past two years. And there was no magic there at all. There was comfort, yes, and even love—but there was no magic. There was nothing at all, compared to what she felt when she looked at Nick. “Oh, Ty,” she whispered.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right.” And, very gently, he unclenched her fist and slid the engagement ring off her finger.

“Ty,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

He clutched the ring in his fist, leaning back from her. “You’d better hurry, or he’ll be gone.”

“Yes. Yes!” She jumped to her feet, grabbed her coat off the coat tree, pulled the door open, and ran out, shoving her arms into her coat as she hurried down the porch steps, her heels clicking noisily, warm tears mixing on her face with the cold rain.

Harry was almost certain he was right, but the question was, how would he prove it? And, even if he could prove it, did he want to? Maybe Nick would leave, and then what would be the point of upsetting everyone?