So what if it felt great to be held and kissed and caressed by a sexy, desirable, nice man. Carl had been all of those things at first, too. Until he wasn’t any of them anymore, and she’d been the last to know. All men were lovely until they got what they wanted, and then their true colors came through.

Except, a tiny voice inside her said, Paul is always amazing with his mom. She’d never seen him be anything other than patient and kind and tolerant of the many inconveniences Marion’s illness brought to his life. Didn’t that say something about who he really was?

When the water began to grow cold, Hope stood to shut it off. She dried herself and put on her warmest robe. Then she went into the kitchen to put a kettle on to boil, hoping a cup of tea would have its usual calming effect. Her nerves were stretched to their limit, the way they’d been for one awful, devastating summer two years ago when her whole life fell apart in spectacular, embarrassing fashion.

Ethan had been old enough to know something awful was happening, but too young to understand the nuances, for which she was grateful. That she was even revisiting that horror was a sign that she’d done the right thing backing off with Paul. But if that were true, why did she ache so badly inside?

Was she doomed to be alone forever because she was too scared to take a chance with someone new? Wow, talk about depressing thoughts. The slam of the screen door jarred her out of those thoughts as Ethan came bounding in, dropping his overnight bag on the floor and kicking off his sneakers.

“What’s for dinner, Mom?”

“Hello to you, too. Don’t I even get a hug?”

He gave her the fastest hug in the history of fast hugs and pulled back. “Why are you wearing a robe in the afternoon?”

“I got stuck in the rain, so I took a shower to warm up.”

“We got stuck, too! We had to run off the beach, but it was so fun. Can Jonah sleep over here next weekend? Can he?”

“Sure.”

“He’s my best friend in the whole world. Well, other than Paul. He’s my bestest friend ever. I wanna go see him and Mrs. Marion.”

Hearing him refer to Paul as his bestest friend ever brought tears to Hope’s eyes.

Thankfully, Ethan was jamming his feet back into his sneakers and didn’t notice her emotional reaction to his innocent, yet heartfelt, statement.

Hope grabbed him by the shoulders to stop him from shooting out the door. “Mrs. Marion is out with her friends, and Paul is at work.”

“It’s a Sunday! He doesn’t work on Sundays, Mom.” The disdainful tone was a sign of things to come in the teenage years.