‘‘First you weren’t old enough,’’ He pushed his hand through his hair, knowing that that was an evasion, an excuse, and not the core of it. He couldn’t tell her the core of it. ‘‘And I wasn’t real comfortable having the kind of thoughts and feelings for you I was having when you were still in high school.’’

She could have leaped up on the bed and danced. ‘‘Since I was in high school? All this time?’’

‘‘Yeah, all this time. Then you were in love with somebody else, so I didn’t have any right to feel anything but friendship.’’

She let out a careful breath, because it would be a confession that shamed her. ‘‘I was never in love with anybody else. It was always you.’’

‘‘Jack—’’

‘‘I never loved him, and everything that went wrong between us was more my fault than his. I let him be the first man to touch me because I never thought you would. And about the time I realized how foolish that was, I was pregnant.’’

‘‘You can’t say it was your fault.’’

‘‘Yes, I can.’’ To keep her hands busy, she began to tidy the bed. ‘‘I knew he wasn’t in love with me, but I married him because I was afraid not to. And for a while I was ashamed, angry and ashamed.’’ She lifted a pillow, tucked it into its case. ‘‘Until one night when I was lying in bed thinking my life was over, and I felt this fluttering inside me.’’

She closed her eyes, pressed the pillow against her. ‘‘I felt Aubrey, and it was so . . . so huge, that little flutter, that I wasn’t ashamed or angry anymore. Jack gave me that.’’ She opened her eyes again and carefully laid the pillow on the bed. ‘‘I’m grateful to him, and I don’t blame him for leaving. He never felt that flutter. Aubrey was never real to him.’’

‘‘He was a coward, and worse, for leaving you weeks before the baby was born.’’

‘‘Maybe, but I was a coward, and worse, for being with him, for marrying him when I never had a fraction of the feeling for him that I did for you.’’

‘‘You’re the bravest woman I know, Grace.’’

‘‘It’s easy to be brave when you have a child depending on you. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that if I made a mistake, it was in going so long without letting you know I loved you. Whatever feelings you have for me, Ethan, are more than I ever thought you would have. And that’s enough.’’

‘‘I’ve been in love with you for the best part of ten years, and it’s still not enough.’’