“It happened on Christmas Eve.”

Her mother put a hand to her chest. “Goodness. No wonder she looked so lost last night. Nicole is such a sweet person, too. That’s such a shame.”

“I wanted to tell you in case she’s not acting overly excited about Christmas. I didn’t want you to ask any awkward questions of her.” She pointed a finger at her. “And not one word to anyone else.”

“Of course not.”

“And please don’t act weird around her. I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but—”

“I won’t say a word, Abigail. I’m glad you told me. I’ll be extra careful of what I say to her.”

Abby sat down at the breakfast table, taking her coffee with her. “So…how are you?”

“Me? What do you mean?”

“About Dad. Do you want to talk?”

“Oh, honey, I’m okay. I guess.” Her mother sat down too. “I only wish he would have told me how unhappy he was. I mean, I could tell but we just kept going as we were. And he seemed so involved with the resort that I thought everything was okay.”

“He didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“We made that silly promise all those years ago as a means to get us out of Dallas. If he really missed the business so much, he should have said something to me.”

“So you’re still a little pissed about it?”

Her mother took a deep breath. “Yes. But he knows it and we’ve talked. It’s the whole me thinking he was having an affair thing. I mean, in my heart,” she said, touching her chest, “I knew he was seeing someone—the woman at the coffee shop—and I didn’t have the courage to confront him. What does that say about me? How weak must I be?”

“Oh, Mom, don’t do this to yourself. He wasn’t having an affair. You’ve embraced living up here and you’re happy with your hobbies, your friends, the house. Let him have this. You can both be happy then. I mean, I’ve noticed the change in him in just one day. Now that you know, he’s free to express how happy and content he is finally. Last night, he was like a different person.”

“So, I need to let it go?”

“Yes. Besides, you already said you had makeup sex,” she said with a laugh.

“And I said we weren’t going to talk about that.” Her mother leaned closer. “But speaking of sex, you and Nicole look quite taken with each other. Is she a keeper?”