Prologue
A few months ago
Sophia huffed and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She set the box down on the kitchen counter, spun around to face Darren, and placed both hands on her hips. “Why do you have to make this harder than it already is?”
Darren finished taping up the side of the box and glanced up at her, a furrow appearing between his brows. “I’m not trying to make this harder. You’re the one who’s talking about renting out the cottage.”
She frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Well, what else do you suggest we do? It’s better than leaving it empty.”
And she already knew that she wasn’t going to move into the cottage.
Not even for a short amount of time.
There were far too many memories here, too many summers spent out on the back porch playing card games and too many late nights where she and Darren had stayed up in their bed, giggling and laughing like teenagers.
Sophia wasn’t even sure why she’d suggested they pack the place together. Since their divorce two years ago, their relationship had been anything but smooth sailing, owing to the fact that there were still a lot of unresolved feelings between them, but Sophia had believed that Darren had the right to be there, too.
They were his memories as well.
Darren stood up, wiped his hands on the back of his jeans, and fixed his gray eyes on hers. “I think it would be better to leave it empty, actually.”
“You can’t preserve it like some kind of shrine,” Sophie replied with a shake of her head. “Anyway, it’s just until I figure out what to do next.”
Darren frowned. “You’re not honestly considering that guy’s offer to sell, are you? He’ll level the place and build some stupid condo.”
Sophia broke eye contact and cleared her throat. “Maybe it would be for the best. I haven’t used this cottage in years.”
Darren exhaled. “You’re not the only one having a hard time with this, Soph. I love this place, too.”
They both had since the minute her father gifted her the place for their tenth anniversary. Situated in the middle of Falmouth, atop a gentle cliff, the brick cottage had always been something of a refuge for them, particularly when they wanted to get away from the routine of their everyday life in Provincetown. While a part of her dreaded the thought of having someone else walk the same halls and invade their sacred space, she had no idea what else she was meant to do with the place.
Because she knew she couldn’t keep it, not when ghosts of what could’ve been lingered around every corner. Even now, she was beginning to regret asking Darren to come out and help her pack up the rest of their things. In the two years since their divorce, they’d gotten a lot better at being in the same roomwithout it turning into a fight, but there were still days when it was hard.
Like today.
Sophia could barely stand in the room with him, especially not in the cottage. Each minute in his presence brought it all back, every smile, every kiss, every whispered promise that never saw the light of day.
With a slight shake of her head, Sophia pushed the thoughts away and returned to the box in the middle of the open-floor kitchen. Wordlessly, she set it down on the other side of the counter and rummaged through it. When she was done, she picked up her marker, labeled the box, and took a step back.
She felt Darren’s eyes on her the whole time.
Would things ever be stable between them?
“How about we rent it out for a little while until we decide what we’re going to do?”
Sophia wheeled around to face him, a lump rising in the back of her throat. “Okay.”
Darren nodded, mostly to himself. “I’ll ask around and see what I can come up with.”
In silence, they finished packing the rest of the cottage, dancing around each other as they did. When they were finished, Sophia was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and her heart hadn’t stopped thudding painfully in her ex’s presence. Darren, on the other hand, didn’t look the least bit fazed in her presence. On the contrary, he looked completely in his element, in a shirt that showed off his broad shoulders and a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips.
He still gave her an odd little twinge in her stomach, even after being apart for two years.
Sophia wondered if she was ever not going to be in love with her ex.
“I’ve got to get going because I’ve got my shift in a few hours,” Darren announced after carrying a few of the boxes out to his car. “I’ll drop these off at the house before I head out.”
Without looking at him, Sophia brushed past, carrying her own box out to the car. “I can ask Ian to stop by.”
