Adam did the window back up, and the vehicle started to pull away.
How many summers had ended this way—the family leaving a few at a time, and Melanie left alone in the lake house to get things cleaned up for the season? How many times had Melanie stood on this step, her heart sad and full and tired and overwhelmed, and knowing that the time was slipping away far too quickly?
She shut the door and looked around the little lake house—the cozy kitchen, the living room that she could finally redecorate if she wanted to, without the fear of it being demolished by a houseful of kids.
And yet...if by some miracle Tilly let her be a grandma to her baby—and at the thought, her heart sped up just a little bit in hopeful anticipation—then she might have little feet in this place again.
If she stayed.
The thought settled around her as she looked around the place. She’d told Tilly that no one could take away their time together, and that was true. No one could erase the fifteen years of her marriage, what it had meant, or where it had failed her. Even if she moved to a new house, those years wouldn’t be erased.
She’d thought that Adam was in the cracks of these walls, but after seeing him today, she realized it wasn’t him in the cracks, after all—it was her. These had been her summers, her relationships, her stepkids, her hopes and her dreams...even her heartbreak. But these walls had absorbed her soul...not Adam’s.
And those last fifteen years has been her marriage, too. There was no going back, only forward. She wouldn’t sell this lake house—she would finally decorate it to her own tastes, and she was going to wake up morning after morning with Blue Lake out her window, a cup of coffee in her hands and a determination to live a life that was true to her own heart. She was going to take those courses and start over.
Melanie pulled out her phone and started a group text to the women of the Second Chance Club.
Do you girls want to come to my place by the lake? We can sit on the deck with a bottle of wine and toast new beginnings. I could use some company.
Her phone started to ping with replies almost immediately.
Renata replied, I can make it. The kids are with their dad for the next two weeks, so I’m completely free.
I need your address and your wine preferences. I’m in. That was Gayle.
You had me at sitting on your deck by the lake. What time? Belle.
There was a pause, and then Angelina’s text came last. Of course! I sense an update is coming? Tell me in person. I’ll be there.
Tears misted her eyes. She’d wanted a fresh start, and she was getting one—with some good girlfriends she didn’t realize she’d needed, and the lake house she hadn’t thought she wanted.
LOGAN TOSSED HIS bag into the back of the pickup truck and glanced at his watch. Graham had sent him a text and his flight was coming in early. As quickly as that, his time here in Mountain Springs was done.
He’d promised that he’d say goodbye to Melanie, and he intended to make good on that. Except this was feeling uncomfortably familiar—his instinct was to avoid those tough emotional situations. Saying goodbye to her was going to be harder than he’d anticipated. But it didn’t have to be a forever goodbye—Denver was only a few hours away. Yet, somehow, he knew whatever had happened here was ending.
The drive around the lake from Mountain Springs Lodge toward Melanie’s lake house was a long one because there wasn’t one direct road that made the loop. But when he finally managed to pull onto the drive that led to Melanie’s place, he felt a surge of relief.
It didn’t make sense. The last time they’d been romantically involved, they’d been teenagers. And now... Was it just that she’d been here for him during his own turbulent time?
He didn’t think so. He wasn’t so easily swept off his feet. And while he was grateful that she’d been here with him, his feelings for her weren’t rooted in something that selfish.
He was supposed to be too old for this attraction. But maybe it was better that he was heading out now, before he did something impetuous that he’d regret. Mel deserved a good guy who wouldn’t disappoint her, and if this trip back to Mountain Springs had shown him anything, it was that he wasn’t that guy. He still had to figure out how he’d messed up his marriage so badly before he let himself get entangled with another woman’s heart. He had to figure out how to stop making his father’s mistakes.
He’s already broken Caroline’s heart, and he couldn’t break Mel’s...again.
Logan pulled into Melanie’s drive and parked between Melanie’s SUV and Tilly’s little sports car. The kitchen curtain flicked, and then the front door opened. Melanie was wearing a pair of jeans now, and a gauzy pink blouse that brought out the color in her cheeks. She was barefoot, and she stood there, waiting for him. This wasn’t going to make saying goodbye any easier.
“Hi,” he said as he got to the door.
“I wasn’t expecting you.” She smiled, though, and she sounded pleased to see him. “If I’d know you were coming, I’d have asked my friends to stop by another evening.”
“You’re expecting company?” he asked.
“In an hour or so. There’s still time.” She stepped back. “Come on in.”
Logan followed her inside, and he noticed that a few things had changed again since he’d been there last—the table was in a different spot and the couches and chairs in the sitting room had been rearranged, too.
“I was going to see if you felt like buying me breakfast tomorrow morning before you left,” she said. “Or... I could buy you breakfast. I’m not overly picky over who pays.”
She was so lovely standing there—her warm gaze meeting his expectantly,
