He and Ella were not going to get back together. Ever. And if Ella had given Chloe any reason to suspect differently...

For a second, Brett felt a tiny flutter of the unfamiliar inside him.

And then...nothing. Just like him and Ella. He was going to have to make certain that she understood that. Unequivocally.

Though, after the way he’d reacted to her miraculous pregnancy—with no sign of positive emotion at all—he found it hard to believe Ella would ever want a relationship with him again.

Still, to be safe, no more backhanded swim invitations. Or visits to his house.

“I’m here about Chloe,” Brett said when he finally got the bartender’s attention and had his last beer on the way. He had another hour before he had to board his flight.

Jeff’s frown, his stiffening, was instantaneous.

“What’s wrong? How was she when you saw her? How was Cody?”

“Chloe’s fine. She looked good. A bit tired, maybe, but good. I was glad to see her. Four years is a long time. And Cody, you did good there, my friend. That boy’s his daddy all over again.”

Brett stopped himself before talking about a future golfer or anything else Cody might be or do when he realized that going on about the kid would only make it harder for Jeff to be apart from him.

“So what’s up? Chloe seemed fine the last time I talked to her,” Jeff said. “She was in pretty good spirits. Said she’d been cooking for some people and that she’d enjoyed it. Must have had some kind of gathering wherever she’s staying.”

“When I called to tell you I’d seen her, it was so that you’d know she was fine and leave her alone for a bit so she can get herself figured out and get back to you.”

“I know.” He bowed his head and then looked back up at Brett. “And I’m grateful. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on, and then you show up and go see her for me... It made all the difference...I can’t tell you how much... Anyway, thanks.”

Brett’s instincts for weeding out fakers was honed to the hilt. And there was no doubting the sincerity in Jeff’s words.

“How many times have you two talked in the past couple days?”

With both hands on his glass, Jeff looked down into his beer. “I don’t know. Too many, I’m sure. I mean, you’re right. Her being gone isn’t going to do whatever it’s supposed to do if we talk like we always do. I get that. But I miss her and...”

He looked over at Brett. “What if she decides that she likes her new life better than the one we shared? I want her to know that I’m willing to make changes if need be. I can work anywhere. If she wants to leave Palm Desert, or...you know, I’m open. I need her to know that.”

Brett had made his assessment. Jeff was a lovesick man who needed his wife by his side. Not some stalker putting pressure on the woman who’d dared think she could leave him. He showed no signs of being angry with Chloe.

On the contrary, he was a husband who was willing to do whatever it took to keep his wife happy.

The type of husband Brett had planned to be.

“I just wish I could see her,” Jeff said. “If she needs her time away, then she does, and I’m not going to ask her to come home before she’s ready. That wouldn’t be good for either of us. But not seeing her at all, and having our last memory together being with angry words between us—words I can’t get out of my head...”

Ella hadn’t spoken with Jeff. Because Jeff wouldn’t put her in the middle. She had only Chloe’s side to go on. She couldn’t see what Brett was seeing.

“Have you asked her for a meeting?”

“Of course. She said no. Based on the fact that she doesn’t want us to be alone together again until she’s sure that things will be better for her when she comes back because it would be too hard for her to leave again.”

“Makes sense. And also sounds like she’s missing you as much as you’re missing her.”

“Yeah.” Jeff grinned. “I read it the same way,” he said.

“So maybe it would be in your best interest to quit calling, just leave her alone and give her a chance to really miss you.”

Jeff frowned. “I don’t like the feel of that. I don’t even know where she is. At least when we talk there’s some connection. We aren’t separated, Brett. We’re married. Husband and wife. Besides, Cody’s birthday is coming up. He’s only two. I don’t want him forgetting his daddy, or thinking I don’t care enough to wish him happy birthday.”

But if, just if, a woman needed to break the mental manipulation she was experiencing from an abusive spouse...if she needed time to free her mind from his influence...

He might not visit The Lemonade Stand, but he knew the rhetoric. He’d been through enough counseling in his lifetime to be fully versed.

Not that he was changing his mind about Jeff and Chloe, starting to think that there could be some truth to the assertions of abuse. There wasn’t. It was impossible.

But if Chloe felt as though she was losing herself to him, finding herself too dependent on him—it could happen with Jeff in his high-powered job and her being a stay-at-home mom—then she could very well need some time completely separate from his influence in order to find her own strengths.

It could be that the only way to help Jeff, to get his friend’s wife and son back home with him, was to help Chloe have time away from him.

Ella’s plan, but with a different spin. The separation wasn’t because Jeff had to get well, but because Chloe did.

But Cody’s birthday...Jeff had a good point there. If he wanted to, he could press things with Chloe and force her to let him have equal access to their son.

He’d done nothing wrong. Didn’t deserve not to see his own son.

Used to sitting at board tables where quick thinking was paramount, used to making important decisions on his own, Brett said, “I’ve got an idea. How about if Ella and I chaperone a meeting between you and Chloe and Cody someplace neutral for a birthday celebration? And then, afterward, after you’ve had time to make a good memory to replace the bad one she left on, you agree to give her complete silence for a time.”

Let Jeff see his family, have time with them to assure him that they were well and still were his family, in exchange for total silence between him and them for a period of time afterward.

And maybe, if they were extremely lucky, Chloe would have a moment of clarity when they were all together and no longer need the time apart.

And Chloe and Jeff, seeing him and Ella together, would understand that there was going to be no reunion between them.

Logistics played themselves through his mind—the challenges first. Like convincing Ella that this was a good idea...

“You’d do that?” Jeff was saying, leaning on the bar’s round high-top table, focused on Brett. “You’d be willing to spend time with Ella? From the little she’s said, up until now you wouldn’t see her at all.”

“You were there for me at my crossroads,” Brett said, meeting the other man’s gaze with difficulty. He and Jeff had had some emotionally sloppy moments, back when they’d been kids and Brett had been pretty messed up. But they weren’t kids anymore. “If not for you, I don’t know that I’d have stayed in school, much less graduated. I could’ve ended up a drunk just like my old man.”

“You didn’t drink any more than the rest of us.”

He’d never drunk at all until that first year in college. Not while Livia was alive. And he was living at home watching out for her and their mother.

“I owe you,” Brett said now, needing not to get lost in memories that he could ill afford. “And it’s not like she and I would have to interact personally.” He was assuring himself as much as he was Jeff. “You and Chloe and Cody will be there the whole time.”

“I know Ella would do it,” Jeff said. “My sister doesn’t know how to say no to me, which is why I’m always so careful not to put things on her.”