With a toddler sleeping in a porta-crib close by.

“You’ve been thinking...” Jeff held the same beer he’d had when he’d come out. It was still mostly full.

“Yeah, I’m wondering if the problem is that Chloe needs to go back to work. She’s extra sensitive right now, we know that. So maybe, without even realizing it, she’s a bit jealous that you’re out working every day while she’s at home. There’s no question that the work she’s doing is valuable, but she’s not getting outside validation from those who don’t love her. Maybe she sees her chances of having her own restaurant sliding further away.” He was on a roll. And was experiencing the first couple minutes that hadn’t been uncomfortable in the last several hours. “Ella was talking about how happy Chloe seems to be, working...”

“Chloe’s working?” Jeff’s smile turned into an immediate frown.

And Brett caught himself.

“Just volunteering. In a kitchen for people down on their luck.” He quickly improvised while sticking with a semblance of the truth.

“She’s in LA, isn’t she? With those college friends of hers. Her sorority sisters. I had a feeling that’s where she’d gone...” Jeff was smiling again. Apparently approving of the sisters.

Brett couldn’t answer the question.

Jeff didn’t seem to take offense as he continued. “Anyway, no, I mean, maybe that’s part of it and I’ll certainly take it up with her, but I still think she’s struggling with some kind of emotional phase. And now I’m pretty certain that there’s something else going on, too. At least from what she hinted at today.”

“What did she hint at?”

“I just have this hunch that Chloe is trying to get you and Ella back together.”

For the first time since Ella had contacted him, Brett had doubts where Jeff was concerned.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. It’s crazy, I know, but think about it. She adores you both. Ella especially. And, I hate to say it, but you have no idea how close my sister came to breaking down completely after you left. Maybe if she hadn’t lost the baby, too, I don’t know...” Jeff finally took a drink of his beer. A long one. “And really, it’s water under the bridge. Don’t get me wrong. Chloe clearly wanted to get my attention. What I said that last night, about her burdening me with her crap—” The other man stopped. Swallowed. “It was unforgivable. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes...”

Brett would have liked to save Jeff from himself, but this time, he couldn’t. So he did what guys did in situations like these and sipped his beer instead.

“I’m just wondering now, though, if this time with her sorority sisters—I’m pretty sure that’s where she’s staying because it’s something she’s been talking about doing for months—has given her another goal, too.”

“Another goal.” He watched his friend, seriously contemplating the idea that Jeff was hiding from his own truth. The man was facing the fact that his wife would be leaving him again in the morning and he was smiling.

Jeff nodded.

“What goal would that be?” Brett was almost afraid to ask.

“Keeping you and Ella in the same room long enough for you to figure out how much you love and need Ella.”

“That’s ludicrous...”

“No, think about it. She goes to to LA but calls Ella to let her know where she is. Ella then calls you, you come see me and suddenly she sees her family whole again...”

Brett knew that Chloe wasn’t in LA. But the sorority sister part wasn’t really necessary to the plan Jeff was laying out...

“She gets to teach me the lesson I most definitely needed to learn. Has some time to come to grips with her own emotions and, in the midst of all that, sees that she can help you and Ella, too...”

Brett shook his head, came up with nothing to say and took another sip of his beer.

“Ella’s getting older,” Jeff said now, completely serious. “And as much as she’s made to be a mother, her biological clock’s ticking away. With everything she has to go through to conceive, Chloe says Ella’s adamant about never trying to have a baby again.”

That he hadn’t known. The part about never trying again. The knowledge was like another nail on the coffin that held his marriage. Had he made the fertility treatments and eventual pregnancy so hard on her, with his coldness and his inability to celebrate the eventual pregnancy, that she couldn’t face the thought of going through it all again?

“Anyway, she’s not even dating, and Chloe’s certain that she never will because Ella’s heart isn’t hers to give away. It’s yours.”

No. That just wasn’t true.

Wasn’t? Or he didn’t want it to be?

He could control his own emotions. His own heart.

He couldn’t control hers.

Still... “Chloe has seen me and Ella. She knows there’s no chance of us getting back together,” he said.

“It’s far-fetched, I agree. But I know for certain that she staged that time with the two of you in the boat with Cody. I was heading up front to watch Cody and she pulled me back. Wanted me to give you two time alone with him.”

Chloe really thought she could get him and Ella back together?

The whole idea was preposterous.

And Jeff was completely side-stepping the fact that his wife was flinging accusations—serious allegations—around that could put him in a certainly uncomfortable and possibly life-damaging situation.

A memory of the report he’d relayed to Ella sprang to mind, the one pertaining to a fifteen-year-old sister accusing her older brother...

Sometimes people were emotionally confused. Not thinking clearly.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Jeff said. “I think Chloe left for the exact reasons she says she did. I was angry and acted out of turn. With everything else she’s obviously going through, it was too much for her. But then you and Ella came to the rescue and maybe she’s seen an added benefit to our time apart.”

Good God, could Jeff be right? Or was he really in denial as Ella thought? And so far gone that he’d concoct a seemingly positive reason for his wife’s continued absence.

Unless...could it be the way Jeff thought? That Chloe was struggling, but could also see an upside to her time with Ella?

Was she trying to help Ella while she helped herself?

Did Ella know?

She couldn’t possibly know.

She didn’t want him.

She’d made that quite clear.

He’d made certain she wouldn’t.

She’d hardly looked at or spoken to him all day.

“So, will you talk to my sister and get her off Chloe’s back so I can have a night with my wife? I swear, I’ll do all I can to get the truth out of her and hand it to you on a plate for breakfast.”

“I don’t expect you to make me breakfast,” Brett said, his mind reeling. “But yes, because I owe you and want your family home with you and happy, I’ll talk to Ella.”

After all, he was a man experienced at digging his own grave.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ELLA COULDN’T SLEEP. She’d never slept in a room with a little one and, although she needed to toss and turn because she couldn’t get comfortable, she lay stiffly, afraid of waking Cody.

She couldn’t leave the room because Brett was right outside her door, sleeping on the couch in the living room. The only other room in the cabin, other than a bathroom and the bedroom currently occupied by her brother and sister-in-law.

And God, she hoped Chloe wasn’t making a mistake. Would she, after spending a night in her husband’s arms, be strong enough to leave him in the morning?

Chloe had said that, on the contrary, it would be easier to leave him if she had that bonding to hold on to. If they could share some kind of personal closeness in the midst of the turmoil.

She’d also said that she hoped sleeping with her would remind Jeff how valuable their relationship was to both of them, how much they loved each other and maybe spur him to seek help more quickly. She’d thought lovemaking would bring him to his senses.