“Exactly.”
They both laughed quietly.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“And she asked me to be something important to her for no reason except that she thought I looked kind.”
Her voice shook.
“Do you know how rare that felt?”
Ethan’s expression softened.
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
Claire wiped beneath one eye.
“I thought I was helping her.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“But she helped me first.”
Ethan didn’t speak.
Claire looked down.
“She gave me somewhere to be that had nothing to do with being impressive.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“She loves you.”
Claire swallowed.
“I love her.”
“I know.”
He said it so quietly that Claire looked up.
They stood only a few feet apart.
Something had been changing between them for months.
Claire had noticed it and ignored it.
Ethan’s texts after Maggie went to bed.
Their conversations on the porch.
The way he remembered how Claire took her coffee.
The way Claire had begun staying ten minutes longer, then twenty, then through dinner.
She had called it friendship because friendship was safe.
Ethan took a breath.
“I need to say something, and I’m worried it could make this complicated.”
Claire’s heart began pounding.
“Then say it carefully.”
He smiled nervously.
“I’m trying.”
He glanced toward Maggie.
“I did not expect any of this.”
“Neither did I.”
“I definitely didn’t expect you.”
Claire’s fingers tightened around the dish towel.
Ethan continued.
