She grins up at me, completely guilt-free. “I wondered if I’d run into you.”
I wish I’d thought this far ahead. I wouldn’t have come. Or at least I wouldn’t have made a fool of myself by playing with little kids.
She crosses her arms and tilts her head. “You know, I looked for you at the airport last month too. There was this cute little flight attendant with a baby voice who kept yelling ‘Stuart’ up an escalator, and for some reason I thought she might have been yelling your last name. Crazy, huh?”
“Crazy.” What’s crazy is that at one point in my life, I’d hoped seeing me with the immature flight attendant would make Joey jealous. I look around for her boyfriend, expecting my own jealousy to clench my stomach the way it used to, but I find neither. “Who are you here with?”
“Oh, my sister.” Joey points to an older, pregnant version of herself sitting on a nearby bench. “She said she needed to give her feet a break, but I think she wanted to give us space.”
I look from her sister back to her face. She’s peering up at me openly. Kindly. After all we’ve been through. It’s even more disorienting than my ride down the hill.
“Uh ... Who areyouwith?” She looks around, and I wonder if she’s looking for a woman. Hopefully, not for the flight attendant who loves baby talk.
“I’m here alone.” But wait. I’m not. I’m with an eight-year-old kid I should be watching. I glance over to find Brady picking up his sled—thank goodness. “I mean, I’m with my brother.”
Her mouth hangs open. “Your what?”
“Not bad,” Brady calls. “But it’s my turn now.” He races back up the hill.
“Yeah.” I chuckle. This is definitely not how I ever imagined seeing Joey again would go. “Dad married Sarah. I’ve got three brothers now. They ganged up on me in a wicked game of Spoons, but I beat them in the snowball fight.”
She smiles and nods. “So you’re doing well then. I’m glad.”
Her words sting like hot water after an ice bath. Because I don’t thinkI’ve ever wished her well. “What about you?” I ask. Though I really want to know about her new guy.
She relaxes. “I received another promotion at work. And I’m starting a new outreach to help kids whose parents are homeless. That’s why I was at the airport. I flew to LA for some training.”
My eyebrows pinch together. “But Nick was with you.” Oops.
Her chin lifts and turns away, though her eyes remain on me. “So thatwasyou ... Stuart?”
“Not the point.” I brush off her embarrassing deduction. “I saw you with Nick, and it confirmed my suspicions that you two had gotten together before the two of us ended. I assumed you were on vacation. But you weren’t ...” My voice faces away as I make deductions of my own.
She shakes her head. “We weren’t.”
If she’s telling the truth, this changes everything. “And you’re not together now?”
She shrugs. “He’s engaged to someone else. We’ve never been more than coworkers.”
I study her guileless expression. She doesn’t have a reason to lie to me now. Which means I accused her of cheating and broke off our engagement for no reason. “You spent a lot of time together,” I argue.
She nods. “With you gone at pilot training, I threw myself into my career. And he worked with me.”
“You ...” I rewind my memories to view them from a different perception. “You were so happy.”
She nods. “I found purpose.”
I run a hand over my head. “I’m an idiot.” Or more accurately, my misbelief had been based on a past experience rather than reality. Since my mom had cheated on my dad, I’d apparently expected the same from other women. Because of that, I’d made our whole relationship about me.
She offers a pinched but understanding smile. “As a social worker, can I give you my professional opinion?”
Oh boy. I’ve gone from fiancé to client. But maybe I’d needed this therapy to begin with. If I still want to have a family in the future, I should work on me out of love for them. “I would, actually.”
Her eyes glisten with approval. “This is probably going to be harder on me than on you.” She licks her lips. “When we first met, you were my world. I wasn’t happy unless I was with you—making you happy.”
I tilt my head. Because this is one of the things I’d really appreciated about her in the beginning. But after my initial conversation with Claire over the difference between being a people pleaser and doing what’s best for someone, I have to admit that simply existing to make someone else happy is not healthy.
“When you left for training, I was really lonely.”
