“Oh,” Jenny said uncertainly.
“She called and broke up with me,” Erik added. “Just before I spotted you.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jenny said, horrified.
“She was right to do it,” Erik sighed, his green eyes on the road in front of them. “I think we liked the idea of being a couple more than we actually liked each other. Truth be told, I’m pretty sure we never even got to know each other well enough to be getting married.”
“Wow,” Jenny said, taking it in.
“Look, I’m really sorry you came all the way out here for a wedding that isn’t happening,” Erik said, glancing over at her. “Let me make it up to you. I can show you guys the town and everything.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Jenny said. “But please don’t worry about us. I’ll bet you have enough going on.”
Erik sighed again and shook his head.
“It must be hard to think about telling people,” she said softly. “But I’m sure your friends will understand.”
“It’s not just my friends,” Erik said darkly. “I run a veterans center now. And the troops were really looking forward to the wedding. They were going to be helping out with the ceremony and the reception. I think… actually, Iknowthat for some of them it’s been a really meaningful event, something to look forward to. The holidays can be a tough time when you’re on your own.”
Jenny nodded. She could attest to that herself, and she hadn’t just come home from military service.
“That’s really sad,” Gael piped up from the back seat.
Jenny glanced back at him, a little surprised that he was paying attention when she was sure he was really sleepy, but not a bit surprised by his compassionate reaction.
“Yeah,” Erik said, glancing in the rearview mirror to nod to the boy. “We’ve all got each other, so they’ll be okay. But I’m still not looking forward to telling them.”
They settled into silence. As “Last Christmas” began to play on the radio, Jenny couldn’t help studying Erik’s face in the dim glow of the oncoming headlights. His jaw was set, like he was so determined not to let this break him or hurt his people that he couldn’t relax a single muscle.
He’d said that his fiancée was right to break things off. And now Jenny could see why. He was more emotional talking about the other veterans than he was talking about his ex.
What kind of person married someone they didn’t love?
But that was a judgmental thought, and she was immediately ashamed of herself for thinking it. Who was she to judge his relationship when she hadn’t gone on a single date since losing Jason?
Besides, she had agreed to bring a child into herhome even though she had never met him. There hadn’t been a shadow of doubt in her heart that Gael would become the most important person in her life, and that had turned out to be one-hundred-percent true.
She glanced in the back seat and smiled at Gael, who was still fully awake, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Jenny watched the landscape speed by and tried to focus her thoughts. They would be arriving at the inn earlier than planned, maybe they would be in time for the dinner Trudy told them that she served each night.
After they got some food in them, she and Gael could make a solid plan about how they wanted to begin the next day. Jenny usually loved a tightly packed schedule, but she had forced herself to simply bring a list of possible activities and let this week play out by ear, with Gael’s moods and preferences guiding their daily choices. Kids liked to move at their own pace, and she was fine following along with that.
“What have you been up to?” Erik asked when they had been driving a little while more.
She smiled and caught him up on her teaching job and her new gig doing online tutoring, and then asked about his service.
It was incredible to hear about all the places he’d been, and even more wonderful to know that eventhough he was living a civilian life now, he was still dedicated to his fellow veterans.
As they talked, Erik pulled off the highway and drove them along winding roads through small rural towns.
“Here we go,” he said at last. “Welcome to Trinity Falls.”
They were moving along a road with larger houses on it. The snow-frosted Victorians and Tudors were strung with holiday lights, and plastic Christmas decorations lit up many of the snowy yards.
“It’s beautiful,” Jenny said, imagining what it would be like to live in one of those peaceful-looking houses.
“The actual town is pretty tiny,” he told her. “But there’s lots of farmland all around it. And soon, the highway will come right past us.”
