Page 203 of Ewan

“Just so you know,” I say, feeling like my heart is breaking with every word I push out. “I like Ezra. And I love little Colley. And I get along with Elisa, although she can be overbearing at times. I don’t want to lose my job. And no matter how this story unfolds or comes to an end, I count on you to keep our story a secret. I can’t ask Ezra to keep his mouth shut, but you can. I hope you’ll do the right thing by him and me.”

With that, I look around, suddenly feeling stranded.

“The cake is in the fridge. You make up an explanation for Ezra. I’ll go upstairs, pack my things, and let myself out. It was nice meeting you,” I say, and although I hesitate for a moment, I pull closer to him, push onto my toes, and kiss his cheek.

“Goodbye, Ewan.”

40

SCARLETT

January

“Where doyou want me to put it, Miss Scarlett?”

I lift my gaze from my desk and take in the huge, framed picture of Ewan and me, him wearing a Santa costume and me looking like a plaything, role-playing as a schoolteacher.

A sharp ache slices through the soft organ beating in my chest.

The janitor awaits my answer.

Normally, he should dispose of it, but since it’s something that someone might be asking about, I breathe a clipped sigh and point outside.

“Take it to the storage room. No one needs that anymore. Put it next to the Christmas decorations,” I suggest.

“All right, ma’am.”

“You can close the door.”

“Sure.”

The man does that, and I lean back in my seat before swiveling with my chair and looking out the window.

All I see is fog and snow with faint lights peeking through the winter’s fingers.

It’s been three long weeks.

The longest weeks of my life.

The dreariest and most confusing.

The day I returned from Florida proved to be a fork in the road.

Everything looked perfect. Aside from grappling with uncertainty, I didn’t expect anything major to happen and put things in perspective.

In hindsight, Ewan’s son showing up unexpectedly played such a pivotal role in how our story unraveled, but it wasn’t his mere existence that brought everything to a halt.

He just tipped the scale.

I hadn’t even realized that all my inquiries about Ewan’s life, the uncertainty nipping at my edges, and him picking up that place to spend Christmas with me were all clear signs that we had entered a different stage.

I don’t know how aware he was about all that––I know I wasn’t.

I didn’t realize that my exaggerated reaction––leaving his house and needing more time to figure things out for myself––had little to do with finding out he had a son and more to do with not knowing where we were headed.

Sure, we needed to go through a few more steps and figure things out, but Ezra’s showing up that night erased that possibility, throwing everything into a tailspin.

Ewan knew I was mad and did the right thing by not trying to convince me to stay and talk things out.

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