Chapter 32
Then, she realized something startling–she was smiling. A genuine smile that reached her eyes, something she hadn’t done in what felt like an eternity. In
caught her off guard, this unfamiliar feeling of contentment. She glanced at Matt from the corner of her eye, catching him mid moment as he fiddled with his phone, trying to capture her in the perfect frame with the lighthouse as her backdrop.
“A little more to the right, Itty,” he called out, his tone light, almost playful. She adjusted her position slightly, watching him through the lens of his camera. It was him. The man she loved. The man who had driven her to the brink of despair, yet somehow still held the key to her heart. She was smiling because, after two years of a marriage that had grown cold and distant, she finally felt like she had him back–if only for a moment.
And that only saddened her!
Matt seemed unusually buoyant after their walk on the beach, a noticeable shift in his demeanor that Colette couldn’t quite place. He had slipped his phone onto silent, a rare gesture that did not go unnoticed, and turned on the car radio. As they continued their journey, he hummed along to the tunes, a soft smile playing on his lips. It was as if the weight of the past few weeks had momentarily lifted from his shoulders, leaving him lighter, almost carefree.
As they drove, he asked about her job at the restaurant, the one she had been forced to leave. “I’m sorry you had to leave a job you liked,” he said, his voice laced with genuine sympathy. Colette shot him a surprised look, raising an eyebrow at the unexpected sentiment. Matt caught her expression and laughed, the sound warm and oddly comforting in the small space of the car.
“What? I’m just trying to learn to be a better husband,” he exclaimed, the sincerity in his voice unmistakable.
Her heart slammed against her chest at his words, a mix of hope and despair swirling within her. Why now, Matt? Why Now? When she was finally trying to move on? If this realization had come just a few weeks ago, she would have been the happiest woman on earth. Perhaps still living in the la la land with her husband trying to please him to the best of her abilities. But now? Now, she wasn’t sure if it was too late, if too much damage had already been done. The lingering doubt gnawed at her, refusing to be silenced.
“Itty,” Matt’s voice broke through her thoughts, drawing her back to the present. “If you had the choice to do any job in the world, what would you like to
do?”
Colette paused, the question catching her off guard. She hadn’t allowed herself to dream in a long time, not since the early days when hope still burned brightly in her chest. As a teenager, she had harbored dreams of becoming a lawyer, of working as a senior partner in a big law firm, much like Zoe’s father. The memory of that ambition flickered briefly in her mind, a ghost of the person she once was.
“As a lawyer, I suppose,” she murmured after a moment, her voice barely above a whisper. She felt Matt’s gaze on her, his eyes searching her face as if trying to decode the unspoken words beneath her simple statement. But he didn’t press further, and she didn’t elaborate. The admission had brought long–buried hurts back to the surface, wounds she had tried so hard to keep hidden.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
