Just dinner, he said. No vacation, no hotel, no ex- fiance, no emotional weather emergency. Clare crossed her arms. Are you asking me on a date? Yes, a normal one.
I can try. She smiled despite herself. When? Thursday. That's specific.
You like specific. Clare considered pretending to think. She lasted 2 seconds. Okay. Mason smiled.
Not the careful version. The real one. Clare stepped closer. So, what happens now? I think we go downstairs.
That is aggressively unromantic. I'm nervous. Oh, that changed things. Clare reached for the front of his jacket. Try less.
Mason kissed her. It was brief and warm, slightly awkward because both of them moved in the same direction and corrected at once. Clare laughed against his mouth. Strong start. Still improving.
He kissed her again. Someone cleared their throat. They turned. Lily stood at the end of the hall holding a muffin. I leave for eight minutes.
Clare stepped back. Mason sighed. Lily took a bite. Committee meeting later. The canceled honeymoon had ended badly long before Clare reached Maine.
The trip did not. She finally understood those were two different things. 11 months later, Clare packed for Bar Harbor again. This time she did not bring an itinerary. She brought one emergency charger.
Growth had limits. Her first real date with Mason had happened at a small restaurant four blocks from their building. Lily had not attended. Mason had insisted. Clare had secretly appreciated it.
Their second date ended with Mason admitting he had checked the restaurant's parking situation in advance. Clare told him recovery was not linear. Months passed. Clare learned that Lily liked pancakes slightly burned around the edges and refused to eat bananas unless they were cut diagonally. Mason learned that Clare needed 10 quiet minutes after difficult work calls before she could discuss them.
Clare met Rachel's parents. The evening was warm and uncomfortable and important. Nobody pretended Rachel had never existed. Nobody asked Clare to replace her. That mattered.
Mason met Clare's closest friends and survived 3 hours of questions disguised as casual conversation. He later described it as a structured interrogation. Clare called it brunch. They had their first serious argument in February. Mason withdrew.
Clare followed him into silence for approximately 7 minutes before announcing that they had both already tried avoiding difficult conversations in previous relationships and the reviews were poor. He came back. She'd stayed. They learned. One afternoon, Clare noticed the silver chain was gone.
She said nothing. Weeks later, while helping Lily look for a missing earring, Clare saw Rachel's ring inside a wooden box on Mason's dresser beside photographs, letters, and a movie ticket Lily had saved from years before. Rachel had not disappeared. The ring had simply stopped needing to hang around Mason's neck to prove it. Now, almost a year after the strangest honeymoon in Maine history, Mason parked outside Harbor Light in.
Clare looked at the building, then at him. You're smiling. No, you are. I checked something. Clare narrowed her eyes.