After You

I had the happily ever after . . . until it was gone.

Three became two. And I was alone.

Our time—my time—was over. Alone was the right way to be. The only way. Life was me, my son, and my memories. Until the day I met someone who turned my lonely existence upside down.

This man made me smile, made me laugh, made me ache for his touch.

But I couldn’t.

He shouldn’t awaken feelings I resolved to bury with my husband. But he did.

I couldn’t let his presence make my heart race. I couldn’t let him into our little world, where he fit so perfectly. I couldn’t want Nick.

But I did.

I rescued people.

My family relied on me to lend a hand. Everyone thought of me as the fixer, but no one had the first clue how to fix me. Until Ellie.

The freckled beauty’s sorrow was like a well-worn shirt—easy and familiar, difficult to part with—and she wore it comfortably. And though I was hers from the moment our eyes first met, she’d never be mine. I loved her in the here and now, but how did I compete with a ghost?

How can there ever be anyone After You?