The Winner Takes It All. Alison Roberts

cheery love song played on the radio. The upbeat tempo was the antithesis of how he felt. He fought the urge to press the power switch so the music would stop.

      “I’m glad you found the place you belong,” Sarah said.

      “Hood Hamlet is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.” He remembered the list he’d put together of places they could live after he finished his residency. Portland had been near the top because of the Cascades Volcano Observatory in nearby Vancouver, Washington, but he’d never considered Mount Hood. And wouldn’t have if they’d stayed together. “The only drawback is everyone wants to know everybody’s business.”

      She clucked her tongue. “Typical small town.”

      “I sometimes forget how small.”

      “Does that mean people are going to be talking about us?” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “They already are.”

      “Why is that?”

      Cullen shouldn’t have said anything. His stomach roiled.

      “Why?” Her voice rose.

      His palms sweated. He wiped one on his jeans. “No one in Hood Hamlet knew I was married until your accident.”

      Her mouth gaped. She closed it. “Why didn’t you tell them?”

      He didn’t want to admit he’d been nursing a wound so deep when he arrived in town he wasn’t sure he would recover. But he had. And he was doing fine until she’d crashed back into his world. “You were no longer a part of my life. I could start over in Hood Hamlet with a clean slate once the divorce was finalized.”

      The color drained from her face. Hurt clouded her eyes. “You pretended to be single.”

      Her tone and stiff posture put him on the defensive. “Not intentionally.”

      She turned toward the window.

      “Hey, I’m not the bad guy here.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t forget you’re the one who brought up a divorce.”

      “True, but you agreed,” she countered. “And I didn’t move to a new town and act like I was single.”

      “I didn’t act that way, either,” he explained.

      She stared at her cast with a downtrodden gaze. “Sure you didn’t.”

      “I didn’t.” Her reaction surprised him. They’d been separated and hadn’t seen each other for almost a year. Divorce was a mere formality. “What were people supposed to think? I moved to Hood Hamlet alone. I wasn’t wearing a wedding band. No one asked if I’d been married, so I saw no a reason to tell them.”

      Sarah had grasped her milk shake so hard she’d put a dent in the cup. “If they had asked?”

      Not carrying around the baggage of a failed marriage had helped him move on. He’d never expected anyone, including Sarah, to find out. But by trying to make things easier on himself over this past year, he’d made them harder now. For Sarah, too. “I would have told the truth.”

      She bit her lower lip. “No wonder people are talking.”

      “Friends were with me when you were in ICU. They had questions.”

      She lifted her chin. “What do your friends know about our situation?”

      “Not much.”

      “Cullen…”

      She sounded more annoyed than hurt. But he wouldn’t call that progress. “They know we’ve been separated for almost a year but are together now.”

      She drew back with alarm. “Together?”

      “For now.”

      Her mouth twisted.

      “While you recover,” he clarified.

      “Well, I hope it won’t take me long to get better so you can make your fresh start in Hood Hamlet and I can get back to Mount Baker.”

      At least they agreed on something. “Me, too. Except you can’t rush through your recovery. If you focus on one day at a time, you’ll get to where you’re supposed to be.”

      And so would he.

      Then they could both get on with their lives separately.

      Cullen couldn’t wait for that to happen.

      Sarah couldn’t wait to arrive in Hood Hamlet. The drive had been uncomfortable and painful to her injuries, but also to her heart. She couldn’t change what had happened with Cullen. She could only learn from her mistakes and move forward with her life. That was what she needed to do. He already seemed to have done that. She hated that knowing he’d moved on twisted up her insides.

      She stared out the truck’s window. The highway snaked up Mount Hood, giving panoramic views of the tree-covered mountainside. The dark green of the pines contrasted with the cornflower-blue sky. Breathtaking. She couldn’t get Cullen’s image out of her head.

      He’d shaved, removing the sexy stubble from his face. But he still looked totally hot, with the strong profile she knew by heart, warm blue eyes fringed by thick dark lashes that danced with laughter and lush lips perfect for kisses.

      Had been perfect. Past tense.

      A ballad played on the radio. The lyrics spoke of heartbreak and loneliness, two things she was familiar with.

      But Sarah knew she and Cullen were better off apart. He’d found the place he belonged—Hood Hamlet. She’d never had that, not even when they’d lived together. Once she finished her postdoc she would keep looking until she found the haven she’d been searching for her whole life.

      After a childhood of being shuttled between parents and stepparents as if she were a smelly dog no one wanted, she didn’t need much. Nothing big and fancy, just a place where she belonged and mattered. Where she was loved.

      She’d thought she found that with Cullen, but she’d been wrong. After a few months of marriage she’d seen the familiar signs. But she was older and wiser and knew what was going to happen. Only, this time she didn’t have to wait to be shuffled off and abandoned. She could be the one to leave before that happened.

      Cullen touched her forearm. “Sarah…”

      She jumped. The seat belt kept her in place, but her cast hit the door with a thud.

      “You okay?” he asked.

      Anxiety rose like the pressure building inside Yellowstone’s Old Faithful. But Sarah couldn’t afford to erupt. She swallowed around the caldera-size lump in her throat. The stronger she appeared, the more in control, the sooner she could return to Bellingham and work. She nodded, afraid her voice might quiver like her insides.

      “We’re coming into Hood Hamlet,” he said.

      He flicked on the left-hand blinker. The traffic heading west slowed. He turned onto a wide street. A gas station and convenience store sat on one corner, and trees lined the left side of the road, the treetops glistening in the sun. A short distance away she saw the peaks of roofs.

      She didn’t believe in magic, but anticipation built over seeing this town Cullen called home.

      The truck rounded a curve. Hood Hamlet came into view. Surprise washed over her. It was lovely. Picture-book perfect. Sarah could almost imagine herself in the Swiss Alps, not the Cascades, due to the architecture of the buildings.

      “Welcome to Hood Hamlet.” Cullen’s voice held a note of reverence she understood now. No wonder he wanted to live here.

      An Alpine-looking inn resembled a life-size four-story gingerbread house. A vacancy sign out front swayed from a wood post. Flowers bloomed in planters hung beneath each of the wood-framed windows and from baskets fastened on wood rafters. “It’s so quaint.”

      They