Chapter 3

For five years, Sloane had kept enough travel gear in our garage to leave for a trip with my husband without packing at home.

It took her less than twenty minutes to turn that permanent place in our house into a threat to disappear, and Conrad panicked.

She arrived just after nine.

I heard the garage door open while I was upstairs packing a sweater. By the time I came down, Sloane had already pulled two plastic bins from the shelves.

Conrad stood beside her.

Our beach suitcase was still by the front door.

Across from it, Sloane was emptying the wall she had occupied for years.

Spare goggles. Winter gloves. A helmet. Hiking boots. Wax. Two plastic bins Conrad had labeled for her because, he once said, it was easier when they packed from the same place.

This was what "just a travel partner" looked like after five years. She had a permanent shelf in my home and a permanent seat beside my husband.

Sloane unhooked a pair of spare goggles from the wall and folded the strap around them.

"You do not have to take everything tonight," Conrad said.

"I might as well."

She put the goggles into her bag, then reached for her hiking boots.

Those had nothing to do with tomorrow's ski trip.

Neither did the summer trekking poles she pulled from behind the cabinet.

She was not collecting gear for a weekend.

She was staging an exit.

Conrad understood it too.

"Sloane. Stop."

She finally looked at him. "Why? This way Maren does not have to feel like I have a place in your house."

I stayed in the doorway.

Conrad lowered his voice. "Nobody said you do not have a place here."

I looked past him at the hooks and shelves she was clearing.

He was right. Nobody had needed to say it. They had built her a place here piece by piece.

Sloane gave a tiny laugh and zipped one side of the bag.

"Next time I will find someone else to ski with. I will not put you in the middle anymore."

She reached into her jacket and handed him his lift pass.

"I bought it for you, so keep it."

Conrad closed his fingers around the pass.

"You do not have to do this. We are missing one weekend."

"I know." She looked past him, not at me. "I just do not want to keep making plans and then wait to find out whether I am allowed to show up."

I stepped into the garage.

"Our beach trip was booked two months before your cabin. I never asked Conrad to end your friendship."

Sloane nodded as if I had confirmed something for her.

"I did not say you did."

She lifted the duffel.

It was heavy enough that her shoulder dropped.

Conrad moved before I did.

He took the bag from her hand.

"I will carry it."

Sloane let him.

At her car, she opened the trunk.

Conrad put the bag inside but did not step away.

"Wait," he said. "There is another option."

I already knew I was not going to like it.

He turned to me.

"Come with us. The resort has a spa and hot springs. You can relax during the day, and we will all have dinner at night."

For a second, I could only stare at him.

Less than an hour earlier, he had promised to take me to the coast for my birthday.

Now his compromise was to put me in a hotel while he spent the day skiing with the woman who had just made him feel guilty for choosing his wife.

"No."

Conrad's mouth tightened. "I am trying to find a middle ground."

"There is no middle ground between two trips booked for the same weekend."

Sloane touched his sleeve. "Con, do not fight with her. I told you. I can go alone."

He looked at her hand.

Then he looked at me.

I watched the decision happen on his face before he said it.

"We are going skiing," Conrad said. "You can come if you want, but I am not wasting the cabin and the passes because this turned into some loyalty test."

He walked past me into the house.

I followed far enough to see him kneel beside our beach suitcase.

He unzipped it.

Then he took out the sweater I had packed for him and carried it back toward the garage.

One piece of clothing.

One choice.

That was all it took to make the weekend clear.

Sloane stood beside her open trunk when he returned. She did not look at me.

I went inside and closed the door.

I closed the message. His decision had already been made.

Four years earlier, he had asked me to stop traveling with Rhys, my childhood friend and old hiking partner.

Rhys had admitted to having a crush on me in college. Nothing had ever happened between us, but Conrad had said that history made overnight trips disrespectful to our marriage.

I had agreed.

I had canceled a trail we had planned for months. I had let the friendship fade because I believed marriage meant both people protected the same line.

Apparently, I had been the only one standing behind it.

I opened the old chat.

Our last real conversation was nearly four years old.

My thumb hovered over the screen only once.

[Are you still hiking the coastal trail tomorrow?]

The reply came less than a minute later.

[Yes. You finally free this weekend?]

I looked toward the garage. Conrad laughed at something Sloane said.

[Yes.]

Three dots appeared.

[Want a ride? I pass your neighborhood at eight.]

I looked at the beach cottage confirmation still open on my laptop.

I had never canceled it.

[Pick me up.]

The next morning, Conrad carried his ski boots down the driveway while Sloane rearranged the trunk of her car.

I put my own suitcase by the front door and slipped my backpack over one shoulder.

Conrad glanced at it. "So you changed your mind?"

I let the question remain between us.

At 7:59, a dark SUV turned onto our street and slowed in front of the house.

I saw Rhys step out.

Conrad was still bent over Sloane's trunk with his back to the road.

He had no idea who had come to get me.