Free One Special Christmas & Home for the Holidays by Irene Hannon

I’m sorry.”
    â€œIt’s not that,” he assured her quickly. “It’s just that you— I don’t know, you had a funny look on your face for a minute.”
    â€œDid I?” His perceptiveness surprised—and slightly unnerved—her. “I guess I was wondering if maybe I’d overstepped my bounds, asking about your marriage,”she hedged, reluctant to reveal the personal insight that had just flashed through her mind. “It’s just that talking to you about Jack and my faith helped tonight. I thought maybe it might help you to talk, too. But I understand if you’d rather not.”
    He looked at her for a moment before he spoke, as if assessing whether her interest was real or just polite. “Actually, I haven’t talked much about it to anyone. Except my minister. Maybe because there isn’t a whole lot to say. And because it still hurts after all these years. And because it’s hard to admit failure,” he confessed candidly. “But I’ll give you the highlights—or low-lights, depending on your perspective—if you’re really interested.”
    â€œI am.”
    He gave a slight nod. “Cindy and I met when I was in medical school,” he began. “She was blond and beautiful, carefree and fun, always ready for the next adventure. I was the serious, studious type and it was exciting just to be with her. I never knew what she’d do next. All I knew was that she added a whole new dimension to my life. As different as we were, something clicked between us and I proposed a year after we met. We got married a few months later.”
    â€œSounds like a promising beginning,” Kate ventured.
    â€œYeah. Except things just went downhill from there. She didn’t like my choice of specialty, and she grew to resent the intrusion of my career on our personal lives. We both changed through the years—or maybe we just became more of what we’d always been. In any case, the differences we once found so appealing gradually became irritating and hurtful. In the end, we were barely speaking.”
    He paused and looked down at his iced tea. The drops of condensation on his glass reminded him of tears, and he suddenly felt sad. “To be honest, I don’t think either of us was blameless in the breakup, but I feel most responsible,” he said heavily. “Cindy was right about my career—it takes an inordinate amount of my time. And it was a self-perpetuating kind of thing. As our marriage disintegrated, I spent even more time in the office and at the hospital, which only made matters worse. I don’t know…. Maybe she would have been more tolerant of my schedule if I’d been doing heart transplants or something.”
    Kate frowned. “What do you mean?”
    â€œCindy wanted me to be a surgeon. That’s considered one of the more ‘glamorous’ specialties. And when we got married, I thought I wanted to do that, too. But eventually I realized that I didn’t enjoy practicing medicine in that sterile environment. I wanted to interact with people. And I love kids. Pediatrics was a natural fit for me. But Cindy hated it. It didn’t have enough prestige. She was bitterly disappointed in my choice—and in me. Over time, our relationship grew strained and distant, and in the end it just fell apart.” Eric didn’t tell Kate about the final hurt—the reason he’d finally agreed to the divorce. Even now, five years later, it made him feel physically ill to think about it.
    Impulsively Kate reached out and touched his hand. “I’m sorry, Eric.”
    Startled, he dropped his gaze to her slender fingers lightly resting on his sun-browned hand. It was funny. He couldn’t remember a single time during his entire relationship with Cindy when she’d touched him in quite this way, with such heartfelt empathy and simplehuman caring. His throat tightened,