Matt Sanders

Aubree looked around her little house. The tree was down. Most of her dishes and clothing were packed in boxes stacked along her living room wall.

The coat hangers remained in the hall. She could not bear to take those with her.

She had, she acknowledged, had a problem her whole life. She cared about everything way too much, way too deeply.

She had fallen in love with Ace Sanders.

And even more, she had fallen in love with her father.

Over the past few weeks, she had cherished a dream. That they were all going to be together, that they were going to be a family. With each moment spent with Matt, with each time he had held her hand, teased her, looked at her, kissed her, her dreams had billowed to life. Filled her. Made her feel something she had never really felt.

Complete.

How could she stay here, feeling that way, loving them both so much and knowing her dreams, like Ace's own, were not based in reality?

It was just wishful thinking. It was just dreams.

"We don't need dreams, Miss Dawson. We don't need the kind of dreams you represent."

The words had been hurtful enough. The way he had been so harsh with Ace had been devastating. The memory of the look on his face--angry, closed--still had the power to make Aubree shiver.

She'd made a mistake thinking she saw things in him that weren't there. She'd made a mistake of the heart.

But she thought of him knowing how deeply he'd hurt her was unbearable. She had to get out of here with what little was left of her pride intact.

So, as soon as she got her kids through the production of The Christmas Angel, she was going.

On Christmas Day, when everyone was busy with their families, cocooned in those circles of love she had longed for, Aubree would and could just slip away unnoticed. She would get in her little car, the tank already filled with gas, and she would go to anywhere. It didn't matter where. She had some savings. She should leave a check here for January's rent. And then, when she found where she wanted to be, she would hire movers to come get her things.

But maybe she'd tell them to leave the purple sofa.

Maybe she'd just leave everything. Maybe she'd join her mother and they could be blissfully single in Thailand together.

No, her mother was not going to make her happy. And neither was being single.

It was only part of the lies she had spun around herself. The lie that independence could be a suitable replacement for her heart's greatest longing. It was a lie he had shattered at the same time he had no intention of replacing it.

She had seen that in his face.

Aubree had seen something so hard and cold in his face, she knew she could not trespass there.

If only she had paid attention to that sign, the first day, that said everything she had needed to know about Matt Sanders.

Go Away

Now she would. For her own self-preservation she would go away.

What about my kids? She wailed to herself. How would they find a replacement at this time of year. Who would teach them?

But then she pulled herself up. She was not thinking one thought that made her weak instead of strong. Not one.