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I try to sound nonchalant when I respond. “Slept like a baby.”

“I will never understand that saying. New parents are always dead tired.” I hear him in the kitchen. “I don’t think babies sleep much.”

I groan. “Aren’t you just the poster-child for crushed hopes and dreams.”

He barks a laugh that has me smiling. “Cute.” He enters the living room with a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “But I’m thinking that’s the reality we’re heading for.”

I take the mug he offers. “Thanks.”

Tate drops to the couch beside me, lifting his feet to the coffee table. “We’ll be okay, you know?”

My brows pull together. Tate watches.

“I’m afraid of the hard times,” I admit.

“Me too.” He surprises me, but he shrugs. “But somehow everyone survives it so it can’t be that bad. Sometimes, people even do it again. More than once.”

“Now you’re teasing me,” I accuse, because the grin he’s giving me leaves no room to question that fact.

“Just a little.”

I bump his shoulder with mine. His hand falls on my thigh, thumb moving in a caress that lights me up inside. It really doesn’t take much to set the flames to burning, what with the ever-simmering coals that live inside me.

He asks, “How was your day?”

“Long. Andy and Shy came by the shop.”

He lifts his brows. “That’s good.”

“Yeah. I miss them.”

“I’m happy to hear you’re reaching out.” His thumb continues its drifting across my thigh. “They miss you, too.”

I stare down into my hot chocolate. “Andy is going to break up with Micha.”

Surprise strikes him and for a moment, his thumb stops its drift. “Why?”

“She’s—I don’t really know. I think she just needs to find herself first before she becomes something that isn’t true to her for someone else.”

There’s a long pause. Then, “That makes sense.”

“Does it?” I feel my face scrunch. Tate nods and I agree with a huff, “I suppose it does. It only makes it worse that Micha is Micha. She feels like he flirts with everyone.”

“He doesn’t.” Tate defends quickly, firmly. “He loves her.”

“I know, but he’s so friendly…”

“Andy thinks he’ll cheat on her?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“What is it?”

“I think she feels like she’s holding him back from—from exploring what he needs to explore. For her, it’s all of life—for him she thinks it’s other girls.”

“She’s wrong.”

“Maybe—but it’s eating at her.”