“I’ve felt guilty from day one.” He muttered the words and glanced briefly at the table closest to them. “And the more accommodating and patient you were, the guiltier I felt. Given what I put you through, you were a saint.”

“I thought I was a martyr.”

He flushed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

She was trying to absorb what he was telling her. “So you behaved badly in response to me behaving reasonably. And then when that changed and I stood my ground . . .” she tried to make sense of it “. . . you’re saying you preferred the annoyed version of me?”

“The annoyed version of you is easier to handle than the sad version. The sad version breaks me up.” He looked at her then, and for a moment she saw the man she’d married. The man she’d trusted, the man she’d laughed and cried and made a child with.

It was good to know that man still existed. That she hadn’t imagined it all.

She felt an ache of sadness for what they’d once had and lost, but also a sense of peace because she knew that whatever things were like now, they’d been good once. And maybe it was time to focus on that.

“It’s helpful to know that.” She picked up her coffee and looked at him over the edge of her cup. “I thought you’d just turned into a monumental idiot.”

His eyes gleamed. “At least you haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

But she had, hadn’t she? At least for a while. But she was going to forgive herself for that. She put her cup down. “I didn’t know you felt guilty.”

“Of course I did. We had all those happy years together. And we had Zoe. Our girl. And you probably won’t believe me, but Avery felt terrible too. For a while I didn’t think our relationship was going to work because the guilt kept coming between us.”

“But it did work.”

He looked at her for a long time, trying to decide whether to say something or not. “I’m happy, Milly. I know you think it was a midlife-crisis thing, and there’s the age difference, but I love Avery. And she loves me. And I’m sorry if that hurts.”

“It doesn’t. Not anymore. I’m pleased for you both, really.” Milly decided that the time had come to build a bridge so that they could both move forward. “Zoe likes Avery. And she has obviously made an effort—she has upended her life and let a teenager invade her immaculate single-person space, so she gets points for that.”

Richard reached out and touched her hand. “I don’t regret our marriage, although I’m sure you do.”