I was reminded that three husbands and several serious boyfriends later, Elliott and I together were some sort of metaphysical poetry. I lost myself in him, forgot I was tethered to the earth for minutes at a time. It didn’t hurt that he was in his physical prime, perfectly fit and toned, filled out and weathered enough to look like a real man. But it was more than that. We had a connection that I could no longer deny, a connection that would force me to make some tough decisions.

Afterward he got up to shower, and I stretched my arms long in Elliott’s bed. I was usually a stickler for white sheets, but, when we were together a year ago, I had come to love his plaid ones, worn soft and thin from washing. I loved looking out the picture window in his sparse bedroom, seeing his boat docked in the canal right out front.

Now freshly shaven, Elliott got back into bed and wrapped himself around me smelling of Colgate and Old Spice. The Original, of course. “Gosh,” he said into my ear, “wouldn’t it be great if we could wake up like this every morning?”

I turned to kiss him. “I don’t know,” I said sleepily, my body so relaxed I wondered how I would possibly go on with my day. “Would it? Or would I become old hat and you would get sick of me?”

He kissed my neck and my shoulder and my elbow. “Never, ever, ever, ever could I get sick of you. You are the most intoxicatingly fascinating woman I have ever known. There is never enough you for me.”

That made me smile. I wondered if all my losses had made me too closed off. On the contrary, it seemed I had shared just enough with this hot, hot antiques dealer with chiseled abs, more stories than O. Henry, and a kind heart. He was perfect. If I was ever going to get married again… But no. Nope. I would never get married again. I loved Elliott, so it was my job to keep him safe. Even from me. Yes, I was back in his bed. But it wasn’t my boyfriends who died; it was my husbands. So as long as I wasn’t walking down the aisle toward him, I reasoned, things would be okay.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to that estate auction right now?”

“I need to leave in five,” he said. “But I wish you’d come with me. Isn’t antiquing with her boyfriend every woman’s dream?”