“Conrad made love to me the night before he told me he was leaving me,” I whispered and watched Mickey’s jaw go hard.

“Fuck, he’s a motherfucking asshole,” he bit out.

I curled my hands tight on his biceps and asked, “Does all I’ve admitted honestly not cause you alarm?”

“That you’re human?” he asked back.

And again, Lawr was right.

“I guess,” I said quietly.

“Anyone can find themselves in a place they don’t wanna be, and even knowin’ they don’t wanna be there, they can’t get out. It’s findin’ it in you to get out that says it all about you, Amy. So no. I’m not alarmed you’re human. In fact, knowin’ this shit, I went from likin’ you to likin’ you a fuckuva lot more.”

I couldn’t believe that either.

I wanted to believe but it seemed too easy.

“Really?” I asked, my voice pitched higher.

His face again dipped lower as did his voice. “Yeah, baby.”

“It was ugly,” I reiterated.

“Life isn’t always beauty,” he returned. “Most of the time it’s shit. But you keep fightin’ to turn it around, that says it all about you. And you’re fightin’. As a fighter too, I fuckin’ love that in you.”

Oh God.

It was that easy.

My voice dipped lower too when I said, “I love it that you understand.”

“I love it that you had the courage to give that to me,” he replied.

Oh God!

I was going to start crying.

In case that happened, I ducked my head and shoved my face in his chest.

Mickey started stroking my back with one hand as he said into the top of my hair, “You got your face in my chest, we can’t make out on the wharf for the five minutes we got left before we gotta go get my boy.”

I instantly took my face out of his chest, but even though I wanted a kiss, that wasn’t why I did it.

I did it to beg, “Don’t go home and think on this, Mickey, think on it and decide differently. Decide I’m some whackjob, psycho, crazy lady you’re worried about starting something with, worried about her being around your kids. Because I might not have known who I was before I moved to Maine, but I’ve spent a lot of time figuring it out once I got here, and that is not me.”

He stopped stroking my back and used that hand to cup my cheek. “Good I got your assurance on that, but don’t need it. I’m thinkin’ I knew who you were before you knew, and you’re worried about something that’s just not gonna happen.”

“Okay,” I said shakily as the vision of him started getting misty. “Now I like you a fuckuva lot more.”