‘Yeah, I guess,’ I said, playing it off with a shrug and switching from Facebook to my email. If Andie knew I had any level of attraction to Mickey she’d never let it go. I could just picture her sticking her nose in and embarrassing me in front of him next time we went to The Beast. Subtlety was not her strong suit and I wanted to navigate it on my own. If there was even anything to navigate.

‘So? Is there something going on there? I mean, he’s not too hard on the eyes, now is he?’ Andie pried with a playful nudge to my side with her elbow. ‘I know he’s not your normal type, but you can’t deny he’s a hottie.’ I knew she was trying to heal any lingering tension between us after the adoption photo incident and I was trying my best to forgive Andie, to move forward and focus my energy on finding answers to my family mystery.

‘He’s great and all,’ I said, deleting a few junk emails as I spoke. ‘But I just have too much on my plate right now, Andie. I can’t think about that too. He was cool though, we haven’t spoken that much one-on-one before.’ Even though I wanted to steer Andie away from my love life, I had to admit, Mickey had been popping into my mind at random times since our chat.

‘Well maybe he’s just the kind of fun distraction you need. You know you tend to get a bit serious when—’

‘Andie! You’ll never believe the email I just got,’ I said loudly, cutting her off as I pulled the phone closer to my face in excitement, reading over the words again quickly in my head.

‘Hey, don’t try to change the subject here,’ she said, smirking.

‘No, seriously, I just got a reply from Adam’s old employer with his phone number. I really didn’t think that man was gonna give it to me.’

Andie bounced in her seat excitedly. ‘Okay, you totally get a pass. Call him right now.’

‘Wait, I want to do a reverse phone look up first,’ I said as I navigated to the website.

Andie rolled her eyes. ‘You and your sleuthing,’ she said under her breath. ‘We’re almost at Gram’s so speed it up.’

The results popped up instantly and my heart pounded faster in my chest. ‘Okay, it looks like it’s still owned by Adam and it’s a Massachusetts area code.’

‘Are you gonna call or what? We’ll be at Gram’s in like, a minute.’

Before I could talk myself out of it, I dialed. The phone rang several times before an answering machine clicked on.

A smooth, deep voice reverberated across the line, ‘You’ve reached Adam. Can’t come to the phone right now but leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Talk soon.’