I didn’t realize I was looking for something. I felt content in the life that I was living, and then Andy walked in and shook everything up, everything that I thought I knew. He’s on my mind constantly, which is a bad thing. He’s not even divorced yet.

I smile, resting my chin in my palm, feeling more content sitting at a table around empty bowls of chili, listening to the boys tell Bri about their lives. Neither can tell her stories or ask questions fast enough, and Bri is eating it all up.

“Want to watch us play Xbox?”

“Watch? Are you kidding me? Do I look like a sit by and watch kind of girl? Heck, no. I’m gonna destroy you. Tell me you have the new Halo game.”

Both their eyes light up and they glance at Andy.

“Yeah, we got it for Christmas! Along with Harry.”

We all laugh at the ridiculous name for their turtle.

“Go on. I’ll clean up while you guys get your butts handed to you by a girl,” Andy teases them.

The three kids jump from their chairs and all settle in on beanbag chairs on the floor.

“Do you have headsets?” I hear Bri ask.

“Oh, she just won some major points with them.”

“It doesn’t seem like she was struggling for their approval.” I wink at him as I lean down to pick up some of the dirty bowls and he saunters over to me.

“They’re like their dad,” he says, his voice so husky it sends a shiver through my body.

“Yeah?”

“Mm hmm. Good taste, I must say.”

“Andy…” I whisper.

“It’s gonna happen, Christine. I served her papers today.”

I sink slowly into the seat I had just stood from. “What?”

He sits down and pulls his chair in front of me so we’re facing each other. He leans over and takes my hands in his. “I finally got a hold of Heather’s sister and found out where she’s staying. Lawyer had the papers ready to go, so he sent them over. Served her today.”

“Are you… I mean. Wow. Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asks, looking back and forth between my eyes, thumb rubbing against the back of my hand.

I bite my lip, and his eyes drift briefly to the movement. I look down at our linked hands and take a deep breath then lift my eyes back up to his. “Have you heard from her?”

He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders. When he leans back against his seat, our hands separate. The loss of his touch against my hand is felt immediately, and I have to fight to not reach out and grab his hand in mine again, wanting and needing the calm it brings me. He rakes his hands through his hair as he looks into the living room and back to me again. It’s grown out so much since that first day he walked into Dreamin’ Beans. Sometimes he even wears it in a man bun, something I never thought I’d be attracted to. Until now, that is. Before I can stop myself, I reach up and push some strands out of his face. The curls are soft between my fingers. He closes his eyes briefly and leans into my touch.

“I don’t expect to. She’s… well, she’s not the same person I married. Or at least, not the same person I thought I married. I figure we’ll hear from her again when she empties out the house. We have an offer, so she needs to get her shit unless she wants it all to go to the thrift store.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper when I don’t know what else to say.

He shakes his head back and forth a few times. “Don’t be. I’m not. She’s not worth it, right?”

“I just want you to be happy,” I tell him.

“I am.” He leans forward again, bracing his elbows on his knees and cocks his head sideways. “You’re part of the reason for that. A huge part.”

I smile and look away. “Let’s get this table cleaned up so we can join the kids.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

We clean up quickly, putting away the leftover chili in the fridge and loading everything we can into the dishwasher and start it up.

He pops some popcorn, and I raise an eyebrow at him, considering we just ate.

“They’re fourteen-year-old boys, sweetheart. They both have hollow legs.”

I giggle and grab the bowls from the cupboard he motioned to, fill them up with popcorn, and make our way into the living room only to stop dead in our tracks.

Bri is sitting on Aidan’s back while he keeps switching his controller from one hand to the next while Reece sits on his beanbag chair laughing and recording it with his phone.

“It’s my turn!” Bri shouts at him, and from the sound of it, she’s only partly teasing.

“No, it’s not!”

She sticks her finger in her mouth and pulls it out with a loud pop. “I’ll give you a wet willy!”

I share a look with Andy, and we both laugh hard enough to double over. “I take it they’re getting along.” I smile at him, and he pulls me in for a hug with his arm around my neck. Andy kisses the top of my head, and I sigh contently.

“Gross! Don’t you dare!”

“Then give me the controller, you twerp!”

“No way! I thought girls were supposed to be nice!”

“Don’t call me a girl!”

Clearly, she grew up with a boy for her best friend.

Boy turned boyfriend, but still.

Andy guides us to sit on the couch together, him planting me right next to him, watching the three of them argue and fight over controllers. Bri finally wins the battle, boasting by doing a little dance. Reece laughs so hard he falls on the ground, abandoning his phone from recording the entire thing. After playing Xbox for a while, they eventually move to the basement to play foosball. Their raucous laughter from downstairs has warmth spreading through my body.

Andy pulls me closer, and I tuck my legs up on the couch next to me. “It’s gonna happen,” he murmurs, the same words he spoke earlier. “But I won’t do this until I’m officially out, Christine. I won’t put you in the position of being the other woman.”

“Won’t do what, though?”

“You really don’t know?”

“Well, I know what I want,” I admit.

“Hope it’s the same thing I want… to keep moving forward with this, building what we have. Our friendship. Our relationship. And as much as it kills me, I have to push aside every instinct I have to pull you into my lap and kiss the stuffing out of you right now. Like I said, I won’t put you in the position of being the other woman.”

“I want you to kiss me, too,” I whisper.

“Really damn happy to hear that.”

“But do you really think keeping the physical part out of our relationship until you’re divorced will stop people from talking? It’s obvious we’re getting closer, Andy. And not just to us.”

“I don’t care what people say. It’s not about that. It’s about the fact that you and I both had our spouses step out on us, and it feels shitty as hell. I don’t care about Heather and her feelings, so don’t even think that. This is about me respecting you, knowing that when we share that part of us with each other, we have nothing holding us back. Tonight meant a lot to me. Seeing our three together, getting along, happy, blending. It just proves that this is a good thing, and I don’t want anything screwing that up.”

“Thank you for being so wonderful. For respecting me that way, as much as I almost don’t want you to. I suppose I agree.”

He chuckles and pulls me close, kissing the top of my head.

Sigh.

“Is it weird if I tell you I was tested?”

I stiffen in his arms and turn to look at him.

“You did?”

“Yeah. She said I didn’t need to be but, not really feeling a whole lot of trust in that woman. “

I laugh lightly. “Can’t blame you there.”

I let the silence drift between us.

“I was tested too,” I admit quietly then rush to continue, “I don’t think it was necessary but I couldn’t sleep at night not knowing.”

“I get that. Probably for the best. You were all good?”

I grin. “Yeah. All good. You?”

He nods, eyes darkening as he looks at me with an intensity that causes me to take a deep breath.

“I’m good,” he tells me, voice husky.

Warmth spreads through my body, and I war within myself. The snarky, bitchy side wants me to just have those damn papers signed already so we can be together. So he can finally be rid of the disease that is Heather. The kind side of me fears what this will do to the boys. “It’s been a good night, Andy.”

“It’s been a great night,” he corrects me.

“Thank you for having us over.”

“Thank you for coming over.”

He looks at me for several beats before tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

“TWD?” he asks, rather than leaning in and kissing me like I want him to.

But I respect his desire to wait.

And I agree with it.

“Yeah,” I nod my head and shift so I’m facing the TV, oddly fascinated about watching zombies take over the world.