"Is this where you're planning on staying?" Hope asked when I pulled up outside a run-down looking semi on the south side of Denver and helped her off my bike. The area we were in was a far cry from the luxury she'd grown up around, and the way she was trying to hide her distain was kind of adorable. "What happened to staying with Derek?"

"No, Hope, I'm not staying here. This is where I work."

She looked up at me with a surprised expression. "You work?"

"Yes, I have a job," I replied, unable to fight the smile spreading across my face. When I was around my wife, I found myself smiling more. "I have two of them actually."

"Huh." Hope made this clicking sound with her tongue as she looked up at my face like this was the first time she was ever seeing me.

"What do you do…here?" she asked, gesturing towards the halfway house with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"I volunteer as a drugs and alcohol abuse counselor." Stuffing my hands into the jacket, I looked up at the building that, for a long time, I'd called my home. "I usually work a couple of shifts here each week." Shrugging, I added, "My way of giving back to the community, so to speak."

Her blue eyes widened in surprise. "You're a counselor."

"Among other things." Hope and I had a lot to relearn about each other. My fault, I acknowledged. But this was another reason I feared she was jumping into this too quickly. She didn’t even know what I did for a living. She never asked. We were virtually strangers to each other now and had a long road to go to get back to where we used to be.

"So, um… you've been here? All this time? In Colorado?" Her questions were laced with the resentment I knew she was desperately trying to hide. But I could see straight through her, just like I had always been able to.

"I have a house a few blocks from here," I replied, unsure of where this conversation was going.

Hope clicked her tongue again as she looked around at our surroundings before slowly turning to face me once more. "And you were staying with Derek because…?"

"I wanted to be closer to you." That was the truth. Boulder and Denver weren't too far away from each other, about an hour's drive, but I had wanted to be closer to her. "I wanted to see you."

"And when you said you were leaving," she spoke slowly and almost carefully, like she didn’t want there to be any confusion. "You meant that you needed to leave because you had to go to work?"

"I had some vacation time owed to me." I shrugged helplessly before saying, "I'm due back today."

"Well, I feel stupid," she finally announced with a heavy-hearted sigh. "Making that big gesture of coming with you," shaking her head, she laughed humorlessly and stared down at her shoes, "when you were only leaving for work."

"Hey." Reaching forward, I tipped her chin upwards. "Don’t hide from me."

The moment her eyes landed on mine, I felt like I had been sucker punched in the chest. She took the breath clean out of my lungs. There were so many things I wanted to say to Hope Carter, so many things I wished I was capable of doing for her, but I settled on a smile instead. It was the best I could do right now.

And thankfully, it seemed to be enough because she returned my smile with a megawatt one of her own, revealing that dimple in her cheek, the one that had always made me feel lightheaded.

"Any regrets?" I asked. My voice sounded calm, when the truth was I was anything but. I couldn’t stand the thought of her regretting this. Regretting coming with me. I knew she was better off without me. I knew there was a list as long as my arm of reasons we shouldn’t be together anymore, but still… There was a part of me that needed her unconditional love and support. After all, she was the only one who'd ever given that to me.

"No regrets," she replied just as quickly and impulsively as always, and it made me smile.

"Then come on," I said, voice gruff, as I fell into line with her and gently nudged her shoulder with mine. "Let me introduce you to my world."

"What's the rush?" she shot back teasingly, returning my nudge as she walked beside me towards the building. "I've only been waiting a decade for this."

"Funny."

"You don’t know the half of it."

No, I didn’t know the half of it.

Of her.

But I planned on learning.