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He nudged me again and I looked at him. And for the first time in a long time, I saw the old Mike. The one I’d been missing.

He got up and I stood. He came over and gave me a hug.

“I love you, McNougat,” he whispered.

“I love you too.”

When he let me go, his eyes were red. “Do me a favor, yeah? Call Z. Do it today, okay? If he wants to hang out, hang out. Take Larissa so Samantha isn’t a third wheel. Get Jesse’s ass out of the house, too, tell him to bring Becca. I probably won’t come—graveyard shift. But you guys get together. All right? I’m gonna tell them you’re calling. Don’t forget.”

I nodded and swallowed down the knot in my throat.

He gave me one last look. “You ever need someone to talk to, you can call me. I’m ready to listen. Maybe not about her—but anything else and I’m here.”

I nodded. “All right.”

He smiled. “See you around.”

He turned for his truck and I watched him make his way across the parking lot, the highway humming behind me.

“Mike…”

He turned around.

“You want to make me proud?” I called. “You just did.”

I watched the slow smile move across his face. He winked at me. Then he turned and kept walking.

And that was it.

The end of something. Or the start of something. New and better. Healthier.

I thought all this time that I was helping him, carrying his load. But in the end I had to drop it for him to decide to carry it himself. And he was.

Mike chirped off his alarm. He was almost to his door when I saw the car pull into the lot. He noticed it a second after me and we both froze.

Larissa was here.

She hadn’t been coming to my work for the last few months, part of our attempt to keep our relationship private. She didn’t call me to tell me she was coming.

We watched her park and when she got out and locked eyes with Mike, I half expected her to turn and go back home. She’d kept him blocked, didn’t want to see him. But she only paused for a moment before shutting her door and closing the distance between them.

They stood there next to his truck talking for a few moments. I gave them their space and I was too far away to hear what was said. When they were done, she hugged him. Then Mike got in his truck wiping under his eyes and drove off.

“What did you talk about?” I asked as she made her way over to me.

“He apologized,” she said. “And I accepted it.”

She stopped in front of me. “He told me to take care of you. And I gave him some advice.”

“What advice?”

“I told him to take the exit that makes the most sense. Not the door he knows.”

I smiled a little and she wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me.

“Why did you come?” I asked, tucking her head under my chin.

“I don’t know. Something told me you needed me. Trauma bond.”