Page 109 of Forgotten Romance

“I think there’s something in my eye.”

Art roars with laughter. “I made Mack cry. Yes. I knew I’d get one of you.”

Keller flicks a coaster at his head.

“Baby.” I wrap my arm around him and squish him to my side. “I know … Art makes me cry as well.”

Orson is still gaping at Art. “If this wasn’t already a national holiday, I’d suggest it be made one. That was the most emotive he’s been … ever. I think.”

“There was also that time two years ago when he thought Joey was dying,” Keller says.

Joey lights up. “Turns out he just forgot how many moles I have.”

But no matter how much we tease him, Art holds this group together. He looked out for Mack when I couldn’t, and he supported us both, separately through our divorce and now through our marriage. Art’s emotional side might be rarely vocalized, but we all witness it. Every day.

I’ll forever be grateful for his friendship. For all of theirs.

Over the last five years, our friends have gotten married, had kids, opened businesses, traveled, started whole new lives together. There’s something about being in my forties that gives me a freedom in life that I’ve never had before. We all do.

The Divorced Men’s Club might have been a way to stop us from feeling alone in the world, but I really have found a family with these guys, and I know if any of them needed me for anything, I’d be there.

Mack’s lips press to the spot behind my ear. “I love you,” he whispers, and it unleashes the kind of pure smile that our divorce took from me.

Life still isn’t easy. It’s a juggle with him managing the library full-time, with Van wanting to play every after-school sport under the sun and Kiera making a first-division basketball team, and me still having to travel for work.

But we’re happy.

Genuinely happy.

Even five years later, that hasn’t changed.

“The fireworks are about to start,” Ford points out, and we all head downstairs into the parking lot of Killer Brew. We find Kiera and Van, hugging them between us while they still let us, and wait for the show to start.

From the first one that whistles out of Kil Pen and explodes with a crackle of color, contentment wraps around me.

No matter where in the world I’ve been, no matter the places I’ve seen and the people I’ve met, nothing beats this.

Family, friends, this tiny little town.

It’s home.

And I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

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