“I don’t put up with the shit you’ve handed me the last week because you’re some fuckin’ piece I want to conquer. I put up with it because I’ve liked you since you were eight years old. You made me laugh. You understood me. You looked out for me when no one else fuckin’ bothered and you acted like you thought I could move mountains and I needed someone who thought that about me because my Dad sure as fuck didn’t.”

“Because I like you a lot. Because you’re beautiful and strong and make me feel things I can’t allow myself to feel. Because you listen to me in the moonlight like every word I say forms a drop of nectar. Because you’ve lived a shit life and come out the other side to be someone amazing. Because now you live a dangerous life with a scar on your back to prove it and I can’t afford to lose anyone else that means something to me...”

“I’ve shared more breakfasts with you thanany woman I’ve dated in the last year and a half,” Mitch returned.“I know what you look like in the morning. I know what you act likewhen you come home tired after work. I know that you pick the leastexpensive thing on the menu either to be nice or to be annoying inorder to put me off. But I think it’s to be nice because youare nice and also both times you thought you’d be spendingtime with just me, you dressed in a way that would not, in any way,put me off. I know you cuddle when you’re sleeping. I know you takeonly milk in your coffee and you make coffee strong. I know you’rereally good with kids. And I know that you use music and scents toregulate your mood. So I’m thinking this is not a first date. Thisis more like us hittin’ the six month mark. And the six month markis when you stop talkin’ about shit that really doesn’t matter andstart talkin’ about shit that means everything.”

“Not one fuckin’ thing gentlemanly about protecting what’s yours. Looks like you’re gonna lose it, you do everything you can to stop that from happening.” Max looked back to Niles. “And you didn’t do that. She was a week away from me, she walked into a room I was in holdin’ another man’s hand, I’d lose my fuckin’ mind. Not at her. Wonderin’ where I lost my way and I’d talk to her about how to find my way back.”

“Yeah, you lose this attitude, I can help you work that hurt out.”Who was this man? He held onto his tragedy for seventeen fucking years, how could he stand there and tell mehe could help me work through mine?“Really, Joe? Like you helped me work out my grief at losing Tim?” I asked sarcastically.“That’s not what I was offerin’, buddy, but you want it like that I’ll give it to you.”“You’re unbelievable,” I snapped.“I’m yours.”That socked me in the gut too, so hard it winded me and all I could do was stare up at him.Taking advantage, his face dipped close and his hands curled around both sides of my head.“First fuckin’ time you smiled at me in my bed, that’s when it happened,” he murmured.”

“I was your man, you were halfway around the world from me, honey, I'd fuckin' phone you," he said quietly."Niles is reserved," I whispered."Niles is an ass," he returned and my brows drew together."You don't know him.""I know men, and I know he's not reserved, he's an ass."I pulled my head together, my hand from his and snapped, "Yes? And how do you know that?""Because I've seen you naked, I've seen you sweet, I've seen you unsure and I've seen you riled and, seein' all that, I know, you were half a world away from me, I'd fuckin' phone.""Perhaps that's not the kind of relationship Niles and I have," I suggested snottily, but his words hit me somewhere deep, somewhere I didn't know I had."You on a timeout?""What?""If you told me you needed a timeout, first, I wouldn't fuckin' let you have one, second, I wouldn't give you reason to fuckin' want one, last, you took off anyway, I'd fuckin' phone.”

“For what it’s worth, I’ll share my intentions. You and me, we aren’t practice for the real thing. It isn’t that too much is at stake with family and friends, it’s because I love you. You’re funny, beautiful and you care about people. I like the way you look at me, especially when you think I don’t notice it. I like that we have history and our kids will have a big family and share that history because there was never a time when their Mom and Dad weren’t together. If you were a terrible lay, I might have second thoughts but you and I are dynamite together. I intend to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you. If that freaks you out, tough, because now we’ve started this, there’s no goin’ back.”