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this person comes around and you miss him because you’re ‘being smarter’ ?”
    “There is nothing—and no one to miss. I pretended there was this fairytale life out there. That was my excuse to end my marriage to Mark, a real marriage with real problems, in a real life.”
    “That’s crap.”
    “Well, Mr. Smarty-Pants, what about your little girlfriend in Nashville? Did she fit into a fairytale?”
    “She wasn’t the person I thought she was. I was blinded to her shallow selfishness. I could have gotten past selfish, but she betrayed me and all because she didn’t want to go to school pregnant.”
    “Well…I can understand waiting to have a baby. I wanted to wait until I had my law degree before I had Jamie.”
    “At thirty? And a semester from finishing her Master’s degree? No. We could have done it.” Johnny took the bottle Ali held out to him and cradled Micah, gently coaxing the bottle into his mouth. “She went behind my back to abort our baby, and then didn’t understand why it pissed me off.” He tried to keep his voice level, but it was damn hard. He scoffed and muttered, “As if second chances are a dime a dozen.”
    “Sometimes they are.”
    “And sometimes they aren’t,” Johnny said. “Sometimes we never get a second chance.”
    “Did you come here to get away from her?”
    “No. I came here to start over. I got the call from Brian Hammel…his call changed everything for me.”
    Ali drew her eyebrows together. “Why?”
    “I was bitter and hateful and mean. I’d planned to live alone for the rest of my life.”
    “So how did Brian change that?”
    “When Brian told me Sarah’s story, surviving what she’d been through. He lowered his head and said, “If Sarah can get past all that, I can get over what Lisa did to me.”
    “Oh…so you’re in love with Sarah.”
    “No. It’s more of a brotherly thing now. But, man, her history…and then being attacked…almost raped. She was pregnant and so in love with Mark and still fighting—after all that.”
    Ali nodded. “It is an incredible story and it also proves second chances do come sometimes.”
    “Nobody controls nature. Sarah is a perfect example of that. She was told she couldn’t get pregnant after having a horrific miscarriage. Now she’s having a baby. Lisa treated the gift of having a child with complete nonchalance. It’s done and can’t be undone. What if she can’t get pregnant again? What if that gift is taken from me? What if I don’t get another chance to have kids—she never considered me in the equation.”
    “And Lisa is your ex?”
    Johnny nodded and went back to his story. “If Sarah didn’t give up after everything she’d been through—why should I? Before Brian called, I was doing what you’re doing now, sitting around wallowing in self-pity because life hadn’t turned out how I wanted.” He dropped his head back on his shoulders and took a deep breath. Everything about this conversation pissed him off. He had no intentions of telling her any of this, but he pushed through anyway. “When I went to the wedding…they were so happy.” He shrugged. “I realized I could have what they have too.” His voice softened. “Then I met you again.”
    “I’m taking responsibility for my actions, not wallowing in self-pity,” she said.
    “How? By telling me you don’t want me?” He couldn’t keep the heat from his voice no matter how hard he tried. “Do you have any feelings for me at all?”
    “This isn’t about you or about my feelings for you…I just can’t right now.”
    “So your form of taking responsibility is turning me away to punish yourself?”

Chapter Five

    Ali lowered her eyes. She didn’t want him to see the truth when he looked at her. Gosh and what would people say if she started seeing Johnny before finalizing her divorce? Regardless of her feelings, she needed to control herself, and not jump into another situation like she did with Carl. She shook her head at