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He tended to forget that Beau’s life had moved in a very different direction from his own. Not a direction Archie had ever had any interest in.

He blinked over it for a little while, then asked, “How did it go in court today?”

Beau hesitated, said neutrally, “We have to wait for the judge to issue his final ruling.”

“On what?”

“It wasn’t—this was a custody hearing. My wife—ex-wife—is remarrying and moving to Florida. She wants to take Alex with her.”

“Oh. Can she do that?”

Beau didn’t answer immediately. “It’s complicated. We’ve been working through this for about a year. I could try to fight her, but ultimately, I’m probably not going to be able to keep her from relocating. It’s going to better for all of us if I don’t go to war with her—especially if I can’t win. My goal now is shared custody and a generous structured visitation schedule. Which Riley originally agreed to, but has since decided against. Not against visitation as a whole, just not nearly as generous as I’m asking for. Her preference is she gets full custody and I go there to visit as much as possible.”

“How old is Alex?”

“Five.”

Archie said nothing. He was thinking five was pretty young to be jumping on a plane and flying across country.

“I think she’s hoping it’s not going to be possible for me to keep flying back and forth and that I’ll eventually fade out of their lives.” Beau said a little bitterly, “While still paying child support, of course.”

“I’m sorry. That’s got to be hell.”

“Yeah. And she’s wrong. I’m not going to conveniently forget I’ve got a son.”

“No. Of course not.”

“I legally adopted him. I’ve been there every single day of his life. I cut the damned umbilical cord.”

Archie nodded, said slowly, “You adopted him?”

“Riley was pregnant when we started dating again. I told her I didn’t care. The kid would be my mine in every way, and that’s how it’s been. I couldn’t love him more if he was my own flesh and blood.”

Archie nodded, thinking hard.

“It’s not just me, either,” Beau said. “She’s taking him away from my parents—and her own parents. They’re all heartbroken.”

“Why’s she moving to Florida?”

Beau said flatly, “Sully has a job lined up in Florida.”

“Sully? Mike Sullivan?”

Beau nodded.

“Your old pal Sully is marrying your ex?”

“I don’t have a problem with that.” In fact, Beau seemed to brush the idea aside. “Sully’s a good guy. He’s crazy about Riley. He’s good with Alex. I don’t object to anything but them taking Alex to Florida. That’s the part I have a problem with. And I’m even willing to live with that if she’ll let me have summer vacation and holiday school breaks. Which she originally agreed to, but now she wants to split the summers and the school breaks.”

Archie’s head was spinning. He had no idea what to say, but Beau’s anguish was palpable and his heart ached for him. Why the hell did this kind of thing have to be so hard? Why couldn’t people just compromise?

“I’m so sorry, Beau.”

Beau sighed. “Yeah,” he said wearily. “Me too.” He resumed those slow, unhurried caresses, and, despite his best efforts, Archie could feel the tension seeping out of his body, his thoughts quieting, dimming.

“Hey,” Beau said gently, softly. “I’ve got to go.”

Archie lifted his lashes, blinked. It took him a second to unglue his lips.