You may stop expecting them to return long before you stop wanting them to.

Two things separate at different speeds. The part of you that keeps expectations current updates fairly quickly; you stop listening for the key in the door, stop reaching for the phone. The wanting takes far longer and may not fully stop. Living in that gap, knowing they will not come and still wishing they would, is much of what the long middle of grief feels like.

Try not to treat the continued wanting as a failure to accept anything. Acceptance is about your expectations, not your wishes. Let the wish exist without arguing with it, and it takes up less room than it does when resisted.