“Mm-hmm.” I step beside her and link my fingers with hers. “In case you’ve forgotten, we met in a bar. I do believe I was worn down much like this place is and you stepped inside and lit up the room.” I press a kiss to her hand.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“I know. And you love me for it.” I tug her toward the bar top. “Humor me?” I ask. “Take these with me and we can do another round somewhere of your liking, but I saw this place and couldn’t resist doing some photos here. A setting that defines me in a city that characterizes you.”

“Okay.” She draws the word out as she eyes me. “This is so unlike you.”

“I know, but I wanted to do this for you.”

“I’m Monique,” the photographer says, stepping forward to shake Chase’s hand. She tells her what her thoughts are for background and pictures.

Their laughter soon fills the space as they talk about staging while I open the garage door-style windows that roll up and open the restaurant area out to the street.

“Should we get started?” Monique asks.

We spend the next forty minutes posing in different locations inside the bar. The laughter flows as freely as I imagined the alcohol once did in this place.

“It’s raining,” Chase whispers as the puddles outside begin to ripple with its drops.

“It is.”

“It’s perfect.” She stares as the cadence of the rain picks up.

“You’re serious,” I say as she tugs on my hand and leads me outside, the little clicks of the camera following closely behind us.

“Dance in the rain with me, Gunner.” Chase twirls out onto the sidewalk, her face held up to the sky, her smile contagious. And when she looks at me again, I see my whole fucking world.

And so we dance.

In the rain.

The beating of our hearts and the drops of the rain the only music we need.

My lips meet hers as my hands come to the sides of her face. Water streams down our cheeks as our tongues touch and express how we feel without words.

“Could you have planned this any better?” she whispers against my lips, as our foreheads rest against each other’s. Busy New Yorkers scurry past us, umbrellas in every color in their hands, but we don’t see a thing.

We only see each other.

But then again, haven’t we always?

“I didn’t plan a thing, but somehow with you, Chase, things always fall into place.”

Another kiss. Another reminder why she’s my whole world.

“Can you look this way?” Monique asks from the chair she’s perched on, taking pictures.

I wonder how long it will take before Chase sees it. Before it all computes.

“Gunner?”

Bingo.