I get lost in my work after Kelly’s call. Contracts and researching what exactly social media analytics entails and tips on unhappy athletes I might be able to snag from another agent. It’s only when the alarm on my phone goes off the second time that I pay attention to the time.

From there, I’m a scrambled mess of what to wear and how to do my hair. Of shaving legs and putting on makeup. Of driving to where I’ve been directed to Grandy’s is, only to find that every available inch of parking space in Destiny Falls seems to be taken for one reason or another.

So I park where I can, and then walk the rest of the way to the old school ice cream shop a block from the town’s main boulevard. I’m surprised how many people are milling about on a Thursday evening. I assume there’s a high school sports game of some sort and, since sports are my life, am obviously interested in what sport.

Ryan Camden could be anywhere in this town. Hell, he could be the guy who just walked past me or he could have moved on and now lives elsewhere.

I turn around to give one more look at the crowd who just passed me, as if I even know what Ryan looks like beyond the grainy photos I found on the Internet.

Focus, Chase.

The irony in that thought is not lost on me. I’m here to find Ryan Camden but I’m telling myself to focus on my date with the bartender from last night.

And so I forget the notion that Ryan was in that crowd somewhere, and I head to Grandy’s.

I don’t get nervous before dates. I never have. I know that’s arrogant of me but doesn’t that simply say more about me than the guy I’m meeting? That dating is simply a source of fun and definitely not something I look at as using to find my match or mate or whatever ridiculous colloquial term people use. Soulmate is the one my sisters prefer, and that term just makes me nauseous.

Soulmate. Meh. No thanks.

But turning the corner to where Grandy’s is located, I swear my breath hitches when I see Gunner standing there. He’s got a pair of faded jeans on, brown boots, and a dark-blue T-shirt hangs loosely against his broad chest. His smile is wide and his free hand is gesticulating wildly as he takes the hand of an elderly woman and helps her down the curb. She’s about half his height and definitely more than triple his age, but he jokes with her as he opens her car door for her.