“I know this sounds crazy, but . . . we need some help at The Center. It’s the beginning of our rec league’s baseball season and so we need help organizing teams and sign-ups. It’s just for a couple of weeks. All simple. It’s a way to earn some extra cash while you’re researching your thesis. And, it would be a chance for you to get some great insight into military life. On the emotional toll these kids experience. The ups and downs of it.”

I immediately feel like an ass. For him thinking I’m here for my thesis. For him assuming I’m a broke graduate student who needs to earn extra cash.

For all of it.

And I know I need to tell him the truth but . . .

“C’mon. Can I entice you by saying you’ll get to see me more, too?” Those eyes of his are beguiling.

“You’re so cute when you beg,” I say and step up and give him a kiss to rival the kisses he’s won me over with. “But there’s no need to beg. I’d love to help out. To volunteer.” And I’m serious. It’s not until the words pass over my lips that I realize how much I do in fact want to do this. I’ve been a kid who lost a parent. I’ve been lost, grieving, and lashing out. Something about this is just too right for me. “Besides, you can repay me in other ways.” I wink.

“I don’t think I’ll be too hard-pressed to figure out how to do that.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Chase

IF SOMEONE WERE TO ASK me how this happened—how I, Chase Ava Kincade, ended up sitting at a front desk of a rec center telling seven-year-old Guillermo that a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie is not an acceptable form of bribery to get a girl, me, to go on a date with him—I’d tell them they were crazy.

That I’d never be in this situation.

I am the furthest thing from the nurturing, playful type when it comes to kids, and yet here I am.

The Center is an old YMCA property. It has a gymnasium in desperate need of some work along with some cracked asphalt courts outside and a baseball diamond on the far side.

The facility is worn and aged, but what it lacks in curb appeal, it definitely makes up for with the laughter echoing around and love emanating through its space.

“So the gist is this,” Ellie, Gunner’s counterpart, explains. “We run and facilitate sports programs for all kids on base to help us offer more to those kids who have lost their mom or dad.”