I ground my teeth together as my name was announced. It was time to compete. I walked out to the center of the circle on the mat. Licks of heat burned over my face, my shoulders. She was watching me. She’d study me, and then she’d talk to Jason about my techniques, my strengths, my weaknesses. She wouldn’t judge me on my last name or what I could do for her. She wouldn’t hold what I was doing today against what I was supposed to be as an adult. She’d see me on this mat. The real me that put his heart into wrestling because Mama had thought I was good at it. And the girl would be oblivious. She’d have no clue that she’d made a sad, lonely boy from King’s Creek feel seen again.

The night of the library tour…

This was it. Tonight was the night.

My heart raced. The crowd from the public library gathered. They’d met in town and driven here as a group, walked in as a group, and stayed a tight little community as they gathered in the meeting room.

Damn them.

Faces blended in front of me. Men and women avidly listening to a spiel I’d given several times before. All of it had been a cover for tonight.

My gaze jumped over the group. I tried not to linger on the women, but I had to know if she’d showed.

Had she changed? Had I looked right at her and not recognized her?

This was a long shot. I wasn’t a gambling man. I worked for what I had and I didn’t take chances. What needed to be done, I did.

The trust wasn’t any different. It shouldn’t be any different. But it was. I’d turned my career over to King Oil. But now I was supposed to turn my future over to a trust? To marry someone just to get some money?

I had responsibilities, but this felt invasive. This felt like a line had gotten crossed. Yet it had also gotten me thinking.

If I hadn’t kept my head down and my mind on my job, what would my life have been like? Who would I have dated long enough to form a relationship with? Who would I have wanted to date?

When I was a teenager, there’d been one girl who’d fascinated me, and I had one final question. Would she have the same effect on me as an adult?

My gaze skipped over a pair of intelligent hazel eyes. I swallowed my triumph and forced myself to keep scanning as I spoke.

Kate McDonough.