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saw them again. Hope was different and she always had been.
    â€œHey.” Hope swung the door open, her cheeks flushed, breathing hard like she’d just finished at the gym.
    â€œHey.” Chase grinned back at her, fighting to keep his eyes on hers instead of flitting down her body. She was wearing skin-tight dark jeans and towering heels, her legs long as a filly’s, but they were friends and he was trying to behave … To hell with it. He looked her up then down, raising an eyebrow when he finally met her gaze again. “You look fantastic.”
    She rolled her eyes, something she’d done back in college a lot but that looked kind of hilarious now she was all grown up. “You don’t look so bad yourself, cowboy.”
    Chase was wearing jeans, his favorite boots, and a clean checked shirt—hardly noteworthy. But he took her compliment with a smile.
    â€œYou ready to go?”
    She was holding onto the doorframe, leaning into it, and she kept one hand on it as she pulled back, blocking the way.
    â€œI just need to double-check everything with the sitter,” she said. “And double-check Harrison one last time.”
    Chase went to walk into the house, to follow her, but she never took her hand off the door. “Can I come in?” he asked.
    She made a kind of grimace, like she was about to deliver a blow of bad news and didn’t know how to package it. “Would you mind if I met you at your car? It’s just, I have him settled and I’d rather check him one last time, then slip out.”
    Chase held up his hands. “No problem.” Maybe she didn’t want the kid to know she was going out with a man, he got that. “I’ll see you in a minute.”
    Hope threw him what looked like a grateful smile and shut the door, leaving him standing outside alone. He chuckled and walked back to his car. It was like being a teenager sneaking around with a girl all over again, only this time it wasn’t a dad he was nervous about running into, it was a child.
    *   *   *
    Hope’s nerves were frazzled. The last thing she’d wanted was Chase coming in and seeing Harrison, but she’d been running so late from work and she’d wanted to take time getting ready. Just because they’d been friends for years didn’t mean she had any intention of going out without making an effort, and she hadn’t had a night out in … months. Maybe longer.
    She ran back, grabbed her purse from where she’d discarded it earlier on the bed, and looked at herself once last time in the floor-length mirror. Her jeans were tight, the stilettos a pair she’d bought on a whim and never worn before. She shrugged into her favorite leather jacket, pushed some big gold hoops through her ears, and leaned over to squirt some perfume into her hair. She’d read somewhere that a Victoria’s Secret model did that before every date, and if it worked for her then Hope was happy to follow her lead.
    â€œBye, sweetheart,” she called out as she hurried into the living room again, dropping a kiss into Harrison’s hair. Hope stopped, noticed how happy her son seemed to be with the sitter. She’d asked her to come over an hour early, just in case, but it seemed the agency she’d used had given her a good one—the young woman was snuggled up on the sofa with Harrison watching a DVD, happily chatting about the characters like The Lego Movie was her favorite, too. “I won’t be late. See you soon.”
    She mouthed thank you to the sitter when she turned around and grinned at her, before opening the door, stepping out, and locking it behind her. Hope took a deep breath, stuck her purse under her arm, and turned toward the driveway. Chase’s throaty engine rumbled to life and the headlights flicked on. It was time to put on her game face. So she did exactly that, forcing a smile and squaring her shoulders like