As Josh was getting off work on Saturday morning, he received a text from Maggie asking him to pick up some barley and dried mushrooms so she could make beef and barley soup. Josh was happy to oblige, as it was one of his favorite soups and one his mom used to make for dinner every week during the winter.

He stopped in at CoCo’s to get the ingredients. CoCo’s Food Emporium, a higher-end organic grocery store, was one of the recent successes of the city’s downtown development efforts and included not only groceries but a full deli, bakery, and salad bar. While they served great coffee, Josh was heading home after a forty-eight-hour shift and hoped to nap, so he focused on getting in and out of the store as quickly as possible. Coming out of an aisle and turning a corner, he didn’t even see the woman in his path.

“Oh, geez! Hi!” she said, and Josh’s heart began to race even before he looked up.

It was Hayley, in a camel-colored wool coat he hadn’t seen before with a plaid scarf, looking gorgeously retro and classy.

“Hayley.” He halted, feeling at a loss for words. “Do you always get up so early to do your grocery shopping on the weekends?”

“Ha. No, not at all. I’m just getting some eye drops before meeting my—” She cleared her throat. “Evan and I are meeting in the bakery to kick off our date with a coffee.”

“That doesn’t sound very auspicious,” he said. “Beginning a date in a grocery store at seven-thirty in the morning.”

“Now, now,” Hayley said. “He offered to pick me up at my apartment, but I don’t like to have people over until I know them pretty well.”

“You had me over.”

Her laugh was like sunshine on a cloudy day. “And, see, I got to know you pretty well.”

“So you won’t be getting to know this Evan guy in such a manner?” he asked, although he knew it was none of his business.

“Not today, no.”

They looked at each other awkwardly, so much unspoken between them. Josh wanted to tell her he’d checked his phone a hundred times since he’d left her, hoping for a message.

“I had a good time the other night,” he said finally. “I mean, the other day, too, not just the night. The whole day—it was pretty perfect.”

Their eyes connected, and for a moment it felt like it had that day. Then Hayley looked over her shoulder. “Listen, I have to go, but, um, will you still let me interview you for the profile piece? I’ll understand if you think it’d be too awkward.”

“Not at all,” he said, relieved he had an excuse to see her again. “Do you want to set something up right now?”

“Let me text you,” Hayley said. “I don’t want to be late.” She tilted her head toward the café area of the store.

“Right.”

They said goodbye, and Josh watched her walk away, hoping she’d look back.

She didn’t.

* * *

This is why you don’t have one night stands, Hayley scolded herself as she waited in line to pay for the eye drops, waving to Evan to let him know she’d be right over to the table he’d secured for them.

Seeing Josh was a mini-disaster for Hayley. She’d tried hard to separate Josh and Evan in her mind, to put as much distance as possible between her night with Josh and her day with Evan.

Since Wednesday night—the night—she’d thrown herself into work and was almost ready to launch the “Bring Your Heart” campaign. She’d hosted Singles Night. She’d gone to a second spin class with Cassie and although she again nearly collapsed from the exertion, she was rather proud of herself for going. She’d steadfastly refused to call or text Josh, and after a day of obsessively checking her phone to see if he’d called her, she’d even taken to powering it down so she’d stop looking at it.

And then, in spite of all her valiant efforts to avoid thinking of him, she’d run into him now.

Golden Falls can be a damn small place, she thought, and then hated the warm, fluttering happiness inside that had come from seeing Josh again. It wasn’t good for her.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder, pushed all thoughts of Josh’s intense honey eyes and ripped muscles aside, and walked toward where Evan was waiting.

He stood. If Hayley hadn’t just seen Josh, she would have thought Evan was one of the more attractive guys she’d gone out with: tall, dark hair, nice face. The kind of guy who looked like he’d make a good boyfriend.

“Hi, Hayley!” Evan said. “It’s nice to see you.”

“Sorry I’m late. Actually, I got here early, but my eyes have been dry and—” She held up her little bag and stopped talking, realizing she’d been blabbering. “Never mind. It’s nice to see you, too!”

“Ready for some coffee?”

“Always,” Hayley said.

The line at the coffee bar was short, and as they waited together, Hayley felt what she might have called first-date nerves, but it wasn’t that. The buzzing tension throughout her body had everything to do with Josh.

Focus on Evan, she told herself, as if she were her own dating coach.

“How are you finding the weather?” she asked him. “It must be so different than what you had back in Seattle.”

“It’s the darkness I’m having a hard time adjusting to. I’m having a hell of a time getting out of bed, but I’m falling asleep really early, too. I didn’t count on it feeling like night all the time. It’s a strange feeling.”

“I moved here in summer, so the adjustment wasn’t nearly so bad, but I know what you mean. Do you have one of those lamps that replicates daylight yet?”

“No, but I need one.”

“I have three,” Hayley told him. “The one in my bedroom is a wake-up light, which is probably the most important because it mimics the sunrise so your body feels like it’s time to get up. It really makes a difference.”

She linked her arm with his at the same time she caught a glimpse of Josh in the checkout line and another frisson of nervous awareness went through her. She immediately wanted to pull away but didn’t know how to do so without being obvious about it.

Josh is your past. Evan might be your future.

She kept her hand where it was and gave Evan a big smile. “So. What are we doing today?”

“I’ll tell you if you insist, but I’d rather just take you there. Can you trust me with the surprise?”

“Let’s go with the unknown,” she said.

“Awesome.” His dimples gave his smile an extra twinkle. “I think you’ll be happy with your choice.”

Hayley watched Josh walk away from her, and she squeezed Evan’s arm.

“I know I will.”