“Chase, honey?” His mom knocked on the bedroom door, her voice heavy with concern. “Chase? Will you answer me, please?”

It had been an hour since Ben left.

Maybe.

Or maybe it had only been a few minutes.

Maybe it had been a whole damn week. Chase didn’t know and couldn’t be bothered to care. He was moving mechanically, folding clothes and putting them in his suitcase only to unfold them and start over as his mind replayed their conversation over and over.

And over. And over.

“Chase, I know you’re upset, but let me help you.” Her voice was getting more high-pitched with each word. “Please unlock the door right now, Chase. If I need to get your father to break it down, I’ll do it. I swear I will.”

He slowly walked across the room and unlocked the door, barely moving out of the way in time as his mother came barreling through.

“Oh, thank God,” she grabbed his arm and reached up to put a hand against his cheek, as if she was making sure he was still in one piece. “You had me so worried when you didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to think. All I knew was that Ben left looking sad, and I wasn’t really listening to your conversation, but what I accidentally heard didn’t make any sense at all…”

Chase knew he should be paying attention to what she was saying, but she was talking so quickly and his brain was still so stuck on Ben that gave up trying to focus after a minute. Maybe she would tire herself out by rambling and leave him to finish packing in peace.

One thing was for certain. If she expected him to talk about Ben after what had just happened, she was going to be very disappointed.

He couldn’t even make sense of what had happened himself, and he’d been right in the thick of it.

One minute, everything had been great—had been perfect, actually.

The next minute, it had been over.

“I can’t do this right now, Mom,” Chase said, finally. “I’m sorry. I just don’t wanna talk about it, okay?”

“Of course, dear,” she said, patting his arm. “I understand.”

But instead of leaving and closing the door behind her like Chase had hoped would happen, she simply sat down on the bed and watched him as he continued methodically folding and unfolding clothes.

He wasn’t even sure what he was doing. Was he having some sort of episode? A mental breakdown? All he knew was that as long as his hands were busy, he could pretend to be calm for just a little longer.

“Are you still planning on going to New York?” she asked.

The question seemed so random, so out of the blue that it actually short-circuited the folding and unfolding routine. It was just so random.

“Yeah? I mean…” Chase’s brow furrowed. “I have to go, Mom. I have to get out of here.”

“What are you running from, Chase?” Her voice was quiet but determined. “If it’s because of something your father or I said or did, we can talk about it, honey.”

“No, it’s… it’s not like that,” he said. “I just need a place where I can start over… where I can be myself.”

“Okay,” she said, standing up and clasping her hands together as she moved toward the door. “I won’t pressure you. But I do want to say one thing, so please look at me and listen carefully.”

He looked up from the pile of clothes on his bed and waited. He was seriously done with the conversation, but there was something in her tone that made him wait without questioning her.

“I know I’ve said this before, but your father and I only want you to be happy. We had hoped that you could be happy here—maybe not in this house, of course, but here in Baxter Springs—now that you don’t feel like you have to hide who you are anymore. But if that’s not the case, then so be it.” She took a deep breath, hesitated at the doorway before continuing. “I’d just hate for you to spend the next few years looking for some big adventure when your heart might be telling you to do something else. So just listen to your heart. More often than not, it will point you in the right direction.”

She walked out of his room and closed the door, leaving him staring at the spot where she’d been standing.

He tossed aside the shirt that was in his hands and shoved a hand back through his hair. Was he really running from something? He always felt like he was looking for something that would make him feel alive. Something that didn’t exist in Baxter Springs.

Except that for the past two weeks, he’d felt more alive than ever before, thanks to Ben.

Was he really going to go chase that feeling in New York with no guarantee of success when he could find exactly what he wanted and needed literally right down the road?

Only an idiot would fuck up that decision.

And while Chase might have done his share of idiotic things in the past, this was one of those things that he absolutely did not want to get wrong.

Listen to your heart. It will point you in the right direction.

Chase closed his eyes for a moment, finally feeling at ease for the first time all day. He knew what he had to do. It was perfectly obvious when he thought about it like that.

Without wasting another second, he grabbed his keys from the dresser and bolted for the door. He’d have to remember to thank his mom later.

Right now, he had to go.

He didn’t want to keep his heart waiting.

Chase wasn’t nervous at all for the entire drive to Ben’s house.

It helped, of course, that the “entire drive” took about ten minutes. Still, he felt calm and focused as he zipped through town and out onto the country road that led to the ranch.

Once he’d made up his mind, following through with the decision had been the easiest thing he’d ever done. He was going to see Ben again. There was no reason to feel anything but happy about it.

Until he pulled up in the driveway and started to get out of his truck, anyway.

That was when the nerves hit him, and he hesitated for a moment before he walked up the path that led to Ben’s front door.

How was this going to work? Would Ben even want to see him again? After all, it had been Chase’s idea to do the stupid fake dating thing that had led to this whole mess.

Ben might have blamed himself earlier, but would he still, once he had more time to think about it?

Or would he lay the blame where it belonged, at Chase’s feet?

There was really only one way to find out, but it didn’t make that walk to the front door any easier.

Because while Chase had made up his mind about what he wanted, there was no guarantee that Ben would still want the same thing.

All Chase had to go on was a hunch. And a hope. And a dream

Hunches and hopes and dreams so far had been a pretty mixed bag, though. Still, if Chase didn’t take this chance, he might never get another one. He couldn’t afford not to risk it.

He knocked on the door, wincing at how loud it was. He needed to get that nervous energy under control before he scared Ben off for good.

He took a deep breath as he waited.

And waited.

And. Waited.

“Ben?” he called out, then knocked again. “Ben, are you home? It’s Chase…”

And now he felt like an idiot, because who else would it be, right? But whatever. That wasn’t what he needed to focus on at the moment.

He hesitated for another moment at the door before taking off and sprinting around the corner of the house. Ben’s truck was there in its normal spot, which made Chase unsure whether he should feel hurt or worried. Did Ben really not want to talk to him?

Was that possible?

He spotted movement by the barn—Eric, thank God. Maybe Chase could at least get some answers from Ben’s brother.

Chase had already run two-thirds of the way out there when Eric motioned for him to stop. “Save your energy,” he called. “Ben isn’t out here.”

Chase stopped in his tracks and asked the question that would determine whether worry or pain won the battle for his emotions. “Is he inside? I knocked on the door, but…”

Eric shook his head. “Last I saw, he was on his way across the pasture on horseback. I’m not sure where he disappeared to after that, though.”

Chase scanned the horizon for a moment, then stopped and turned around. “Thanks, Eric,” he called back over his shoulder, running as fast as he could back to his truck.

He wasn’t one hundred percent certain, but he had a pretty good idea of where Ben might be.

He revved the engine and gave a little wave as he drove past Eric and out into the pasture. Eric was looking at him like he had lost his mind, but Chase didn’t have time to stop and explain.

His heart was telling him where to go, and Chase’s only priority was to get there.