I’m driving through the city, aimlessly wandering even though I’m supposed to be in the office, when my phone rings. Nothing anchors me at work, not since I came back from Reckless Falls, and I’ve taken to giving my driver time off. At least having my hands on the wheel gives me something to do. The ringtone cuts into the music I have blaring over the car’s sound system.

“What the hell,” I mutter, punching at the button to ignore the call.

Naturally, I miss that button and answer it by accident.

“My man!” Gideon’s voice booms through the system, nearly bursting my eardrums.

“Shit.” I fumble for the volume control, turning down his laughter. “What do you want, you asshole?”

“Did you have your music turned up? I warned you about that, my friend.”

“None of your—”

“Where are you? What are you doing? Come get on my plane at LaGuardia. We’re going to the Bahamas.”

I have to stifle a sigh. The Bahamas are fucking great, and Gideon always rents a place that might as well be a palace. But the last thing I’m going to do is get on his plane right now. I want to go back to my place and pull a pillow over my head and come out when this sickening disappointment has subsided.

“I’m back into the city.” I search for an excuse. “I’m late getting to the office.”

“You own the office. Take a day or five off. See you here in thirty?”

Some asshole cuts in from the right lane, so close I almost take his bumper off. I want to shout at the guy—the urge is there to do something—but I don’t feel anything. I’m just alone in my car, with my best friend’s voice in my ears.

“I’d love to, but—”

“No excuses, Adam. You were in that little town for days and days. It’s time for some adventure.”

Adventure. Nothing seems more adventurous to me right now than climbing up to the falls with Reggie and stripping off her clothes right there in the open, where anyone could see us. I want to be in that moment again, not inching my way through New York City traffic. Discovering her was a thousand times more exciting than the Bahamas will ever be. The crush of cars here might be more of a risk to my life, but I can’t feel the slightest pulse of adrenaline.

“Yeah, I—”

“Hey!” Gideon shouts the word like he’s remembering something important. “Did you do it?”

“Did I do what?”

He lowers his voice like we’re conspirators. “Did you sleep with her?”

I have no fucking idea what he’s talking about for a long moment. Sleep with who? Then it comes back to me. The reunion. The bet.

I’d lost that one.

“No, man, I didn’t.”

“Adam Zeller, the man who got denied by his hometown honey—” Gideon’s words strike me to the core. I don’t know why I suddenly have the urge to prove him wrong, but the truth comes bursting out of me.

“I didn’t sleep with her at the reunion.”

“Aha! So later on then.”

I open my mouth to tell him everything but the words stick in my throat. What happened between Reggie and me wasn’t some stupid fucking bet. It was real. It was the realest thing that’s happened to me since I left Reckless Falls.

“None of your business,” I say in a tone that I usually reserve for the boardroom.

Gideon sobers. “Did I say something?”

“I can’t—” I’m gripping the wheel so hard my knuckles are white. “She’s not a bet. And I really fucked things up.”

There’s a moment of silence. “Go back.”

I shake my head, even though he can’t see me. “There’s nothing to be done about—”

“Go back to Reckless Falls, Adam.” His voice rings with a certainty that I don’t feel. “If you do nothing else in your life, turn the car around and get your ass back to her. You have to tell her, man.”

“Tell her what?”

“That you love her. Don’t be an idiot.” He laughs out loud. “I have watched you roll into a hundred different clubs and charm a hundred different ladies. For God’s sake, you had half of Kennedy’s bachelorette party hanging off of you the night I met her. Remember that?”

It’s all a blur of faces and loud music and a ridiculous fucking sash that Kennedy was wearing. I’d made a bet with Gideon. He had to go after her. It was the perfect way to get him to focus on one lady while I had my pick of the rest. And none of it mattered. It strikes me that none of them mattered because they weren’t Reggie.

He’s right.

She’s right.

I’m the one who’s wrong.

The answer dawns on me.

I’ve been in love with her from the moment she wiped out on her bike in front of my house. From the moment she first lifted her chin and refused to cry. But everyone cries eventually. Everyone breaks eventually, and I saw her break while I was in Reckless Falls. She did that in front of me. She let me take her home and tend to her in her moment of weakness, and I turned my back.

I’ve danced with countless women. I’ve bought countless drinks. I’ve slipped out of more expensive hotel rooms than I can count, picking up the bill on my way out. None of those women ever had fire in their eyes like she still does.

And that shit where she sent me back out again?

It was clearly a test, and I failed it. But Reggie Quinn was never going to chase after me. Like she’d ever show that kind of weakness. Like she’d ever admit that my father’s house means something to her, too. It’s only occurring to me in this moment that it was as much a part of her life as it was mine.

I’ve been running in the wrong direction all along.

“I remember that.” It finally occurs to me that we’re in the middle of a conversation. Gideon’s probably waiting to pounce. “I have to go.”

“Yes. Back to Reckless Falls,” he needles.

“There’s something I have to do first.”

“Don’t let me down, Adam,” Gideon warns, and then he laughs. “I don’t want to come home to a best friend who’s sulking in his penthouse. Don’t wait any longer than necessary. This is the woman of your dreams we’re talking about.”

“How would you know—”

“Everybody else has always been a bet,” he says, and then there’s a low voice in the background. “I’m going to the Bahamas. When I get back, you’d better not be sulking in your penthouse. Godspeed!” He shouts the last word and hangs up on me.

The clock is already ticking.