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the standard “seventy-two hour” rule very seriously. He’d even texted me shortly after I’d returned home from our coffee date to make sure I’d arrived safely. I sat with my phone in hand for several seconds before typing out a response—deleting it—and retyping another.
    That process went on for about five minutes before I finally settled on telling him that I’d indeed made it home safely, was heading to bed and would talk to him in the next few days. I was actually a little surprised—and maybe even a little disappointed—that I hadn’t heard from him again. I should’ve known he wasn’t going to let it go that easily.
    Since I’d gotten little sleep the night of the wedding, I decided on going to bed early, but for the second night in a row, I tossed and turned with images of Bentley floating in my dreams. It was nearly impossible to drag myself out of bed this morning, but I knew I had two new cases coming in today and couldn’t just pass off my responsibilities on my co-workers because my head was in the clouds over Bentley. Seriously, I was starting to sound like some love-struck teenager.
    Just as I was typing out a text message to thank Bentley for the flowers, Susan, my boss at the center, walked into my office.
    “Good morning, Ireland. Just so you know, on top of the two cases we were already expecting, we have teenage twins—both girls—coming in as well. Their mom and dad were both killed in a traffic accident over the weekend and they don’t have any immediate family. We’ll have to work quickly to place them with a foster family. It’d be best if we didn’t have to separate them.”
    Her words took me back to the crash that had taken everyone I’d ever loved. Bentley may not have died with them that day, but he’d been taken away just the same. The thought of losing him all over again was too much to bear. In that moment, I felt myself beginning to patch that wall around my heart that Bentley had manage to crack in just a few short days.
    “Yeah, of course, I’ll get right on that,” I said. “Are the girls here yet? I’d like to speak with them as soon as possible.”
    “No, they should be here in about thirty minutes. I’ll make sure to send them right down once we get them checked in,” Susan answered. As she began to turn back towards the door, her eyes landed on the vase of flowers on my desk. “Oh, those are beautiful! I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone,” she said with a smile.
    “Oh, thank you. And, I’m not. I’m not seeing anyone,” I added, clarifying. I didn’t need any office gossip. I’d managed to keep my personal life, or lack thereof, pretty private in the five years that I’d worked there and I intended to keep it that way. In fact, I didn’t think many of my co-workers, aside from Susan who asked during the interview process, even knew my story, or my motivation for becoming a social worker for orphaned children.
    “Well, whoever sent them must think you’re pretty special, Ireland. Because they’re gorgeous. And, if I must say, I thought you seemed more chipper this morning,” she said, smiling.
    Her words caught me off guard. Not really knowing how to respond to her revelation, I was relieved when my phone vibrated in my hand giving me a quick out. I looked down to see an incoming text from Bentley. I’d gotten so caught up in my conversation with Susan that I’d forgotten about my unfinished text thanking him for the flowers.
    “That must be the mystery man. I can tell because that smile of yours actually reached your eyes. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen that before. Make sure you keep him around,” she said, turning to leave my office.
    I had to give her credit. She was really saying all the right things. It was definitely from all those years working with the children in the foster system. It may have worked on me twenty years ago, but I’d spent the last decade using those same lines on children. Sure, I wanted to