Scott was exhausted. He’d been traveling for twelve days living out his “Bucket List” baseball trip. He’d been to four cities, five ballparks, and saw six games. The highlights were seeing games at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, and his first visit to New York City. He was up early to catch his first flight of the day. He left Boston, took a short flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, and was finally boardi...

As Scott and Shannon walked up the street in midtown Sacramento, he pointed out various shops, restaurants, and bars. He explained that in the mid-eighties, this area of town was depressed, with many empty storefronts and abandoned houses, but things were redeveloped starting in the early 2000s, and now the area is thriving. When he opened the door to Zocalo’s the mild aroma of Mexican food welcomed them. After being seat...

After Shannon returned to Charlotte, she and Scott discussed seeing each other again, and soon. The hard part was finding a weekend when they could both take three or four days off. Finally, they found a weekend, but it was four weeks out in mid-October. As they tried to decide on a location, she texted, “What do you think about meeting somewhere in the middle? Denver? New Orleans? Austin? Other?” Scott read her text and...