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“For the better?” she asked.

He stopped to pick up a rock and tossed it into the water. “I’d like to think so. The growth of the foundation is part of that.” He drew her in close and kissed her. “Maybe you’re part of that, too.”

“YOU MAKETHIS seem so easy and so right,” Kat said, gazing up at him with appreciation.

“Should it be difficult?” He picked up another rock and studied it for a moment.

“Complicated, maybe? I don’t know. Usually when I go out on a date it doesn’t feel like this. It’s more…questionable. There’s nothing questionable about how I feel when I’m with you. Iwantto be with you, and I can sense that you want to be with me, too.” She watched his lips curve into a smile as he tossed the rock into the water and reached for her hand again. Even though she’d been surprised by his kiss at the racetrack, she loved that he was openly affectionate. Something as simple as holding his hand made her feel special.

“Tell me about your foundation. How did you choose what type of families to help when there are so many families in need?”

“Experience,” he said, and that one word, spoken with a modicum of heaviness, made her wonder if he’d had drug issues in the past.

“Personal experience?” she asked carefully.

He sank down to a boulder and pulled her down beside him. “This isn’t something I usually talk about, but since we seem to be breaking all the rules…”

“I didn’t mean to pry,” she said quickly.

“You’re not prying, and if there’s a chance you’ll go out with me again, which I hope you will, then I want you to know the realme, like I said.” He squeezed her hand, but his eyes searched the river, as if he might find some answers there.

He turned to face her, and the way he took her hand between his underscored the importance of what he was about to reveal. Kat readied herself for a confession of drug use, which was something she wasn’t sure she could deal with.

“I didn’t have what you’d call an ideal childhood. My father was a stonemason, and he hurt his back when I was three or four. My mom was a stay-at-home mother, but after my father hurt his back and was put on disability, she took a job at a grocery store. My father was left to care for me while she worked, and between his pain and my being a rambunctious little boy…”

His voice was laden with sadness, and when he shrugged like it was no big deal, Kat knew he was just trying to act strong.

“I’m sorry. Was he abusive?”

“Not often. He went from pain pills to heavier drugs. Heroin mostly, and my mom eventually quit her job to care for me, but somehow she got tied up in the drugs, too. I don’t really know how or why, but by the time I was six or seven, they were both a mess.”

Her heart cracked wide open at the thought of Eric as a little boy, having to deal with that situation. “Did you have any other family members who could take care of you?”

He shook his head, and in the next breath he squared his shoulders, lifted his chin, and strengthened his tone. “No other family members, but I took care of myself. I learned to stay out of their way, to sense when they were high, or when they were in a bad placeneedingto get high.”

Kat couldn’t imagine living like that, and at such a young age. She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to comfort him and wishing she could make all the hurt she saw in his eyes disappear. At first he didn’t embrace her back, but she pressed her cheek to his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart,and a few seconds later his arms came around her and he breathed deeply. She felt tension seep from his body, and she was thankful he trusted her enough to open up to her.

“I’m sorry you went through such a hard childhood.” She pulled back and pressed her hands to his cheeks, holding his gaze. “Look how far you’ve come. You’re a real-life hero, helping other families.”

Eric’s brows knitted together. “Say that again.”

“Look how far you’ve?—”

“No, the hero part,” he said quickly, searching her eyes.

“You’re a real-life hero?”

“That’s how I know you, Kat.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “Holy shit. You’re Kay. You were at Camp Kachimonte. You were my bright light the summer I turned nine.”

Her chest constricted, and now she was the one searching his eyes. “How did you know I went there? I didn’t become Kat until I was a teenager and wanted a cool name. I went to camp the summer I was six.”

“I was there. That was a particularly difficult summer with my parents.” The muscles in Eric’s jaw jumped a few times. He rubbed the back of his neck, as if the conversation had caused a knot there. And when he finally spoke again, it was with a heavy tone. “We rarely had food in the house, and I spent most of my time outdoors, keeping a low profile to stay out of their way. But that summer I snuck into the camp.” He caressed her cheek and said just above a whisper, “And I met you. I knew you looked familiar when I first saw you in the airport, but I thought I was imagining it.”

“I don’t understand.” She had only a few fleeting memories from that summer, none of which included Eric.

“I met you that summer. You dropped an ice cream sandwich, and I snuck into the kitchen and got you a new one.And I stopped a bully from beating up a kid. You told me I was the bravest boy you knew.”

Kat smiled, but she had no memory of those incidents. “I must have been too young to remember.”