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Jodie blamed herself for the catastrophe she wasn’t sure she’d survive.

Well, herself and Stephanie, who styled herself the official matchmaker of Lyons, Colorado. But Stephanie’s track record was annoyingly good, which was the only reason Jodie had said yes to this date with Dale.

Look how well things turned out the last time I played matchmaker, Stephanie had said with a persuasive smile. And she wasn’t wrong. She’d set up Waylon and Frankie—Waylon, the paramedic who sometimes did work for Watchdog, and Frankie, who was possibly the most adorable human being in Colorado—and they’d had a rough start when they both realized they’d been set up without their knowledge, and then promptly fallen completely in love anyway.

Lightning had struck once. Maybe it would strike again. Because the guy Jodie was interested in for real didn’t seem to know she existed.

So Jodie had said yes to Dale, who was Stephanie’s boyfriend’s sister’s husband’s cousin’s nephew, which was a chain of relation so tenuous it barely counted, but Dale was new to town and looking for a hiking partner and it wasn’t technically a date, Stephanie had said.

Except it was technically a date.

Dale was good-looking enough, she’d give him that. He was also deeply, profoundly in love with himself, which left very little room in the relationship for Jodie. She discovered this at the coffee shop near the trailhead, when she suggested breakfast. While she drank her latte and munched on a blueberry muffin, Dale explained that he didn’t need breakfast because he’d already had his Saturday protein powder, which was different from his Monday and Wednesday protein powder, which were both different from his Friday powder, which he saved up for because it had slightly more sugar and he liked to earn it. He also suggested, with what he seemed to think was genuine helpfulness, that with her lack of muscle structure she might want to consider giving it a try.

“You have one of those sanitary jobs, don’t you? Where you just sit around all day?”

“Um, do you mean sedentary job?”

“Whichever. Your muscles look like they don’t get much action.”

Wow.

“I’m the receptionist at a security company,” she told him, not bothering to elaborate how she assisted in the kennel’s private clinic or how she kept everything running smoothly.

“Yeah. So you do sit around all day. You could really benefit from some of these powders. I could hook you up. I sell them, too. I’m one of their top reps.”

Oh great. In addition to climbing a mountain, I’m getting hit with a pyramid scheme.

“Yeah, no thanks.”

“Well, okay, but you’ll regret it when your body falls apart in a couple years.”

“I’m thirty-one.”

“Wow, you look older than that. Tick-tock, tick-tock.” Then he pivoted to explaining how he personally planned to live forever, citing protein powder, red-light masks, and his positive attitude as the primary mechanisms.

By the time they reached the trailhead, Jodie had mentally composed and discarded three different texts to Stephanie, none of them nice.

“Is that what you’re wearing?” Dale asked, looking her up and down.

She looked around at the distinct absence of changing rooms. “Um, yes?”

It went even further downhill from there, which was ironic given that they were going uphill. He was nearly a foot taller than her with long legs he used to their full potential, and within five minutes she was lagging behind. He came back around a bend looking for her.

“There you are.” He reached for her backpack, slipped it off her shoulders, and slung it on his before she realized what he was doing. “I was worried.”

And for one brief, shining moment, she thought maybe she’d misjudged him.

“You were worried about me?”

“Yeah, that I was going to have to babysit you the entire hike. But maybe you’ll move faster if I’m carrying your backpack.”

That did it. Her dander, as her grandmother used to say, was fully up.

She power-walked past Dale. He was surprised enough to let her, and then annoyed enough to catch up, and then they were side by side on the trail.

“I’ve always wondered what it was in women that makes them so competitive with men when they know they can’t possibly win.”