After her date with Harrison, she couldn't stand to think about him. She left her guard up, and it possibly cost her a relationship with a great guy.

It was her insecurities. After the previous football player she'd been with, she still had her doubts that Harrison would be the same. The relationship before Harrison started the same way. Then it happened.

The Panthers had a three day weekend off. So Carrie used that to come home and visit her mom. She was laying on the couch in her Beverly Hills home when her mom came in.

"Carrie?"

"Over here mom."

Debbie crossed through the kitchen and into the living room where her daughter was laying flat on the couch with her laptop on her stomach and Gary at her feet.

"Hi mom."

Gary jumped off the couch and followed her to the chair across from the couch. "How's work going?"

"Okay," she mumbled.

"Why just okay? Last time I talked to you, you said you loved it."

Carrie rubbed her eyes. "What is it?"

"It's nothing mom."

"Carrie, I'm your mother, I know it's more than just nothing."

She closed her laptop and set it gently on the floor. "Mom, seriously, it's nothing."

Debbie didn't hold back her eye roll. "You're 24. And you may think you know everything. But your mom knows you better than you know yourself. So if it's nothing, fine."

She sat up and admitted it wasn't nothing. The truth was, she was fighting an internal conflict even her mom might not be able to help her sort out.

"I'm listening Carrie."

So Carrie let it out. "My first day of work I met with one of the Panthers linebackers."

Before she could continue, Debbie interrupted her. "Who?"

"Harrison Ford."

Carrie continued. "Well, he came up to me and introduced himself, and just the way he looked at me, I knew he liked me. And I think I liked him too."

Debbie stopped her again. "You said 'liked.' What happened?"

"We did our interview. I loved talking to him. He has a great personality. He's charming. He has everything I would want in a man. Later that night we went to dinner. Everything went well until he leaned in to kiss me. And I didn't let him."

"Why not?"

"Because of what happened with Alex. I don't know if I can trust another football player after that."

Debbie took a moment to think. "Carrie, Alex is in jail. He's out of your life. If you really want to be with Harrison, you need to tell him."

"It's embarrassing mom."

"Why's it embarrassing? There's cases every day like this."

"It's embarrassing because I couldn't fight back."

❺❾

Harrison was in the fifth mile out of the seven he decided to run this morning. He didn't have training camp today, or for the rest of the weekend so he decided to run as his workouts.

He wore a blue t-shirt with black shorts and a blue Nike hat. It was raining hard this morning, with the rain already soaking his clothing.

As he ran, he tried not to think about Carrie. But that was impossible. Harrison had no idea what he'd done wrong at dinner the other night. It was going great. She seemed like she was having a great time. Then he leaned in to kiss her and she immediately avoided it. Was it too soon? Was she not ready to kiss him?

Harrison didn't understand how she could avoid the kiss. Was she hiding something? Or did she have a boyfriend already? Whatever it was, he hoped he found out soon before his thoughts about her started to effect his play.

He was almost finished with the seven miles when she texted him. Harrison knew it was her. She had her own ringtone. What could she want now?

He stopped and dug his brand new iPhone out of his pocket and looked at her text.

Carrie: Harrison, I'm sorry about what happened at dinner a few nights ago. Can I talk to you when I get back? I need to tell you something and I'd rather do it in person.

Harrison took a moment to think. What did she need to tell him? And was it going to be bad?