It was just after ten o'clock when he arrived at the address he was seeking. The two-story house looked as if it might have been built in the 1920s, but it appeared to be well-maintained. The big old maple trees on either side of the front walk had baby leaves just beginning to show. A forsythia was radiantly yellow at one corner of the house, and a dogwood sparkled with white at the other. This was spring at its best, Ray decided.

He was halfway up the walk when the front door opened and a guy stepped out, pulling it shut behind him. He was about the same height as Ray, an inch over six feet, and thinnish. His shaggy dark-brown hair was clean, but it looked almost fashionably unkempt. He apparently hadn't shaved for two or three days. As the two men came closer together, Ray saw that the other man had pale, grayish-blue eyes and high cheekbones. A blue bandanna folded into a strip about two inches wide was wrapped around his head. He wore a gray tee, faded jeans, sneakers, and an old blue hoodie which he was in the process of zipping when he looked up and saw Ray.

"Hi," the guy said. "Can I help you?"

"I'm, um, here about the apartment?"

"Oh, sorry, buddy. It's rented." And the guy really did look sorry. "I'm the new tenant."

"Oh, well." Ray cast about in his mind for something else to say. "Um, thanks anyway."

The stranger gave him a beautiful smile. God! He was gorgeous. Scruffy looking, but you just knew he'd clean up well.

There was an awkward moment when apparently neither could think of anything to say.

"I'm about to go for a run," the stranger said, almost apologetically.

"Watch out for traffic," Ray said. As a policeman, he'd too often seen what happened when a runner darted into a street without looking right and left.

"Yeah." He gave Ray a graceful little wave and jogged away.

Ray watched the guy's back for a moment. Then he turned and headed for home. He had made a list of rentals that had been advertised in the Colby Courier but he hadn't brought it with him.

Oh, well, he thought, it would be more convenient to live in Colby since that's where I work. It hasn't been a long commute from Higgins, but gas prices being what they are, Colby would be better.