get ready to ring in the new year!

I was leading a photo shoot in Morganton for Wrangler Workwear when one of our locations turned out to be the coolest iron-and-wood shop called Oak Hill. While we were there, one of the owners, Lynn, overheard me casually mention that I was single. She immediately told me about her nephew who lived in Hickory. Naturally, I had questions. My criteria I always joked about to help weed people out... Does he have a full-time job? Yes. Did he go to Grimsley? No—even though he is from Greensboro (Ragsdale). Does he have an iPhone? Yes. Is he over six feet tall? Yes. On that last one, Lynn said he was way over that—and from the wardrobe room, Kaitlyn yelled, “Oh lord, she will love that.” Not long after, we were eating lunch when Lynn handed me her phone with Charlie on the other end. It was awkward and hilarious all at once. She sent him my number, he texted me about when he’d be in Greensboro next (that weekend), and just like that, we set up a date. We met on a Sunday night at South End Brewing. One drink turned into four hours of talking. We bonded over loss, movies, music, and Greensboro—and later realized how easy it felt to just keep talking about things we’d never shared with anyone else before. Fast forward through two hikes (one at 5 a.m.), cooking in Crocs, and a few dog meet-ups later… and we were OFFICIAL.