# Chapter 22: The Touch, the Trick, and the Dinner Date
Hello, fellow story lovers! It’s your narrator here, ready to dive back into the delicious chaos of *Searching For Someday*. If you thought Kate had enough trouble resisting Slade Montgomery before, this chapter turns the heat up, cracks open a family secret, and then yanks Kate straight into a dinner date she never signed up for. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let’s talk about Chapter 22.
The chapter opens in a haze of tension, smoke, and uncomfortable family honesty. Kate is sitting with her mother, Madeline, after finally admitting something she can barely say out loud: the famous “touch” happened to her. In their family, the touch is no small thing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime spark, a soul-deep electrical current that tells a person they’ve met the one. Madeline has always described it as earth-shattering, undeniable, and impossible to mistake. So when Kate confesses that it happened, her mother’s reaction is immediate and intense. She stares at Kate, lowers her voice, and asks the question Kate is dreading: “You met the one?”
Kate’s answer is a frantic no. Not just no — absolutely not. Slade Montgomery is a client at Kinnections. He is arrogant, infuriating, and a divorce lawyer, which in Madeline’s world probably means his aura is one giant warning sign. Kate insists this must be some kind of cosmic misfire, a third-party glitch in the family gift. Maybe she is meant to find Slade his soul mate, not be his soul mate. That theory sounds reasonable to Kate for about five seconds.
Madeline, however, refuses to let her off the hook. She tells Kate there are no mistakes with the touch. Kate tries to argue, but her nerves get the better of her, making her words stumble. She forces herself to breathe, picture a blank screen, and calm down. Then she asks the dangerous question: what happens if someone denies the touch? What if it’s wrong? Has that ever happened?
And there it is. Madeline admits it happened once, before Kate’s grandmother. A cousin named Rose experienced the touch but believed it was wrong, so she refused to marry the man. Kate pounces on this. Finally, a clue. But Madeline grows evasive, saying it was only a rumor. She claims the touch is a gift from God, and denying it brings consequences. Kate feels a shiver race down her spine, like she has stepped into a horror movie. She jokes about being a witch and getting burned at the stake, but Madeline does not laugh. She warns Kate that no one in the family has used the gift as well as she has. Kate has turned it into a pathway for other people to find their mates. If she denies her own fate, she could unleash something she doesn’t understand.
Kate tries to keep her feet on the ground. She insists she is not denying anything. She thinks the signal is stopped up, misfiring, and accidentally connecting her to Slade while she is supposed to help him find someone else. But Madeline asks the questions that cut too close: Has Slade pursued her? Shown interest beyond being a client? Do they have any relationship at all?
Kate remembers everything. The way he followed her at the bar. The way he looked at her like he could see straight through her clothes and straight into her thoughts. The way he challenged her, irritated her, and kissed her until rational thought burned away. But she forces herself to say, “He’s just a client.” Nothing more, nothing less. Madeline explains that if there is no obvious “flow” between them — no repeated opportunities to see each other, talk, share intimacy — then Kate should be okay. But then Kate accidentally admits the truth: they kissed. And not just any kiss. The best kiss she has ever had.
Madeline is horrified. This is very bad. Kate, already irritated, decides she will simply block the connection. She will shift Slade over to Kennedy as his main contact and back away. But Madeline warns that blocking the energy will disrupt it, and then consequences will form. Kate asks why Slade is so wrong for her. Is he a heartbreaker? And Kate drops the bomb: he’s a divorce lawyer. Madeline jerks back in pure horror, moaning that negative energy probably invaded his entire aura. She had wished for so much more for Kate’s match. Kate insists he is not her match. It is a mistake, and she will fix it.
Then her phone rings. Maroon 5’s “Payphone” cuts through the moment, and Slade’s voice pours through the line like hot fudge and caramel — rich, demanding, and impossible to ignore. He tells Kate he needs her now. She assumes he is canceling his date with Hannah, but no. It is worse. Hannah canceled because she has the flu. Slade is about to attend a huge business dinner, everyone will have a date except him, and he is up for partnership. He needs a fabulous woman on his arm, and he needs her at his doorstep within the hour.
Kate is furious. She realizes his first date with Hannah was never a romantic evening at all — it was a business function. He used Kinnections to find a woman who could dazzle his partners. He used Hannah. And now he expects Kate to fix it. She threatens to kick him out of the program, but Slade calmly reminds her of the contract. The indemnity clause says Kinnections will find a replacement date if a client is stood up. It does not specify when. Since Hannah canceled the night of the date, he insists he is entitled to a replacement within the hour — or he will take Kate to court.
Kate grips her phone like it is his neck. She calls him a son of a bitch and then, in a burst of pure Kate, calls him as bad as Megamind. His laughter rolls over the phone, warm and wicked, stroking between her thighs. He reminds her that Megamind started as the villain but ended up the hero and saved the girl. Then he tells her he will see her later and thanks her for helping him out. Click.
Kate stares at her phone, caught between rage and disbelief. She doubts he would really sue, but Kinnections means the world to her. She cannot risk it. And she has no time to call random clients and beg them to spend an evening with a surly, arrogant man. So she has to do it herself. She tells her mother she has an emergency, rushes out, and heads home. Madeline sends her off with a strangling hug, a reminder that she misses Robert, and the unforgettable instruction not to forget to use her vibrator to release tension and toxins. Kate stifles a crazed laugh and drives off, cursing Slade Montgomery with every colorful word she knows.
She barely has time to take care of Robert, change, and throw on makeup. No shower, no shaving, no primping. She chooses a royal blue sheath dress — her go-to when a black pantsuit will not work. It hugs her figure, exposes more skin than she intended, and makes her feel dangerously aware of every inch of her body. When Slade meets her outside, dressed in a hot designer suit that clings to his powerful thighs and ass like a lover, his gaze devours her in all the right places. Kate realizes he has played her. Big time. She has rushed into the city, left Robert alone for the night, and Slade acts as if it is no big deal.
She climbs into his Jaguar, refusing to respond when he points out she is five minutes late. They drive along the Henry Hudson Parkway, past the massive USS Intrepid, the Hudson River flashing with a million points of light, and snow-tipped mountains shimmering in the distance. Normally, Kate would be excited for an exotic Brazilian buffet. She loves food and trying new restaurants. But tonight, everything is off-balance. Her bare thighs tingle under his stare. Her core dampens and throbs with a craving she does not want to name. She has never wanted oral sex as badly as she does right now. Maybe it is the secondhand pot. Maybe it is him. Either way, Kate knows she is in trouble.
This chapter is a wonderful collision of supernatural fate and romantic comedy. The family “touch” lore deepens, giving Kate’s connection with Slade a mythic weight even as she tries to deny it. Madeline is both hilarious and unsettling, especially with her warnings about consequences and her horror over Slade being a divorce lawyer. Slade remains infuriatingly clever, using the contract to drag Kate into his world, and the business dinner setup is a perfect excuse to force them into close proximity. Kate’s internal battle is the heart of it: she wants to believe this is a mistake, but her body and heart keep reacting to him like he is anything but.
Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating: I loved this chapter. It balances the mystical family gift with sharp banter, heated tension, and the kind of forced-proximity setup that makes romance novels addictive. Kate’s frustration is so real, and Slade’s shameless manipulation is somehow both annoying and irresistible. The reveal that his first date with Hannah was actually a business dinner makes him look terrible, but his confidence and the Megamind reference keep him charming. The ending leaves us on the edge of a very dangerous dinner date. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars
Next Chapter Prediction: Next chapter will likely thrust Kate straight into Slade’s business dinner, where she will have to pretend to be his dazzling date while fighting her attraction to him. I predict she will charm his partners despite herself, see a more vulnerable side of Slade, and maybe learn why he became a divorce lawyer. There may also be a tense moment with Robert, or a kiss that goes further than either of them planned. The “consequences” Madeline warned about might begin to stir, making Kate realize she cannot simply block the touch without something shifting in her life.
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