After nearly a decade single, Grant says he wasn’t looking for romance. He was focused on being a parent to Ginny and doing his work as a teacher—and that felt like enough.

Around the same time, he finds a spiritual community that immediately feels like home. Then a small, practical moment at Hillsborough High sets the next chapter of his life in motion. During Women’s History Month, Grant is looking for material to put on a bulletin board at school. A woman named Diana introduces herself and offers to lend him resources through the National Organization for Women. Grant puts the information up, and months later—somewhere between six months and a year—Diana follows up and asks about it. Grant asks her out for coffee.

Grant admits he carried plenty of insecurity into that first meeting: not good-looking enough, not personable enough, not enough income—“all of the stuff we make up,” as he puts it. That’s why he’s genuinely surprised when Diana—a very pretty woman with a bubbly, giggling personality—seems interested in him. He feels surprised, and grateful.

As they continue dating and things begin to get more serious, Diana draws a clear boundary: she won’t invest more time in a man who won’t dance and travel. Grant tells her he already lives for traveling and promises he’ll learn to dance. He jokes that in the early years he needed liquid courage to go dancing, but over time he finds a rhythm—and eventually it becomes something they enjoy together. Even now, they’ll spend time dancing in the living room for 20–40 minutes at least one evening a week.

Grant describes Diana as easy to care for and love because she’s so friendly—always friendly—and ends with the simplest summary of what she became to him: his best friend.

This chapter is about unexpected love, the courage to grow past old stories, and how a small moment can quietly change the direction of a life.