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him to entertain her toddler.
    “Of course, Julia, it’s a lovely night,” he said with a smile. “Grab my sweater there at the door.”
    She took the beige cardigan, then stepped outside. The cool twilight embraced her as she admired the low stucco homes that made up the neighborhood. The sweet scent of night-blooming jasmine filled the air and somewhere nearby a dog barked and another answered. Julia gave herself a moment to imagine a lifehere. A family. Ben and a dog and a man who was honorable. Everything that she’d thought was possible when she married Mitch.
    Mitch had loved New Springs—or at least his boyhood. That had been part of the attraction for Julia at first, what drew her to him like metal shavings to a magnet. He’d seemed so grounded, so focused. He’d told her all about this beautiful, fairytale-childhood with adoring parents and a best friend with whom he’d gotten into nothing but trouble.
    Jesse.
    More importantly, Mitch had claimed to want to recreate that experience with his own family—right down to the best friend and the trouble. She almost laughed at the spectacular failure he had made of that.
    She remembered everything Jesse and Mitch had talked about that night in Germany. Every word was imprinted on her, including the directions for the shortcut between Mitch’s home and Jesse’s.
    In this foreign territory, she longed for a trace of something familiar, even if it were only a tidbit from a story she’d heard months ago.
    It had not been her intention to seek out Jesse’s house when she set out for her walk. Butstanding on the sidewalk with nowhere to go, her heart became a compass.
    She looked around to get her bearings. Mitch’s street ended in a forested dead end and she walked toward it, then cut left across one dark lawn and another before finally jumping over a ditch to arrive at the next street. She turned right and saw a small house on the corner with a broken front window.
    Jesse’s childhood home. Interior lamps cast a shallow pool of light on the porch through the damaged glass and a ladder leaned against the side of the house.
    Her heart faltered, her breath clogged in her throat. Her skin pricked as blood rushed through her veins and the world seemed to swim.
    Someone was home.
    The house surely belongs to someone else now , she told herself, but her feet suddenly had wings. She crossed the street, hoping that somehow Jesse was there. The sidewalk ended abruptly and she stood on the grass in front of the house.
    On the porch, a man sat in a rocking chair with his head in his hands. She couldn’t see his face, but chills ran down her arms, across her chest.
    He leaned back in his chair, resting his head so he could look up at the sky. The light from the house that fell through the broken window illuminated part of his face—a long straight nose, and a strong chin, hair that gleamed black.
    Jesse .
    He was here.
    She could have dissolved with relief while joy and hope nearly lifted her off her feet.
    A dog lying beside him lifted his nose and barked once.
    “Rachel?” Jesse said, but his voice was a harsh whisper, practically a growl, and Julia realized he stared at where she stood in the shadows.
    He laughed, a weary broken chuckle and again something stirred in her memory. “Just come out, Rach. I’m too tired for this.”
    “I’m not Rachel,” she said as she crossed the dark lawn. She took a step into the pool of light and smiled. “Hello, Jesse.”
    He stood quickly and the chair tipped sideways. He took a lurching step to the left and looked as though he were going to fall, so Julia leaped forward to help him, but he caught himself against the railing.
    “Is this a joke?” he barked.
       
    J ESSE BLINKED and shook his head, horrified that the pain meds had managed to crack the lock on this particular fantasy.
    Julia Adams.
    Close enough to touch. Her short blond hair gleamed in the low light and her skin looked like velvet, cream velvet.
    No wonder