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every crevice of their bodies.  Like Cinderella after the ball, she’d left it behind when she fled his castle.  Much like that same fabled young maiden, Rose had made her appearance in his life, seduced him with her charm, and left him holding little more than a memory.  Like the fabled prince, he’d been tempted to track her down and ensure that the shoe fit.  Or, in this case, the pendant.
    But to what end? Cinderella and her prince had gotten their happily-ever-after, but that had been a long time ago.  This was the dawn of the twenty-first century, and life wasn’t as simple as it had been in those days of yore.  He was a small-town schoolteacher, and Rose was a big-city career woman.  There were a thousand logical reasons why a relationship between them would never work, and Jesse knew every one of them.  He should know them.  He’d based his entire life on logic.
    And look where that had gotten him.
    Jesse Lindstrom was satisfied with his life.  If something was lacking, he’d tried not to dwell on it, choosing instead to concentrate on the good things, the things he was grateful for.  His son.  His career.  This wonderful old house, where he’d grown up, and the money to buy it from his parents when they moved to the sun belt.  Being alone wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a man.  As a matter of fact, it was infinitely preferable to the icy tension that had characterized all the years of his marriage to Colleen.
    But his afternoon with Rose Kenneally had forced Jesse to reexamine his life, and the result had not been pretty.  The truth was that he’d been living a monochromatic existence for so long that he’d been blind to the lack of color in his life, the lack of spontaneity. 
    The lack of courage.
    It wasn’teasy for a man to admit that he was a coward.  But the truth was so clear, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t stumbled over it years ago.  Jesse had formulated a life plan back in high school, and he’d never deviated from the road map he’d created for himself.  He’d attended the local university, gotten married, then settled down to teach high school in Jackson Falls.  There’d been a few surprises; back when he’d been making that plan, it was Casey he’d expected to be sleeping beside for the rest of his life.  Instead, after she eloped with Danny Fiore, he’d married her younger sister instead.  His marriage to Colleen had not been a match made in heaven, and the divorce hadn’t been part of his plan, but he’d managed to navigate that bump in the road without running too far off track.  Aside from that, his life had been smooth.  Safe.  Responsible.  Boring as hell.  He’d traded his soul for security, and he wasn’t happy about it.
    Only through his writing was he able to unleash the turbulent emotions he’d spent a lifetime learning to keep hidden.  Through Dallas Quinn, his fictional hero, Jesse vicariously trod perilous paths, confronted evil, vanquished villains, and emerged triumphant.  The fact that he’d been wildly successful at it didn’t matter.  What mattered was that only in his books had Jesse been able to escape the confines of his constricted life and color outside the lines.  In the real world, Jesse Lindstrom played it safe.  Dallas Quinn walked on the wild side.
    He slammed the briefcase shut.  There were thingsJesse wished he’d done differently in his life.  Things he couldn’t change.  Things he’d failed to do because he was too much of a coward to take risks.  Someday, he would look back at his life, and his biggest regret would be the risks he hadn’t taken.
    But this time, the risk was here for the taking.  And he’d be damned if he was going to add Rose Kenneally to that list of regrets.
    He picked up the phone and dialed her number.
     
    ***
     
    She was cleaning the oven when Devon blew in, flung her school books on the kitchen table, and went immediately to the refrigerator.  From behind the