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less than three sentences, he upended what I’d thought was a perfect world.”
    “ Tell me about it.”
    “ About him leaving?”
    “ No, about your perfect world. What was it like?”
    The ocean breeze swept across her nape. The scent of salt and a trace of citronella from the tiki torch fluttered in behind it. “A home. A comfortable routine. Two, mostly well-adjusted, kids. All of our needs met and most of our wants.” Dreams and goals from so many years rippled through her mind. “McKenna starts college next year. We’d have finally had the house to ourselves. Been able to take the trips we said we’d take.”
    “ Where did you want to go?”
    “ Exploring.” She sighed, letting go of the memories. “At least, that’s what I wanted. To see how other people live. Other cultures. To see if the places I’d read about in books matched my imagination.”
    “ When did you get married?”
    “ I was eighteen. Fresh out of high school.” She sipped her wine. “It’s the one thing I’ve encouraged my daughter not to do. Not because I regretted my marriage, but because I didn’t see the things I wanted to before I committed to raising a family. I want both my kids to experience as much life as they can before they settle down.”
    The questions kept coming, all of them light and comfortable topics. Janie answered between ordering and eating. How Thomas would probably stay in school three years longer than she or Gerald wanted or planned to support. How McKenna would probably finish college six months early from sheer impatience to tackle the world. Where Janie would travel to first if she won the lottery, and what she liked best about raising kids.
    She tucked her spoon into what was left of her flan and stifled a moan. “What about you? How’d you end up taking sexy pictures of women in their bedrooms?”
    “ My mom swears it was divine guidance from the universe.”
    “ Your mom?”
    He laughed and eased back into his chair, and stretched his long legs out to one side. “I know. Sounds deviant, doesn’t it?” He anchored his elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed his chin. “It was a complete accident. I was in my first year of college, aimed for a business degree. I’d always had a thing for pictures, but wasn’t diehard about it. I just seemed to take good ones. Tried to capture the things I found beautiful.
    “ Anyway, I was home and visiting with my mom and one of her friends at the kitchen table. Her friend was down on herself, frustrated she wasn’t seeing results from some new diet she’d devoted a ton of time and energy to. I told her I didn’t understand why the hell she was on one anyway. She said, ‘Because I’m thirty-three and don’t have a man yet. I’ve got to keep my figure or I’ll end up an old maid.’”
    He shook his head and grinned. His distant gaze refocused and latched onto Janie. “Really, she had an amazing figure. I don’t know where she got such a stupid idea.”
    Oh, she knew. So did every other woman over the age of thirty who’d found their first wrinkle or gray hair. “And?”
    “ We argued. I told her I could prove it. That I’d give her photographic evidence she was as sexy as any twenty-five year old in the same situation. She took the bet.”
    “ You took them in a bedroom?”
    “ Well, technically I took them in her house and she was wearing a bathing suit. She was so damned excited after the first time, she suggested the boudoir thing. My mom and her friend couldn’t keep their mouths shut, and before I knew it, I had a side job to help pay for college.”
    “ You captured the parts of them that were beautiful.”
    “ Everything’s beautiful when you focus on the right things.”
    Janie shuddered, and her lungs seized. He might be a lot younger than her, but he had a profoundly old soul.
    He stood, laid his napkin on the table, and offered his hand. “Let’s take a walk.”
    Such a simple request, and yet a tingle bubbled up inside her.