RACHEL didn’t sleep well that night, feeling still the soft touch of his lips and seeing that deep attraction in his eyes, for age didn’t seem to matter to him.
“What do I do?” she voiced helplessly, torn between her deep feelings for him and the age factor.
“How do I tell my children that I think I am falling in love with someone fourteen years younger? What would they say?”

That uncertainty weighed heavily on her mind, and added to that was the fear that he could one day betray her just like her ex-husband had done.
“I won’t be able to go through another heartache,” she whispered.
She had thought she had found the love of her life when she met her husband and had given heart and soul for the years they spent together until that shocking revelation. It hadn’t been easy dealing with that kind of pain, and the healing process took a long time as she picked up the shattered pieces of her life. In her own quiet way, she had battled the emptiness and loneliness, never thinking of meeting someone else.

Then, that day, when she grabbed hold of a total stranger on the road, something unexpected happened.
“What is my heart telling me?” she wondered.
She buried her face in the pillow, not wanting to answer that question, to deny her feelings.

Yet when she awoke late the next morning, the first thing on her mind was him, Chris. He messaged her early while she was asleep, and she smiled after reading the text.
“Always with some kind of humour.”
They spoke for a while as she had breakfast, and he somehow managed to take off some worry from her mind.

“All you have to do is remember the dog.”
She laughed a little, for it was indeed an unforgettable and funny moment.
“And that little laughter just made my day,” he said, “Talk to you later.”

She took a long, refreshing bath and relaxed a little before the children came home. As usual they were happy to be home and she asked, “Wonderful weekend?”
“Yes!” they answered in unison.
“We won’t be going next week, though,” Aiden informed her.

“Why?”
“Dad will call you later, but I guess we can tell you now. He’s taking Meredith to Paris for her birthday.”
“Oh, nice,” Rachel exclaimed softly.
The two children looked at her, their expressions a little sad.

“That should have been you, mom.”
She sighed and embraced them, “We’re past that, okay? And I’m doing fine.”
That evening as they sat down to dinner, Aiden said, “There is something Sarah and I would like to say to you.”
“What is it?”

The children exchanged glances and hesitated a little to answer.
“Well?” she urged them.
“We think you need to have a boyfriend,” Aiden stated.
Rachel froze and looked at her children, taken aback with surprise.

“What?”
“You’re not having any fun in your life,” Aiden pointed out to her.
“And you don’t smile and laugh much anymore,” Sarah added.
Rachel looked at her children and took a deep breath, realizing they were right and she said in a calm tone, “I know I’ve been living a quiet, simple life but I’m okay with it.”
“You need to change your life a little,” the children advised.

“Really? My eight- and ten-year-olds advising me to have a boyfriend?”
They nodded with innocent smiles and Rachel couldn’t help smiling, shaking her head a little in disbelief.
“You know, it’s not that easy but I can give it some thought.”

Lying in bed that night, she reflected on her children’s advice, knowing that it came from seeing how their father was living his life and that she deserved some fun and happiness too. She knew what she was missing, battling silently the loneliness, the need to have someone close to share special moments with.
Now that he has walked into her life, she wasn’t sure how close to embrace him for that fear and uncertainty were standing between them.

She somehow has to find a way to overcome those hurdles.
That weekend for her and the kids were packed with a basketball game, a fun time at the park, ice cream and shopping. As they passed a boutique, Sarah pointed to a red mini-dress in the store’s window and said to Rachel, “That will look really good on you.”
The next day, Rachel went to the store and bought the dress.

“Guess I’ll have to make a few changes to my wardrobe, given I was advised to find a boyfriend,” she chuckled.
Chris called her after he came back from a week-long project and said to her, “I miss you. Can I see you this weekend?”
“I miss you too,” was her silent response, and after a short moment, she told him, “Yes.”

He came that Saturday night with flowers and a bottle of wine. She had cooked dinner and was wearing the red mini-dress.
“Sensuous!” he expressed with an admiring smile.
It was quite a lovely evening with a touch of intimacy that filled her with a feeling of warmth. He didn’t want to leave and somehow overpowered by his closeness and invigorating masculine scent, she didn’t want him to leave either.

It was a night of passion and bliss as she surrendered to the desires she had locked away for years and the world seemed not to matter.
And so it began, the change in her life, the way she smiled, her laughter. Her children were happy for her and her friends were quite ecstatic about it all.
Rachel looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and saw a glow in her face that came from the happiness within. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, asking herself a question, “Could this last? Would it stay with me?”

They became very close, and she invited him to meet with the children so she could cross the first hurdle in her mind, the age factor. That went better than she expected with hardly any questions, for they liked him. Sarah’s observation was, “It doesn’t matter that he’s younger. What matters is that he likes you.”
“How would you know that?”
“The way he looked at you.”

And that coming from her eight-year-old surprised Rachel again.
Aiden, the boy he was, was impressed with Chris’s knowledge and love for basketball and car racing, and he said to Rachel quietly, “If he asks you to marry him, you can say yes.”
“Wow!” she expressed with a little laugh.
Now, it was just that one thing that had left a sear on her mind.

Chris knew it and he had told her, “When you’re in my arms, I can feel every vibe coming through your body and I have felt that fear, but I want you to believe in me and trust me.”
“I so want to,” she had whispered, for this time it was different. This deep feeling of love was unique in its own way.
Chris left a few days later to visit a few project sites and told her, “I can also change my job so I don’t have to travel too often. We will discuss it when I return.”
But one week later, she received a call that he had met with an accident at the work site and was taken to the hospital.

“Oh God, no,” she cried.
That message sent her heart racing, and at that moment, every other worry in her mind dissipated as she prayed reverently on her way to the hospital, “Please God, let him be okay.”
His injuries were not too serious and her tears flowed in relief as she sat by his bedside.
“Hey,” he touched her hand and said a bit weakly, “Don’t cry, I’ll be fine.”

She wiped her tears and inhaled deeply, free now from that nagging fear, and to express her true feelings and, she said to him softly, “I want you to know how much you have made my world brighter and I love you more than I can really say.”
He smiled with relief and said, “You know if I had known an accident could have caused you to open your heart to me, I could have had it arranged.”
She laughed and said, “You’re hurt and can still be funny.”

“Because it makes you laugh and that, is a beautiful sound I love.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
“From the moment I saw you, I knew I wanted you in my life and I will love you and make you happy.”