The Heart of the Matter by Muriel Jensen

she concentrated, shecould still feel his arms around her. “He’s a good dancer. Not…showy, you know, but…nice.”
    Dixie stopped at a stone bench in the wall that bowed out into the sand at the end of Farnham’s quiet main street. In another few hours it would be filled with tourists, bicycles, kites and dogs, but now it was still—just a breeze blowing colorful wind socks, banners and awnings.
    “When did he kiss you?” Dixie asked. She turned the toddler toward the street so that she could watch the colorful flutter.
    Laura suddenly lost all heart for resistance. She told Dixie everything she thought and felt, how she’d lain awake reliving every moment of the evening and seeing Jason’s image in her mind’s eye when he said goodbye.
    He’d smiled warmly, told her he’d enjoyed her company, but he’d said nothing about seeing her again.
    “Well,” Dixie said practically, “you ran away from him in the middle of a kiss!”
    “Only because it was so…powerful. Everything inside me was shaking. My mind was all muddled. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t…figure it out.”
    “Why do you have to?”
    “Because it’s my life!” Laura said impatiently, getting to her feet and turning to the ocean, one knee on the bench as she leaned against the wall. “I’ve only known him a few weeks, I’ve only seen him a handful of times, but the minute he took me in his arms I knew…” She hesitated and heaved a sigh. “I knew he was going to change everything.”
    Sammie fussed, and Dixie handed her a bag of raisins. “What everything? He’s going to change your lonely life of work and exercise? Is that a bad thing?”
    Laura frowned at her. “I like my lonely little life.”
    Dixie made a scornful sound. “No, you don’t. You pretendto because you built it yourself. But deep down, you want what I have.”
    Laura repeated the scornful sound. “Three children under seven, sleepless nights and never a moment to call my own?”
    “A man who loves you,” Dixie corrected her gravely. “A man who’ll give you his children. A man who’ii stay.”
    “He already has children.”
    “Then, so will you. Maybe he’ll give you more.”
    Laura sat down again, accepting that everything Dixie said was true. She did want all those things. She just didn’t trust anyone to give them to her.
    “He loved his wife very much,” she said. “He said she was…’beautiful,’“ she quoted. “‘Wonderful. Remarkable.”‘
    “Then, he’ll want another happy marriage. It’s statistical.”
    “But I’m…” Laura groped for the right word. Selfanalysis was difficult. “Opinionated, a little stiff, a little.demanding of the people in my life.”
    “Yes, you are,” Dixie agreed with an affectionate smile that took the sting out of it. “You’ll have to work on that. I know that generally you’re not one to compromise what you believe, but in this case—dealing with men and children—the simple truth is that a lot of compromise is required on a woman’s part. But it reaps many benefits. Not right away. And not always in great amounts. But it does insidiously wonderful things to your life that you’ll find you can’t live without.” She stood, adjusting the baby’s hat. Then she looked Laura in the eye. “I think you should go visit him and tell him you want another shot at that kiss.”
    “That’s crazy.” Laura stood, too, digging into her fanny pack for car keys.
    “Love is fueled by craziness. Want to stop for coffee and a doughnut?”
    “Just coffee.”
    “Did I mention that you’re uncompromising?”
    Free of afternoon appointments the following day, Laura left the office early and spent several hours making a carrot cake for Jason’s boys. Dixie was crazy. She couldn’t possibly ask Jason to try the kiss again, but she could visit him on the pretext of bringing a healthy dessert to the boys and hope that he brought up the subject of last night so she could then tell him that panic had