Elijah works in a cubicle, lives with his parents, and never goes on dates. It isn’t an exciting life, but it’s safe and easy and that’s good enough. Then he meets Peter, a whirlwind of a man who leads a traveling renaissance band. Peter represents everything Eli usually avoids, but his boisterous enthusiasm is infectious… and his band needs a fiddle player. When Eli agrees to fill in for a weekend, he awakens a part of himself he thought long gone. With Peter’s help, he shakes off the dust that has settled on his soul and remembers how to have fun. But when the band asks him to join them permanently, is Eli’s newborn sense of adventure -- and insane crush on a man he barely knows -- enough to make him leave the safety of a life he’s clung to for years?

Jigs and Reels

Peter cracked the box open and held it out to me, revealing an artful arrangement of chocolate covered strawberries. My eyes widened and I bit my lips together to keep myself from gasping.


“I’m so gonna kick Katie’s ass.”


Peter laughed and scooted closer, situating himself so our knees touched and he could easily reach out and touch my face.


“You are amazing,” he said. My face heated instantly. The feather light touch of his soft fingertips brushed along my lower lip. “If I didn’t have to go, I’d stay here with you.”


“Yes, I would. I would stay here. We could get an apartment and a cat and have picnics every weekend.”


Wouldn’t that be nice. For a moment, gazing into his candlelit eyes, I let myself imagine it, coming home to him every night, spending evenings on the couch watching TV…Then I shook my head. “You wouldn’t be happy.”


Chapter 20