Crammed in the last row of the standing-room-only section reserved for VIP guests, Melissa maneuvered around a pair of taller gentlemen gazing at the Jumbotron and the swooping television cameras above the sold-out space inside the Bridgestone Arena, where thousands of delirious, screaming fans enjoyed another Brooks & Dunn ballad. Caught in the rapture of live music, her life made...

Leland sat on the end of a metal bench near the back of the men’s locker room in the basement of the Bridgestone Arena. The spartan confines provided a place of solitude to ponder his own fate while big name acts ran sound checks with their equipment and the venue’s sound system before the sold-out show went live. Dressed in...

Melissa charged inside her foyer to find Sid playing Mozart on the grand piano in her music studio. She dropped her purse on the marble end table and yanked off her heels. Out of tissues and out of patience, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and disrupted Sid’s live performance with a firm, “Get out!” Sid...

Martin smoked a menthol-flavored Kool outside the hospital, where he contemplated his options with Melissa and the house. He needed time to reconnect with the life he’d left behind; a life with a thriving practice and a family he sorely missed. He blew smoke when an ambulance approached in the distance, lights flashing, siren wailing. He could feel the sense...

Jonathan parked himself near the back of his algebra class with his notebook open and his focus on anything but the math in front of him. While the teacher droned on about the quadratic equation at the chalk board, his attention span meandered between Abby, who sat two rows ahead, and the dark clouds hovering outside the windows. He could...

Melissa adjusted a framed picture of Tomás on her wall while her doleful guests hovered around her home. “I still can’t accept what happened,” she confided to Sid while she claimed her third glass of Chardonnay from the catering tray. “I feel like I’m stuck in a bad dream.” Sid put his hand on her shoulder. He wore a dark...

I conclude where I began, by emphasizing the importance of acknowledging our core values and defining our most significant personal needs and desires. If we don’t know what we’re looking for, how will we know when we find it? When I started this book, I wanted to write something profound—a revolutionary treatise on romantic relationships and what makes them tick....