Free Going All the Way by Cynthia Cooke

basket of bread. They both quickly looked at the menu. Carrie set hers down and ordered a salad with grilled salmon, while he ordered the Chicken Piccata.
    “ So New York? ” he prompted, like a dog with a bone. “Great city. What did you do there?”
    “Worked for AdLogic, a marketing and advertising firm in Manhattan. The hours were long, with one project blending into the next. High-pressure presentations, demanding bosses, constant meetings. You know the drill.”
    “You have just described my life,” he said quietly.
    “Except I crashed and burned. Collapsed. Ordered to take it easy, take some time off and relax, so I decided to come home, paint, and focus on figuring out what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. In the meantime, I’m watching my new neighbor’s pretty awesome dog.” She would not think about New York or Stu or her old life. She was starting new.
    “Until I find him a doggy daycare,” he added with a grin.
    “Cheers to that.” They lifted their glasses and clinked, their eyes catching and holding. He was a such a good looking man, and intelligent, accomplished, funny… she shook herself and grabbed a piece of bread out of the basket, focusing on tearing it apart.
    “What was it about your job that got to you the most?” he asked, watching her pour out a smidgen of olive oil into her bread dish.
    “ I don ’t know if it was the deadlines, or the fact that I spent more time in meetings discussing those deadlines than I actually did doing what I enjoy—creating the art. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to dabbling with my paints and losing myself in the brushstrokes. It’s what I love to do, it’s what I used to do before I got involved in the corporate world.”
    “Have you considered doing the same thing from home on a freelance basis, where you sell the product, and not yourself?”
    “You mean like selling paintings?”
    “Art takes many forms. What is it about your art you love? How can you keep that and turn it into a way to make money?”
    She looked at him. “It’s an interesting thought.” Retaining artistic control was exactly what she’d wanted, needed. “I have to figure out what I want to do first, though.”
    “Are you going to open your own studio?”
    “I’m not sure. I haven’t gotten that far. Right now I’m just trying to find my center and reconnect with my friends.”
    “Ah, the wedding crashers.”
    She cringed with embarrassment. “Yes. Naomi is getting married, so we’ll have a lot to do with that. Lots of planning and preparations. Who knew wedding planning could be such a huge undertaking?”
    “I did.” He laughed. “My sister’s been planning her wedding since she was eight years old.”
    “Is she married?”
    “Not yet, but if she has anything to say about it, she will be soon.”
    “It sounds like you’re very close.”
    A smile lit his eyes. “We should be, we’ re twins. ”
    “Twins! Lucky you. I’m an only child.”
    “Sometimes she’s a pain, but I wouldn’t trade her for anyone in the world.”
    Damn, he was sweet, too. How could she not like a guy who loved his sister? This was a disaster in the making. Obviously there was something seriously wrong with him. Maybe he was a porn addict, or a cat kicker, or a compulsive liar. Or a cheater. There must be something wrong with him. No guy was this great. The question was, how much time did she want to invest with him to find out?
    At that moment their food arrived. “Yum,” she said, as she took a bite of her perfectly prepared fish. “So tell me more about your consulting company.”
    “My father and his brother started it about thirty years ago.”
    “A family business.”
    “Yep. It was very successful. Back then it was just a temp agency, but over the years it became more specialized. My uncle died, and then it was just my dad. He had high hopes that Celeste and I would take over the reins and run it together when we graduated college. But