Are you strong enough to be my man?

​When I think about how my spunky heroine, Charley, first reacted to Drake in Forest Fires, I'm reminded of the song from Sesame Street, One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong. Remember it? A simple song meant to teach association skills to young kids.

Unfortunately, in the real world we use subtle clues to compartmentalize people as well. We make snap judgments based on appearance, cars, jobs, even where a person lives. Those are just the superficial distinctions; faith, political persuasion, sexual orientation, marital status, income bracket—all these are used to create social cliques. From there, we continue to weed people out, or include them in our circles.

When Charley and Drake first meet, he's only just arrived in the wilderness area she calls home. Regardless of her immediate attraction, she’s quick to write him off simply for the shirt he's wearing. He doesn't dress like the local guys. This biologist looks too neat, too clean-cut to tough it out up there.

Her initial impression is wrong of course, but it takes an act of bravery on Drake's part before she's finally convinced her snap judgment was way off base.

Charley grows to understand and accept herself for the first time once she allows Drake into her closed world. But suddenly the question always at the back of her mind, "Are you strong enough to be my man?" is flipped on her.

​Maybe the question she should have been asking is, "I'm I strong enough to love this man?"

Download the digital eBook

Amazon paperback

Barnes & Noble paperback