Learning at 40

Zack Weller likes his life tidy, predictable, and under control, which his two seven-year-old twin sons make nearly impossible. Now that his divorce is official, he heads to his best friend's lake cottage for a two-week break. Rest is not what he finds. He is pulled toward the house next door, the one where he grew up, and toward the bare-skinned woman sunbathing in its backyard.

River Nagle moves through life with an easygoing spirit and a knack for meeting hardship with patience and kindness. When a lakeside home comes to her through an inheritance, she decides to treat it as a gift and a fresh start. Her quiet is broken when two young boys settle into the treehouse in her yard and she meets their father, a gruff, intense man who quickly takes over her thoughts, her evenings, and her wine.

River has no interest in a single night together, and Zack can only commit to a short ten-day affair. Their small-town story is a second-chance romance about a newly divorced, serious single father and the cheerful neighbor who unsettles his routine. It makes the case that love can be learned after forty, as long as you have the right teacher.