An Older Woman's Rules for Dating a Younger Man

Alex was supposed to be just another weekend volunteer at Ryan's House, the charity I founded to build housing near hospitals.

Before the work started, I had been arguing with Alex by email and had assumed I was dealing with a man.

In person, she was a blonde who caught me off guard, and I fell hard almost as soon as we met.

In her mind, the years between us made any chance impossible, even though the way she looked at me said she was interested.

During those out-of-town volunteer weekends, we spent the days working side by side and the nights over private dinners at the hotel, and the guard she kept around her heart started to slip.

If the age gap had seemed like our biggest hurdle, it wasn't; something else landed between us, and I don't know if we can get past it.