Book excerpt: Second Chances is an adult romance between Anne and Ted, who have both suffered great losses. They have ended up on Cape Cod, whose nooks and crannies of wildness are their refuge. They are drawn together as Anne searches for someone to care for an injured foxMaggie, Ted's daughter, gives the story a mythic dimension with her hunger for a mother and her love for the fox. The obvious 'match' between Ted and Anne, both needing what the other has, is not so obvious in practice: as they draw together, the anxieties and dreads sparked by their past experiences increasingly get in their way. They are individuals who feel deeply, and their losses have made them acutely aware of the fragility of ordinary family happiness. Despite an ever-increasing involvement, their romance becomes explosive and would fail were it not for Maggie. At the critical turning point in the story the fox leaves Maggie despite all her hunger and desire but, miraculously, returns against all expectation, making everything else seem possible to them, too. They risk the return of other things, then-like love, and being a family.