When the Timing Was Right

At sixty-three, Margaret Hughes has made peace with solitude. Five years after her divorce from Richard, she's built a careful life of independence—her garden apartment, her books, her quiet routines. Love, she's convinced, is for younger people with more time to recover from heartbreak. At sixty-four, David Montgomery paints alone in his studio, carrying a secret he's kept for forty-three years: he never stopped loving Margaret Hughes, his college best friend who married someone else before he found the courage to confess his feelings. When they reunite at a retirement party, the connection is immediate and undeniable. But loving at their age means confronting fears their younger selves never imagined: • Bodies that have changed and hearts that have been wounded • Adult children who worry their parents are making mistakes • The mathematics of limited time versus unlimited love • The vulnerability of starting over when "over" was supposed to mean settled Margaret has spent decades being practical about love. David has spent decades being patient. Now they must learn to be brave—brave enough to blend carefully constructed independent lives, brave enough to trust that desire doesn't diminish with age, brave enough to believe they deserve extraordinary happiness rather than mere companionship. From first tentative coffee dates to meeting each other's families, from navigating the delicate intimacy of aging bodies to planning a future with limited time, Margaret and David discover that mature love isn't a consolation prize—it's the main event. Their journey takes them from a duck pond in November to gardens in spring, from separate apartments to a shared home, from careful friendship to passionate partnership. This is love informed by loss, deepened by waiting, and made precious by the understanding that some chances come only once in a lifetime. When the Timing Was Right is a celebration of silver romance that proves the heart doesn't stop wanting simply because the calendar pages turn. A tender, emotionally rich story about the courage required for second chances and the extraordinary grace of finding your person when you least expect it—and most need it.