Stoddard Art School

Z. Z. Lambert wasn't born uptight, but someone needed to be the adult. Zee's a "color-inside-the-lines" artist with a hippy mother, a mostly dead grandmother, and a cat named Isabella Rossellini. Add to her life's palette, a stunning new life model named Jagger Jones. Is it just her, or does all the air leave the room when he shows up? Good thing he's just passing through. This is no time to fall in love, especially not with her model, no matter how perfectly knee-melty he may be.

Australian Jagger Jones is a rolling stone. Living with nothing to tie you down takes talent. Posing without your britches is a piece of cake. He's three years into his walkabout with only his dead father's ashes for company.

But Z.Z. Lambert stops him faster than a croc in the mud. Her paintings of him are incredible. She sees past all of his posturing, past the flesh and bone, and uncovers his heart. Zee understands the promise he made his father and comes to love him enough to let him go. But does she love him enough to let him stay? His only other choice is a future without her. And he can't picture that at all.