Actually, IA, is it necessary for your hero to "settle down"? The thrillers I sometimes read by Lee Child or Rick Riorden have the roaming detective go through a different love affair per novel. That actually may keep the interest up, as the cast is always new and fresh, and the sit. is not same ol'....

However if you are serious about serious, we can all give it more thought and get back to you. Hmmm....

@

Your character won't get serious until he meets a woman he wants more than he wants his life as a spy.

Why not have him fall for a woman who's actually an agent for a hostile government? Then you have sorts of questions you can answer: Does she love him or is she playing him? Does he really love her or is he playing her? What will happen when their respective governments find out about this relationship? Who would want to protect or destroy that relationship for their own reasons? How well do these two people really know and trust each other? Are both of them committed or equally committed to leaving the spy business and settling down? Or can they continue their relationship and still act as spies? What would happen if a conflict of interest arose between the two?

You get the idea.

Do you know what the divorce rate is among Mossad agents? Why would he want to settle down unless you want to retire him to a little dasha South of Moscow where he can play the balalaika and sing "Oh, Chichornya."

How about his childhood friend who is now a well known anthropologist working as a human terrain specialist in Iraq for the US Army? She is strong on ethics and moral responsibility to the cultures she studies and writes about. She is tall, blonde and blue-eyed, maybe Nordic. And she is his confidante bordering on sweetheart. She can match him braincell for braincell yet is appalled by his profession. And retiring to a dacha south of Moscow out of the question, maybe clandestine rendezvous in Sochi on the Black Sea where her fathers family has a summer home ...

Pattisham, this is really a workable possibility. Wish I had thought of that. Maybe you'll get the honorable mention.

Thinking more about it, here is an idea for you. Since he is 50+, he is almost in his dotage as an action spy.

Why don't you create an assistant for him - a female who has her own history and is, perhaps in her late thirties? There can develop a sexual tension between them that doesn't have to be realized in the next work but keeps the readers coming back to see what happens.

She needs to be as fully developed as he is, not just a "Fuck, me gently, Bentley" blow-up doll. It will give you the opportunity for some terrific repartee between them and a set of new twists for planning capers they will engage in. You can do a role reversal on the damsel in distress and have her save his old bones.

There is no end to the mischief you can get a co-ed duo into. He doesn't need Nursey Lursey waiting at home while he battles all the evil doers on the planet.