Can age or social standing deter true love? Read these three short stories and tell me what you think. “Smoking with Miss Franks”: a teacher-student romance. “The Woman Next Door.” She’s divorced, older, and Bill is hopelessly in love. “The Gardener” He’s blue collar, she’s upper crust. (Additional codes are below the story title.)
A young woman's parents are killed in an accident on the day she graduates from college. As she goes through their belongings later she finds that she didn't know her parents quite as well as she thought she did.
Siblings Jim and Jen make love for the first time just weeks before Jen's marriage. The story traces the lives of these two lovers and what led up to their ultimate mating.
It's Frankie's last summer home to mow the lawns for the ladies in his neighborhood before leaving for college. Mrs. Young, his favorite client, plans to ensure he has a summer that he will never forget.
Jim Ryan straightens out his home life and journeys to find his wife's lost family. He finds he is slated for the chore of returning a priest's remains to its final resting place. Who is manipulating him and are there any rewards? A romance of a different sort. / (Reviews)
Michael McCarthy grew up in the oil industry. He could have expected to die in a lot of interesting ways, but he didn't expect to fall in love with the spoiled heiress to a $250 million fortune, or to have her crush his marriage and heart for a first love. But stubborn Irishmen are hard to break. Before he's through, he'll give a lot of expensive attorneys heartburn. But he'll find the world is not wide enough to escape an Irishwoman who has laid a spell on his heart.