The Power of Love by Lori Foster & Erin McCarthy & Toni Blake & Dianne Castell & Karen Kelley & Rosemary Laurey & Janice Maynard & Luann McLane & Lucy Monroe & Patricia Sargeant & Kay Stockham & J. C. Wilder

Author:Lori Foster & Erin McCarthy & Toni Blake & Dianne Castell & Karen Kelley & Rosemary Laurey & Janice Maynard & Luann McLane & Lucy Monroe & Patricia Sargeant & Kay Stockham & J. C. Wilder [Foster, Lori & McCarthy, Erin & Blake, Toni & Castell, Dianne & Kelley, Karen & Laurey, Rosemary & Maynard, Janice & McLane, Luann & Monroe, Lucy & Sargeant, Patricia & Stockham, Kay & Wilder, J. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women - United States, American - 21st century, Short Stories; American - 21st Century
ISBN: 9780425221488
Google: iIfAKyH7HIAC
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published: 2008-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

JANICE MAYNARD

1

JASON RATCLIFF STOOD ON TOP OF A HIGH, GRASSY hillside and looked out over his rural southwestern Virginia home. In the early summer sunshine it was peaceful and serene. The farmhouse in the distance might have been part of a Rockwell painting. But in truth it had seen its share of heartache.

For Jason, the memories were bittersweet. Especially now that he was leaving. He’d sold the property, all fifty-two acres of it, and finally his dreams were about to become a reality. The dreams he’d put on hold the day his parents died in a car crash six years ago.

For a nineteen-year-old young man, it had seemed like the end of the world. In the midst of his grief, leaving the university to come home and care for his two younger sisters was merely a blip on the radar. It was only later that he realized how much he had given up.

But Rita and Pam, both still in high school, had needed him. And he had needed them. The three siblings were a team.

Jason had managed to bring in his dad’s crop of feed corn that first year, and there was plenty of fresh produce to help with the grocery bill, but he wasn’t the farmer his dad was, nor did he want to be. Instead, he’d found work wherever he could. He’d rented out part of their land for grazing. He’d hired on at other, bigger farms as a laborer. And he had managed somehow to keep the wolf from the door.

But his two beautiful, funny, smart sisters were on their own now. Both of them were doing well at college, and though they’d gotten a late start because of financial woes, both were now about to graduate. Despite his initial protests, the girls had been the ones to insist he sell the farm and go back to the University of Virginia to finish his degree.

He was going to be an architect. He’d said it a million times in his head, but it still seemed unreal. In two years he could have a job and the career he’d dreamed of. It was nothing short of a miracle.

But as neatly as everything appeared to be falling into place, there was still one big, unanswered question. What in the heck was he going to do about Felicity?

Felicity Jones was running out of time. Not for Mrs. Pirkle’s color. That still had another nine minutes to go. Felicity double-checked her watch just to make sure. The elderly woman loved changing her “look” even at her advanced age, and today she had opted for Tahitian Sunset. The red color might shock some, but Edith Pirkle had the personality to pull it off.

Felicity sighed and glanced out the window. It was a sad day when an eighty-one-year-old woman had more spunk than her sixty-years-younger hairdresser. But that was going to change.

Her heart beat faster as she thought about what she had to do. The man she loved was ready to disappear from her life, and if she didn’t act fast, she would lose him for good.