Love at First Sight #12

Mary Jo has always been the family clown, hiding her freckles and red hair behind jokes and wisecracks—but when her glamorous sister Velda starts dating the charming Roger Niles, Mary Jo's secret crush becomes impossible to ignore. When Velda suddenly abandons Roger for a wealthy Texan and his brother, Mary Jo finds herself in an unexpected position: Roger, tired of girls like her sister, wants to marry *her*—but she knows his heart is still bruised, and she's terrified that being his source of laughs won't be enough to build a real marriage on.

When Jeri Larkin confronts her noisy upstairs neighbor Barnard Washburn, a songwriter and composer, about his late-night piano playing and rowdy parties, their clash is immediate and fierce—but a tumble down the stairs changes everything in an instant. What begins as genuine connection over shared confidences takes a devastating turn when Jeri meets Audree, the musical comedy star Barny is engaged to, and suddenly finds herself caught between two men with very different intentions. As Jeri tries to move forward with Chris Matthews, a playwright who seems to understand her better, the question of what Barny really meant lingers just out of reach.

Star Shelley is engaged to Shep Hayden, a cowboy on her father's Nevada ranch, but when glamorous Hollywood star Ottilie Erland arrives to stay at the dude ranch for six weeks, she sets her sights on Shep—and his attention to the starlet has Star torn between jealousy and fear of losing him. When Shep pressures Star to elope with him that very night, she agrees, but the arrival of an unexpected visitor throws everything into doubt. This 1951 romance explores how a young woman's faith in love is tested when glamour, ambition, and old promises collide under the desert moon.

When Fran's charming new boyfriend Jeff meets her family at Sunday dinner, her scheming stepsister Rita wastes no time making trouble—insinuating that Fran is a man-magnet and playing up her own allure to turn Jeff's head. Desperate to win him back after Rita's seduction works, Fran hatches a bold plan to make Jeff jealous and see Rita's true colors. In "Boomerang Date," sometimes the best way to expose a troublemaker is to let their own tactics backfire.