Real Love #45

Shannon loves Byron with all her heart, but her well-intentioned efforts to smooth his path—from arranging his college tuition to steering him toward the "right" fraternity—leave him struggling with his pride and questioning whether she accepts him as he really is. As Byron grows closer to Nelson Cassidy and other influences at university, Shannon must confront an uncomfortable truth: her smothering devotion might be pushing away the very man she's trying to help.

Verna has finally escaped her father's restless life chasing racehorses—until she meets the charming Griff Parker at a village dance in Maine and falls hard, fast, and completely. When he proposes after just two weeks, she's thrilled... until she learns his job is training racehorses, the very life she fled, and he refuses to settle down. Now Verna faces an impossible choice between the security she's always wanted and the man she can't live without.

Robin Lynch is swept up by Hayne Darnell, a charismatic young art teacher who singles her out from his high school class, but her infatuation grows despite warnings from family and friends who sense something off about him. When Hayne leaves town after graduation without the promised letters or explanation, Robin is left waiting in heartbreak—until a mysterious stranger arrives claiming to be Hayne's friend, sent to look after her. As Robin struggles between hope that Hayne still cares and the creeping doubt her friend Margie planted, she finds herself drawn into a new connection that may hold answers—or new complications.