Real Love #63

A young woman nursing an unrequited crush on her neighbor Mitchell Carver settles for dates with his kid brother Tommy—until Tommy's feelings for her force a painful reckoning about what she really wants. When circumstances shift unexpectedly, Sally finds herself facing a choice between the dream she's been chasing and something she never saw coming.

Betty Carter came to New York posing as a plain department store worker, hiding her true identity as Chicago's glamorous debutante Liz Carstairs—but when she falls for her charming boss Peter Briggs, his engagement to another woman makes her heart ache. As Betty's feelings deepen and Peter grows closer to her, her carefully kept secret threatens to unravel when her old life catches up with her at a society dance.

When Timmy Martin returns from Korea, his wife Carole surprises him with a beautiful new house she's purchased and furnished while he was away—complete with help from her boss, Stanley Peterson. But Timmy's reaction to her gift isn't the joyful reunion she'd imagined; instead, he feels sidelined and jealous of Stan's involvement in their lives. As tensions rise over decisions made in his absence, Timmy and Carole find themselves at odds over what their marriage should look like now that he's home.

Marion Brent is a successful career woman convinced that marriage is nothing but heartbreak—a belief rooted in her parents' bitter fighting—until she meets Lance Weatherford, a charming bachelor who shares her disdain for "golden shackles." But when Marion begins to notice cracks in Lance's anti-marriage conviction, and finds herself unexpectedly drawn to the domestic life she once scorned, she must confront what her years of careful independence have cost her. As Marion navigates the tension between freedom and loneliness, she discovers that avoiding commitment might mean losing the one person who truly understands her.