Sweetest in the Gale
A Marysburg Story Collection

"Sweetest in the Gale": Candy Albright has always stomped confidently through the halls of Marysburg High, passionate and loud and entirely devoted to her students. From his first day as her colleague, Griff Conover couldn't look away, despite his best efforts. After a summer apart, though, Candy returns to school a changed woman, bowed by grief. And when they're thrown together to coordinate a poetry project, Griff can't resist the urge to read between her lines once and for all—even if doing so means he'll have to confront his own loss . . . and his own lonely, longing heart.

"Unraveled": Math teacher Simon Burnham—cool, calm, controlled—can't abide problems with no good solution. Which makes his current work assignment, mentoring art teacher Poppy Wick, nothing short of torture. She's warm but sharp. Chaotic but meticulous. Simultaneously the most frustrating and most alluring woman he's ever known. But the more tightly wound a man is, the faster he unravels . . .

"Cover Me": Elizabeth Stone has no health insurance. No savings. No one to turn to when she finds a lump on her breast . . . except James Magnusson, her friend of over twenty years. When he offers her a marriage of convenience for healthcare coverage, she'd be a fool to say no. But given the emotions she's buried for so long, saying yes might lead to a broken heart.