Mary Elizabeth Nelson is the oldest child in a conservative Roman Catholic family in a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. As a sophomore at Berkeley in 1983, Mary is discovered by her mother in a "compromising position" with another woman, and she is summarily disowned.<br><br>She moves to New York and works as a waitress. While auditing an Austen seminar at NYU, she falls for fellow student, Betty Anne Elliot. The two foolishly share one night of passion before Betty decides to marry and disappear from Mary's life.<br><br>That is, until twenty years later when she calls still-single, successful writer Mary out-of-the-blue. Can the romance they had that first day blossom into love and passion?

Mary Elizabeth Nelson

To be clear,I,too,thought this was the most bizarre communication that I had ever seen.Except for my father’s“notice”when I was at Berkeley.I imagined that they spent hours crafting the words.The bottom line,though,was that for the first time since I left Mill Valley in 1983.I was asked to return.I wrote a letter to Billy at his law firm at one point but got no response.Until this invitation.


With the presidential election two years away,I had to come up with an angle for my editor.Someone in California who might be flying under the radar as a challenger for the GOP nomination in 2012.When I identified him,I got my editor to sign off on a visit to his Congressional district,which was south of San Francisco.So I got my travel and hotel taken care of thanks to TimeWarner.


Chapter 9