Everything about thirty-five-year-old Stone Acres hardware store owner Frank McCord is old-fashioned -- from his bow tie and overalls to the way he happily makes house calls. He dreams of lasting romance, true love, and marriage. Frank’s ancestors have run the store and been mainstays in the small California town for over a century. While genial Frank upholds tradition and earns the respect of friends and neighbors, he fears he’s too dull and old to attract a husband. Maybe it’s time to break out of his mold. Then handsome thirty-six-year-old electronic games designer Christopher Darling and his fifteen-year-old son, Henry, come into his life. Christopher has everything Frank could want in a potential partner: charm, kindness, and compatibility. Also, he’s a terrific father to Henry. When their Stone Acres home turns out to be uninhabitable, Frank offers the Darlings temporary lodging in his ancestral farmhouse, where he and his tenant Emil reside. Since Emil thinks Frank is his, sparks fly. Suddenly, Frank’s monotonous life promises to explode with love and change him forever.

Frank at Heart

I nodded and asked Henry again, “When do you want to start?”


I felt like I’d fallen into a twofer. Not only had extraordinarily competent summer help dropped into my lap, but I’d also solved the nagging problem of Mount IKEA. Usually, as the summer people rolled into town, my back room started to pile up with knockdown furniture boxes. Some nights Riley and I’d been here until past midnight putting together the stuff.


I started off charging what I thought was a reasonable fee, but slowly over the years, I had upped the price to be what I thought of as a rip-off. But still people moved into their recently purchased condos, houses, or cabins with boxes and boxes of unassembled furniture and happily paid whatever I asked rather than put the pieces together themselves. I would never understand it.


But it didn’t matter if I did. The important thing now was that I had my nights free to do whatever I wanted. Maybe those nights would include Christopher and dates.


Chapter 9