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 thought you were perfect the first time I saw you. You were helping a woman whose face looked like a dried apple and who was as tall as your waist. You were explaining how the humane rattrap worked, and she was staring up at you with stars in her eyes, as if you’d created the universe. The thought that popped into my head was that for the first time in my life I was seeing a real, genuine, honest person. Someone I not only could trust with my life but with Henry’s too. I felt like I’d stumbled onto the missing half of my heart. The first time I saw you was cataclysmic, and it scared the hell out of me. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran away.”


His gaze fell to the table. I was too shocked to speak. I remembered when he’d come into the store the first time too. But he appeared to be just another tourist as far as I was concerned. I was too busy explaining how the rattrap wouldn’t harm either the rat or her cat, if he accidentally got caught in it.


Chapter 27