The knowing, wise, old eyes of the school nurse regarded the lovely, auburn-tressed girl who sat across the desk from her. The complaint was a common one; the girl was suffering some faintness with her menstrual period. Ordinarily, Ernestine would have se...
Many things were now extremely clear to Gabriel Scott. He settled back in his favorite chair nursing his gin tonic, promising himself that, tonight, he wouldn't get sloppy drunk. Hell! He had waited too damned long! After having read the note his wife, Do...
"I understand there's an apartment for rent over this store." Marleen Franklin looked up from the counter she'd been cleaning, turning to look at the stranger who'd addressed her. He had a face which matched his warm, friendly, deep tone of voice; full a...
"Dear, dearest Bill," the letter began. "I've arrived safe and sound. See? Your future wife can take care of herself. I'm excited and tired and dirty and excited (I wrote that, didn't I?) and I miss you. Above all, I miss you. To keep away the loneliness...
San Mateo, California, was suffocating under a coat of brownish-purple smog. On the Bayshore Freeway, traffic crawled, stopped, then crawled slowly forward another fifty feet before stopping again. Horns honked. Tempers were short. Grace Hope was aware o...
Tamera West slouched in an easy chair, watching an old Tarzan repeat on the television and eating an apple. Her thoughts weren't on the screen, but on her date for that night, Eddie McDonald, a big, handsome boy, with craggy features like James Colburn --...
San Mateo, California, was suffocating under a coat of brownish-purple smog. On the Bayshore Freeway, traffic crawled, stopped, then crawled slowly forward another fifty feet before stopping again. Horns honked. Tempers were short. Grace Hope was aware o...
"God, you're beautiful, Miriam," Roger Trenton said in hushed awe as he stood near the lovely blonde woman. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known." "Nonsense," Miriam Dodge softly giggled. "I'm a thirty-four year old English teacher past her p...
Bobby Mitchell ducked down quickly in the driver's seat as twin beams of bright light shone suddenly into the rear-view mirror. The sound of the approaching car got louder, and the boy prayed that it would go straight past. The last thing he needed right ...
The late afternoon sun was low and sinking fast behind the shopping center, leaving a spray of glowing color in streaks across the luminous sky. Bette Jean lagged behind the hurrying bag boy and turned to look at the coral streaks. Brilliant wavy flags bi...
The lovely young blonde crossed one long slender leg gracefully over the other, and smiled dazzlingly at Doug. "Thank you so much for picking me up!" she breathed. "I've had absolutely no luck at all this morning -- that is, until you stopped for me, Mr....
"Tim! No, please don't!" Melanie Cartwright protested. She struggled for a moment with his hand, pulling it with hesitant force from beneath the top of her thin, low-cut dress. Tim Cartwright resisted somewhat drunkenly, and then let his hand be pushed l...
Blackjack clung like a beachside fishing village to the ash gray desert that sprawled as far as the eye could see toward the craggy-hewn peaks of the Kingston Range, a motley collection of sun-parched ridges in the southern end of the California Sierras. ...
A descriptive paragraph she had typed onto final draft the day before from her husband's current masterpiece raced sensually through Beth Ann Durke's young mind as she watched her handsome neighbor leave his expensive home across Tasman Drive and walk wit...
Lisa Hamilton paced the outside aisle between the last row of desks and the windows. She could see the schoolyard and the small park beyond, its trees and shrubs just beginning to bud with spring, and because of the slant of the afternoon sun, she was als...