Sean Donovan stared into Katie O'Sweeney's coffin and caught his breath. There was that smile; that teasing, enigmatic, coy little turn of her lips. A swelling of longing and grief rose in his chest and threatened to pour out his eyes. Holding his emotions in check as...
I'm not usually the sort of person who indulges in quiet reflection, but when I do it often occurs to me that whether He, She, or It is referred to as Fate, the Good Lord, Providence, or however else you wish to designate the concept of a universal, omnipotent...
Derek thrashed restlessly as another barrage of night terrors raced unchecked through his mind. Behind his tightly closed eyes he saw flashes of the past, visions that continued to plague his every moment of slumber. "So what's it going to be?" came a woman's...
He decided to avoid the two-and-a-half hour speed bump between New York and Boston that they call Connecticut. She hadn't said a word since breakfast with Mark and Jill and remained indifferently mute as he entered the Taconic Parkway north—longer ride, better...
The first thing most men see is the leg that isn't there. Some scan the rest of me as if trying to solve an unexpected puzzle. Few make it as far as my face. Almost none make eye contact and those that do are quick to look away. I was never a crowd-stopping beauty,...
Elliot twisted the pencil exactly two-and-a-half revolutions inside the hand-held sharpener. He frowned when the oscillating fan blew some of the shavings onto his trousers before he could scoop them neatly and dispose of them in his waste basket. He thought of...
She must be the prettiest girl on the planet, thought Benny. Her smile was more radiant than the sun-dappled setting in which she modeled the teeniest of bikinis. Benny smiled back and stroked his thumb over her picture. What must it feel like to touch her skin? It...
The capital is ruled by swine, fat and mean, as rude and indolent as any congressman, as imperious as any senator. The mud-choked streets are their wallow and they bow to no one. A particularly obstreperous gang of hogs had blocked the passage of their carriage along...
Ernie's hands were a bit shaky on the steering wheel as he turned his classic Dodge Swinger into the parking lot of the Burks Falls Bowlerama. "Don't lose your grip now, Ern." Geeeze," he chastised himself. Damn, he hadn't been this nervous since he'd asked Lizzie...
She looked in her diary and she'd been right. It was exactly a year ago today that they'd slept together. Not that she really needed confirmation as the date was burned into her brain with laser precision. How could she ever forget it? "It was the best of times, it...