The Homecookin' Palace

(Length: 38,000+ words)

This is a lovely romantic novel with some humour and some thriller elements:

When a waitress in a diner tells a construction worker he has to take his breakfast the way it comes out or leave it, Chuck Serlerno gets back onto his motorcycle and crosses the road to a small luncheonette.

He meets Bob and his daughter, Jeanie, and can't understand why they don't seem to get any business. Jeanie's barbecued spareribs are the best he'd ever tasted. The reasons soon become obvious to him. They're not advertising with signs in the front windows, nor does the place have a name.

With Chuck's help, they build their business and attract truck drivers. Meanwhile, he and Jeanie start to develop a mild interest in each other. Their mutual interest intensifies when Chuck and Jeanie take a canoe ride on the river behind what they are now calling The Homecookin' Palace. It intensifies even more when they kiss for the first time in a secluded alcove alongside of an isolated stream.