Second Chances — Gil Stewart

COULD THERE BE SECOND CHANCES AT THEIR AGE? It was their fiftieth high-school reunion. Widowed brothers Clint and Gary Harris were expecting a quiet evening spent among one-time classmates they scarcely remembered. There were certainly no thoughts of relational possibilities. Still, sometimes it seems those things just happen. AND THE LADIES? WERE THEY BUYING INTO THAT? What about Elly and Claudia, each of them attending their first reunion ever, and nursing their own history of relational failure----Elly's bitter divorce and Claudia's cruel betrayal. Small wonder neither of them had a Second Chance in mind. As in their long-ago high school days. It would take a determined and persuasive suitor to win their interest. THERE WAS BOUND TO BE MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM ALONG THE WAY. The Harris brothers might have been showing their age, but there was no doubting their determined pursuit of one last Second Chance. Whether it was Clint's intimidating excursion into Elly's country-club world, or Gary's tense standoff with Claudia's son, intent on saving his mother from another heartbreak, they carried on the face of obstacles most seventy year olds had long since outgrown. UNTIL FINALLY, OLD MEN WERE FIGHTING TO WIN THE ONE-TIM PROM QUEEN. Soon Clint and Tom Berry, Elly's long-ago high-school boyfriend, the one with the nasty temper, were locked in an increasingly-intense battle of wills to win Elly's favor. What began as a geriatric tug- of-war over the girl they had each pined for in high school, would become a violent, potentially lethal showdown that had old men playing with guns. Before it was over everyone concerned had learned that Second Chances sometimes carried a very high price.