The Gingerbread Boy — Lori Lapekes

After an impromptu serenade in an abandoned ballroom, Michigan State University Veterinary medicine student, Catherine Sealy, wonders who the enigmatic young man known only to her as “Daniel,” really is. She later discovers he is Daniel LaMont, the beloved lead singer of an up and coming -East Lansing rock band. She also learns that her vixen of a roommate, Beth Shaker, has set her eye on him. And Beth Shaker always gets what Beth Shaker wants. Yet, an unlikely relationship between Catherine and Daniel flourishes, and their love is culminated in their first kiss while sitting atop a great fallen willow over Looking Glass River…the same river in which Daniel nearly drowns shortly thereafter. The freakish incident forces Daniel to search out the ghastly truth: he is sick. Very sick. And the illness cannot be cured. How can he tell people that depend on him…and especially Catherine? Should he tell her at all? Or should he run, become the “gingerbread boy” that his mother lovingly calls him? The choices Daniel must make could not only cause him to lose his career and his one true love, but his identity itself.