True Love — Terry Pringle

As a successful ghostwriter for the rich and famous, William Montgomery is working with a Richard Chambers, a Texas legend to write his memoirs, but Chambers prefers bashing William for his best-selling novel, LETTERS FROM EMILY, a love story that some people believe proves the existence of true love. Chambers hates the book and the illusions it perpetrates, but his granddaughter, Stefanie, loves it. She's also interested in the author but isn't sure she trusts him. Eventually William and Stefanie get their relationship started with a fantasy-like interlude on a small island off the Texas Gulf coast, but Stefanie won't assume it's long-term until William proves he can resist Nadia, the French woman who has stolen almost every man who has been attracted to Stefanie. Nadia is the chief steward on the yacht that will take William and Chambers on a short cruise to Belize. This test of William's ability to resist Nadia is, Stefanie says, the bounced check theory. She isn't depositing a check until she knows it's good. William is fairly certain he can resist the seductive Nadia, although he discovers her physical charms and very playful nature make doing so more difficult than he expected. The question for William is the same one Chambers keeps demanding that he answer -- does he believe what he wrote in LETTERS FROM EMILY about true love, or will he just admit he lied and encouraged others to believe such simple-minded fiction?