What Goes Around, Comes Around — M.L. Ray

New residents have moved into the Victorian Glen cul-de-sac known as Queen Street, and they are welcomed to the neighborhood at a mid-May picnic hosted by Martin and Julia Halliwell. Barbary Gillaume, author extraordinaire, who sports what less charitable folks call a fake French accent, has decided to rent Jeff Quinley's lovely contemporary home; identical twin brothers Owen and Cameron Hadley have purchased the distinctive castle formerly owned by Roger Kendricks; and young urban professionals Cooper and Bridget Malone have settled into the stunning white Mediterranean villa once so beloved by the archaeologist, Sophie Chance. Cooper, who occupies a well-paid and highly respected position at the First West National Bank, has just been transferred from Philadelphia in one more move up the corporate ladder on his way to a successful career. The demands of that career and the long hours required to maintain it lead to a lonely existence for his wife, however. A lovely redhead whose freckled complexion only adds to her allure, Bridget is at loose ends, feeling increasingly lonely and neglected. For some time, she has desperately wanted a child to complete their family, but her husband has gotten to the point where he refuses even to discuss the matter. Inevitably she is drawn into the province of sympathetic and sensual Cameron Hadley, a graphic artist who conveniently works at home, across the street. Although Bridget has tried again and again to regain the closeness she and Cooper had once enjoyed at the beginning of their eight-year marriage, he continues to pull away from her, all the while deliberately pushing her toward Cameron. Tensions mount and the situation becomes more volatile. Especially when Owen Hadley throws a monkey wrench into the works. Bridget is feeling understandably confused, frustrated, and impatient, all at once, But never more so than when Cooper, pushed to the edge by circumstance, finally reveals his own agenda.