Stories From Hartford

Luke Foster has been accused of being too nice for his own good. He enjoys being helpful though and never thought it was a problem until he met Summer. Now he believes she feels indebted to him and it isn't gratitude he wants from her.Summer Slough feels guilty for using Luke. She also feels an attraction to him that she doesn't know how to handle. It's beginning to look as though her mistakes and inexperience will keep them apart.Lucky for both of them, Hartford's annual Yam Fest is right around the corner. The community event has a way of bringing people together maybe even Summer and Luke.

Hartford is full of small-town Christmas traditions and Gaby Bryant puts herself in the center of all of them. She loves Christmas and she loves things that stay the same. She spends most of the season engaged in one project after another, all intended to squeeze joy and beauty into the holiday. The fact that her friend Owen only reluctantly joins her preparations somehow adds to her fun.But this year Owen has a project of his own. He wants to convince Gaby that not all change is bad and that if she'd stop thinking of him as "only" a friend, Christmas could be a whole lot merrier.

Talk around Hartford is that the old Hilson house is haunted. Its new owner, Rebecca Hilson, doesn't believe that. She's more concerned with the decades of junk that has accumulated and for which she is now responsible. She doesn't know what to do with any of it or even how to approach sorting through it all.Her new neighbor, Andrew Lately, is happy to offer some words of wisdom and the help of his grandson, Charlie, to get her started. Charlie makes it clear right away that he is interested in more than helping Rebecca move boxes. She doesn't know if she can return those feelings. In fact, recent events have made her question her ability to feel much of anything.Will Charlie's patience pay off or will it take a real ghost to help Rebecca understand the nature of love?