Going Steady #10

Mary's world shatters when the truth about her father emerges at a pivotal party—he's been in prison, not abroad on business—and the town's cruelty leaves her desperate to escape. In her hurt and confusion, she turns to Rocky, the reckless mechanic she'd promised to avoid, and agrees to run away with him that very night. What begins as a bid for freedom quickly spirals into danger as Rocky's wild driving puts them both at risk, with the police in pursuit.

A temperamental young woman named Ginny has always used her fiery outbursts to bend her fiancé Ray Arnold to her will—until he's offered a job that requires travel, and she demands he refuse it. When Ray finally stands his ground and accepts the position anyway, Ginny must confront an uncomfortable truth about herself and decide whether her need to control him matters more than his respect. A story about learning that real love sometimes means letting go.

A young Army nurse named June escapes the strict rules of hospital life to find freedom and romance in Japan, where she meets Lieutenant Dick Foster during his furlough. When the pleasures of the base threaten to pull her away from the man she's come to love, June faces a choice between the carefree life she thought she wanted and the deeper commitment her heart is demanding. By the time she realizes what truly matters, she'll have to find her way back to the person who matters most.

When a young woman working at Western Union uses lies and false promises to attract a Navy lieutenant's attention—hoping to leverage his temporary presence for romantic opportunities with other officers—her calculated scheme unravels spectacularly. A series of misunderstandings and reversals force her to confront how her own deception has trapped her in exactly the situation she was trying to manufacture, and whether the feelings she dismissed as convenient were ever real at all.

A college senior named Jane becomes obsessed with winning over a shy classmate named Mike, and after learning about applied psychology in class, she decides to put theory into practice—checking out a book on male psychology and deliberately engineering situations to appeal to his interests and protect his ego. As her calculated approach begins to work and Mike asks her to a dance, Jane lives out her romantic fantasy, only to discover that Mike has found her psychology book and knows exactly what she's been doing. What Jane never anticipated is how Mike would actually react to learning the truth about her campaign to capture his heart.

Penny Lyons joins the Women's Air Force seeking the freedom and excitement she never had at home, and when she's stationed in Germany, she meets Sergeant Jim Bruce—a kind, dependable man who quickly becomes her whole world. But when orders arrive to transfer Jim away just before he's about to propose, Penny makes a desperate choice that threatens to destroy everything between them. A young woman discovers that honesty and patience matter more than chasing happiness on her own terms.