Sunburn — Elaine Waldron

Helena Saunders has not fallen in love since she was sixteen, not since she defied her father by dating Timmy. Then her father died of a heart attack, and Timmy moved away. Blaming herself for her father's death, Helena buries herself in books, becoming a librarian and sometimes dating Robert Garza, a roughneck in the Odessa, Texas oil fields. But she won't let herself get romantically involved, much to her sister Kathy's dismay. Helena thinks she is happy, that she has everything figured out, until one evening when Frank and Kathy leave for the bolwling alley and a very tall and handsome blond stranger knocks on the door wanting to rent the back room. Suddenly, Helena's world is completely shaken, so mesmerized is she. She finds herself falling in love almost immediately, but it isn't long and she begins to realize that maybe he isn't quite human.