The Butterfly Collector — Muffy Wilson

Oliver Brainard, an insurance actuary, is a man who has experienced love from only one woman-his mother. He has never loved, nor lived, outside the confines of his brownstone. He, as a middle-aged man, is the man few people see and fewer people even acknowledge. He is the quiet one who, bound by his deformity, always finishes last. New to the neighborhood and curious by nature, Victoria Blakely is an avid collector. She has been watching Oliver for weeks from her upstairs window. She witnessed a crippled man, crushed by time and denial, resigned to his physical plight who is apparently content with his circumstances. Never touched by kindness or love, his life has never been lived. He is perfect. Can Victoria awaken the freedom in Oliver to escape his self-imposed shackles for the bondage of love? Or will his painful fear deny her the pleasures of unfurling his life poised above the precipice of pleasure?This is the story of how strangers become healers, knitting lives together with love and trust, restoring hope and discovering passion through a timeless and sometimes perilous innocent freedom-the freedom of butterflies. Dangerous Bliss!