David Miles and Richter Layover are young lovers from West Hollywood who move to Snowden to open a liberal and fun bakery called Cupcakes. What follows is a string of extraordinary men who enter their lives and change their matrimony and the bakery forever. Realtor Anthony Jarr, handsome and alluring, who lives above Cupcakes and considers himself an exceptional lover. When he meets Ryan Glayson, a professional cellist with a relentless urge for sweets, Jarr falls in love for the first time, turning his life into a topsy-turvy spin of surprising romance and selflessness. The magnetic and strange Stefan Pavlov is one of Cupcakes' regulars. Although he comes across as being sweet and charming, he has secrets that are quite damaging, which are exposed during a heated summer along the lake. Erich Misslow, a part-time employee at Cupcakes, becomes enamored with Pavlov, who is almost three times his age. Erich has always enjoyed the company of older men, but does Pavlov have too much peculiar baggage to share? Cupcakes also draws in Ken Eclipse, a charming underwear model with a taste for sweet men and sultry sex. Eclipse searches for Mr. Right like a slice of cinnamon cake for his appetite and personal needs. Can he find the man of his dreams at Cupcakes, or will he forever be single, enjoying the bakery's treats alone? These employees, friends, and lovers combine together with their individual recipes of bliss and loss, and the little bakery called Cupcakes comes to life as the sugary flavor of a gay neighborhood along the lake bursts into life.

Cupcakes

Hayden pointed at the map behind him. “You said you meant for me to find these. What does that mean?”


“Nothing. You’re overreacting. It’s all a misunderstanding. I’m a topographer, young man, and a lawyer. I represent a number of fracking companies who are interested in purchasing land. Just calm down.”


Hayden shook his head. “You’re not a topographer. You’re not even a lawyer. There’s no way. Why are the names of three missing boys on these maps? Tell me. I want to know.” His face had turned a wall-white and his eyes grew wide. Fear had settled underneath the surface of his skin and his intuition told him that he was in trouble if he stayed a minute longer inside the man’s rented room. None of what the older man was saying had made any sense to him. He didn’t feel safe in the man’s presence. In fact, shivers of anguish skirted through his torso.


Chapter 20