Sixteen year old Jacob Smithson has quite a temper. He’s picked on by other kids because he likes boys, and recent fighting has kicked him out of public school. As a last resort, his parents have placed him in the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys.<br><br>It’s at his first mass at St. Thomas where he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they meet, the attraction between them is hard to deny. The two become fast friends, and as the school year progresses, their friendship deepens into something more. For the first time, Jacob has found a place where he belongs ... and someone with whom he’s falling in love.<br><br>But the other students gossip about their growing relationship, and while Avery can ignore them, Jacob cannot. As the rumors and slurs start up again, can he curb his temper, or will his penchant for fighting get him expelled from St. Thomas, as well?

Without Sin

She sits on the bench with Jacob’s mom. When Avery comes out of the monsignor’s office, both women look up at him as if startled. Johnny stands between his mother’s knees. He’s the only one who smiles, waving in that little boy way where he opens and closes his fist. For a moment Avery thinks the women will start talking again, dismissing him entirely. He’d like that.


But then his mother frowns. It’s her disapproving frown, the one he knew she would wear when she saw him. “I told you to wait for me,” she says. It’s her way of saying hello.


Avery sighs. “It’s okay.” Behind him the door shuts quietly. “I’m not…” The one in trouble,he almost says. But a quick glance at Mrs. Smithson, worry etched into her face, keeps him silent. “It’s okay.”


“If it’s okay,” his mother says, “then I wouldn’t be here, would I?”


Each word is clipped, short. He thinks she’s more scared than mad. She wants him to get into a good school after graduation. She knows he doesn’t need this on his transcript.


Chapter 60