When Michael Knapp brings his lover Dan Biggs home to meet his parents, he doesn't expect things to go smoothly. His mother's been trying to marry him off for years, and sometimes he isn't even sure his father knows he exists. He has always felt like the shadow son, competing with his terminally stupid older brother and smart-mouthed little sister for his parents' attention. Coming out to them over dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get noticed.<br><br>But an unexpected phone call interrupts his announcement -- Aunt Evie, the family matriarch, is dead. With Dan in tow, Michael follows his family to Sugar Creek, where he spent his summers growing up, to prepare for the funeral.<br><br>Amid an overabundance of memories and relatives, Michael's world begins to slip. His dysfunctional family, Evie's death, and an old friend's confession all threaten to smother him. Worse, in his grief and confusion he seems determined to inadvertently push everyone away, including his lover. Can he and Dan move beyond his family and his past to a new life together, before Michael's insecurities tear them apart?

It's All Relative

He tells me I’m the only one he loves. He holds me when we make love because it’s not just intercourse to him—he wants as much of my body touching his while I move in him, he wants my breath on his skin, my lips, my hands on him. “I don’t want sex,” he told me the first time we slept together. “It has to be love or nothing at all. I want every last bit of you, Michael. If I can’t have you completely, then I’ll wait. You’re worth waiting for.”


I’m not telling Caitlin that. Instead I just give her what I hope is a withering look, though it doesn’t seem to phase her. “Well,” I say, turning back towards the front of the car again, “I’m not going to talk to you about mine.”


“Fine,” she huffs. “Then I won’t tell you about mine, either.”


Chapter 25