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

While I speak, Dan plants kisses along my neck, my shoulder, my ear. He takes my earlobe between his teeth, bites down just enough to make me shiver in delight. I cup my hands around the back of his neck, shift into a more comfortable position on his lap, one that presses my crotch against his hard stomach, my knees on either side of his hips. His hands have worked their way beneath my shirt to rub at my back, his fingers cool on my warm skin, and I fight the urge to lay him back to the ground, straddle him like I did earlier, love him out here beyond the light where no one can see us, nothing but the creek keeping us company.


Chapter 54