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

I’m not twelve anymore, I remind myself. I’m twenty-five, I’m not some boy willing to settle for any touch at all. I have a lover. I can’t just slip back into who I was before—I’ve changed, even if nothing else in this tiny little town has.


“I hoped maybe…” Stephen starts, but he doesn’t finish the thought. I keep my eyes down, stare at the hair on the back of his hand, and tell myself I don’t feel anything at his skin against mine. I have Dan…where is he?


But I don’t like the sentence hanging between us, a loaded gun waiting to discharge. I shrug, hoping to shake his hand loose, but it doesn’t work. “Maybe what?” I ask.


When I dare to look at him, his eyes are just as large as I remembered this close. “Maybe you’d…” He sighs, and his breath is soft on my face, slightly minty like a promise. “This is going to sound bad.”


“What is?” I ask, hoping I sound as if I don’t know exactly what he’s trying to say, what he’s feeling and thinking and wanting right now.


Chapter 76