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

Low knocking wakes me up sometime later. It’s dark now, the room draped in shade, the boxes phantoms that loom around me. The clock beside the bed reads a little after six, but it’s late in the year, it gets dark early. There’s a slight chill to the air that raises tiny pimples on my bare arms, and I burrow beneath the blanket, trying to snuggle into the warmth I felt earlier. My head is foggy, unclear.


The knock comes again, and this time the door knob jiggles against the lock. Still groggy with sleep, I reach out with one leg and try to twist the knob with my toes. It doesn’t work. “Michael?” a voice comes from the other side of the door. It’s Dan.


Chapter 89