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

But there is no path behind us, just trees and swatches of sunlight, and maybe a glimmer through the branches that might be our car. Dread rises in me again but I talk it away, telling Dan of how Aunt Jessie pulled to a stop in front of me, told me to get in the car. How she took the long way home, right out of town and then turning around, heading back. What she’s doing here, what she hopes for, why she came and what she has to apologize for, even if it’s too late to say she’s sorry in person. “An abortion?” he asks, unsure. “They hate her because she had an abortion?”


“This is my family,” I remind him. Around us the trees are starting to thin, and I swear I hear the trickle of running water up ahead. “They don’t really need a good reason to hate someone.”


Chapter 109