J.M. Snyder

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

Without further thought, I snap the vial in half. “Mike!” Dan laughs, surprised. “If you bought it for me, why’d you break it?”


I grin and toss the two halves of the tube into the creek. They’ll float away downstream to that mythical netherworld where everything winds up eventually, every lost object, every broken toy, even my swimming trunks that Ray stripped off and threw away in the creek behind Aunt Evie’s house all those summers ago. The rose is fragile in my clumsy fingers, so damn delicate that I’m sure I’llbe the one to break it, before Dan even takes it from me. But his hand covers mine, his touch is warm, and the rose fits snugly into the palm of his hand. I can feel that same warmth on my soul, cradling me, loving me. “I thought you might like it,” I whisper.


Chapter 114