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

Dan had no clue of what I was going through until the night we saw Saving Private Ryan—I didn’t want to, tried to come up with anything else to do, anything at all, but it was on cable and Dan hadn’t seen it yet, I couldn’t find a good enough reason to say no. And I thought I did just fine, closing my eyes during most of it, cuddling into his chest when there was fighting onscreen, getting up for drinks if it got toobad. But that night I woke crying into my pillow, my lover’s name over and over again, while he held me tight. “Michael, please,” he sighed, rocking me in his arms, terrified by my sobs. “Baby, what is it? God, tell me what’s wrong, please.”


Chapter 146