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 don’t have much choice—I’m already here. Might as well get it over with. Cautiously I lean into the open doorway, one foot angled after Caitlin in case I have to run for it, too. She’ll be in a mood now, I remind myself. She lost the woman who practically raised her as her own, she lost the son she thought she knew, she probably thinks she has a very tenuous grip on what’s left of her world, too. Gently,I think. Gently…“Mom?”


“What?” She sits on the double bed, already neatly made, and stares at her reflection in a small mirror on the bedside table. One hand is raised to her face, an eyeliner pencil held between fingers that tremble slightly—she tries to steady them with the pinky against her cheek but it doesn’t work, the sharpened tip of the pencil wavers as it nears her eye. With a dramatic sigh, she sets the pencil down and frowns into the mirror at me. In a peevish voice, she asks, “Michael, what is it? Can’t you see I’m busy here?”


Chapter 162