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

“No, it’s not.” It’s Jessie,I correct silently, but I don’t tell him that. He’s heard the speculation, even at his age—what he knows of our curiously absent aunt is incongruous with this silent, heartbroken woman inside that car. He’s too young to understand what really happened to keep her away from us all these years. Hell, I’ve just barely begun to understand it myself. There’s no way I could possibly explain it in terms that he could swallow.


“It looks like her,” he says with child-like aplomb. Together we watch the car pass out of sight and then I stand. Taking his hand, I lead him away from the screen and start to close the door. “No!” he cries. He catches the door in his small hands and tries to hold it open, but I’m stronger than he is and it’s a battle he doesn’t win. As I lock the door to keep it shut, he punches me in the thigh. “I was standingthere, horny butt.”


Chapter 167