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

This time I listen, and the car surges forward to catch up with the others. A glance in the side-view mirror shows a line of cars stretching back for as far as I can see—I wouldn’t be surprised if some still sit in front of Aunt Evie’s house, lights on, waiting for their chance to pull out. Silence hangs like a pall over us, and with the windows rolled up, it’s even more stifling in here—the only sounds are the radio playing low and the rustle of a dress from the back seat, the scrape of shoes as my cousins try to get comfortable. Then the road curves and Grosso’s comes into view, squalid and rundown and so damn oldin the unforgiving sun that I have to blink back tears that blur my vision. Without looking away from the road, I fumble blindly into the seat next to me, reaching, searching…


Chapter 176