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

Here, in the shadow of Morrison’s, a house we used to think was haunted simply because it was a funeral home, I realize he’s doing the same for me now—giving me a sanctuary, a place to hide until I’m ready to move on. In the meantime, he’ll keep this show going, he’ll take care of everything, he’ll take care of me. Until I can start taking care of myself again. “What would I do without you?” I ask, hypothetical. I don’t want to know the answer to that. I hope I never have to find out.


With a self-depreciating smile, Dan ducks his head, a thin color flooding his cheeks. I laugh and raise his chin so he’ll look at me—he’s a little boy again, how adorable he must have been at eight or ten, when he was so easily embarrassed. “What’s wrong?” I want to know. My smile slips a notch but doesn’t disappear entirely. He’s so cute like this, I’m going to have to try harder from now on to get him to blush.


He kisses my thumb and admits, “I was just thinking the same thing.”


Chapter 179