Calvin Hamilton reluctantly returns to his home town of Parrish Creek, Texas, to sell his parents' house. Finding the place in need of repair he hires John "Brock" Brockwell to renovate the house before putting it on the market. Brock bares a passing resemblance to Gary Cooper, especially as he often wears western clothing. Calvin has always had a weakness for cowboys.<br><br>Time has reversed the two men's fortunes. In high school Brock was the big man on campus, his popularity allowing him to hide his true nature. Calvin was a nerd, bullied by most of the jocks for being perceived as gay. Now Calvin is a successful New York advertising executive, and Brock is a divorced father with a teenage son who faces financial ruin, unable to pay his late father's hospital bills.<br><br>Can Calvin put past bitterness behind him and help the cowboy with whom he is rapidly falling in love? Will the deeply closeted Brock be able to admit he has feelings for Calvin? Or will pride, fear, distance, and the past prevent them from building a future together?

Calvin's Cowboy

A few mornings later—Calvin’s ideas about opening a construction business in the Big Apple still fresh in his mind—Brock decided to check out a hardware-junk store he’d seen on one of the many tourist treks he,Junior and Calvin had gone on.


“Why’re we going in here?”Junior asked.


Junior gave him a you’re crazy look,but followed anyway.


Inside,Brock soon got lost in the old-fashioned fixtures,fittings,doorbells,doorknobs and claw-foot tubs.The place had everything.


The manager approached.“Can I help you two gentlemen?”


“Just looking,”Brock said,stroking a brass doorknob.“You’ve got some real interesting things in here.”


The man—mid-fifties,rotund and graying beard—smiled.“”Most of this is from old buildings that are being modernized.”


Brock shook his head.“They don’t make stuff like this any more.”


Chapter 48