George Martin and his partner Mike live a comfortable life in Jacksonville with their Irish setter, but something's missing. Maybe George, a captain in the sheriff's office, has just been working too hard again. There's been a rash of break-ins in the area, and the homes targeted all seem to belong to older gay men.<br><br>Then when the time finally comes for George and Mike to take their vacation, they pack up and head to their mountain cabin for two weeks-only to find a small boy living in their generator shed. Robbie, who bonds with George right away, has witnessed an unspeakable tragedy, but that is just the beginning of the trouble.<br><br>Alone in the world apart from a very ill maternal grandmother, Robbie stands the very real risk of becoming a ward of the state if George and Mike can't convince a bigoted judge to change his mind. Meanwhile, George still has a job to do: solve the break-ins-and a murder -- and track down who's responsible.

Break and Enter

We were both getting misty-eyed, so I picked Robbie up, carried him to the kitchen, deposited him in a chair, and said, “How about some lemonade?”


“Sure, Dad,” he said, “but I need to go to the bathroom first.”


“Okay, kiddo,” I said, “go right ahead. The lemonade will be waiting for you.”


Mike walked up to me, grabbed me, and gave me a huge kiss. I kissed him back for a long moment before busying myself with lemonade and iced tea.


“I sure as hell didn’t see that one coming,” Mike said.


“Careful, not where he can hear you. I wouldn’t want to have to wash your mouth out with soap.”


I SET A GLASS OF lemonade on the table in front of Robbie, as he’d just returned to the kitchen, and Mike and I sat down at the table with our iced tea.


“Robbie,” I said, “would you like to go back to your old house after a bit and see if there’s anything else there that you’d like to take to Florida with you?”


Chapter 29