Deputy Mark Forrest and Nurse Francis Archer can’t deny the chemistry that arises between them. A chance meeting awakens the idea of something greater than either had ever imagined.<br><br>Mark craves being able to let go, and Francis loves to take him out of his head. But Mark’s past bears a truckload of personal demons that have kept him in the closet and made him lash out at the LGBTQ community in the town he’s come to regard as home.<br><br>Despite finding love and a new purpose in Acker, Francis’s new job might end up being temporary, and he doesn't want to lose the life he's settled into. Can the two of them build a future together despite a bitter past, and diverging paths?

Thirteen

“So, tell me more about the man you’ve met? You said something about needing my lifestyle expertise?”


“Ah, well, I was going to visit Padraig, this was… mid-November. So I stopped in Green Bay and couldn’t sleep, so I went to a straight-friendly bar,” Francis started, then ate for a bit. “I met him there. This younger guy. Blond, really fit. Had that sort of dangerous closeted look about him.”


Joel nodded while he chewed. Once he’d taken a drink, he stated, “That one where they’re scared and anxious and angry at the same time?”


“Oh yeah,” Francis drawled slowly. Every gay man had seen the look on someone’s face—sometimes their own—at some point in their life. “So of course I went and sat right next to him.”


Joel laughed with clear delight. “Of course you did. How did he react?”


Chapter 35