As Josh Tully returns home from running errands, he stumbles across a handsome man leaving his apartment complex. Distracted by the charming new stranger, Josh spills his groceries across the front stoop. As the new neighbor helps Josh pick up his belongings, a sudden surge of electricity sparks between the two young men. When Eddie returns to Josh’s apartment with a fresh gallon of milk, a chance meeting turns into mutual attraction. But a severe case of pneumonia lands Josh in the hospital and Eddie stays at his side, and their budding friendship deepens. Eddie is not the nesting type, and he does not stay in one place for long. But as days turn to weeks, something in Josh’s laid-back persona draws Eddie to the small Minnesota town of Gordonville and through the door of Josh’s heart. Will Eddie decide to stay this time ... and for how long?

A Door to the Heart

The woman flicks Alice the middle finger, studded with a cheap fifty-cent toy ring from the lobby’s vending machine. “You should be ashamed of yourself; acting very unprofessional. And you should be embarrassed with that ridiculous hair.” She turns and waddles away like a penguin lost from its pack. At the entrance doors, thirty feet from the box office, the woman sends Alice one final salvo of assaults, loud enough for the disconcerted patrons watching in line to hear. “By the way, I’ll be filing a customer complaint…ma’am!”


Merry fucking Christmas to you too, Josh wants to yell back. But he stays as mute as a mime. He starts laughing, until his stomach hurts and tears fall down his cheeks. Excusing himself from box office, he says to the manager as he slips out into the lobby, “Restroom check!”


Chapter 3