In June 1966, ACLU attorney Eron Lassiter attends his uncle’s wedding and makes an unsettling discovery. Though Eron had bowed to family pressure and planned a potential marriage, his long-ignored attraction to other men roars to life when Garrett Emerson, the bride’s nephew, captures his attention.<br><br>After serving in the Korean War and going to college later than his peers, upwardly mobile Garrett now works as a loan officer at a local bank. For his girlfriend -- fiancée in her mind -- Garrett can’t climb fast enough. But none of that matters to Eron, and maybe that’s why Garrett’s so drawn to him.<br><br>Together, can Eron and Garrett find happiness amidst the pervasive culture of propriety, honor, and expectation of the 1960s?

Need Your Love

As he put the receiver to his ear, the caller hung up. Must have been Mary Ellen, calling once again to apologize for canceling on him. Secretly relieved when she called earlier in the afternoon, Eron had spent a quiet evening at home, watching the shows on CBS. He preferred quiet nights at home in front of the television to being out all the time. Maybe if he did propose to Mary Ellen, like he told Garrett he was going to, he could get her to settle down and stay in on Saturday nights.


After spending all week at home, she’d probably demand he take her out on at least Friday or Saturday night.


But not Garrett. He’d often spoken of quiet nights at home, one or the other of them cooking a nice dinner, sitting down together. Maybe if someone showed up unexpectedly, Garrett could sneak out? Now that was very “Occasional Wife.” Eron chuckled and took a drink of the cocktail he nursed all night. By that point, it was more lukewarm water than alcohol.


Chapter 55