Schoolteacher Julian Reynolds is disillusioned with the seedier side of gay life in New York City with its self-absorption, vanity, and preoccupation with sex. When his long-time relationship with his high school sweetheart ends, he returns to his hometown and vows to live a simple life free of the extremes of the gay lifestyle and romantic entanglements. With that end in mind, he rents the carriage house next door to a large Tudor-style home.<br><br>Tate Butler, a former student of Julian’s, lives in the big house with his mother. Tate is bitter and withdrawn after losing a leg while serving in the Marine Corps during the war in Afghanistan. Fearing rejection from his mother and blaming himself for his father’s death, Tate stays firmly in the closet and punishes himself by refusing to learn how to walk again.<br><br>Can Tate and Julian help heal each other’s pasts and forge a real and lasting future together? Or will the driveway that separates their houses prove too wide a gulf to cross?

The Marine Next Door

Tate was scratching Patch behind her ears, looking down at her as he did so.


“So, Virgil was…your roommate?” he asked tentatively.


Julian looked at the young man and decided to tell the truth. “Virgil was my partner. We were high school sweethearts. We’d been together for a long time. We recently broke up and I moved back here.”


Julian waited to see how Tate would respond to this revelation. He was silent for a time, as if considering what he’d just heard. Then he said, “That’s too bad. I’m sorry.”


“Well, sometimes things change and it’s better to go your separate ways,” Julian said, thinking of the divergent paths his and Virgil’s lives had taken in the past few years.


Tate nodded and rubbed the thigh of his severed leg. “Yeah. I know all about how things can change.”


They were quiet for a time. Just as it was becoming uncomfortable, Julian broke the silence and began talking about the carriage house, his job, anything to fill the awkward silence.


Chapter 14