Patrick Holt is lonely. A bad breakup with his boyfriend has left the forty-year-old ophthalmologist reluctant to get involved with another man. When his neighbor sets him up with her brother-in-law Eric, Patrick prepares himself for disappointment. But Patrick quickly finds himself surprised and charmed by Eric, and Eric, who’s had relationship problems of his own in the past, falls hard and fast for Patrick.<br><br>On the outside, Eric seems like a great guy: young and attractive with a promising job as an assistant manager at a Chicago hotel. But Eric has a dark side he and his family are hiding from Patrick. When the truth is finally revealed and Eric’s secrets are exposed, will Patrick be willing to go the distance with Eric? Or will he run as fast as he can from the new man in his life?

Baggage

I laughed a little as Eric and I got into his dark green, two-door, hardtop Jeep. Never in a million years would I have envisioned him driving a Jeep. The first time I saw him get into it, I thought maybe he’d borrowed it from a friend.


“I’ll never get used to the fact that you drive a Jeep.”


“It is a little butch, isn’t it?”


“Greg got me a really good deal on it. I think it was a repo. You should have seen the piece of shit I was driving in California. I knew that beater wouldn’t last in Chicago. Hell, it barely survived the drive from San Diego. It died on me about two weeks after I made it here, and then I got the Jeep from Greg’s dealership.”


“Your brothers do a lot for you, don’t they?”


Chapter 14