Easy-going Sebastien divides his time between working as a cleaning technician, caring for his widowed father, and running off to the park for soccer practice. Coasting through his existence, he's convinced he doesn't have much going for him.<br><br>That isn’t what his best friend Jack thinks. Quick-witted and passionate, Jack is fascinated by art and history, but the greatest book or painting could never compare to how he feels when he's alone with Sebastien.<br><br>In the last five years, Seb and Jack have shared everything, sometimes even a bed. Yet though their chemistry is smoking hot, Sebastien keeps Jack at a safe distance. But when the two move in together to lower their living expenses, that distance gets smaller and smaller, until Sebastien and Jack are standing so close, they can't see what's right in front of their eyes ... the love of their life.

Auguries of Summer

I stood there, alive, sober, enlightened—a man resuscitated from the grave.


A few minutes later, I walked into the bar again, not knowing what I’d do or say to him, but when I saw Jack in the back, at the last table, sitting on another man’s knees, my heart sunk. The lucky guy had his hand on Jack’s slender thigh and was yelling something into his ear.


Disappointed and slightly humiliated, I hurried out of Reggie’s, confusion and resentment making my jaw click. I dug for my keys in my jeans and set out for my car in the parking lot.


“Hey, wait up!” Jack yelled behind me. “Sebastien! Wait!”


I spun around and faced him. “What?”


Jack slowed down, stopping a few feet from me. We stood on the sidewalk, under the sheen of the street light. “I know your name ‘cause I saw you at Walmart last week.”


So he’d seen me in that ugly blue uniform. Seen me unloading trucks.


Chapter 36