When they graduated from high school in 1962, best friends and secret lovers Jim McCutcheon and Ronnie Mayer had high expectations for the rest of their lives. Six years later, both are back in the small Nebraska town they called home, and worse, no longer together.<br><br>Once the golden boy, Jim now works on his grandfather's farm, away from the town's disappointment he didn't end up at NASA. Ronnie lives in his parents' basement, recovering from the blast that sent him home from Vietnam. Neither is where they want to be, but it takes a special request from Ronnie's mom for Jim to swallow his pride and visit.<br><br>Though it doesn't go well, it opens the door for the two young men to start communicating. One question haunts them, though. Have they changed too much to find their way back to each other again?

Silences of Fallen Stars

They’d been careful about hickeys, though. Hickeys needed to be explained, and in a world where everybody they knew would condemn them for their choices, neither teenaged boy had wanted that.


That meant Jim hadn’t known what he was missing until this very moment, as Ronnie found the most sensitive spot possible and ground into his body with a shuddering strength that left Jim wondering how they were managing to stay upright when all their focus was on each other.


His head fell to the side to give Ronnie more room. His lips parted, his breath coming in short gasps as each hard suck seemed to swallow the air straight from his lungs. He groaned, incapable of holding back how good it felt, and curled his arm back to cup Ronnie’s nape. He longed for hair to fist and pull him tight, but Ronnie wasn’t going anywhere, adding teeth to the mix as he raked across the skin.


When Ronnie broke free, his breathing was as ragged as Jim’s. “Was this what you had in mind?”


Chapter 24