When best friends Jamie Eckert and Derek Duran realized they were in love, they took their relationship to the next level. But then Derek's budding music career took off, and so did Derek. Twenty years later, Jamie still lives in the small town of Ashbury, Virginia, where he grew up. He's grown up and moved on -- now he owns the family funeral home business and is raising Riley, his precocious six-year-old adopted daughter. But emotions Jamie thought long buried are stirred up again when he gets an early morning removal call. The deceased is Derek's mother and Riley's babysitter, Mrs. Duran. Now Derek's back in town for the funeral, and he turns to Jamie for support ... in more ways than one. Angry at Derek for not keeping in touch, and angrier at himself for still loving the man who left him behind, Jamie is torn between his professional duty and his feelings for Derek. Will he be able to put aside his past with Derek to carry out Mrs. Duran's final wishes? Or is Derek interested in rekindling their relationship after all this time?

Not Another One Hit Wonder

Because of the way our mother died, Lisa was stringent about keeping up with her yearly exams. She didn’t want to die from the same cancer, especially since it was hereditary. In the end, though, it wasn’t cancer that killed her.


For their third anniversary, Michael took Lisa up to Richmond for an evening out on the town. I wasn’t on call that night and agreed to watch Riley so they could spend a little “adult time” together. The plan was dinner at a posh seafood restaurant on the James River followed by a show downtown. I think they saw Wicked, which had just come to the area and somehow Michael had managed to get really good seats. When he told Lisa about them, she couldn’t stop grinning for days.


Chapter 4