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

The look he threw me made my whole body feel faint, but I wasn’t afraid of him; this wasn’t the way I felt when faced with a bully angling for a fight. I didn’t know whatI felt, to be honest, only there was something about Derek made me want to jump on him and knock him to the ground. I wanted to pin his arms out as I sat on him, leaned over him, keeping him down.


That mental image made my stomach ache something fierce—made things belowmy stomach ache, as if I needed to pee badly. The way his hair would fall back from those gray-green eyes, or the shape his mouth would make when he grimaced up at me, or how his body would move beneath mine. I felt a hardness in me, something I couldn’t name, but it seemed to electrify me somehow, and as much as I wanted to best him, I also wanted him to touch me again. A kick, a punch, a kiss, anything.


Chapter 10