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

Derek gave me a lopsided grin and shook his wavy bangs out of his face. “Only if I don’t like someone. If I like you, I’ll talk your ear off.”


“Lucky me,” I mumbled. Suddenly my cheeks felt hot, my hands sweaty. Did he just say he liked me? Like likedme? I wanted to haul off and hit him again. Maybe thatwould make him go away.


But I wasn’t so sure I wanted him to leave anymore.


I shrugged, hoping it came off nonchalant. “So what?”


“So are you going to invite me over after school or not?” Derek asked.


I glanced around, but no one else was clamoring to be my friend. “I don’t go straight home. Unless you want to hang out at the funeral parlor…”


His eyes widened and a slow grin spread across his face. When he smiled at me like that, it made my belly wriggle with something I didn’t yet have a name for. It took me years before I could look back on that moment and realize it was then I fell head over heels for the guy who would become my best friend. 5


Chapter 11