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

I waited. Another five, ten minutes went by. The evening grew darker around me, and soon the flood lights clicked on overhead, pushing back the night. A faint breeze lifted the hair from my brow, and every now and then, I heard the distant sound of music drift over me—the band at the high school football field, I guessed, or the radio in a car passing by the mall.


Just when I was about ready to say fuck it and get back in the hearse, a service door opened some twenty yards away from the mall’s entrance. A handful of employees came out, some carrying trash bags they stopped to deposit in the Dumpster. I spotted Derek immediately, chatting with an older coworker—not thatmuch older, maybe in his early twenties, and dog ugly in my opinion. When he said something that made Derek laugh, I balled my hands into fists and glared at them, as if the weight of my stare would make Derek turn to see me, or maybe crush his friend into dust.


Chapter 16