Tristan used to be top salesman at his firm, but when his friends suffered a tragedy, he stepped in to support them. Their ordeal over, Tristan turned to partying to ease his new solitude. Now his job is at risk and he stands to lose his home. Rain spent years putting up with his husband Milo's bad behavior before moving out. Single again and insecure, Rain dreams of creating a marionette show to celebrate kids on the autism spectrum in honor of his son. When Rain meets his neighbor Tristan, he's drawn to Tristan's sex-appeal and protective nature. But Milo keeps pulling on Rain's strings and messing with his head. Tristan loves everything about Rain, including the strange sandwiches, mismatched socks, crazy marionettes, glitter makeup, and messy apartment. And Rain wants to give Tristan everything, but can he cut lose from Milo's hold?

A Touch of Rain

“You’re so scattered-brain. What if I have some important news to tell you or there’s an emergency—I mean, how am I supposed to reach you or speak to our son or—”


“I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to check it more often. But we—we agreed that we wouldn’t talk every day, that you’d call on Wednesdays.”


Milo was quiet for a moment. “All right. All right,” he said after a while. “Never mind that. How are you? How’s Philip?”


“He’s fine. So am I.” Rain leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to talk to Milo right now, but if he refused to stay on the phone with him, things would escalate quickly and then tomorrow, when Milo came to pick their son up for the weekend, the tension between them would be great enough for Pip to sense. Pip had witnessed enough shouting matches and nasty arguments to last him a lifetime, and Rain was deeply ashamed of how badly they’d both behaved in front of their sensitive son in the last tumultuous years of their marriage.


Chapter 7