Chapter 28

The country singer on the radio—blissfully unaware of the deteriorating driving conditions—droned something about being grateful for the weekend, but that it just wasn’t long enough. Despite his anxiety Derrick smiled. That’s the truth, he thought. He looked forward to and relished every chance he had to be with Cooper. But the weekends when they were together seemed to fly by, and there never seemed to be enough opportunities to be together the way they really wanted to be.

“Long distance relationships just don’t work,” Ned, his best friend, had warned him. This was shortly after he had met Cooper a little over a year ago when he, Ned and some buds had gone skiing in the northern part of the state.

“They can if you put effort into them,” Derrick had retorted almost defensively. “Besides, you don’t get to pick who you fall in love with. It happens and you deal with it.”