Quiet and imaginative, Derek O'Reilly spends a lot of time watching a movie in his head. His fiancé Nathan wonders why Derek hasn't taken any interest in their wedding planning, and Aunt Fran -- his spiritual guru -- would like to know when her guilt-tripping nephew became a kept boy. When she drops Derek's childhood journal on his lap, he's forced to remember the name he's been trying to forget since he was twelve years old. Nicolai Lund. Nick was Derek's neighbor ... and first love. Weeks before Derek's engagement party, a chance meeting with Nick catapults Derek into the past. But Nick isn't that seventeen-year-old rebel anymore. He's a man hardened by invisible scars. A man struggling with grief. As Derek reads through his childhood diary, he realizes what Nick was to him, still is today, and yet might be ... NOTE: This edition has been expanded and substantially edited.

Split

Of course it helped that Nathan Ross was drop dead gorgeous.


The essence of him was a lot like a landslide. It carried you along.


And myself? What had I thought of him then?


I remember that I hadn’t slept a wink the night before, on account of the party the sales team had thrown in the next room. Nathan’s speech, though compelling and perfectly delivered, had been no matchfor my drooping eyelids. As he spoke of “going back to the basics, the core of customer service,” I struggled to keep my eyes open. I tried widening them every other minute, blinking and grimacing. People must have wondered if I possibly suffered from Tourette’s.


“You’re drooling on my presentation,” was the first thing Nathan ever said to me.


I’d dozed off, and at the sight of this arrogant salesman towering over me and grinning devilishly, I popped up in my chair, wiping my damp cheek with the back of my hand.


“Hey, easy now, or you’ll give yourself a head rush.” Nathan was perfectly amused.


Chapter 12