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

Then Elvis began singing. Something something wise men don’t rush into things.


Nick jumped to his feet. “Fuck, this man can belt out a song.”


I noticed Nick’s eyes were different. They were two gigantic swimming pools. Like the ones in the ads Aunt Frannie always sighed over. “Come to the Caribbean,” so on, so forth. Yes, his eyes looked just like those turquoise pools. So fresh and inviting. There was something dancing in them, too. Something wild.


I stood in the living room, trying not to look stupid.


Nick plopped down on the couch, staring up. “You know, O’Reilly, I’m gonna split one day. Gonna live in Greece.” He closed his eyes for a second. “And own a resort. Just off the shore. Call it Blue Dreams.”


My saliva had run out. Or maybe all of it had drained into the creases of my palms.


Nick cracked an eye open. “Yeah.” He sat up, pulling something from his back pocket. “So, what do youwanna do, O’Reilly?”


“I wa—wanna be an ac—accountant.”


Chapter 56