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

“Tell me all about it,” she whispered. “Tell me how you feel about Nicolai Lund.”


“No?” She laughed a little and poured herself another glass of juice. “Well, then, it’s worse than I thought.”


I frowned. “I th—think I know where he is.”


“Oh yeah?” She winked. “And now, my little enchanter, where could that be?”


I thought of that night Nick and I had danced in the living room. Of the words he’d said.


“You know, O’Reilly, one day I’m gonna split. Open up my own restaurant.”


And I smiled. “A place ca—called Blue Dreams.”


Love Derek and Nicolai? Start reading the follow-up book A Purple Winter today! Available from JMS Books LLC.


The rain is turning to sleet and I’m driving too fast.


But something warns me. Don’t reduce speed too fast. Don’t.


Chapter 85