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

“Nick, why d’you let him leave?” David’s dark eyes shone every time he spoke to Nick. Like he had fever.


Mrs. Pinet had come back out. We all stiffened at the sight of her stern face. “Okay boys, you’re gonna clean this up before your father comes home tomorrow and sees this.”


Sebastian kicked a rock in the street and looked over at Nick. “This is all Boone’s fault, you know. He started all of this.”


David slapped his brother’s shoulder. “No, you did, by insulting Boone’s brother. You know the Lund code.” Then he stared into Nick’s face. “Right, Nicolai?”


“Right,” Nick said with a smirk, pushing a knot of toilet paper into David’s flat stomach. “You mess with one, you mess with all of us.”


David laughed a little. Dark-haired, thin and graceful, he was a ballet dancer, and everyone in town knew it, too. But because Nick protected him, Terry and Josh didn’t mess with David. There was something between Nick and David no one dared name or criticize. It was a sacred bond.


Chapter 89