Keir Moreau, a middle school teacher living a solitary life, is excited to welcome a handsome new neighbor. But after their first meeting goes alarmingly wrong, Keir decides it's safer to keep his distance. Besides, he has to focus all his attention on finding help for a student who is being forced into conversion therapy.<br><br>Riley Quinn used to be an award-winning photojournalist, roaming the world and exposing corruption. An injury put an end to all that. Now he's frustrated with his new aimless life, wondering if he'll ever do anything again that really matters. When he first meets Keir, a case of mistaken identity leads him to mistreat his intriguing new neighbor. Riley tries again and again to redeem himself, but everything he does seems to push Keir farther away.<br><br>Keir, obsessing about his failure to help his student and fighting his stubborn attraction to Riley, takes a reckless gamble that goes dreadfully wrong. Or does it? Can an act of desperation open the door to romance?

The Chartreuse Door

Keir turned to the final page and struggled to decipher the cramped writing until he found the words that chilled him.


Memories, in all their sensory glory, flooded his mind. All the fear and hatred he’d thought was long extinguished flared to detailed brilliance. His heart pounded against his ribs, and his fingers went cold. This was the closest he’d come to a panic attack in years. With a trembling hand, he reached for his glass and drained it as he admonished himself to calm down. Nothing but a memory. Not real. Not now.


After a few minutes of controlled breathing, he reread the last journal entry. Ethan had come out to hisparents. They’d reacted by enrolling him in a church conversion therapy program to “pray the gay” out of him over spring break.


Chapter 6