Andy Howard dropped out of college to get away from his abusive father. When his longtime boyfriend reveals similar tendencies, Andy refuses to endure another moment of it, running away with nothing more than the cash in his pockets. He makes it to Virginia, where he's taken in by Scooter Stahl, a restaurant owner looking for an extra hand who's willing to be paid cash under the table.<br><br>Scooter's been struggling for years: to keep the beachside restaurant he inherited from his parents above water (both financially and literally); to live down the fact that he's gay in a small southern town; to get over the man who's owned his heart since he was fourteen. But he's never had to struggle as hard as he is now, to keep his hands off Andy.

Nights in Sandbridge

It was a deep, guttural sort of groan, followed by a breathy whisper. “God, Chris…”


Scooter crept the rest of the way down the stairs, a strange, urgent panic pounding in his chest that tightened at his stomach and tingled against his scalp. He pressed up against the wall, listening, hands clenched.


“Yeah, that’s my good boy,” said another voice, this one recognizable. Christian Sharpe, the lawyer. His parents were rich. They owned several of the beach properties, one of which they used a few weeks of the year. The rest of them were rentals, ritzy ones. Everyone knew Christian; he was gorgeous and the girls flocked to him whenever he was on the beach. He and his cronies owned the stretch of the beach with the volleyball nets, owned them by dint of defeating all comers in brutal games that left more than one summer tourist sand-scraped and bloody. And he did it with such a broad, sunny smile that the tourists were happy to be beaten by him.


Chapter 35