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

He poured Andy’s coffee into a travel mug, wrote out a sticky note—Headed up to the ‘burg. Back at lunch—and left them on the rail. He was in his truck with the music cranked before the sun was fully up.He parked at Colonial Williamsburg and was walking down Duke of Gloucester Street by seven, watching the costumed interpreters headed off to their jobs. There was a faint, familiar ache there; his mother hadn’t been a professional historical interpreter, but she’d been a hobbyist reenactor since before he was born. She’d have been pointing out the quality of the cloth, admiring the cut of a particular stomacher or trying to work out the intricacies of a certain hairstyle.


He sweet-talked one of the street vendors into a few squares of fresh, hot gingerbread right out of the oven. He packed half of it away to share and ate the rest.


A gaggle of kids, all staring at their phones, nearly ran him over in their attempts to chase down a rarePokémon.


Chapter 53