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

Which had Scooter a little paranoid. He wasn’t scared exactly, but he’d told Andy about living through Isabelle as a child and Irene as an adult, and those hurricanes had done so very much damage. He was glued to the weather reports, checking his phone at least once an hour, tracking the storm.


“Broke hundred and sixty miles an hour winds,” Scooter reported. The strain was starting to show as he gathered everyone in the kitchen. “Best estimate right now is that it’ll hit tomorrow evening, around eight. We need to close down as soon as lunch is done—start turning people away now—and break for storm prep. Strongly recommended that we evacuate off the oceanfront, at least. Governor will decide if it’s a mandatory evac tomorrow morning, but get your stuff prepped to go.”


Outside, it was already cloudy, the winds high, and occasionally they got a spray of hard rain for aboutten minutes before it would stop again.


Chapter 84