Rafael Patino has a great life in Rain Valley. He’s a teacher at the high school, has a great group of friends, and enjoys the occasional baseball game. Other than the sporadic call from his drunken mother, he’s pretty content. He’s also been in love with his best friend Dustin for nearly a decade. Years of keeping those feelings under control are put to the test when they begin a summer project together. Dustin Vance builds furniture for a living, has just earned his pilot’s license, and has an amazing best friend. When he buys a 1976 Cessna Skyhawk, he asks Rafael to help restore it, then travel with him to Wisconsin for the largest aviation convention in the world. As they spend their days working on the plane, they begin to spend their nights together. Will they find love in the clouds, or will they stall out before they even take off?

Love in the Clouds

Being with Raf was like that, too. When they made love, whether it sweet and tender, or hot and dirty, the connection between them was something he’d never experienced. It was never just sex with Raf. It was a blending of their entire beings, as their wants and needs became fused and they flew together.


Dustin still couldn’t get over Raf’s surprise gift that morning. Of all things he could have given Dustin, the propeller was the perfect item and he couldn’t wait to hang it above the bed. Theirbed. He was already thinking of his house as theirs. He needed to get up his nerve and ask Raf to move in. Dustin tried to remember when the man’s lease was up and made a mental note to ask him later.


About twenty miles out of Ripon, Wisconsin, he handed the papers to Raf. “Start on page six, please, where it says something like ‘approaching Ripon.’”


Chapter 59