Beaten by the IT recession, Justin has come back to his hometown where he’s inherited a small house from his mother. Surely Barry, his old crush and sometime nemesis, is long gone. Jobs are scarce, so impulsively Justin seeks to buy into a pet grooming business. But when he has to visit the local bank for a loan, who sits behind the big desk but Barry?<br><br>Justin’s appearance jolts Barry out of his miserable rut of a life. What if they were to pick up where a brief boyhood attraction abruptly ended? Then his mother’s sudden stroke throws his whole life into a tumbled ruin.<br><br>Juggling business and pleasure can be a complex, risky endeavor. Will Justin resist Barry’s charms and flee again, or will fate give them a new leash on life?

A New Leash on Life

For several months, Barry delayed enrolling in the nearby state college to give academia another try, forgoing the athlete part. The whole time he kept running into Justin. Barry couldn’t hang out with the blue-collar guys who’d been in his class and now worked in construction, the mines, or for the railroad, so he’d drifted back to the places the high school kids congregated. Justin worked part time, and he had a beat-up old car. Most weekends he made it to the drive-ins—both the fast-food joint and the theater.


Chapter 3