Laurie Parkinson, who’s lived in Laurel Hills all his life, is a gay sheet metal worker who’d rather be a gay hairdresser. Wheat Dupuis, who’s also gay, is the scion of one of Laurel Hill’s wealthiest families. He’d rather grow grapes than become CFO of Dupuis International. Laurie wakes one morning to discover his family gone and his town decimated by a bacteria that has lain dormant for millennia, incased in ice. With the melting of the ice caps, the bacteria is released, and mankind faces a pandemic that could surpass the Black Plague. Wheat and his family are on their way to safety when the unthinkable happens and he’s left behind. Laurie knows of a bunker in the woods outside Laurel Hill, where he intends to take refuge. On the way there, Laurie finds and rescues Wheat. Can two such dissimilar men work together through a pandemic to find their families ... and possibly find love, as well?

Pandemic

Geez. It was almost one in the morning. Where had the time gone? He hadn’t even been having fun. He should have called to let Mom know he’d be missing dinner. She and Pop would probably have a fit.


He couldn’t go home, not now. Maybe not ever. He was a failure, in every sense of the word. But where could he go? In spite of what he’d told the bartender, his apartment wasn’t close—it was on the other side of town—and he was in no shape to drive. He supposed he could call for a taxi, but Laurel Hill was too small a town for that kind of service. Folks were more likely to rely on friends or neighbors for a ride. He took out his phone to call Jo. She was the one sister he could count on, the only one who looked like him, with the same strawberry blonde hair and violet eyes, while all the others were brunettes. They’d both heard the “teasing” remarks that the milkman was their father, which was stupid. Who even had their milk delivered anymore?


Chapter 5