A few days before Christmas, David Weathers finds himself hopping a plane to his childhood home in Florida and doesn’t know why. His parents are gone, he has no siblings, yet something draws him on.<br><br>David can almost feel the magic in the air, but then he discovers Jared Acosta, the man who broke his heart twenty years earlier, has moved three doors away. Reluctantly David accepts Jared’s invitation to dinner, only to find that twenty years may not be enough for some wounds to heal.<br><br>Soon David seeks advice from his mother’s best friend Marisol, a vibrant, wise woman who believes in second chances. Can she convince David to take a chance on the man who is working so hard to be near him now? Will he be able to forgive a past that left both him and Jared unlucky in love?

Little Tree

Several hours later, David said, “It’ll be last call soon, and if we’re going to sleep all day we better get going.”


Jared looked at him, and then around the giant room. “I’ll never forget this.”


“I think if you had one more shot you just might,” David replied with a smile. “C’mon, let’s get some rest.”


Jared looked at him and nodded slowly. “It’s time to go, huh?”


“It’s been time,” David said, extending his hand to Jared.


Jared grabbed David’s hand, and allowed himself to be led out of the night club. In the sunlight, he yelled, “I love you, David Weathers! I love you, Atlanta! I love you, gay bars!” while David tried to hail a cab in the early morning sunlight.


In the back of the cab, Jared kissed David like something out of an old movie, hard and as if he would never let him go. David motioned his head toward the driver, wondering if Jared would regret this when they woke up that evening.


Chapter 9