Divorce can be nasty. Clement discovers how nasty gay divorce can be as he surveys the damage wreaked by his ex-partner in their soon-to-be-sold home. After cleaning the mess, he goes for a late coffee and dinner snack. The lone barista, Troy, recounts his traumatic car accident drama as they close the shop and share coffee and leftovers. Troy also reveals the pain of rejection he's felt for being gay. The two men share another connection: the next day, Troy starts a new position as a social worker, and Clement is a counselor, as well. So the next morning when Clement drives Troy to his new job, he knows they may cross paths again. It comes sooner than expected, though, when Clement returns to Troy’s office with an abused gay teenager who has nowhere to go. Try as they might, Troy and his new coworkers can find no available foster family. Suddenly Clement finds himself with a potential new family. Can things work out for the three of them?

Define Boink

“You remembered my drink,” I said around a mouthful of blueberry crumble.


Okay. I can say he blushed; we know that young guys blush a lot, and then they look up at you from under their eyelashes and you melt, and then for fuck’s sake, if they flash a fucking dimple and a smile that goes by so quickly you almost miss it, you fall over on the damn floor with your hand on your chest to keep your heart from leaping out. My brain was mumbling something about he’s just a kid, you don’t even know him, it’s on the rebound, stay in the now, and my heart (and several other parts) were going: dimple, he’s got a fucking dimple, go for it. So, I did the rational thing, I choked on a blueberry and almost spit it out across the table.


He looked shocked. “Oh, my God, are you okay? Have I killed you, too?” Those eyes started leaking in earnest.


Chapter 3