Fourteen years ago, on the banks of Craving’s Creek, Ryde swore to his best friend Alistair he’d never be alone in the world. Though Alistair was destined for the priesthood, there was something beyond holy about the first kiss they shared. But a fun camping trip went horribly wrong when Alistair was involved in a horrific incident. Now, at age thirty-one, Ryde’s life is a mess of alcohol and the painful imprint of his last look into Alistair’s desperate eyes. Since the evil they encountered on that shore, his first love has been lost to him ... until he learns a friend’s wedding is to be officiated by a priest named Father Alistair Genet. Amid the rush of emotions, one thought crystallizes: Ryde’s love for Alistair has never died. It’s stronger than ever. But can it win over the repressed memories slowly tearing Alistair’s mind apart?

Craving's Creek

“He took Alistair to his barn?” Summer asks.


“Yes, from the woods. Dragged him there.”


“But when they found Alistair, on the road, Mom says he couldn’t speak anymore. She says he didn’t have any clothes on him, so what happened to him after—”


“I don’t know what happened after that.” I rub my face and think of vodka. But I won’t. I won’t. “I was in the hospital when they, I mean, his parents, when they moved up north somewhere with Matilda’s older sister, and then there was a ‘For Sale’ sign on their lawn when I came back home, and no one would tell me where they’d taken him.”


“But after that, later, why didn’t you try to find him?”


“Because I was a fucking mess, Summer. And I knew I couldn’t handle seeing his face. Or maybe I thought he couldn’t handle seeing mine.”


“What’s made you change your mind now?”


I let out a long breath. “Because now the time has finally come when not seeing his face has become intolerable to me.”


Chapter 44