When forty-year-old Chicago podiatrist Matthew Pepper is approached in a bar by college student Ryan Meade, he figures hooking up with the handsome twenty-one-year-old might be just what he needs to help him get over his recent breakup.<br><br>But the hookup doesn’t go as planned and Matthew writes the evening off as a failed one-night-stand. Ryan, however, views things differently. To him, a failed hookup is nothing more than an opportunity to try again.<br><br>Ryan pursues Matthew, not just because he wants to be with the man, but because he wants something ... and he’s determined to get it. Will Matthew find out Ryan isn’t as transparent as he claims to be? Does Lyin’ Ryan live up to his nickname?

Lyin' Ryan

I thought for sure Donovan would lunge for Ryan then, and I prepared myself to step between them, but the physical confrontation didn’t happen. Instead, Donovan calmly told Ryan, “I’m not your fucking father, and the sooner we get a paternity test, the better.”


“I agree,” Ryan told him. “I’m ready whenever you are.”


The two men exchanged cell phone numbers and Donovan told Ryan he’d be in touch. He didn’t look at me or say another word before he stormed out of my condo, slamming the door behind him.


Ryan turned to me. “Do you want me to leave, too?”


Surprisingly, he didn’t give me any pushback. I watched him go, wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into, and how the hell I was going to get out of it.


Thursday afternoon, I was with a patient who was suffering from a bout of plantar fasciitis, when the receptionist stuck in her head to tell me that someone was waiting to see me.


Chapter 35