Two years ago, Chris and his boyfriend left the city to settle in a small town at the US-Canada border. Eager to start a new life, Chris bought the Frontier Café, but a year later, his boyfriend dumped him, leaving Chris the only openly gay man in town. Nowadays he's resigned to a life of romantic solitude.<br><br>Hank spent the last years traveling through the country for his job as a water plant engineer. Deeply closeted, he's careful about the men he meets. Like the rivers he studies, he runs fast through the land.<br><br>In town only for a few weeks, Hank is intent on getting the job done and returning home out west to take care of his father. But Chris’s warm manner and decadent desserts are no match for Hank’s defense mechanisms. For the first time in his life, he finds himself wanting to go with the flow.

No River Wide Enough

I bent closer to him, trying to read it.


“No, don’t be so obvious about it,” he said, pretending to be busy with searching his open briefcase on the chair.


Wow, he was so paranoid. But I didn’t mind it so much. Because he looked so fantastic in that Stetson black shirt and weathered cowboy boots. I stood back a bit and peered down at the note there.


Chris, I’m sorry about the other night. About leaving like that. I have your number. Can I call you?


Before I could say anything, Hank was out of his chair and gathering his things. The door opened and a few high school kids stormed in, here for their afternoon cookie blizzards. “I’ll be right with you, guys,” I shouted back at them.


Hank was already halfway out the door. He stared into my eyes and cocked a brow. “I freaked out the other night. Forgive me?”


Overloaded with excitement, I nodded. I didn’t ask him what had changed. I just said, “Come tonight.”


“Yeah?” Hank’s smile made me hot all over. “Okay…I’ll see you later then.”


Chapter 15