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

That night, Shirley and I sat on my veranda swing, watching the quiet street go dark under the setting sun.


It had been a long day of waiting and praying.


“Drika is going to be in convalescence for three or four months,” Shirley said, breaking the comfortable silence between us. “And you know how busy you guys get around fall and Thanksgiving.”


Drika had undergone major surgery this afternoon. They’d removed a non-malignant tumor and had also performed a hysterectomy. She wasn’t going to be returning to the café any time soon and I knew that would be tough on her. “I feel terrible for her,” I said, staring down at my bare feet.


Shirley sighed. “You’re gonna have to hire someone. You can’t handle the café all on your own. That’s too much work.” She brushed something off my cheek. “Promise me you’re not gonna do this all by yourself, Christensen.”


Chapter 19