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

Hank shook his head, fighting back a smile.


“Will you come inside then?” I tipped my head. “Yes?”


He looked around at the street and slowly climbed up to where I stood dying to put my hands on him. I opened the door. “Get in here.”


Sitting on the couch, I widened my eyes, holding the tears back as best I could. God, this scene always got to me—Sally Field sobbing and demanding to know why her daughter had to die so young. I’d seen Steel Magnoliasfive times or more since I’d bought the movie last year, and yet, here I was, seconds away from turning into a slobbering mess. Beside me, Hank was being quiet and I glanced over to check his reaction to the drama that was unfolding on the screen.


Chapter 20