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

“He can’t live with me,” Hank said in a firm tone, after a moment of silence. “We just can’t live together. You know what I mean? He’s only been here for a few weeks and I’m about halfway out of my goddamn mind.”


“Are you eating?” I asked, concerned for his health.


“A little. Look, don’t worry about me. This isn’t your problem and you already have so much going on.”


“Talk to me,” I said softly. “What’s going on over there?”


Hank let out a long, drawn-out breath. “I’m old enough to know that I stumbled on something precious and rare when I met you. And it’s killing me, Chris. To know that I’m so close to having it all, but don’t have the balls to grab it. I’m letting it just drift by me, and with every day that passes, it’s getting further and further away.”


“No, I’m still right here. And I’m not drifting anywhere. I’m right here where you left me.”


“I’ve been alone for so long. I’m an old bachelor.”


Chapter 43