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

“It’s not the same,” I insisted. “Trust me.” This was bringing up a lot of pain for him. He’d been publicly humiliated two years ago. His trust in people was still shaken, but I’d help him heal those wounds, if he let me. “Hank? It’s gonna be okay…”


“You’ve worked so hard at making a life for yourself out there.” His voice was soft again. “I don’t want anything to disturb it. I don’t want anybody to hurt you, Chris. Promise me you’ll clear this up with Drika tomorrow and fire that kid.”


“I can’t fire him. Donnie’s a good worker and firing him without just cause would only fuel people’s suspicions. They’d think I was trying to cover something up.”


“You’ve been alone with him for weeks. He could say anything. He doesn’t even have to sayit, really. The kid simply has to hint at something and people are gonna conjure up the rest of the scenario. Believe me.”


“Not everybody in the world is out to get us, Hank. We have allies, too. And if you lived here, you’d slowly find that out.”


Chapter 50