Thomas Durling escaped his small-town upbringing for over ten years, until a single phone call drew him back. Told his mother has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, he returns to the small northern Michigan town he once called home to find a mute stranger taking care of her in his stead.<br><br>On the surface, Andre seems harmless enough, but Thomas has enough problems trying to deal with his mother’s illness. He doesn’t need a gorgeous young man to distract him, especially in a town that drove him away once already with its homophobia.<br><br>But Andre has nowhere else to go. A wolf without a pack, he’s been on the run since witnessing his father’s murder, always looking over his shoulder, never looking ahead. Taking care of Thomas’s mother has given him a welcome sanctuary, as well as a place he can call home for a couple months. He wants to stay, but more importantly, he wants to help, even if Thomas isn’t ready to accept that they could actually be friends ...

Moon-Touched

That courtesy had proliferated his thoughts as he stood beneath the tepid shower. In spite of what he’d learned about Andre last night, it didn’t change the kind of man Thomas already knew him to be. Respectful, generous, loving. That, more than anything else, demanded his spirits remain high while he fixed breakfast.


He gathered condiments out of the refrigerator as Andre followed Mom in from the living room. She paused in the doorway, forcing Andre to stop, and gazed around with a frown.


Thomas paused with the ketchup and horseradish in his hands. “What’s not right, Mom?”


“This.” She swept a hand around the room. “We have to clean it up. George is going to have a fit if he sees this mess.”


Nudging the fridge door shut with his hip, he tamped down his initial instinct to argue with her and headed for the table. “We’ll clean up after we eat.”


Chapter 32