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

As they were working on lunch, he pulled Andre aside. “Would you mind if I ran into town this afternoon?”


Andre shook his head, but the tilt of his head questioned why.


Thomas ignored how easy it was getting to read him even without the sign language and answered, “I want to go back to the library and get online to look around and see if there are any support groups in the area for families of Alzheimer’s. It might help for me to talk to somebody while I’m here.”


It was an excuse to get away, and they both knew it. The best part was, Andre didn’t call him on his cowardice. He just smiled and nodded.


On impulse, Thomas crowded him into his arms, in as tight an embrace as he could manage. Mom was just in the next room, but he didn’t care. He needed the feel of Andre’s sinuous body against his. As he expected, the moment his cheek brushed across Andre’s, the thudding of his pulse slowed down to a more manageable crawl.


Chapter 33