Julian Junk was often teased about his last name and his father's occupation as a garbageman. Mackensie Keller grew up privileged and spoiled. As teens, Junk and Mickey make plans for their future, but when Mickey is sent off to boarding school, he tells Junk their parents are probably right -- they just don't belong together.<br><br>Back in town ten years later, Mickey is all grown up. He and Junk reconnect as adults, but so much was said, and so much has changed. Though he asks for forgiveness, which Junk grants, though old romantic feelings are quickly rekindled, Mickey is reluctant to bring a new man into his young daughter's life after his last relationship's failure. He's also harboring a secret, one that threatens to spoil upcoming Thanksgiving plans.<br><br>Once Junk discovers the source of Mickey's dilemma, he devises a crafty plan to make everything right. Will it work out? Will Mickey accept his help, and can the two of them make a go of it with so much stacked against them?

One Man's Junk

I nearly dropped the four bottles I was carrying when Mickey snuck up behind me, exiting, apparently, through one of the four open corral doors I’d just passed.


“I wondered where you went,” I said.


He had a towel around his waist, one thick enough to show a bulge but nothing else. “I was all done. Got most of the funk off, if nothing else.”


Mickey was still striped in black grease here and there, like a Little Debbie zebra cake. I should have ransacked his cupboards for food. If I wasn’t about to have sex, sugary carbs were a halfway satisfying substitute. “Ah. Here.” I handed off a beer.


Snatching it back, I used my teeth, went down on it hard, tip to balls, only in my mind, and then passed it again.


“Your pops must have good dental insurance.”


The look on his face indicated my delivery might have been a bit harsh. “No. Sure. I was just kidding.”


Chapter 16