Abe Cooper is starting over. For fifteen years he's lived the life that was expected of him, but not anymore. He's packed up his things, bought himself a cabin in Northfield, and managed to secure a job at the local high school teaching gym and coaching the football team. But his new beginning didn't include running into Crazy Joe on his first trip to the grocery store.<br><br>Jonas Raghnall has everything he needs -- good friends and a job he loves. He's worked hard to get over what happened sixteen years ago, but one run-in with his past and all the memories come flooding back. Seeing Abe Cooper, The Abe Cooper, sets everything out of balance.<br><br>Abe had pictured a fresh start with no ties to his past, but now that Jonas is there, he wants nothing more than to be close to the man who had butterflies filling his belly when he was in high school. Jonas doesn't want to come face to face with his past, but if he sees Abe every day, it's not really meeting up with your past, is it? It's more like a date with your future.

Crazy Joe

She groaned. “Don’t let some teenage fantasy blind you. The man’s an ass, an overgrown teenager.”


Jonas wanted to object, but he didn’t know Abe, never really had.


Jonas was half a step from walking straight into Kenji and Lukas from the eleventh grade. Clearing his throat, he looked down the corridor, then back at the boys. He’d never seen them together before. Students changed social groups now and then, but Kenji and Lukas were too far from each other on the hierarchy scale for it to make sense.


“Mr. Raghnall.” Kenji fidgeted, looked at the wall, at his shoes, a quick glance at Jonas, then back at the wall.


“We were thinking…” Kenji shot a quick look at Lukas who looked bored. “That-maybe-it-would-be-better-if-Lukas-took-over-my-role-in-the-school-play.”


Jonas blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”


Chapter 6