Even the nicest of guys can decide to cut loose at some point, especially if he's at college and a frat brother invites him to a party. Unfortunately, that can end quite badly. Luckily for Dante ap Owen, it doesn't -- until he keeps needing to piss every few minutes and he sees blood in his urine. Another stroke of luck for him is the substitute professor, also a medical doctor he’s been crushing on, who happens to be there when he passes out in class and pushes him to come to his clinic.<br><br>But Dante and his beloved, critically ill mother are under the control of his bitter uncle, who also provides health insurance. If his uncle finds out Dante is being treated for anything, let alone what Dante fears is an STD, he's ... Dante doesn't want to think about that. So he flees the clinic before he has to make a follow-up appointment.<br><br>The good doctor shows up at his uncle's farm when phone calls do nothing. And when Dante's uncle invites the doctor to dinner and serves a meal worthy of Medea, the doctor urges Dante and his mother to leave. But will they? And will Dante realize the doctor wants him as much as he wants the doctor?

So Let Us Rejoice

The last thing I wanted to do was linger by the door, so I went to my office for a few minutes to update his chart. I ran my gaze over the neat handwriting that had filled out the new patient forms. He’d turned twenty-two a few months ago. That made the age gap between us twenty-six years. I sighed. The first man who’d interested me on more than a purely physical level—since I’d broken up with Ron Edgerly, took the advice of Leo Rossi, who was not only Ron’s friend, but my good friend as well, and moved to Mercerville fifteen years earlier—and not only was Dante a student, he was a patient. Leo would laugh himself silly over the situation in which I found myself.


Chapter 17