Funeral home owner and undertaker Dual Hood knows a good thing when he sees it, so when Charlie Soder applies for the job of embalmer, he snatches up the young man in a heartbeat. Charlie, fresh-faced and just out of college, also knows a good thing when he sees it, and immediately sets his sights on his new sexy boss.<br><br>It doesn’t take long for sparks to fly and romance to blossom. But Dual worries what folks in his small Mississippi town will say, and whether his family-owned business will suffer if word goes round about his new love interest. He isn’t at all certain he has the courage to do the right thing and grab love before it slips through his fingers.

The Undertaker's Secret

“She’s Presbyterian,” he said, as if this explained. “Mama’s cool. It’s been me and her since I was six years old and Daddy went to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras and never came back. She just wants me to be happy.”


I hurried to my room, stripped naked, crawled into bed.


I was freaked out. And excited. Excited in a childish sort of way. Excited like a little boy on Christmas Eve. My mind raced with the possibilities and the most adolescent thoughts. Did he like me? Did he really likeme? But wasn’t he too young? How could he possibly like some old dinosaur like me? But what if he didlike me? Would we be compatible? Would we be a thing? A couple? What would my friends say?


And what, I thought with dawning horror, would Mama say? How would she explain it to her friends at the First Baptist Church? If word got around, would the funeral home business suffer?


Chapter 5