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

Charlie and Joel had gone to Aberdeen on the death call. Having squared that away, they were now on their way here to pick up Mama.


“I just can’t believe it,” I said again—Lord knows how many times I had already said that.


I thought about that—and began to laugh. Fancy Hogg was bullshitting me. Just as I so often bullshitted others. The irony struck me with a bit of force.


“Why are you laughing?” Fancy demanded.


“You’d think an undertaker would know how to handle this a bit better,” I said. “I guess I’m being reminded of what our families go through and how they’re feeling when they come to see us.”


“Well, it is a shock,” replied Fancy. “Your Mama was so mean, I was sure she was going to live to one hundred.”


“She was a lady, though,” Fancy said. “She wasn’t about to take crap off a nobody.”


Chapter 27