For more than a decade, renowned chef Alain Tiessart has been married to his restaurant, driven to make it one of the finest in Paris. But time is slipping away. Lonely and ready for a change, he packs up his bags on one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year and drives into the French countryside.<br><br>Retired Brit Simon Hastings is prepared to spend Bastille Day as he always does -- quietly and alone. When his oldest friend arrives on his doorstep prepared to spend the next few days together, Simon is surprised but welcomes him in. He’s even more surprised when Alain suggests they move their relationship to a deeper one.<br><br>Unwilling to jeopardize their friendship, Simon turns him down, a decision Alain accepts gracefully. Until a friendly bet and an eager young man cast Alain in a new light. Now, Simon doesn’t know what he wants. Or who ...

Vintage

He couldn’t tell if Alain was hurt by his rebuff, but he thought it was a good sign that the other man didn’t immediately try to put distance between them. Maybe he had already put it out of his mind, but Simon suspected he wouldn’t be able to dismiss the encounter so easily. Alain had, at the very least, given him a lot to think about. 3


Though he tried with everything that he had, Alain finally broke at the fifth knock at his door.


“You were serious about going out this early?” Leaning against the edge of the door in order to stay upright, Alain blinked down at Simon, trying to clear his bleary vision. For his part, Simon looked as alert and collected as he had the previous night at dinner, smiling broadly and in great amusement at Alain’s obvious dishevelment. “Why would someone who spent their entire professional career having to cater to a nine-to-five existence voluntarily choose to continue such an awful schedule once you no longer had the obligation?”


Chapter 7