Renowned interior designer Fredi Zimmer is surprised when outdoorsman Max Greene, owner of Greene’s Outdoors, hires him to revamp Max’s rustic cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Fredi is an out-and-proud Metro male whose contact with the outdoors is from his car to the doorway of the million-dollar homes he remodels, and to Fredi, Max is a typical straight man’s man. When Max blatantly and clumsily flirts with Fredi, Fredi’s stereotypical view of Max is shattered. Is this a build-up to a gay bashing? Cautiously believing Max is closeted and is trying to come out, Fredi decides he’s game to put a little spice into Max’s life, whether it’s in the colors and fixtures he’ll use to turn Max's dilapidated cabin into a showplace or over one of the many lunches and dinners they share talking about the remodel. Who can blame a guy for adding a little sensual pleasure as he retools Max’s life visually? Besides, Fredi has a backup plan if he’s wrong about Max’s intentions. Life would be all wine and roses if it weren’t for Max’s former friends and their conservative families. Alarmed with Max’s obvious infatuation, they make it their business to save him from sliding into hell. With the battle on, will Fredi and Max win the fight for a life of happiness together?

Redesigning Max

As we walked through the eerily deserted rooms—the kitchen finished except for the appliances, the bathrooms torn out to the studding, and the new sliding glass doors and huge windows still with factory paper on the panes—I again shivered.


“Don’t you feel it?” I asked him.


We were standing in the master bedroom, Max holding me in front of him as we looked out at the wind whipping through the trees.


“What? All I feel is horny.” He ran his hand down my chest to my groin, fondling me. “Can’t wait to snuggle up here with you in the bed you designed. You spendin’ the night with me tonight?”


He held me so close I felt as if I were just another layer of skin on his body. I nodded, letting him squeeze me.


The thunder and lightning around us threatened to let loose into a major drenching, so reluctantly we closed up the cabin, making sure the doors were soundly locked, and left.


Chapter 28