Big, burly CEO Abe Behr is furious to discover someone -- probably a relative -- is embezzling from Behr Construction, a family-run business in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside Lake Tahoe. To confirm his suspicions, Abe takes the unprecedented step of hiring a non-family accountant, handsome Jeff Mason, to go over the books and help find the culprit. As they talk to Behr relatives and visit construction sites, Abe and Jeff are drawn to each other, bringing out new, softer emotions in workaholic Abe. Since he has sacrificed romance all his life to build the construction business, Abe’s surprised by his feelings for the handsome Jeff. He’s even more shocked when they come face to face with homophobia in the small foothills community where generations of Behrs have called home. Abe had always thought Stone Acres was a live-and-let-live kind of town. As he and Jeff get closer, he finds out how wrong he is when he comes out to both family and a community who think he’s making a big mistake. Will being the head of a large, powerful family and a pillar of the community be enough to win Abe his happily ever after with Jeff?

Behr Facts

We both knew Gary would never win unless I agreed to sell to him.


Before I could comment, Connor walked into my office and sat next to Ben. Ben, who’s two years younger than me, is the quintessential good old boy. Connor, two years younger than Ben, is an old maid. Okay, not precisely an old maid, but a picky, long-suffering perfectionist, whose idea of the world and the people in it is shattered over and over again. Me? I’m the glue who keeps us together. I’ve been the head of the family since our dad decided what he could find in a bottle was better than what he had in his sons or his business. What he found was liver failure. I was in high school when I took over the company full-time.


Chapter 4