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

Jeff and I would frame the Winters’ family cabana. The foundation and roughed plumbing and electrical were already in place. The small building made a right angle at the end of the pool. One side had a changing room and shower for guys, the other side the same for ladies.


While we drove to the Winters’ house, I talked Jeff through the steps we’d be doing. He’d never done framing before. It wasn’t hard, so I figured he’d catch on fast. Hell, I could do it by myself when I was twelve.


We ran into Mrs. W the minute we stepped out of the truck. I always try to avoid clients’ wives, but sometimes there was no getting out of it.


“Oh. Oh my,” she said and stopped about six feet away from me on the driveway. “I thought Ben or Connor were coming today.”


“Nope. Just me and Jeff.” I hung a thumb behind me. Jeff had rounded the truck and was standing there. We had to get our belts and stuff out of the truck bed before we began.


Chapter 9