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

“I asked him why his dad, your father’s younger brother, hadn’t tried to take over years ago,” Jeff added.


“He did,” I spat. “He tried and failed.”


“No,” Gary said, leaning in toward me. It was a ploy. I held my ground. I wouldn’t back away. “I thought he had too. But when I went to talk to him after the family meeting, he told me he never wanted the company. He didn’t want to be the organizer. He only ever wanted to be a construction worker, not a boss.”


“So I went to my aunts and asked them. They told me everybody wanted to be the head of the company as long as they didn’t have to do scheduling, bookkeeping, contracts, anything dealing with the office and operations. Everybody wanted to be chief, but nobody wanted to lead. They all agreed Grandpa Joe had taught you how everything was organized and how the actual business was run, and he hadn’t taught anybody else.”


He took a gulp of breath and started in again before my mind could catch up.


Chapter 30