Hotel owner and part-time musician Zeke Bandy is too busy for love. His plate is full running the historic Bandy Hotel and upholding his family’s tradition of offering refuge to strays and runaways. For fun two nights a week, Zeke also plays and sings traditional folk music with his rewritten gay lyrics at the Stonewall Saloon and for occasional celebrations. Then at a gay wedding, Zeke meets Victor Longbow, who just might be the man of his dreams. However, Vic isn’t looking for love either. In fact, because of his upbringing in a strict, white foster family, Vic’s not sure he believes in love. He’s in Stone Acres to open a branch office of a national brokerage firm. He also hopes to track down a vintage photo of what might be his Native American ancestor. After their paths cross, they become friends. Connected by their experiences as orphans raised by flawed fathers, Zeke and Vic wonder if their future could possibly hold love and family or if they are destined only to be lifelong friends.

Relative Best

“Tripp here said he didn’t think you’d mind if we joined you.” Vic reached over and pushed out the empty chair beside him. With a smile, he turned away from me as I sat. “What was it you said you do, Tripp?”


“Sell industrial plastic products. You’d be surprised at how fascinating it is.” And Tripp was off, giving us the particularities of plastic fabrication and the proper use of plastics in construction.


Everyone who knows me and my family thinks that, when I took over, I inherited money from my granddad to update the hotel. Not true. I’d made the money myself.


By the time I hit high school, the Bandy was on the brink of folding. Neither my dad nor my granddad knew squat about finances, budgeting, or business. They spent exorbitant amounts keeping the hotel minimally afloat, but they had no savings or reinvestment plans.


Chapter 9