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

I drove us to La Foothills Spa, a swanky new total-body spa that had opened the year before in an old farm hacienda. The established Old Town residents called it La Loco Spa because there were so many things wrong with it before the big-money city folk came in and claimed they were going to clean it up as a resort. So far all the predicted visitors seemed to have stayed away, making the café patio the quietest place I could think of.


Chapter 30