Recent graduate Dr. Fenton Miller takes December off to decide which job offer to accept. Then he meets his landlord, sous chef John Barton. Suddenly, thinking about his career becomes his last priority. A better option might be a month-long roll between the sheets with John. While John is attracted to Fen and might even agree to his plan, John has got more pressing matters to worry about. His past has arrived in tiny Stone Acres from San Francisco and is intent on sucking him back into a life he hated. Promising to help John and shelter him if necessary, Fen finds he's also being threatened by a homophobic father who doesn't find Fen as entertaining as his kids do. As they wade through their problems during the happiest time of the year, Fen and John rely more and more on each other for happiness.

Short Order

“Hey, John. Stella told me you were here. How’re you doing?” The tall, brown-haired guy pointed to the younger man standing behind him. “I don’t know if you’ve met Benny. He’s my new sous, a second-year student at the community college.”


John stood, shook hands all around, and introduced me. So much for bringing John to a small local place where he hadn’t been many times before. As they settled in to talk food and cooking, my mind wandered off. I still couldn’t figure out how everything had been going so well and suddenly wasn’t.


The men getting up from our table brought me back to the here and now.


“Sorry about that, Fen,” John said. “Eugene, the guy I was talking to, owns and runs this place now that his mother, Monique, passed away. He and Adam grew up together.”


“How would you know? You didn’t say two words.”


Chapter 26