It's been eleven years since Nick ran off with David for the West Coast. And though his life resembles a blue dream, after more than a decade of bar tending in resorts and cruise ships, Nick is finally thinking of heading home. First, he needs to go see about David in Vancouver ...<br><br>When he arrives, Nick finds a community of young men devastated by AIDS. Part of him wants to flee back to Montreal, but David is dying and Nick knows his place is by his best friend's side. In those four days and nights in David's apartment by the English Bay, Nick learns more about himself than he ever did before. When it's all over, he packs his bag and locks up his grief, determine to honor the promise he made to David of opening up his own restaurant.<br><br>Five years later, Nick is gaining a reputation in the industry as a chef, but has yet to have any meaningful relationships. Until Derek O'Reilly, that redheaded kid with the avocado-green eyes he used to know, walks into his dining room and ignites Nick's passion once more.

Blue Awakenings

Derek’s face flashed through my mind. Yes, he could be my guide. He could be the one to show me the way back into that world of emotions, risks, and vulnerability. Because he was, by far, the most sensitive and magnetic man I’d ever met. The way he wore his heart on his sleeve, the way he allowed himself to be fragile in this world full of dangers, made me want to take care of him. He was still that boy I’d known all those years ago, the one I’d never quite forgotten. I’d always kept the memory of his gentleness.


The feeling bubbled up in my heart, and it was as though I’d been drowning, unconscious at the bottom of some blue pool, when suddenly, something had awaken me, and those bubbles, like tiny delicate spheres of hope, were streaming out of me, coming from my own lungs, as I woke and turned my eyes up to the surface.


“Has he mentioned me?” I asked, excited as an awkward teenager. I felt young again. Seventeen. Derek was healing something inside me and he wasn’t even the room.


Chapter 27