Everyone hopes his road to happily ever after will be carefree and smooth, but too often hair-pin turns and detours seem to get in the way. Having thought he was on the road to forever before, former Silicon Valley programmer Dan Lassiter is leery about pedaling down it again. His elderly companion Charlie urges him to get to know Rick Reardon whose bakery is across the street from Dan’s bicycle shop. Under the watchful eye of Charlie, Dan and Rick take tentative steps toward each other, all the while trying to avoid potholes such as exes, homophobes, and family problems. As summer turns to fall and then winter, they hope that the road will be smooth going from their first date and first kiss to having what Rick’s sister euphemistically calls their “sleepovers.” At each step, though, they are tripped up and wonder why there seem to be so many bumps in their road. Maybe Dan and Rick should heed some of Charlie’s sage advice, or maybe they should listen to their hearts instead of the ghosts from their pasts.

Heart of the Holidays

“Because to paraphrase a poem, let me count the ways. One, he cheated on me for three of the five years we were married. God only knows with how many men or how many diseases he brought to our bed. Don’t worry. I’m clean now. Antibiotics work wonders these days.”


I didn’t want him to go on and reached my hand toward his. He pulled his back and into his lap.


“Two, he tried to take me for everything I’d earned in the Bay Area. He argued that I’d told him to give up his job and forbade him to get another. He said he was an unpaid servant in our house, that he had to do all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry.” Rick gave a short, ugly laugh. “With a straight face, he whined to the domestic court judge that I’d called him fat. It was the only thing he told the judge that was true.”


“Okay, I get the picture.” I was always shocked at how other people in relationships had it so much harder than I did.


Chapter 8