1 Chapter 1

1

Charlie Labrecque was nervous.

On the outside, there wasn’t any reason for him to be. The Labor Day party he’d organized for his neighbors had gone off without a hitch. Everyone had loved his steaks and sausages; two people insisted on getting the recipe for his marinade, while someone else couldn’t believe he’d made the garlicky turkey sausages himself. Charlie laughed and joked what else he was going to do with his time now that his son had gone back to his mom’s to get ready for the school year, but to him, his laughter sounded hollow. He was going to miss Christian. The summer had flown by too quickly.

No, Charlie’s anxiety stemmed from something else entirely. Through his lashes, he watched his neighbor from three doors down lounge in one of the deck chairs, toying with a longneck beer as he chatted with Mrs. Kinley from across the street. Bryce Hanson was nearly ten years Charlie’s junior, and in all honesty, his best friend in the neighborhood. The unkempt blond waves glinted with red highlights, like a copper penny bleached by the sun, and the scruff he always sported was enough to make mouths water, itching to taste the texture. He was a bundle of compressed, intense energy, and even from across the length of the deck, the younger man’s green eyes pinned whatever company he kept in place.

Bryce was also gay. He’d never hidden his sexuality from his neighbors, but he didn’t flaunt it either, which made it easier for conservatives like the Hanshaws on the corner to accept him in neighborhood circles. Charlie was all too aware of what a double standard it was, but this wasn’t San Francisco, or New York, or some liberal college town. This was Denver. Things were improving, but there were definitely better places for a gay man to live in this country.

That was one of the biggest reasons Charlie kept his own sexuality private. It had destroyed his marriage, but nobody had ever discovered the truth. Not even Bryce, and he had been around for the worst of Charlie’s moods. He’d been the one to offer the long hikes in Fern Canyon to get Charlie’s mind off everything, and he’d been the one to suggest the cooking classes to distract him from the divorce minutiae. Charlie owed Bryce a lot.

And tonight, he was finally going to tell him the truth. If Charlie didn’t chicken out beforehand.

As the sun started to set, people began trickling back to their homes. Charlie finished scraping off the grill and closed the lid, hanging his brushes from the side hooks. Grabbing his empty beer bottle, he headed for the man who’d consumed his thoughts all day.

“Can I get your help with the empties?” he asked Bryce, nodding toward the overflowing bag next to the drinks’ cooler.

Bryce promptly pushed himself to his feet and finished off the last swallow of beer in his bottle. “I can stick around for cleanup duties if you promise to send me home with some of that leftover sausage.”

“Only if you promise to eat them and not give them to Sadie. She’s a great dog, but something tells me she just won’t appreciate how good they turned out.”

“No, her palate isn’t refined enough to enjoy it. For now, it’s regular old Alpo for her.” He gathered up the four bottles that had been on the deck next to his chair. Charlie had been paying close enough attention to know that all four did not belong to Bryce. “You want to keep everything separated for recycling?”

“Yeah, if we can.”

They worked in silent but friendly cooperation, scooping up anything that looked abandoned. Charlie called and waved goodbye to the guests that took this as the sign to leave. It hadn’t been his intention, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The sooner it was just the two of them, the sooner he could get everything off his chest. Provided he could get the topic introduced in the first place.

“This turned out pretty well,” he said when they were finally alone. “Don’t you think?”

“Best Labor Day cookout I’ve ever been to. And I’ve attended quite a few in my time.” He upturned another bottle of beer and watched the contents drain into the gravel on the side of the patio with a grimace. “God, I hate when people do that. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re stuck with Labor Day party duty from now on.”

“That’s not so bad. It’s good having people around.” Charlie rolled his neck, wincing when it cracked. “Though next time I won’t be so stubborn about doing so much on my own.”

“Good. I told you it was insane to try do all this by yourself. I’ll promise my potato salad for next year. And I’m a champion at slicing up watermelon, if I do say so myself.”

“Sure, you say that now. You couldn’t have told me that before I nearly chopped my thumb off two hours ago?”

Bryce grinned. “But you were so cute, wielding that big knife like you thought you knew what you were doing.”

“That’s the problem.” Charlie returned his smile as he held open the back door for him. “I thought I did.”

He followed Bryce inside, and together they dropped the recyclables into their respective bins in the back room. Even inside, the scents from the barbecue remained. It gave the house a more lived-in atmosphere than it normally did. Or at least, than it did when Christian wasn’t visiting.