In June 1966, ACLU attorney Eron Lassiter attends his uncle’s wedding and makes an unsettling discovery. Though Eron had bowed to family pressure and planned a potential marriage, his long-ignored attraction to other men roars to life when Garrett Emerson, the bride’s nephew, captures his attention.
After serving in the Korean War and going to college later than his peers, upwardly mobile Garrett now works as a loan officer at a local bank. For his girlfriend -- fiancée in her mind -- Garrett can’t climb fast enough. But none of that matters to Eron, and maybe that’s why Garrett’s so drawn to him.
Together, can Eron and Garrett find happiness amidst the pervasive culture of propriety, honor, and expectation of the 1960s?
EXCERPT
By the time they made it to the beach, the July heat and humidity had reached their peak. They grabbed some burgers and fries from a boardwalk stand and snatched a table as a family got up. “You want to stay and swim?” Eron asked as he gobbled down his burger.
“Not really, too crowded.”
“When I was a kid, we’d never let the crowd stop us from swimming,” Eron quipped.
“Yeah, guess we have some sense now.”
They finished eating. Eron nodded toward the car rather than the beach. Garrett smirked and followed. As Garrett drove back to his apartment, Eron reached out and touched his thigh.
“I’m sorry,” Eron blurted out, in line with his own thoughts, but out of nowhere in the silence.
“For what?” Garrett answered, as if he and Eron were thinking about the same thing.
“I guess the whole thing.”
Garrett looked at him and grimaced. “What do you mean?”
“I feel like I start things and then put them to rest.”
Garrett shrugged. “I suppose things can be kind of sticky between us.”
“I don’t want them to be. I haven’t regretted anything we’ve done.”
“Having sex in the bushes at the country club?”
“Nope.”
“Dancing at the Valentine’s dance?”
“Not at all.”
“Maybe if we lived in a vacuum and didn’t have to deal with the rest of the world, this would be easier?”
“Maybe.”
