All These Years Later

Coming out in your forties is hard. Falling for your childhood friend? Even harder.

I’ve spent my whole life in Maple Hill—married the hometown girl, raised two amazing kids, and now I’m running an event barn with my ex-wife. It’s not exactly the life I pictured, but it’s mine. And for the first time, it’s honest.

Then Pete Walker shows up at our high school reunion. We were close back in the day, the kind of friends who shared everything… except the parts of ourselves we were too scared to admit. I never had a crush on him back then, but now? He’s older, widowed, still sharp as hell—and something in me sparks to life the moment I see him again.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve only just started living as an out gay man, and Pete’s still grieving the life he lost.