Alan reached his hand forward for a shake. Dak rejected the offer in favor of a hug. “Much better,” whispered Alan as Dak’s powerfully structured arms wrapped around his torso.

Sturdy, muscular Dak was one of the first people Alan met when he moved to Coldbrook Bend, Minnesota. It was a small river town, one of many that assumed a steamboat landing was the ticket to eternal riches. Then, as always seems to happen, the world changed.

Alan and Dak stumbled upon each other at the Corner Hitch bar downtown just three blocks from the Mississippi River. It was a low moment for both. Dak was struggling in his relationship with his boyfriend, Brody, and Alan was suffering under his first real pangs of loneliness since moving into his Auntie Erin’s former house. She was a great-aunt on his mother’s side. A month later, both Alan and Dak were looking at brighter futures.

Dak stepped to the side and gestured toward Brody who stood just behind his shoulder. “And this is most definitely my better half,” said Dak.

Alan smiled at the tall, dark-haired man. He said, “If Dak ever has a moment of insanity and lets go of you, give me a call.”

Brody shook his head. “I’m off the market. We both came to our senses, and it’s for good now.”

The brief conversation was interrupted by a restaurant host with menus in her hand. She asked, “Is it three then for dinner?”

Dak nodded in the affirmative, and she showed them to a table on the opposite side of the dining room. Elderberry Rose was the Coldbrook Bend version of fine dining. As they seated themselves at a round table, Dak touched the lace scallops decorating the edge of the white tablecloth and said, “The flowery sweetness of this place always makes me cringe, but the food makes up for it. The chef trained in Chicago and came back home to take care of relatives and open a restaurant.”

“That sounds a little familiar,” said Alan.

“How is your aunt?” asked Dak.

“She’s settled in. We’ve got a visiting pattern set up. I stop by her assisted living apartment Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after work and stay for about an hour. Maybe the two of you would like to meet Auntie Erin. She’s my great-aunt, but we always called her Auntie regardless of the generation.”

Brody said, “We wouldn’t want to cause a lot of disruption.”

Alan shook his head. “She still loves meeting new people. I think Auntie Erin even has her eyes on one of the men living down the hall. She’s irrepressible. Nothing will keep her down until the morning she doesn’t wake up.” The last words spilled out with a jagged edge to his voice. He blinked his eyes and fought back a single tear.

“She’s important to you,” said Dak.

“She’s important to the whole family.”

With the silent assent of his dining partners, Brody ordered appetizers for the table and continued the conversation.

“How’s the new job going? Dak said you’re working down at Tar-Mor in Zephyr? I hope you don’t get lost in the corporate shuffle.”

Alan shrugged. “It’s just a job. I have a long-term goal. I want to work at Tar-Mor long enough, maybe ten or fifteen years, that I have a nest egg put aside. Then I hope to set up a non-profit organization serving those who needed a little extra help here in the small towns.”

Dak sipped at his glass of water on the table and said, “These days that’s mostly gonna be Mexican families. The white kids, unlike Brody and me, tend to move away as soon as they can.”

“They aren’t just Mexican,” said Brody. “El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala. They have a hard time getting here, but we’d have a hard time without them. The last person my mom hired at the public library was bilingual, and she took Spanish classes. They needed the language fluency to serve the immigrant families. It’s a new world.”

Alan nodded. “I worked at the border for a year after college. I’m fluent in Spanish.”

Their server set a plate in the center of the table holding golden-brown fried balls with a dish of red marina sauce on the side. Dak said, “These are awesome. We’ve had them here another time. What did you call them again, Brody?”

“Arancini. They’re Italian fried rice balls. The ones they make here are about the best I’ve ever tasted. I heard the chef spent two years in Italy. That’s one reason everything is so good.”

Alan followed the example of Dak and Brody taking a ball between his fingers and dipping it into the marinara before taking a bite. He closed his eyes as the smooth rice melted in his mouth bathed in the slightly spicy flavor of the sauce. “Wow, I never thought I could get food like this here in town.”

Brody grinned and said, “We’re not as backward as you thought.”

“I didn’t think Coldbrook Bend is backward,” laughed Alan, “But you need a real market to support places like this.”

“There’s more money than you might think up in those houses on the bluff. It doesn’t take nearly as much to keep up a place like that and eat food like this here as it would even in a place like Red Wing. Tar-Mor middle management can live pretty high on the hog in this area,” said Dak.

Brody blushed slightly and surreptitiously pointed at Alan while Dak spoke.

“Oh, is that you?” asked Dak. “Are you in the management structure.”

Alan nodded and grinned. “I manage Upper Midwest distribution, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. They’ve already thrown a big project my way. In the past, Tar-Mor did all of its own trucking. Last year, the board decided to spin off the transport as its a separate business. They severed contacts between the two companies.

That means effective next calendar year; we have no one to deliver our materials. I have the job of coming up with a trucking partner for my region.

“I can give you some pointers on freight shippers in the area,” said Brody. “We don’t hire a lot of outside firms for that ourselves at Home Pro, but some of our suppliers do. I’ve talked to quite a few drivers through the years and listened to their opinions. You’ll have to understand that some of those folks have an ax to grind.”

“Or two or three,” whispered Dak.

Alan polished off one of the rice balls and looked across the table. “Dak, what did you finally figure out about your work? Obviously, you’re not moving to the Twin Cities right now.”

“I’m a man of leisure for now.” He glanced sideways at Brody. “We’ve got several projects to take care of on Brody’s house. I’m working on those. His mom left behind a nice little nest egg that will pay for almost all of it. And then there’s the idea of a kid.”

Alan’s eyes opened wider. “You’re adopting?”

“Well, it’s not coming out of either of us the natural way,” said Brody.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” said Dak, “But we think Coldbrook Bend is still a great place to raise a kid. The teachers in the schools are good, and crime is low. I’m thinking about part-time options, but if everything works out, I’m staying home with the kid.”

“You’ll both be amazing parents. I hope I can do that one of these days. My only problem is finding the other dad.”

Brody nodded to the server as she arrived at the table with a bottle of red wine. While he watched the wine fill his glass, Brody said, “It is a small town, but between here and Zephyr, I can’t imagine you having a tough time finding a good guy. You have a house and an excellent job. A lot of guys would jump at that.”

“There’s just a few to watch out for, though,” said Dak. “Trust me, I know. I got the best one of the pack right here, but I waded through some stinking disasters along the way. You don’t want that. Be picky. You’ve got plenty of time.”

Alan nodded. “I’ve never stayed anywhere more than three years, but I’m planning for the long-term here. I’m only 30, and that’s the new 20, right? No big rush.”

Alan turned his head toward the sound of commotion near the front door. He heard a loud, scratchy voice saying, “I made the reservation three weeks ago. I always have the table in the corner. Now you’ve seated four old white hairs at MY table. Go and move them. I’ll wait.”

Brody and Dak followed Alan’s example. Dak let out a heavy sigh and held his hands up to his face. Alan turned back around and asked, “Is it someone you know?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” He pulled his hands down just in time to see Lewis heading for their table.

Brody whispered, “Just try and be nice. I’ll see what I can do to encourage him to go away.”

Alan looked from one to the other and then turned back around just in time for the man to reach their table. He wore immaculately tailored clothes with a pale blue sports jacket. He had round black-framed glasses that signaled an intelligent, nerdish personality.

“Dak! Brody! Good to see you both.” Lewis reached over Alan’s shoulder toward the center of the table to shake hands.

Brody reached his hand forward and let his gaze bear down on Dak. Seeing no other choice, Dak reached his hand out to shake as well while he bit his tongue to keep from speaking.

Lewis turned toward Brody and asked, “Who is this handsome man with you?”

Alan reached his hand forward saying, “I’m Alan. I recently moved to town.” He did his best to appear friendly though he knew that both Brody and Dak were uncomfortable. He thought that Lewis was handsome in his own way.

“A newcomer,” said Lewis. There was something about the way he drew out the word that caused Alan to recoil. “There’s not a lot here in Coldbrook Bend for those new to town. What brought you here? Is Brody hiring at the hardware plex?”

Alan shook his head no. “I’m working at Tar-Mor. I have a house here in Coldbrook Bend.”

Lewis barely held back a sneer. He said, “Zephyr’s your town then. It’s much closer to work, and there’s twice as much entertainment. I’m sure we’re a little bit of a backwater for the upwardly mobile like you.”

Brody interrupted and said, “Lewis, I think your guests are waiting for you, and we have food on the way. It’s good to see you again, and I’m sure you can track down Alan to get better acquainted at another time.”

Lewis’ thin lips pursed as if he was going to say something else, but instead he said, “Ah, yes.” He glanced over his shoulder for a moment and then cast his eyes around the table. He said, “I do need to go, but good luck Dak and Brody, and pleased to meet you, was it Aaron?”

“Alan.”

“Alan,” whispered Lewis. “See you all later. Enjoy your dinner. It’s Coldbrook Bend’s best.”

As Lewis joined his three guests, Dak asked, in a tone just above a whisper, “Has the hurricane passed yet?”

Brody grinned. “It did, and the forecasts were exaggerated. There’s no permanent damage. It was just a glancing blow.”

“Wow,” said Alan. “He’s not so bad looking, though.”

Dak shook his head. “Scratch that one off your list right now. Nothing good will come of it.”

“He doesn’t seem to like new people either.”

Brody said, “You’re going to run into some of that around here. Besides the money, there’s fear up on the bluff, too. It’s not pretty, and it’s not charming, but it exists, and it’s complicated. My mom had to grin and bear it as they wrote fat checks to the library fund every year.”