“Sean’s hands had risen to comb the hair at the nape of his neck, to draw him closer, to coax his mouth—his heart—open.”

“But now that he was here, he was happy. It wasn’t an uncomplicated kind of happy, but still. Something about the warm atmosphere, the way Cormac’s family teased him the same as they teased each other, fussed over him and brought him drinks, included him seamlessly in their conversation, just…recognized him.”

“For Cormac, every touch was shadowed by regret and anger and desperation, although he tried not to show it. Sean was being so clear, so brave. Doing the right thing because it was the right thing because it was the right thing to do, like he always did and always would do. Cormac could learn a lot from him.”

“In the deserted men's restroom at the back of Middleton Community College, Sam Keller knelt on the tile, braced his hands against Keith Jameson's thighs, and broke his mother's heart.”

“After several minutes, Ed said, his voice raspy and spent, "You okay, Laur?"Laurie, his bones melted, his muscles slack, his heart pounding like a happy caged beast against the wall of his chest, his backside throbbing and still half-full of Ed, let out his breath. With great effort, he nodded.”

“The Howard Hughes thing hadn’t actually sounded like such a bad deal until about...oh, eight thirty-five this morning. Something about having his ex carry him to the bathroom and help him wash his balls just took all the fun out of becoming an eccentric recluse.”

“What if his advisor found out? Would getting caught having public sex do something to his teaching assistantship? Would he still be able to get a job? Would getting felt up in a laundromat inadvertently lead to him living on the streets, starving and exposed, selling his body for sex, which meant he would contract a disease and die?”