When Jamie strolls through the door from the Humane Society, it’s not only an pet who requirements rescuing that day. Tom will there be to adopt another service doggie into the Dog Comrade Corps, but it’s Jamie his heart goes out to. But each man turns away, walks away, from your potential discomfort, the rejection, the knowledge that it’ll all end in tears…

Jamie has learned damn well that the HIV he contracted from an unfaithful lover has put him out of the internet dating game forever in the small city of Santa Vera. Tom lost his legs in Afghanistan, and got new ones, yeah, but with a part order of PTSD to visit, he believed grimly. The real problem is definitely that only right now does he realize he’s gay, now that the revelation will be just one way too many things to put his family members through, after the rest they’ve had to deal with.

So both men grin and bear the loneliness, put their feelings on a shelf, even while Jamie’s volunteer stint at CCC becomes friendship and, despite their resolve, something more…