Synopses & Reviews
Jacqueline Keys was ostracized from her small hometown of Pine Springs, Texas when she was seventeen, sent away because she was gay. Her family was the largest employer in the county, owning Pine Springs Lumber, and her father was mayor of this small town. Her mother could not accept the fact that her only child was gay, could not tolerate the gossip about her family. So, with a hundred dollars in her pocket and a one-way bus ticket out of town, Jacqueline was told not to come back until she had come to her senses. And that included being prepared to marry the son of a business associate of the family.
Fifteen years laterlong after shed hitch-hiked to Los Angeles, long after shed worked nights to put herself through college, and long after shed written her first best seller, No Place For FamilyJacqueline is persuaded to go back to the tiny town of Pine Springs after her fathers death.
The quick trip shed envisioned for the funeral turns into weeks as she learns her fathers business is suddenly hers to manage. And she is also again face-to-face with the woman who, as a teen, had been Jackies first crush. She and Kay had been inseparable as kids, and later as teens. They find themselves falling back into their old habits, and Jackie is soon fighting the same feelings shed had when she was seventeen.
But living behind the pine curtain, Kay is afraid of her love for Jackie, afraid of what her family will say, afraid of how the town will react. Jackie refuses to hide, refuses to crawl back into the closet, so once again, she leaves Pine Springs . . . alone.