Ohio Full Monty (Straight Guys #9)

When the auto plant closed, my friends and I didn't know where any of us would end up. I answered a help-wanted ad and ended up dancing at a bar called Hard Candy. They were looking for young, muscular autoworker jocks like me to strut for $100 tips and show off our bodies. All I was allowed to wear while dancing there was a "stringie" I wasn't gay, but I badly needed a job, and anyway, the swooshy gay world was so far from my own straight world that it wouldn't interfere with my real, straight life.

On my first night there, I encountered a handsome, masculine, stubbled customer who pulled his hat down over his face while he enjoyed a private dance with me. He was very generous with giving me pleasure, and I enjoyed the private time with him much more than I'd ever intended to. When he lifted me off the stage and onto the ground, I smelled his cologne, and instantly recognized who it was. It was the nicest guy anyone had ever known in Dayton, Bill Sugarhill, and here he was at a gay bar. That was the shock of my life.

I was even more shocked when the next day, he told me he'd always dreamed of me when we had been best buds in high school and when we'd worked side-by-side at the auto plant. The thing was, I realized I also wanted to be with him. He was the most caring person I'd ever known.

We made our relationship work, changing what needed to be changed in order to start our new life together. Even the auto plant re-opened under new ownership. And the law now allowed us to marry, with all our old high school and auto plant buddies in attendance. Bill and I were able to live and love and even work together. Everything had been for the best.