With You Always by Jerry Cole

Victor Saller finally feels like he kind of has his life together. He has a great job, a nice apartment, and friends. His boyfriend may have run off to work on a surgical charity ship in Africa, ending their relationship just when things were getting interesting, but it could be worse. He still has his family, and his possibly comatose cat, Fred. When his sister texts him, letting him know that his longest unrequited crush is in town, he ignores it. That ship sailed a long time ago.

Patrick Hayley is exhausted when he lands in Atlanta, but that isn’t stopping his brain from reminding him that the son of a family friend is in the same city. He turned down Victor once before, and he’s too embarrassed to try to contact the man again. Fate, however, has other ideas, because they run into each other in the locker room of a gym, and somehow end up at dinner. And then back at Victor’s apartment. It’s all going well until Patrick panics and bolts, leaving behind clean laundry and fresh muffins, and a confused and hurt Victor.

The hardest part of any relationship is sometimes just getting out of your own way.