A year after deciding to share their lives, Matt and Evan are working on their happily ever after—which isn’t as easy as it looks. As life settles down into a routine, Matt finds happiness in his role as the ideal househusband of Queens, New York, but he worries about Evan’s continued workaholic—and emotionally avoidant—ways. Trying to juggle his evolving relationship with Evan and his children, Matt turns to his friend, former Seattle Homicide Detective Jim Shea.
The continued friendship between Matt and Jim is a thorn in Evan’s side. Jealous and uncomfortable with imagining their brief affair, Evan struggles to come to terms with what being in a committed relationship with a man means, and the implications about his love for his deceased wife, the impact on his children, and how other people will view him. His turmoil threatens his relationship with Matt, who worries that Evan will once again chose a life without him. But now, the stakes are much higher.
The continued friendship between Matt and Jim is a thorn in Evan’s side. Jealous and uncomfortable with imagining their brief affair, Evan struggles to come to terms with what being in a committed relationship with a man means, and the implications about his love for his deceased wife, the impact on his children, and how other people will view him. His turmoil threatens his relationship with Matt, who worries that Evan will once again chose a life without him. But now, the stakes are much higher.
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I really enjoyed visiting Matt and Evan again. I was able to see their lives after the 1st happy ever after, which makes it easier to connect to them. Matt is happy where his life is right now. He became the caregiver of Evan’s children, he runs the day to day of the house. While he is happy taking care of the children, loves it in fact, he sometimes feels that he is just a replacement for Evan’s late wife, Sherri. He goes to see his friend, Liz who is also a shrink, and gets ideas in his head that kind of puts his issues in a much more dominant position in his head. He tries to make sure that he is able to appease Evan when his moods become somber, but at some point he gets so frustrated that he begins to make sure that Evan knows what he is feeling. He makes Evan aware of the thoughts that are going on in his head. He knows that it will add to Evan’s stress but Evan needs to realize how he is affecting Matt. Evan accepted that he loved Matt in book 1, but it wasn’t a complete acceptance. Evan thinks that he has accepted the way he feels about Matt because Matt lives with them, but little by little he realizes that what he is doing to Matt is not fair to him and it’s not fair to them as a couple. Evan begins to take steps to fix himself and his thoughts after a particularly ugly dinner with Matt’s friend Jim and his partner Griffin. Evan realizes how unfair he is being to his family, because he is essentially hiding them from the world. When he decides to fight for Matt and to make sure that he is doing what he needs to, to keep his family together, he keeps surprising Matt. Matt is enjoying the new Evan but when he slips back into his old ways it becomes too hard to deal with so he makes sure that Evan is aware of that and that he can’t keep on being hidden. I love that this story was Evan’s reality check. Like he is told by his partner (cop) Lighting doesn’t strike twice, but he got lucky. I am really getting into this series and can’t wait for the next one. I will love to see what else happens to these group of friends.
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