Big, burly CEO Abe Behr is furious to discover someone—probably a relative—is embezzling from Behr Construction, a family-run business in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside Lake Tahoe.
To confirm his suspicions, Abe takes the unprecedented step of hiring a non-family accountant, handsome Jeff Mason, to go over the books and help find the culprit. As they talk to Behr relatives and visit construction sites, Abe and Jeff are drawn to each other, bringing out new, softer emotions in workaholic Abe.
Since he has sacrificed romance all his life to build the construction business, Abe’s surprised by his feelings for the handsome Jeff. He’s even more shocked when they come face to face with homophobia in the small foothills community where generations of Behrs have called home. Abe had always thought Stone Acres was a live-and-let-live kind of town.
As he and Jeff get closer, he finds out how wrong he is when he comes out to both family and a community who think he’s making a big mistake. Will being the head of a large, powerful family and a pillar of the community be enough to win Abe his happily ever after with Jeff?
Abe and Jeff are having dinner at a café:
“You ever come up the bank to sit under my tree? Looks like a much more comfortable place to fish. Not as rocky at any rate.” Jeff took a drink of his beer as I again scrambled to keep up. “My dad called it the Fishing Tree. He seemed to think fish congregated off the shore there.”
We sat in silence. It was my turn to talk. I’m pretty good in business situations. Not so much in social ones. At social events, mostly I hold up walls. Shake hands. Grunt a lot. Let others carry the conversational load.
Lorraine set our meals in front of us. The full burger with everything for him. The grilled mountain trout and steamed vegetables for me.
“You do a lot of fishing?” I managed after a long silence.
READ MORE“Not really.” He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “My dad said fishing couldn’t be taught. He said it was something intuitive. I never had any idea what I was doing. So I never saw any use in fishing. I never saw any fish either.”
Again, silence as I processed and caught up. “It’s not rocket science. You figure out what kind of fish you want. Where it lives. Lure it to you. Then catch it.”
He looked skeptical and almost self-conscious. “It can’t be so easy,” he said with a little laugh.
“Why not?”
“What about the different rods, lures, tackle, stuff?” He looked so serious, as if I were missing the point. As if I didn’t understand. He was right. I didn’t.
“Look. You can catch fish with your bare hands. If you want to. The extra stuff is just extra stuff.”
“If you say so.” He shook his head, a smile still on his lips. “Have you ever caught a fish with your bare hands?”
I lifted my hands and looked down at the mess that were my paws. Calluses, nicks, cuts, punctures, blunt fingers, the bandage now off the one with the splinter. These were the hands of a man who’d framed houses as a tall, rangy preteen and had lived in construction ever since. Could I catch a fish with my bare hands?
“Yeah. All it takes is absolute stillness and patience.” I sighed. “Not a whole lot of people have both together. Somebody once told me it’s all about Zen.” Somebody else said the only reason I could do it was because I was too stupid to know it was impossible.
“Zen.” His tone said he was surprised I knew such a word.
“You know, like the Eastern religion,” I answered. “Though why we still call it Eastern is beyond me. It’s really Far West, not Far East to us.” I was grumbling and rambling. Avoiding for some reason.
He rattled me. Nobody ever rattled me. I’m Abe Behr, the big Behr.
He was studying me as intently as I was him. He appeared too beautiful, too perfect, too unscarred. I just hoped his accountant skills were as perfect as he looked.
“What kind of fish you want to catch?” I asked. Staring at him wasted our time.
He pointed his fork to my plate. “How about that? It’s good, right?”
“Trout,” I agreed. “Lots of different kinds of trout.”
He looked like he’d never eaten any in his life.
“This is trout from our lake. Have a bite.”
He’d finished his burger but didn’t make a move on my fish. His expression was split between wanting to dig in and reluctance to do so.
“Just taste it,” I growled. “It won’t bite.”
His eyes snapped up to meet mine. His puzzled stare asked if the stupid bear had deliberately made a joke or not. Then he gave a happy, hearty laugh, and his fork raided my fish.
“So? What do you think?” I asked after he swallowed.
“I think you made a great joke,” he said with twinkling eyes. “And the trout is delicious. Is this why you threw your catch back? Did you know you’d get it cooked perfectly here at the cafe?”
“Naw. I was stalking the pie. Fish was a bonus.”
“They have good pie here?”
“Wait and see.”
COLLAPSE
Melanie M on Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words wrote:Ok, let’s start with my ONLY real complaint about this book…it just wasn’t long enough damn it! I really liked the story in this book and wanted it to keep going for at least another hundred pages! Honestly I really liked what there was of the story, but I will detail below where I thought there could have been more.
In Behr Facts we return to the same community in which the previous two books in the Foothills Pride were set. I think the name of the town is Stone Acres if I remember correctly, but honestly the town name doesn’t matter as much as the characters. Ms. Henshaw does a good job of painting her character canvas without going into too fine a detail. We aren’t dragged through pages upon pages of descriptions, and frankly I find that refreshing. You get a good idea of who everyone is, roughly what they look like, and that is it. The rest is up to your imagination.
What we do get to know is the story of Behr Construction and its CEO, Abe Behr. Abe has discovered that someone (probably a family member since most of the employees are extended family) has been stealing from the company. The cost overruns on every job are through the roof and there isn’t any explanation of why. Deciding to get to the bottom of the mystery, Abe hires an accountant named Jeff Mason. Jeff is from a family that the three Behr brothers have heard about all their lives. Something to do with a house, and the owner refusing to sell it to their father, which in turn caused everything bad that occurred since then to happen. Obviously they know that isn’t true, but he is a MASON!
Jeff is a well educated and nice to look at CPA that doesn’t even own a pocket protector! He can help with the Behr Construction cash flow mystery. Abe and Jeff start hanging out, fishing, going out to dinner, and working together every day. Abe has always thought he was asexual. So why is he noticing the way Jeff smells? And why is he liking the smell…..?
A couple things which were a bit vague in the book because of its length could have been expanded into more detail and might have made it a better read. For example we learn there is growing homophobia in the town, but it is vaguely attributed to the town minister and we don’t really find out much further, except for the culprits behind some spray painting. The overall homophobia wasn’t really addressed again. Another thing is that there are no actual sex scenes in the book, as with the previous books in the series. Sex is implied, but takes place off screen. In my opinion, that didn’t hurt the story of this book, but as with her previous books, I would have to say a little detail would be good. One final comment needs to be made about the cover. The bear on the cover looks to be close to my age and build, I’d say late 40’s at least and no where near the 32 year old big burly bear described in the book. I know sometimes authors don’t get a lot of choice, but that guy just doesn’t fit.
I recommend this installment in the series. In my opinion, it might be the best of the three so far. If you haven’t read the other books in the series, don’t worry, this could be read as a standalone. I would recommend though that you get all three and read them all. As for me, I’ll be keeping my eye on Ms. Henshaw’s Facebook page to be ready when she gives us hints on the next one in the series! Ok, I know I’m greedy. This review is posting on the release date of this book, and I already want the next one! Please Ms. Henshaw, try to make it a little longer!
Pat Henshaw takes us back to her Foothills couples and increasingly integrated community with her latest release, Behr Facts. With Behr Facts (Foothills Pride #3) by Pat Henshaw, another terrific story, this marvelous series just added another wonderful layer of depth, community and love. All in 92 pages.
Pat Henshaw took the fact of gay flight during the recession from the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento into the Sierra Foothills and created this series. As noted in the author’s forward that’s how FLAG (Foothills Lesbians and Gays) was formed. As with any influx of newcomers into a old established and conservative community, integration does not always go smoothly. And each book has dealt with not only a couple finding their way to each other and their place in the new FLAG community being established but the reactions, both good and bad from those already in place.
Each story has also served as an introduction to the next couple and story in the series so in Redesigning Max (Foothills Pride, #2), we got our first glimpse of Abe Behr, CEO of Behr Construction, a family owned business having its own problems as well as CPA Jeff Mason. The second story gave us just enough of a taste that we knew we had to know more…of Abe and Jeff. What Pat delivered was touching, wonderful, moving and felt so right that 92 pages just wasn’t enough.
The characters of Abe and Jeff were just so right, Henshaw gave them just the normal amount of flaws, human imperfections and endearing traits that you just loved these men, together and apart. Abe who has pushed his sexuality into the closet to be what he thought the family needed him to be. Henshaw was able to convey the quiet pain that Abe carried with him at all times making us hurt for him. She also managed to show the layers to Jeff without lengthy descriptions. We wanted this couple to succeed from the very beginning.
Their romance? Ah, that was conducted with a warmth, and affection and so much heart that I wanted to be sitting under that tree with them, listening to their conversations, watching them grow close together. How did the author manage to make that happen in such a short time and still let it feel so real?
The drama that swirled around Abe, his extended family and the financial disaster in the making at the construction company also felt authentic and believable. I just wish the author had given herself and the couple more time to work things through as throughly as you would expect Abe and Jeff to be in their business affairs. The backlash and the hate? Unfortunately, that was all too real as well.
Had this been a longer story, a little more filled out, than this might have been close to perfect rating. As it is, I loved this story. The series too and I can’ t wait for more. The Foothills Pride series is a gem and should be on all lovers of contemporary romance. I highly recommend this and all the stories in the series