Page 1 of Sapphire Sunset

Prologue

When Logan Murdoch was sixteen, his dad caughthim watching porn, and their lives changed forever.

It felt like an eternity, but all told, it probably onlytook Chip Murdoch five seconds to realize the guys in football uniforms onLogan’s laptop were working themselves into a frenzy without any assistancefrom a nubile female cheerleader. Maybe because the sound was off and there’dbeen no all-male moans to clue him in. The next thing Logan knew, hissix-foot-four kickboxer of a dad was shuffling off down the hallway like he’dbeen kneed in the stomach by the Jolly Green Giant.

A few breathless minutes later, dressed in the first clotheshe could pull from his dresser with trembling hands, Logan found his dadsitting on the foot of the lounger in the backyard where he usually smoked,staring up at the scrubby hillside behind their house that coughed arattlesnake or two onto their patio every spring. But he wasn’t smoking.Shaking one loose from the rumpled pack on the table next to him would haverequired concentration he didn’t seem to have.

Up until then, Logan had never known fear like that in hislife.

Years later, he’d discover a more sudden and visceralversion of it after he joined the Marines. But the fear of getting blown apartwas distinct from the fear of losing everything you care about because of whoyou are. Nothing came close to the total, bone-deep vulnerability he felt fromhead to toe in that moment. There’s dying, and then there’s eking out anexistence without love or family. At sixteen, both prospects seemed equallydire.

For a while, his dad just stared and stared. Like he thoughta meteor was coming to wipe out the planet, and he didn’t have time to run.

That, or he was trying to permanently unsee his son’s junk.

Whatever the case, Logan was pretty sure his old man hadn’tbeen this shell shocked since Logan’s mother died suddenly when he was three.

Chip Murdoch was a hard guy who’d had a hard life, born to amom who’d loved heroin more than her kid and a father who’d grieved his wife’soverdose with a belt. In other words, Logan’s dad hit the streets at sixteenand never looked back. There was a year or two of running with bad crowds, evensleeping under a few bridges, before he made a life for himself in constructionthat ensured he’d never have to enter the snake pit of his family again—afamily who’d never sent Logan so much as an email or a Christmas card, whichwas all he needed to know about them. For most of those difficult years, ChipMurdoch’s height and brawn, which he’d passed on to Logan, had been the key tohis survival. Protecting him on the streets, aiding him in a job devoted tomanual labor, making him a hit with the ladies, the most important of which hadbeen Logan’s mom.

Guys like that didn’t put up with a homo for a son.

And so as Logan stood there, waiting for his dad to rousefrom his shock, he was braced for a fist to the face, even though the guy hadnever raised a hand to him in his life.

Instead, his old man swallowed. “Well, looks like I won’t bepassing on my shitty history with women.”

Then he ordered Logan into his truck.

In silence, he drove them south to Fallbrook, that hillylittle town just east of Camp Pendleton’s rugged stretch to the sea. The Marinebase would later play a huge role in Logan’s life, but in those days it wasshrouded with grown-up mystery and video-game fueled fantasies of war games.When they crested the winding gravel road that brought them to his aunt’slonely ranch house atop a boulder-strewn hill, that’s when he learned that yes,his mom’s sister Fran was a lesbian, and her housemate Pam wasn’t just her goodfriend. And as his dad wandered their property in a daze, Logan sat at abutcher block table in a kitchen hung with so many knickknacks it looked like aTGI Fridays, across from the women who would become his gay moms. The three ofthem drank chamomile tea out of big glazed ceramic mugs painted bright primarycolors as Fran asked him important questions his dad couldn’t. Was heexperimenting? Using condoms? Doing things online with strangers he shouldn’t?

He gave honest answers. His dad’s relaxed attitude towardInternet parental controls had helped Logan create a rich and vivid fantasy onhis hard drive. Women played no role in it. But it was all dirty movies, likethe one he’d been caught watching that day. No stranger danger involved. As forreal-world experiences, just a few fumbling misfires with other boys at school,none of them repeats. That was all.

After gathering the essential intelligence, Fran went for awalk with Logan’s dad. Later, Logan realized whatever shitty things his dadprobably had to say in that moment he’d said to his sister-in-law so he’d neverhave to say them to his son.

But that night, when his dad told him it was time to headhome, Logan started blinking back tears the minute he heard the man’s casualtone. “I thought you were going to leave me here,” Logan blurted out. Then abig, wet humiliating sob burst from him like a breath he’d been holding in forhours, and his dad reached up and planted a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re my boy.” Chip Murdoch’s grip became a brief hug.Kinda awkward, but a hug, nonetheless. “You got that? You’ll always be my boy.”

They drove home under a clear, star-flecked SouthernCalifornia sky, the wind pouring in through the truck’s open windows as theylistened to Lynyrd Skynyrd, his dad’s favorite. Logan had never been much of aSkynyrd fan, but that night, the melancholy chords ofSimple Manwoundtheir way through his soul, turning into an anthem that meant freedom. It was asong about a mother’s advice to her son, and he was pretty sure his dad playedit every time he wished the love of his life was there to help him raise theirboy. Maybe she had been in spirit, and that’s why the greatest secret Logan hadever kept didn’t destroy his family after all.

Also, nobody had told him he had to delete all that porn,and that was a relief too.

Years later, when his dad’s life hit the skids, when hewrecked his back and a career in construction as a result, all because he’drefused the doctor’s orders to stay out of the kickboxing ring while recoveringfrom a minor sprain, when it became clear to everyone who knew him that ChipMurdoch’s idea of saving for a rainy day had been to hold two palms over his head,Logan’s friends asked him how he could justify putting his whole life on holdjust to manage the fallout of his stubborn old man’s lousy life choices. Was hereally ditching his dream of becoming a Navy SEAL just so he could grab thefirst job that allowed him to support his dad?

The answer was simple.

Yes.

Because men like Chip Murdoch, hard guys from hardbackgrounds, usually kicked their gay sons to the curb. But his dad had donethe opposite.

Had he been perfect? No. Would he have been so accepting ofLogan’s sexuality if Logan had turned out to be the kind of gay guy who lovedthings his dad found girly or soft? Maybe not. But what it came down to withhis dad was simple. Chip Murdoch gave better than he got, especially when itcame to his son, and he deserved to be loved through one of his lowest moments.

And that’s how Logan Murdoch, a former staff sergeant in theMarine Corps who’d once been blasted out of a Humvee only to dust himself off andhelp the guys who were more injured, ended up landing a job at one of theposhest resorts in Southern California.

1

The jacket was a perfect fit. A sign of goodthings to come, Logan thought.

After he’d aced his final interview and background check,management at Sapphire Cove provided him with three matching blazers and threepairs of khaki pants to go with them, all tailored to measurements they’d takenin their back offices.

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