This tale focuses on a still in junior college theater tech and a 26-year-old dancer who has given up everything in his life to be a well-renown ballet dancer. 
 Jared, the dancer, comes off as aloof and arrogant when he first shows up at Dawson's junior college in a small town in northern California. But then he requests Dawson's help with running a dance workshop for disabled children, and for just a little while, Dawson and his best friend, Benji, see a different, softer side to Jared. Dawson manages to crack Jared's shell and thaw him out just a bit, and what he finds is a supremely lonely man who wants someone to care about him. 
 Jared has never had anything to live for but the dance since he came out to his parents. They cut him off, and he can't see his younger sister anymore. She has Downs Syndrome, and Jared was the one who cared for her while his wealthy parents left her to the doctors, nurses, and nannies. Once cut off, he focuses on the dance, living in a 2-bedroom apartment with 5 other roommates who don't care about him and might be home as much as he is. 
 Dawson lives a charmed life, except for his mother not caring about him any longer after he came out. His father and Benji's mother more than made up for her absence, though. He still has all of his life choices ahead of him, but he wants to work behind the scenes as a stage tech. That has been his and Benji's goal since middle school, and they've been joined at the hip since. But now Benji has a girlfriend and Dawson has a boyfriend, and their lives are beginning to change. But their friendship is exactly the thing Jared needs--a family like he's never known before. 
 Jared and Dawson's long-distance relationship is difficult on both of them. At first Dawson doesn't catch on to the life Jared's dealing with. When Jared arrives sick with the flu, they all go into mothering mode to help him get better, but also to prove that they all care about him. The separations are painful, but the story jumps over the separations from one "pocket of time" together to the next, without dragging the reader through tons of angst waiting for them to reunite. (Thank goodness for that.) 
 Jared and Dawson make plans for the future together, something for both of them to cling to. It's hard for Jared to think of that future and reserve some part of himself for Dawson instead of letting the competitive world of dance ruin him, but they make promises to each other. When the unthinkable happens and choices have to be made, Dawson has to have faith that Jared will remember those promises and come home. 
 This is a sweet story of two guys from different sides: in front of the stage vs. behind the curtain, small-town vs. Los Angeles, charmed life vs. disowned by his family. And despite it all--the distance, the gap in life experience, and the uncertainty--they make it work. 
 Oh, and I enjoyed the few references to Xander Karcek from The Locker Room. Nice callback.