Meet Evan & Terry: The Men Behind The Still Hours

Some characters arrive quietly.

But boy, Evan Parker and Terrence Glenwood did not!

They showed up one night when I was trying to fall asleep, already carrying pieces of their histories with them. I knew almost immediately that Evan had loved someone before—and lost him. And I knew Terry had his own reasons for keeping love firmly out of his life.

I also knew putting the two of them together was going to cause problems.

By the next morning, I was taking notes.

Frantically.

A lot of notes.

So, if you've already visited Glenwood Lodge in my latest blog post, it's time to properly meet the two men at the heart of The Still Hours.

Evan Parker

Evan is thirty-two, a chef from New York City, and a widower looking for a fresh start.

He's warm, friendly, and a little flirtier than he realizes sometimes. He's the kind of person who fills a room without trying—and who can make himself at home almost anywhere.

At least, that's what it looks like from the outside.

When Evan takes a job as head chef at Glenwood Lodge, he's not looking for a new relationship. He's looking for a change of scenery, work he can lose himself in, and maybe enough quiet to figure out what comes next.

What he doesn't expect is Terry.

Terrence Glenwood

Terrence Glenwood is forty-two and the owner of Glenwood Lodge, the place he's spent years building into both a business and a home.

He's capable, private, stubborn, and much softer than he'd like anyone to notice. He's good at taking care of people, considerably less comfortable when the attention turns his way, and perfectly content with the life he's built.

Or at least that's what he's been telling himself.

Then Evan arrives for the summer.

He's Terry's employee. He's only here for the summer. And he's far too easy to want around.

For a man who likes his life predictable, Evan Parker is about to become a very inconvenient complication.

Why these two?

They've both survived what happened before the story begins. They've both built lives. They function. They work. They laugh. They have people who care about them.

But surviving isn't quite the same as being open to whatever comes next.

They arrive at Glenwood Lodge with very different histories—and some surprisingly similar ways of protecting themselves.

And then I put them together at a secluded lodge for an entire summer.

You're welcome.

They're very different. Until they aren't.

Evan fills silence easily.

Terry doesn't.

Evan's emotions tend to find their way to the surface. Terry can take a feeling, put it in a box, lock the box, place it on a high shelf, and convince himself he's dealt with it.

Evan spent years cooking professionally in New York City. Terry has spent years running a lodge in the Adirondacks.

Evan does yoga.

Terry wears cowboy hats.

Evan sings.

Terry absolutely does not.

But underneath those differences, they're both caretakers.

That's one of the things that kept pulling me back to them as I wrote.

They notice when someone needs something. They show up. Remember details. Take care of the people around them, each in their own way.

Neither is particularly comfortable being the person who needs something in return.

And that is where things get interesting.

Evan + Terry

If you like romances where the relationship develops through the small moments as much as the big ones, I think you'll like these two.

Expect friction.

Expect tenderness.

Expect teasing, caretaking, terrible decisions made for very understandable reasons, and two men who are significantly better at identifying each other's problems than their own.

And yes, expect heat.

Quite a bit of it, actually.

But more than anything, expect two men trying to figure out what happens when the person you weren't looking for becomes increasingly difficult to walk away from.

That's Evan and Terry.

And I can't wait for you to meet them.

The Still Hours is coming in 2027

The Still Hours is Book One in the Glenwood Lodge series, an interconnected series of contemporary MM romances featuring small towns, found family, complicated pasts, high heat, and hard-won happily ever afters.

If you'd like to follow Evan and Terry's journey toward publication, you can join my newsletter for book news, behind-the-scenes extras, and updates from Glenwood Lodge.

Or, if this is your first visit, you can read the story behind The Still Hours and find out how Glenwood Lodge began.

With love,

Merritt

Disclaimer: Glenwood Lodge is a fictional setting. Any resemblance to a real-world property or business is coincidental.