Category: Do You Want To Read It?

Fridays at Ofelia’s | When Heart Becomes Home

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Guest-Post

Today, Pat Henshaw is here on a visit! She’s here to talk photography and When Heart Becomes Home. Welcome, Pat!

Snapped 

Before the pandemic began and after we had retired, my husband and I joined a photography group. We really enjoy this group not only for the information about our cameras and the variety of ways we can use them but also for the prompts which make us see the world around us in different ways. 

For example, one of the more recent assignments was to take photos emphasizing negative space. Negative space is the blank black, white, or single color between objects. The point of the exercise was to make the negative space say something. 

In writing, authors might compare negative space as what happens between the brilliant beginning of the novel and the last chapter. Something will happen there to tie the opening scene to the ending, but when the writer first sits down, those details are nothing but negative space. Oh, sure, there might be a glimmer of something here and there, but for the most part it’s what a lot of authors call the “murky middle”.  

That’s pretty much how our negative space photo started out. We have some vertical blinds that looked like perfect negative space to me. But what could we use to make the negative space into an interesting photo instead of just wide open white?  

Like I do when I’m writing, I made up an idea for the photo as I went along. Why couldn’t the negative space be ethereal? A link maybe between two semi-solid forms? But what forms? I looked around the house. Was I trying to make the photo look like negative space with bookends? Maybe the connection between thoughts? Or people? 

We have a lot—and I mean a lot!—of books to choose from, but I wanted something deeper than books, although on second thought I like the idea of the negative space tying two seemingly dissimilar books together. A dictionary and a thesaurus? A murder mystery and a paranormal? A classic and a gay romance? 

Jake and Pat 2020

Instead of all these great ideas, I used my husband and myself. In the photo, the negative space is joining two shadowy people. The photo is ultimately a love story. 

As far as writing goes, what am I working on now?  

Currently, I’m starting another Heart/Home novel about a former cop who was wounded in a robbery gone wrong and who is now recuperating in Spindrift, California, a small town on coastal Route 1 near Mendocino. He’s prone to sudden brain glitches that incapacitate him. Worried about him, his parents persuade him to share his house with an artist who’s fresh out of a horrible relationship. As well as writing that book, I’m planning the next Foothills Pride books and a holiday short story. In other words, I’m still writing and loving it. And, yes, my husband and I are still in the photography group. 

Blurb:

whenheartbecomeshome

Is there a time limit on love and forgiveness?

Fifteen years ago, Manny didn’t show up to take Wes to the Shelby High School prom as he promised. Instead, Wes found Manny’s letter jacket at their meeting spot without a note or any explanation.

From college to his current job in Monterey, California, Wes has carted the jacket around as a memento of his teenage love and rejection. This year he decides enough is enough. He’s attending the high school class reunion, returning Manny’s jacket, and going home free to find the real love of his life.

When Manny sees Wes at the reunion tour of the new high school facilities, he’s determined not to let his teenage lover leave without them clearing the air and possibly getting back together.

Through reunion activities such as a quiz bowl, meet-and-greet meals, and a formal banquet with a prom-like ball as well as outside activities like the quinceañera of Manny’s niece, Wes and Manny work through the lies and misunderstandings of the past.

With so much to reconcile and forgive on both sides, will they end up together? Or go their separate ways with only memories of the past?

Excerpt:

I agreed to meet Manny at Mama D’s.

Mama’s was a hornet’s nest of memories. My mother and I had lived above the diner from after I was born to when I left to go to college in LA. I never really knew another home. So going back to Mama’s was a step back in time I wasn’t sure I wanted to take.

As I drove up, I searched the windows above the diner. They stared back at me, curtainless black holes. Had Mama not rented to anyone after my mother moved out to marry Raymond? I’d never asked.

Then I was stampeded with memories. The façade of the café morphed from familiar and comfortable to alien and shabby. While Manny got out of his truck, I sat and willed myself into being calm.

I’d known when I had decided to come back for the reunion I’d be walking over ground strewn with pebbles, glass, and potholes from the past. I hadn’t counted on how difficult it would be on some of those old roads.

Manny turned around and asked, “You coming?”

Mentally, I tightened my armor, picked up my shield, sheathed my sword, swallowed once, and said, “Lead on.” I could do this. I could.

Picking up the bag with the albatross of a jacket, I opened the door and stepped outside into Mama’s parking lot. I could do this. I could.

Unlike The Trap the night before, Mama’s was dead inside. After looking around and seeing no one, we walked to the back and sat in a booth along the wall with empty tables as our only companions. The booth had been my home, the place I’d colored placemats, raced Matchbox cars, done homework, and met my friends. Others could sit here—but only if I wasn’t in town.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t little Gordon Westerhouse. Or is it Gordon Tilman now?” Bernice, the waitress I remembered from fifteen years ago, didn’t seem to have aged at all. She had seemed ancient then and looked the same now.

“No, not Tilman, Bernice. Mother took Raymond’s name, but he didn’t ask me to. I don’t know what I’d do if he did.” I grinned up at her. “Um, and you can call me Wes or West now.”

She nodded. Her emaciated face with its beady eyes behind red rhinestone rimmed glasses glowed more pale and haunted than I recalled. Long ago, her rail thin body seemed to roll across the floor. Now she glided like a ghost.

I glanced around at all the empty tables and felt bad she was here waiting on us. Couldn’t they just close tonight and tell us to go home?

“Maybe we should leave and let you shut down and have a night off?”

Bernice started laughing. It was a strange kind of gurgle mixed with a cough.

“Um, Gor…Wes, they aren’t open. Mama’s is closed tonight. For us.” Manny was whispering as if he didn’t want to startle me.

What? Once again I was caught by the unexpected. My carnival ride had taken an unexpected and unseen dip. I gulped a deep breath to corral and expel the butterflies and went through my emergency procedure. I’d done more panic breathing in the past day than in the last fifteen years. Going to Shelby High had been bizarre, but coming back for the reunion was throwing me even further down the rabbit hole.

Manny had asked Mama’s to be open only for us tonight? How romantic? Or didn’t he want to be seen with me? We were in a back booth.

“Mama and Bernice asked me to bring you by tonight. They wanted to see you.”

Manny looked a little embarrassed, as well he should, since I was thinking he was the one who wanted to see me and revisit one of the places where we used to hang out together.

I should have known I was building something from nothing. Hadn’t I learned the castles I dreamed of with Manny were built of sand?

Bernice had been following our byplay and nodded at me with a grimace screaming for me to be cautious and to look before I leapt. Then look again before I moved. I nodded to her, and she gave me one of her skeletal grins. She nodded back.

“What can I get for you fellas?”

While we ordered, I pulled the grocery bag holding Manny’s jacket closer to me. I didn’t want it to trip up Bernice as she marched back to the kitchen to post our order.

Before he and I could start talking, Mama herself appeared.

When I stood, I kicked the bag toward the wall as she held out her arms for a hug. She scooped me up and hugged me into her apron. She still smelled of a delicate balance of burgers and Tide. I could catch a whiff of either while I was working or cleaning the condo and immediately be back here with Mama’s arms around me.

“Oh, honey. It’s so good to see you. Your mother says you’re a big editor in Monterey now. Who would have thought?” She stopped talking and stared a moment down at the booth. “I can see you now sitting back here scribbling away in your notebooks. In the beginning, I would never have picked you out for this one. But there you two were, day after day, pretending like nobody knew you were together.”

She cuffed Manny on the shoulder.

“And him a teacher. I would have bet money he would have taken over from his daddy.”

Manny gave a little huff someone might have interpreted as laughter.

“Nobody’s ever taking over from my old man, Mama. He will outlive the Earth.”

We all smiled because it was true and a little scary. Although I’d never met him, I’d heard the rumors about Pedro Garcia and how tornados and earthquakes ran away from him. He’d been a young mover and shaker for the United Farm Worker movement and was a wealthy land owner now. He was a legend.

“It’s so good to see you all grown up and successful, Gor…Wes. Bernice says we have to call you Wes now, yes? Well, you boys, enjoy your dinner.” She started to turn, but gave me a final hug instead. “Come back and visit us more often. Once in a decade or so isn’t enough. We’re always open to you.”

I coughed at the pressure she’d put into her hug.

When she let go of me, I whispered, “Yes, ma’am. Thank you for opening tonight.”

She gave me a huge whap on the back, and I sat down winded.

For a few moments, Manny and I let her visit gel between us.

Title: When Heart Becomes Home

Author: Pat Henshaw

Publisher: JMS Books

Publication date: March 20, 2021

ISBN: 9781646567669

Length: 65,255 words

Genre: Gay Interracial Romance

Buy links:

JMS Books: https://www.jms-books.com/pat-henshaw-c-224_462/when-heart-becomes-home-p-3725.html

Pat Henshaw website: https://www.pathenshaw.com/book/when-heart-becomes-home/

Queeromance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/book/when-heart-becomes-home/

About Pat

Pat Henshaw, born and raised in Nebraska, has lived on the U S’s three coasts, in Texas, Virginia, and now California. Before she retired, she held a number of jobs, including theatrical costumer, newspaper features reporter and movie reviewer, librarian, junior college English instructor, and publicist. She also loves to travel and has visited Canada, Mexico, Europe, Egypt, and Central America as well as almost all fifty US states.

Now retired, she enjoys reading and writing as well as visiting her older daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren on the East Coast and playing havoc with her younger daughter’s life in NorCal. She thanks you for reading her books and wants you to remember that every day is a good day for romance.

Connect with Pat on social media

Website: http://www.pathenshaw.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.henshaw.10

Twitter: @HenshawAuthor

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Henshaw/e/B00BPDEDEA/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1436131610&sr=8-1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6998437.Pat_Henshaw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phenshaw2018/

Email: patoisca@yahoo.com

Guest Post | They Met in the Woods by Nell Iris

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 1 Comment

Guest-Post

It’s guest post time again! I’m glad to say that Nell Iris is back to share a little about her latest story, They Met in the Woods. Welcome, Nell!

Thank you for having me on your blog, yet again, Ofelia, for letting me come here and talk about my third and final Meet Cute Chronicles book, They Met in the Woods. You’re most generous *blows you lots of cyber kisses*

I recently learned a new word. Cottagecore. Wikipedia defines it as “an Internet fashion aesthetic” that “celebrates an idealized rural life” and “values traditional skills and crafts such as foraging, baking, and pottery” and “an escape from many forms of stress and trauma.” Cottagecore developed throughout the 2010s and gained further traction when Covid hit.

Yeah, I’ve seen all the sourdough baking, I just didn’t know there was a word for it.

I’ve also written the stories and never knew there was a name for it. As I look back on my backlist, I’ve written many books on this theme; Find His Way Home (my second ever published story) was the first of many, and They Met in the Woods is the latest installment of my unintended cottagecore “series.”

The MCs, Måns and Viggo, meet when Måns gets lost in the forest. Måns’ cell battery dies on him and with it the chance of finding his way out of the forest with the help of the map app he’d downloaded for the occasion. Luckily, the sound of Viggo chopping wood reaches him. He follows it and finds Viggo.

Viggo owns a little cabin in the forest (not a scary horror-movie kind, but a cottagecore-y kind). He calls it his safe haven and he spends as much time he can there. Fixing up the cabin, cooking hearty stews in cast-iron pots, picking wild-growing herbs that he dries and uses for tea. Viggo is a veritable cottagecore hero, complete with a lumberjack beard and a mohawk. Måns is instantly interested. Very interested.

Måns himself recently moved away from the Big City to the countryside because he wanted to connect with nature. When he gets lost in the forest, he’s spent half a day foraging for wild mushrooms, and Viggo’s cabin and the lifestyle it represents is one of the many things Måns likes about him.

And when Viggo serves him homemade lemon balm tea, Måns is a goner…

Instant Attraction

Excerpt:

I let him go and make my way to the couch, sinking into the soft cushions, resting my head against the back while stretching out my legs so my feet will be closer to the fire. A content sigh slips out, and I close my eyes.

The quiet but comforting sounds of the cabin—the fire making loud pops, china clinking against china in the kitchen, and the lid on the cast-iron pot being lifted and then put back—wash away a lot of the stress from this crazy work week. My muscles loosen and melt into the couch, my mind goes pleasantly blank, and all that exists is this little corner of the world. The fire. Viggo.

Padding footsteps approach, followed by a gentle touch on my shoulder, and a hushed “Måns?” and I open my eyes.

The sight of him, this rough type complete with a mohawk, holding a delicate-looking teacup decorated with tiny flowers and gold makes me smile. “That smells delicious, whatever it is,” I say as he rounds the couch and sits next to me, offering me the cup.

With careful hands I accept it and lift it to my nose, inhaling deeply. “Lemon? Or…mint?”

“It’s lemon balm. It grows wild around the cabin, so I harvest it and dry the leaves for tea. It reduces the stress hormone in our bodies so I thought it might do you good after the week you’ve had.”

The care and thoughtfulness melt me into a puddle, and I will drink every drop of this tea even if it’s the most vile-tasting concoction on this earth.

Fortunately, it’s not. The first sip reveals a mild, fresh flavor, and maybe—probably—it’s because Viggo told me about its properties, but I can almost feel the subtle flavor invigorate me and wash away the stress. “This is great! You make your own tea?”

He shrugs. “Just a few varieties. I use plants growing around here. The old lady who sold me the cabin made me promise not to rip out the lemon balm even though it’s threatening to take over the clearing entirely. She told me she used to make tea for her husband when he was still alive. How it always helped him de-stress after long days of hard physical labor. He had recently passed away, and she was too old and frail to keep the cabin. The poor dear cried when she signed the papers and there was no way I could rip out the lemon balm after that. I decided to try making tea for myself. I used to bring her some of the dried leaves, too, until she passed away. She was always so happy when I came to see her. Asked about her beloved cabin. Rejoiced in the pictures I showed her of the renovations.”

I don’t take my eyes off him the entire time he tells the story. His eyes turn soft and a gentle smile plays on his lips, telling me he cared for the old lady. His kindness toward her after she lost her husband and her cabin must have meant the world to her. The thought of a lonely woman crying because she had to sell her paradise on earth, the thought of him honoring her wishes and even bringing her memories from this place…I avert my eyes and take another drink of the tea, hiding the slight tremble of my lips his story caused.

When my shaky emotions are back under control, I look at him again. “You’re a good man.” My voice isn’t the steadiest, but at least it’s not wobbly.

“I try.” It’s not false modesty, I can tell. He actually thinks he can do better—can’t we all?—but as far as I’m concerned he’s pretty perfect. But he doesn’t seem like a guy who’d like to be convinced of his greatness, so I let it go.

“Did she tell you how to make other teas, too?”

“No. But I ended up liking it, so I ordered a book online about it.” He reaches for the side table and grabs a book I’d noticed but not paid much attention to, and hands it to me. I set the cup on the table so I can look through it.

It’s a beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations, and important information about herbs and plants growing in the area, and their uses. Each plant has a folklore section and a section detailing modern scientific knowledge. It’s fascinating. “What other teas have you made?” I ask as I return the book.

“Pine needle. Rosehips. Mint, of course, because it’s growing even faster than lemon balm, at least in my neck of the woods.”

I empty the cup and lean back on the couch with a smile. After hesitating for a few heartbeats, I shuffle closer to him and when my shoulder nudges his, he wraps his arm around me. I cuddle into his body.

“You a cuddler?” he asks and rests his cheek on the top of my head.

“I don’t know. But homemade tea and a crackling fire calls for closeness, don’t you agree?”

Blurb:

They Met in the Woods

Måns Elemander had A Plan. A researched and well-thought-out one, devised to help him avoid getting lost while foraging for mushrooms in an unfamiliar forest. But his cell phone battery didn’t get the memo, died unexpectedly, and thwarted The Plan, leaving Måns with a basket full of mushrooms, but no idea where to go. Until the sounds of someone chopping wood reaches him.

Måns follows the sound and finds a quaint cabin…and its owner, Viggo Moberg. Viggo is kind, understanding of the situation, and willing to help. He’s also smoking hot and their connection is instant, threatening to ignite and burn down the woods. Will the sparks burn fast and fizzle out, or will the attraction grow roots, just like the trees in the forest?

M/M Contemporary / 17388 words

Buy link:

JMS Books :: Universal Buy Link

About Nell

Nell Iris is a romantic at heart who believes everyone deserves a happy ending. She’s a bonafide bookworm (learned to read long before she started school), wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without something to read (not even the ladies room), loves music (and singing along at the top of her voice but she’s no Celine Dion), and is a real Star Trek nerd (Make it so). She loves words, bullet journals, poetry, wine, coffee-flavored kisses, and fika (a Swedish cultural thing involving coffee and pastry!)

Nell believes passionately in equality for all regardless of race, gender or sexuality, and wants to make the world a better, less hateful, place.

Nell is a bisexual Swedish woman married to the love of her life, a proud mama of a grown daughter, and is approaching 50 faster than she’d like. She lives in the south of Sweden where she spends her days thinking up stories about people falling in love. After dreaming about being a writer for most of her life, she finally was in a place where she could pursue her dream and released her first book in 2017.

Nell Iris writes gay romance, prefers sweet over angsty, short over long, and quirky characters over alpha males.

Find Nell on social media:

Webpage/blog :: Twitter :: Instagram :: Facebook Page :: Facebook Profile :: Goodreads :: Bookbub :: Pinterest :: Ko-Fi

Release Day | Kisses and Cabins

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Release-Day
It’s release day!!! I’m almost a little sad that it is because I don’t have any new releases left on the schedule now. I’m working on it, but for the first time since covid hit and I lost most hours at my job, my name isn’t listed on the release schedule over at JMS Books.

It’ll change soon!

Kisses and Cabins is an Up North story that wasn’t meant to be an Up North story LOL. I wanted to write something short after Soul Eater and Mind Scrambler and I wanted to write a friends to lovers story because I don’t have any.

Isn’t that strange? By now, I have written a few stories, but none of them has been friends to lovers (unless it slips my mind at the moment). So that was my goal, to write a short friends to lovers story.

When I’d written it, my lovely beta readers gave their feedback, I worked on it some more, wrote the blurb (the worst thing about being a writer), sent it in, signed the contract, and then it was time for the cover. I hadn’t given it much thought, but it was then I decided Kisses and Cabins would be an Up North story.

It doesn’t matter, all Up North stories are standalone, so whether it is an Up North story or not doesn’t really matter. It’s just for the sake of the cover 😀

So, Kace and Luke have been friends since kindergarten. Kace has always wanted Luke but has always believed Luke to be straight and has never dared to do anything that could ruin their friendship.

In the last few years, they’ve seen less and less of each other. Luke bought a house together with his girlfriend, and the girlfriend doesn’t like Kace at all. So to avoid conflict Kace has stayed away. He misses Luke in his life, but he doesn’t want to cause trouble.

Then one day, Luke appears on his doorstep…

Keywords

Chapter 1

Kace Channing was enjoying the calm. He’d woken up not too long before and was having the first magical cup of coffee at three in the afternoon—like most days of the week. He wasn’t supposed to work today, but Logan, his boss, and co-worker, had called, wanting the night off.

He steered the tank toward a settlement on the screen and fired. He’d been right. The enemies instantly attacked, and he pushed the button to fire again. He leaned in closer to the screen, changed the position of the tank, and fired a third time. Reaching for his cup, he took a sip of coffee.

He didn’t mind working Mondays. The bar wasn’t closed, but normal people didn’t go to a nightclub on the first day of their work week. Mondays were mostly for colleagues working in the bar and restaurant business.

It had started years ago. The workers had gathered. With the weekend over, they had calm days ahead, and they couldn’t party on a Saturday since they were working. Little by little, the club filled up. It wasn’t only those working at The Devil, there were many from other bars too.

Some wouldn’t set their foot in their place, The Devil being a gay club and all, but most didn’t give a damn. So Mondays were always a good mix of people and, mostly, they were fun days to work.

He’d pour drinks and chat with colleagues from the other bars and restaurants in the city. Then there would be some regular customers too.

Taking another sip, there was a bang on the door. Kace groaned. He only wore a pair of jeans, no shirt, and he hadn’t had a shower yet. When the door handle rattled, he hurried toward the tiny hallway.

“Yes?” The cold March air teased his bare skin. Outside stood Lukas Holland, his best friend since kindergarten. “Luke, what are you doing here?”

They hadn’t seen much of each other lately. Kace didn’t know what it was, but Stacy, Lukas’ girlfriend, disliked him—a lot. Could be because he was queer, or maybe because he worked at a gay club without being ashamed. She’d said something about it once. You tell people you work there? And then she’d widened her eyes and shaken her head, not at him, but at Lukas.

“Can I come in?” The slurred speech and the way he stumbled told Kace he was drunk before he smelled the fumes.

“What’s up, dude? You’re drunk on a Monday afternoon.”

Luke dropped a backpack on the floor right on the threshold and pushed Kace against the wall. Kace went willingly. He was a big guy, Lukas was not. Had he wanted to stand his ground, he could have.

Then Lukas cupped his neck with one hand and pulled him down, pressing his lips against Kace’s. He opened his mouth in surprise. Lukas took advantage, caressed his tongue with his, and moaned.

What is going on? Kace tentatively raised his hands—to push him away or pull him closer, he didn’t know.

When Lukas pushed closer, Kace noted the hard length pressing against his thigh, and heat exploded in his mind.

“Luke.” He grabbed his shoulders and gently pushed him away from him. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” Lukas didn’t meet his gaze. His eyes were locked on Kace’s lips.

“Luke, you’re drunk.” And straight. And Kace’s best friend. They might do manly hugs, but they didn’t kiss. Sometimes Lukas snuggled up next to him on a sofa when they watched a movie or something, but it was nothing sexual. This was…

“I know.”

“Why are you drunk?”

“Can I stay with you?”

Kace stared. His apartment slash row house wasn’t big. It was enough for him, but his bedroom didn’t leave room for more than a bed. His living room was about the smallest he’d ever seen, and he only had a three-seat sofa, a coffee table, and a TV. His bathroom had a corner shower where he banged his elbows on the wall every time he washed his hair. And his kitchen was more like a kitchenette than a real kitchen. In the corner, he’d set up a shelf he’d placed his computer on. It didn’t leave room for any office supplies, but it worked for him.

Having another person living there would mean they’d trip over each other.

“Why do you want to stay here? Hang on. I’ll call Stacy.” He turned to get his phone in the kitchen.

“No.” Lukas grabbed his arm. His blue eyes were unfocused, his dark hair a mess, and there was stubble on his cheeks. Lukas shaved every morning.

“Why? Are you having a fight?”

Lukas sighed. “Kind of.”

“You should talk to her.” Lukas and Stacy had bought a house together a little less than a year before. Kace had been expecting a wedding invitation and news about babies on the way for months now. He’d tried not to think about it, a life without Luke in it was too painful to picture, so he’d done his best to ignore Stacy. He hadn’t known they were having problems. But then he hardly saw Luke anymore.

An ache spread in his chest. He’d missed him. A lot.

Lukas had pulled away, and Stacy had glared every time Kace had dropped by their house, so he’d stopped doing it. He suspected she was giving Lukas shit for him showing up unannounced.

Luke sighed. “Not today.”

Fair enough. “I’m off to work in a while.”

“Without clothes?”

Kace looked down at himself and scratched the hair on his chest. “No, I was about to jump into the shower.”

“I can scrub your back.” Luke wiggled his eyebrows, then looked as if he was going to be sick.

“Are you going to puke? I don’t want vomit all over my place.”

Luke stumbled again and put a hand against the wall in the narrow hallway. “No. Got a little dizzy, is all.”

“Yeah?” Kace grabbed his shoulders and steered him toward the kitchen. He pushed him down on a chair, poured a big glass of water, then a cup of coffee, and placed both on the table in front of Lukas.

He sipped on his cooling coffee with a grimace, placed the cup in the sink, and grabbed a bucket out of the cleaning slash linen closet and put by Luke’s feet. “If you’re going to be sick, use that.” He pointed at it. “I’m going to shower.”

“Can I come with you to work?” Luke eyed the coffee Kace had given him.

“I think it’s best you stay here. Put on a movie and relax on the sofa. Don’t touch my booze, and in a couple of hours you should try to eat something.”

Luke deflated before his eyes. “Will you be gone for long?” He avoided eye contact, and Kace frowned. What was going on?

“No, it’s Monday. We close at one.”

“It’s not four yet. One is long.”

Normally, they were open till three, so one was an early night for Kace.

* * * *

“What’s up with you today?” Kayla, one of his younger co-workers, gave him a narrow-eyed look.

Kace poured a drink for a guy he’d never seen before, handed it over, and took his payment before he turned to Kayla. “Nothing. Lukas, a friend, showed up on my doorstep, drunk as a skunk, right before I left.”

“Oh, Luke is back?” Angel, a swishy man who’d worked there almost as long as Kace had, leaned against the bar.

Back? “He’s most likely passed out on my sofa right now.”

Angel grinned. “Too bad, I was hoping he’d show.”

He was? “Why?”

“It’s always fun to watch.” Angel grinned, grabbed a tray with drinks Kayla had prepared and walked over to a table. His ass swayed suggestively in tight black pants.

Kace grinned. Angel was fully aware of what he was doing, and while Kace would never have an affair at his workplace, he could still look.

“That man is such a tease.” Kayla groaned and reached for a glass underneath the bar top. Kace chuckled.

It took almost half an hour before Angel had time to stop to talk again. “So when will Luke come to visit us?”

Kace shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“It’s been ages since he was here. You’d think he didn’t like us anymore.”

Pouring a beer for Caleb, the owner of the restaurant across the street, Kace hid his face. Lukas used to drop by, he’d known the names of everyone Kace worked with, but he hadn’t been around in a long time. People had left and new ones had arrived. Angel, Logan, and Megan remained, Kace suspected they always would. Like him, they’d been here for years and liked what they did. Logan owned the club, so he doubted he’d go anywhere, but the students came and went. They worked extra while studying or took a year off before they went back to studying again.

“Trouble?” Caleb gave him a steady look as he accepted the glass.

“Nah. A friend showed up right as I was getting ready to come here.”

“Luke, yeah, I heard.” He nodded at Angel.

Right, Caleb knew who Lukas was. “Yeah.” Kace sighed. Caleb always had a calming effect on him. They were much alike—calm and quiet, and while Kace enjoyed chatting with Angel and the others, it was freeing to talk to someone who showed little reaction. “He’s been fighting with Stacy.” And had kissed him.

“The girlfriend who hates you?”

“She doesn’t.” Did she? Hate was a strong word.

“No? The girlfriend who stole Luke, then?”

Kace shrugged. In the beginning, he’d been happy Luke had found someone. Happy he would stay in the city. There had been a few years when Lukas had lived in Mont. It had almost killed Kace.

So, at first he’d been glad Luke had found someone local, but then things had gotten weird. He rubbed his chest as an ache spread. He missed having him in his life.

“Are they breaking up?” Caleb brought the glass to his lips and met Kace’s gaze over the rim of the glass.

“He wasn’t very talkative. Was swaying on the spot.” Kace gave a wry smile and shook his head. “I poured him a cup of coffee, and a glass of water, and gave him a bucket if he was going to be sick. Then I left.”

Caleb chuckled. “Personally, I hope he’ll come back. It was always entertaining to watch him.”

Kace frowned. “How do you mean?” It was what Angel had said.

This time Caleb laughed for real. “Those nights Luke came to see you here, how were your tips?”

Kace stroked his beard. “I don’t know.” He’d noticed nothing special when Luke had been here, but then his focus most often was on Luke and not the others.

Caleb grinned. “If he comes again, check your tips.” He grabbed his beer and headed toward a table where some of his staff were seated.

Kisses and Cabins in the JMS shop (20% off in new release sale)

books2read.com/KissesandCabins

 

kissesandcabins-small-1Kace Channing has been best friends with Luke Holland for thirty-five years. He can’t imagine his world without him. But over the last twelve months, they’ve hardly seen one another. And life without Luke seems empty.

When Luke shows up on Kace’s doorstep, asking for a place to stay, Kace is happy to say yes. But he isn’t prepared for the kiss that follows, or ready to admit he could kiss Luke forever. What they already have is too important.

And when Luke, the least outdoorsy person Kace knows, tells him he’s buying a cabin in the woods, Kace tries to talk him out of it. But Luke’s made up his mind. He says they need it, the two of them.

But won’t kisses and cabins ruin their friendship?