New Release-Excerpt & Giveaway: PHOENIX RISING by Valerie Ullmer

Phoenix Rising 

(An M/M/M Romance)

Author and Publisher: Valerie Ullmer

Cover Artist: Valerie Ullmer

Release Date: August 6, 2024

Genre: Contemporary M/M/M Romance

Tropes: Best friends to lovers, bisexual awakening, best friends in love with the same man, and hot sexy times

Themes: Moving past childhood trauma

Length:  57 000 words/ 209 pages

Heat Rating: 5 flames

It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

Two best friends want the same man.

Will all three be able to fall in love and make their relationship work?

Blurb

Phoenix Aalto had everything he wanted in life.
His own bakery, close friends, and his plants.

There was nothing more he could ask for after escaping the life his father wanted for him.

Or that’s the lie he told himself each time the two men of his dreams walked into his bakery, looking every bit a happy couple. He wasn’t delusional enough to believe it was more than a one-sided attraction, but it didn’t stop him from daydreaming of something more.

Luka Kavka lived with his best friend, and they ran a successful landscaping business together. He’d come out during college, but like his friend, no one lasted more than a date.

But a routine meeting in an out of way bakery with a real estate developer changed his fate.

Burton Horváth loved life. Working with his best friend while living with him was everything he thought needed.
When he spotted Phoenix behind the counter, everything he knew about his life changed. The younger man wasn’t his first crush on a man. If he were honest with himself, that honor would go to Luka. But he was the one who shook up his viewpoint at thirty-one years old and made him want a change.

Luka and Burton agreed they would ease into letting Phoenix know they were interested, which included months of daily visits. But change for all three men came when Luka charged in, giving Luka and Burton the opening they needed.

But as they navigate their newfound relationship, will the obstacles from Phoenix’s father allow them to find their happiness?

Excerpt

Get it together, Phoenix!

“Don’t touch him.”

My mouth dropped open as breathing became difficult. A shiver of pleasure fluttered over my body at the sound of his deep, commanding voice.

A scant ‘sorry’ was all I heard, since I couldn’t take my eyes off the giant of a man, even when I noted movement in my peripheral and the sound of my poor, old-fashioned shopkeeper’s bell being abused.

“Woo! That was one of the… nope, the hottest thing I’ve witnessed in ages. For a second there, I wondered if you were going to rip his arms off, big guy, all because he dared to grab our Phoenix here,” Arthur said as he fanned himself.

“It’s Luka.”

There was a pulse of desire in my lower stomach, and I stifled a gasp when my cock swelled underneath my jeans. Grateful I had the area covered with an apron.

I wanted to join my friend in fanning myself because the temperature climbed in the minute since Luka stepped in to help me.

“And I’m Burton. It’s nice to meet you, Phoenix.” The blond adonis held out his hand.

Reason fled as the eagerness of the situation presented to me overrode self-preservation. I placed my hand in Burton’s stronger, calloused one and sucked on my bottom lip as the tingle from his touch radiated up my arm and spread throughout. Images of me splayed out on a bed as Burton teased me with his warm hands while Luka’s voice washed over me until I erupted in an intense... F*ck!

Okay! Not nice to fantasize about two men who were a couple standing right in front of me.

“It’s also nice to meet you, Burton. Luka.”

“I’ve never seen you blush that shade of peach before, honey. I’m gonna call Jude and tell him.”

Leave it up to my best friend to embarrass me.

“It’s lovely,” Luka said as he ran the back of his finger down my cheek before he cupped my face.

In that moment, I considered the possibility of my entire body igniting into flames, all from Luka’s tiny gesture that, for the first time in my life, didn’t make me recoil. In a weak moment, I wanted to know the touch of the man cupping my cheek and burrowed into his hand.

Then I remembered he wasn’t available and leaned away.

“Sorry, I should’ve asked you before I touched you,” Luka said.

I shook my head back and forth before I found the words, “No, it’s okay. You can. I’m not used to it.”

“What about me? Can I touch you?” Burton asked.

My eyes widened, and I nodded, staring at the bewitching man, who was even more stunning up close. “If… if you want to?”

Arthur chuckled. “Give it up for Phoenix, ladies and gentlemen. He attracts two specimens of male perfection without a clue they’re flirting with him.”

He mumbled as he moved around the counter to clean the tables, leaving me alone with the two gorgeous men. Or at least I believed no one was around. There was no dragging my attention away from them.

“Uh…” I sounded daft as I looked back and forth between the two, confusion swamping me because I was a mess; the decorated apron with green vines and leaves along with depictions of pastries and the logo of my shop, Phoenix Rising, had chocolate stains and other food items I couldn’t identify. My hair stood up in all directions, and I’m pretty sure my fingers were sticky with frosting.

As my synapses fired back up, I swallowed around the dryness in my throat and said, “Just ignore him. He’s still in the honeymoon phase, despite being married for years, and sees romance everywhere.”

Until this conversation, I hadn’t spoken more than a word or two to either of these men. But now they were in front of me, both holding expressions of faint amusement as they stared at me, and I felt faint. And in order to cover my ineptitude in social situations, out came the verbal onslaught.

“Is it hot in here? It’s hot, right? I mean… um, what were we talking about? Oh, right? My deluded best friend thinks, well, stupid things that are out of the realm of possibility because whatever he’s imagining doesn’t happen in real life and as far as I can tell, I’m awake and working. Are you two together? Sh*t, I did not mean for that to escape my mouth because nosy much, Phoenix? It’s not my business. Over the past several months, I couldn’t miss observing that you two make an exquisite couple. And on that note, I’ll stop talking now,” ending on a groan.

Burton glanced at Luka, who kept his eyes on me the entire time, and beamed at the taller man.

About the Author 

Valerie writes romances.

Valerie resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband. While she had been interested in writing a romance novel for years, it wasn’t until she wrote her first book that she really became hooked, and now she can’t stop. She has notebooks full of ideas, and she plans to write most of them in the years to come.

When she’s not writing or learning about the craft of writing, she can be found surfing the internet way too much, watching Investigation Discovery and thinking that her neighbors are up to no good, and finding new ways to get her husband to laugh.

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New Release-Review & Excerpt: ROAD TO A COWBOY by Amy Aislin ( Windsor, Wyoming #2) - Includes Giveaway!

Road to a Cowboy

Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin

Cover Artist: Morningstar Ashley Designs

Release Date: August 6, 2024 (audio coming early September)

Genre: Contemporary M/M romance

Tropes: Childhood friends to lovers, small town, cowboys

Themes: Family, friendship

Series: Windsor, Wyoming 2

Heat Rating:  3 flames   

Length: 57 000 words

It’s book two in the Windsor, Wyoming trilogy, 

but can be read as a standalone and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon  |   Apple  |   B&N   |   Kobo

Book one in the trilogy, Home for a Cowboy,

will be on sale for $0.99 until Aug 15

Universal link

Blurb

Detour
Five years after the death of his spouse, Austin MacIsaac is ready to find love again—and he's got the perfect guy in his sexy cowboy of a best friend, Cal Anderson. If only he can convince Cal to detour out of the friend zone.

Road work ahead
Cal has been in love with Austin for longer than he can remember. The man has been his rock through the ups and downs of messy family drama. But shaking up their friendship for something more could lead them down a bumpy and unsafe road.

Merge
Amid a backdrop of the Wyoming mountains and under a summer sky, can Austin and Cal merge their lives into one and let the road to romance lead to happily ever after?

Excerpt

Austin’s heart did a sideways flip when Cal stopped next to him, his broad shoulders as intimidating as the Rockies to anyone who didn’t know him.

“Welcome back,” Cal said in a slow drawl that dragged along Austin’s senses. “How was Montana?”

“Beats me,” Austin said with a grin, keeping his eyes on the image on his camera’s display. “But Kootenai National Forest was gorgeous. You should see some of the shots I got. The night sky there is spectacular.”

“Doesn’t it look the same as everywhere else?”

Austin gave him the stink eye. “Don’t sass me, Calvin.”

Cal didn’t smile—his smiles were as rare as a sighting of Halley’s Comet—but his lips twitched.

“And no, it doesn’t look the same everywhere.”

“If you say so.” Cal looked off to the right. “What’s with the second camera?”

Austin jerked his gaze to where he’d set up an additional tripod several feet away. “That one’s recording so I can make a time-lapse video.”

Cal grunted.

His presence was nonintrusive as the sun sank and the stars began to emerge, yet Austin was always aware of him. He was as aware of Cal as he was of the location of the moon or the image in his camera’s viewfinder.

A few minutes later, shadows bathing the landscape, Austin began packing up his equipment under a sky quickly turning to dusk. The mountains had turned nearly invisible—when it got dark out here, it got dark—and Cal was almost a silhouette against the sky. Something about him standing silently with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, gazing out into the distance, screamed of both contentment and loneliness, making Austin’s heart clench.

The first memory Austin had of Cal at Windsor Ranch was of him falling into a puddle near the corral on a rainy summer day when they’d been seven or eight. Now, as the foreman of that same ranch, Cal was basically running the place. The juxtaposition between kid-Cal, covered in rain and mud as he’d blinked up at Austin with big gray eyes as though wondering how he’d fallen into the puddle, and adult-Cal, tall, strong, coolly confident, and carrying the weight of the entire ranch on his shoulders, was sometimes jarring in that strange twist-of-fate kind of way.

Austin brought the camera up to his eyes, adjusted the settings, and snapped a photo, framing Cal in the right third of the shot while he gazed off to the left, making the viewer wonder what he was looking at. Austin would call it Cowboy Against the Night. He might even put it up for sale in his gallery instead of keeping it for himself.

Maybe.

Cal must’ve heard the shutter, because he turned with a raised eyebrow.

“Smile,” Austin said, aiming his camera at him again.

Cal did the exact opposite, making Austin laugh as he took the picture anyway.

Carra's Review

I don’t read too many cowboy/western-type romances, but I have to say that this was a great one that I picked up this time around.  I’ve really enjoyed this author’s other stories (in particular the hockey romances), so I’m glad to find their storytelling talent continues to extend to other tropes.  Here in Road to a Cowboy, we get a wonderful slow-burn best friends to lovers tale that is relatively low angst and is primarily character driven.

Austin and Cal fit together perfectly—once they can get past a bit of a rocky start.  They are one of those couples where you use a familiar pairing to describe them…like “they go together like peanut butter and jelly”.

Cal had a less than ideal upbringing with a mother who was cold and detached, which continues to this day and is really the primary source of angst in the story.  Austin’s family life was quite the opposite, and something Cal was lucky to share with him in his later teen years.  

This story moves at a mostly sedate pace, but I didn’t feel like it was too slow at all.  I was glad of the lower angst level, as it allowed the book to concentrate more on the characters and their feelings, and how they dealt with them.

Overall, this was a solid 4-star read for me, and is a story I’d recommend to any M/M romance fan.  It is written well and has truly likable characters (well, minus Cal’s mother), and I loved Cal and Austin together.  While it is the second book in the series, it can definitely be read as a standalone.  It is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.

About the Author 

Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.

Blog/Website  |  Facebook  |  Instagram

Newsletter Sign-up  |  Facebook Group

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New Release-Review & Excerpt: STACKED by Linden Bell (Mars Fitness #2) - Includes Giveaway!

Stacked
By Linden Bell

Mars Fitness, Book 2

Sawyer

I've been in love with my best friend and roommate since the first day of boarding school over a decade ago. But Preston has always been oblivious, obsessed with his PhD research, and more importantly, straight.

When the new, sexy grad student walks into my gym, I have to wonder... is it time for me to move on?

Preston

Some guy is trying to steal my best friend. I won't let him. Sawyer's mine.

Maybe I haven't appreciated Sawyer enough over the years, but that's going to change now. I'll do whatever it takes to keep him by my side. Even if it means kissing him.

Stacked is a best friends-to-lovers, bi-awakening, nerd/jock MM romance between possessive, protective, and co-dependent roommates. Expect the most tender caretaking, slipping into each other's beds in the middle of the night, and adorable clinginess. It is the second book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

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Add on Goodreads

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Excerpt

“Who the hell are you?”

Mom and I spin around at the new voice.

In the doorway is another boy, shorter than me and scrawny. The school uniform he’s wearing is wrinkled, one pant leg is caught in a sock, and the tie is loose and off-center. He’s got a mop of black hair and thick black-framed glasses, but what really catches my attention are his eyes.

They’re blue. Like the ocean. Like the sky. And they’re zeroed in on me with such intensity that my lungs stop working. My brain stops working. The only response I’ve got is whoa and cool.

Beside me, Mom clears her throat and steps forward. She puts on her mom voice when she speaks. “This is Sawyer and I’m his mom, Ms. Paige. He’s moving into this room today. And you are?”

The mom voice works because the boy shrinks back and clutches the textbook he’s holding closer to his chest. “Preston Boyer,” he says, eyeing Mom warily.

“So nice to meet you, Preston.” Then she hooks her thumb over to my side of the room. “Would all this be yours?”

Preston’s eyes dart from Mom to the bed, piled high with clothes, to me. There’s a little furrow in his brow like he’s trying to think of a response and drawing a blank. Like maybe all this stuff isn’t actually his.

Then he blurts out, “You’re not my roommate.”

Mom’s in front of me, so I can’t see her face, but I know exactly what it looks like. Her eyebrows are halfway up her forehead and her lips are pursed into her “What did you just say?” expression.

Oh sh*t. Preston’s in trouble.

“As a matter of fact, he is. Sawyer’s enrolling as a student at Westbourne and he’s been assigned to this double room. So your choices are to become friends and get along or find another room to sleep in. Either way, you need to move your things. Now.”

With each word coming out of Mom’s mouth, Preston shrinks into himself even further. I kind of feel bad for him, even if he’s being a jerk. Getting on Mom’s bad side is never a good idea.

“Hey, Pres. What’s taking so long?” A pretty blond girl wearing a cheerleading uniform materializes behind Preston. It takes a second for her to notice me and Mom in the room. “Oh! Hi! You must be Sawyer.”

She squeezes past Preston and approaches Mom with a big smile plastered on her face. The girl is brave. “I’m Madison. Preston’s girlfriend.” She extends a hand for Mom to shake, then does the same with me.

“Mads!” Preston hisses like Madison is consorting with the enemy. “What are you doing?”

Madison glances back at him. “I’m welcoming them. Come on, Pres, don’t be a jerk. You knew you were getting a roommate.”

“No, I didn’t!” Preston shuffles into the room, staying behind Madison like she can protect him from Mom. Madison looks like she can hold her own, but no one can stand in Mom’s way if she’s determined.

“Yes, you did.” She rolls her eyes and turns to the mess on Preston’s desk. “The Residence Office sent you a letter, remember?”

She shuffles through his things, tossing them around as Preston’s expression grows pained. He’s probably one of those people who has some weird ass filing system that only makes sense to them.

“Here it is!” Triumphantly, Madison holds a crumpled piece of paper high in the air. It’s the same thick cream-colored stuff that my acceptance letter was printed on. “Sawyer Paige. Moving in September twentieth. Please clear away any personal items that have been stored on the other side of the room.”

As one, we all stare at the personal items that have definitely not been cleared away.

Silence stretches for long moments before Madison breaks it. “No worries! I can help! It shouldn’t take too long.” She marches over with a big grin and grabs a stack of books off the desk.

“No! Wait!” Preston drops the textbook he’s holding and reaches for the ones in Madison’s hands. “You can’t just move stuff around! I have a system!”

Ha. Called it. This guy is strange. Living with him is going to be a drag, but at least I don’t have to worry about being the token loner.

“Fine, here, I’ll hand you the stuff and you put it wherever you want, okay?” Madison takes him by the shoulders and spins him around so he’s facing his side of the room again. “Just keep it all over there.”

Did she say she was his girlfriend? How the hell did a confident, pretty cheerleader end up with this disaster of a guy? I exchange a look with Mom, who has to be thinking exactly the same thing.

Then she sighs and pats me on the shoulder. “Looks like you’re all going to get along just fine.”

It’s going to be a long year.

 

Carra's Review

I just want to say right off the bat that I adored Sawyer and Preston together.  Okay, with that out of the way (because I couldn’t wait to say that), this is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I did enjoy the story, writing style, and characters.  Plus having the nerd/jock setup coupled with best friends to lovers…that’s a combo that I couldn’t pass up.

I found Preston especially intriguing, with the way his brain works and where he places his focus at any given time.  He gets so wrapped up in his research, totally absorbed and fascinated by what he is doing.  Sawyer takes wonderful care of him, and while yes Sawyer admits early on that he’s in love with Preston (to us readers), he’s also keenly aware that Preston is likely not into guys—though Sawyer continues to hold on to the tiniest glimmer of hope.

Yes, Sawyer has dated and hooked up with plenty of guys over the years, knowing he likely will never have anything more than friendship with Preston.  And yes, as the book starts off he starts seeing someone, which I wasn’t a fan of but it does act as a catalyst for the story.  Once Preston has his “a-ha” moment about what Sawyer means to him, everything from there becomes all about their relationship’s change from supremely close best friends (really codependent) to even closer lovers.

At that point the word to describe Preston I would choose is “enthusiastic”.  As in, get ready for a lot of physical scenes that are incredibly hot.  As yummy as those are, we also get to see a shift with Preston, and through the entire story his character is the one that experiences the most growth.  He realizes his true feelings for Sawyer, starts to adjust his behaviors around others to come out of his tunnel-vision-research mode, and even has a moment with his parents that has been building for quite some time.

Overall Stacked was a very strong 4-star read for me.  Preston is one of my favorite characters I’ve read so far this year, and he and Sawyer together are perfect.  While this book is part of the Mars Fitness series, it can definitely be read as a standalone and I’d recommend it to any M/M romance fan.  This book is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.

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Enter the Giveaway:

To celebrate the release of Stacked, Linden is giving away 3 e-copies of the release!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!

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Check out Book 1 in the Mars Fitness Series:
Ripped

Sometimes heartache is a blessing in disguise.

I thought my life was perfect. I lived with my amazing boyfriend. I worked with my ride-or-die best friend. I was on track to made-it-ville.

Then I came home one day to find my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend.

Now I’m lost with no one to turn to except Donnie, the silver fox who lets me crash at his house until I can figure out what the hell went wrong and how I’m supposed to fix it.

But once I’m there, I’m not sure I want to leave.

Donnie’s a lot older than me and he’s still grieving the death of his husband. My life is a trash fire and my career is non-existent. He’s a svelte spin instructor and I’m a film geek. We couldn’t be more different, but we need each other like we both need to breathe.

So maybe my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Maybe it was the best. It brought me to Donnie.

Ripped is an age gap, nerd/jock, opposites attract MM romance between roommates who cuddle on the couch while watching classic movies. Expect steamy shower rooms, teary confessions, disapproving family, and brand new starts. It is the first book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

CW: off-page sudden loss of a spouse, off-page homophobia, cheating secondary characters. Happily ever after guaranteed.

Universal Link

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About the Author:

Linden Bell writes contemporary MM romances that heat you up and make you smile.

Website - Instagram - Facebook - Amazon - Goodreads - BookBub

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Cover Reveal & Giveaway: STACKED by Linden Bell (Mars Fitness #2)

Stacked
By Linden Bell

Coming March 17th

Mars Fitness, Book 2

Sawyer

I've been in love with my best friend and roommate since the first day of boarding school over a decade ago. But Preston has always been oblivious, obsessed with his PhD research, and more importantly, straight.

When the new, sexy grad student walks into my gym, I have to wonder... is it time for me to move on?

Preston

Some guy is trying to steal my best friend. I won't let him. Sawyer's mine.

Maybe I haven't appreciated Sawyer enough over the years, but that's going to change now. I'll do whatever it takes to keep him by my side. Even if it means kissing him.

Stacked is a best friends-to-lovers, bi-awakening, nerd/jock MM romance between possessive, protective, and co-dependent roommates. Expect the most tender caretaking, slipping into each other's beds in the middle of the night, and adorable clinginess. It is the second book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

Pre-Order Universal Link

Add on Goodreads

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Enter the Giveaway:

To celebrate the cover reveal of Stacked, we are giving away 2 advanced e-copies of the upcoming release!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

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Check out Book 1 in the Mars Fitness Series:
Ripped

Sometimes heartache is a blessing in disguise.

I thought my life was perfect. I lived with my amazing boyfriend. I worked with my ride-or-die best friend. I was on track to made-it-ville.

Then I came home one day to find my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend.

Now I’m lost with no one to turn to except Donnie, the silver fox who lets me crash at his house until I can figure out what the hell went wrong and how I’m supposed to fix it.

But once I’m there, I’m not sure I want to leave.

Donnie’s a lot older than me and he’s still grieving the death of his husband. My life is a trash fire and my career is non-existent. He’s a svelte spin instructor and I’m a film geek. We couldn’t be more different, but we need each other like we both need to breathe.

So maybe my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Maybe it was the best. It brought me to Donnie.

Ripped is an age gap, nerd/jock, opposites attract MM romance between roommates who cuddle on the couch while watching classic movies. Expect steamy shower rooms, teary confessions, disapproving family, and brand new starts. It is the first book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

CW: off-page sudden loss of a spouse, off-page homophobia, cheating secondary characters. Happily ever after guaranteed.

Universal Link

Add on Goodreads

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About the Author:

Linden Bell writes contemporary MM romances that heat you up and make you smile.

Connect with Linden:

Website - Instagram - Facebook - Amazon - Goodreads - BookBub

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New Release-Excerpt & Giveaway: THE LONG JOURNEY TO YOU by Vincent Traughber Meis

The Long Journey to You

by Vincent Traughber Meis

Publisher: Spectrum Books

Cover Artist: Vincent Meis and Andrew May

Release Date: February 17, 2024

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance, Literary Fiction

Tropes: Age-gap relationship, friends to lovers

Themes: Survival, overcoming tragedy

Heat Rating: 3 flames       

Length:  97 000 words/350 pages

It can be read as a standalone, but the protagonist also appears in my novel, The Mayor of Oak Street (ages 12-21). The main story of this book takes place 40 years later and we find out what happened to him in flashbacks. 

It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited

Universal Link  |  Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

Nathan’s traumatic past challenges but cannot stop the arc that brings him to Mateo.

Blurb

Nathan doesn’t know how to stop dwelling on the failures and tragedies that have plagued him since he was a twenty-one-year-old happily in the arms of the handsome young doctor he had pined for since he was twelve. Many years later after the latest tragedy, who could mend Nathan’s heart? If not a handsome young doctor, would an ER nurse do? After a chance meeting with Mateo, a lot of Nathan’s reminiscing is now devoted to how that encounter made him feel. Will he seize the day or continue wallowing in the past, having lunch with his best girlfriend from high school, and writing poetry?

Excerpt

“Are you okay?” he asked in a slight Spanish accent. His questioning eyes moved directly to the stain on my T-shirt where the juicy tomato from my lunch had squirted. Looking like blood?

I became acutely aware of my attire: baggy sweats that may have had other stains, a baseball cap with a tattered rim, and faded crocs. He wore neat magenta scrubs that matched the color of his full shiny lips. His nametag said Mateo.

The scenario must have been embarrassingly clear to him. I had wandered off from one of the many senior facilities that dotted the landscape of the neighborhood. If I exaggerated the confusion that I, in fact, frequently felt, he might take my arm, walk me back to the facility, put me in a bath, gently wash my back, and tuck me into bed. The more I looked into his onyx eyes, the more I wanted him to do just that.

“I mean, you looked a little lost…and sad.”

“Don’t worry, Mateo.” His eyebrows separated and bounced at the sound of his name. Then he smiled and touched his nametag, realizing how I knew it. “I’m lost in a memory is all.” I chuckled. “I suppose I do fit a profile.”

“You’re okay, then?”

“Yep.”

“My bad. I didn’t mean to profile you. I have experience with that, and it’s no fun.”

I imagined that he was doubly profiled, first for the color of his skin and then a second time when people caught a hint of his accent. 

“No harm done. I appreciate your concern.”

“It’s kind of my job. Sometimes it is difficult to switch out of that mode when I leave work.” He lowered his eyes, making me realize I must have been staring intently. How could I have not? He was an amalgam of all the men I had been attracted to my entire life: Mediterranean, Black, Latino, shorter than me, rectangular solid frame, soulful eyes, thick hair. But with an added twist. A dusting of freckles graced his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. 

In a thoughtful gesture, he stared at the sidewalk and raised his hand to his chin, rubbing his index finger over his left cheek, revealing another physical trait that rang my buzzer: little tufts of black hair between his major and minor knuckles, a tiny forest to let my tongue wander through. 

Thank God, he couldn’t read my thoughts. Or could he?

“I should let you get on your way,” he mumbled, still not looking at me. He stared at the smashed apricots on the ground with, I imagined, quite a different take than mine.

I wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. 

“Do you work in one of these facilities I might have escaped from?”

“Now, look, I didn’t mean…” He took a step back in what appeared to be a desire to flee.

“I’m teasing. I haven’t seen you around the neighborhood.”

He tapped his nametag and twisted his neck to look at it. “Kaiser. It says right here. Kaiser Permanente.”

“I have trouble reading fine print.” I let out a small laugh, but he didn’t join me. 

He took another step back. “Just moved here less than a year ago.”

I guessed he was mid-thirties, and with his Spanish accent and African features, maybe Puerto Rican? Cuban? I imagined he lived with a wife and multiple niños. They spent Saturdays having barbecues in the park and Sundays from dawn to dusk at church events. He looked far too sweet to be anything but a family man. Now I was profiling.

“From?” I asked.

He let out a protracted sigh, as if the conversation had gotten way more involved than he had intended. His forehead crinkled again, hesitating to give me an answer. 

“The city. Getting too crazy over there.” 

Then he raised his head and his eyes met mine with the twinkle of a forest elf. Perhaps he wasn’t annoyed with me after all. Perhaps I had been wrong about sizing him up, though my conclusion that he was a family man was much easier to handle. Yet, he wore no ring.

About the Author

Vincent Traughber Meis is a fiction writer, a world traveler, and a former ESL community college teacher. When he’s not traveling, he divides his time between writing and working in the garden. Most of the characters in his novels and short stories come from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and are racially and ethnically diverse. He has published eight novels: Eddie’s Desert Rose, Tio Jorge, Down in Cuba, Deluge, Four Calling Burds and The Mayor of Oak Street, First Born Sons, and Colton’s Terrible Wonderful Year. Tio Jorge, Down in Cuba, and Deluge have all won Rainbow Awards. The Mayor of Oak Street and First Born Sons have won Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards. His short stories have appeared in several collections both in print and online, and have reached finalist status in several short story contests. A collection of short stories, Far from Home, was published in October 2021. He lives with his husband in San Leandro, California and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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