We Burn Beautiful
By Lance Lansdale
We went into this knowing we'd get burned. And God, we burned so beautifully.
Kent Fox is not okay. Thanks to a botched selfie swap, thousands of his colleagues have borne witness to a photo of his sock-covered crotch. Branded a professional pariah, he's had to move home with his mother, and the only job the 38-year-old former executive can land is stocking shelves at a grocery store. To make matters worse, his new boss is none other than his ex-gay ex-boyfriend.
To everyone else, Gray Collins is the perfect Christian. He manages the local Pick-n-Save, attends West Clark Apostolic Church four times a week, and he's just bought a ring for the woman who has agreed to help him hide his homosexuality. To Kent, however, Gray is the same coward he was twenty years ago. The boy with a list of seventeen reasons why he deserved Kent’s heart. The man who did nothing as his brother ripped Kent from his arms and out of his life for two decades.
Forced together, Kent and Gray will have to confront the trauma that tore them apart, and all the old feelings that never truly died. Kent may not have a list of seventeen reasons for Gray, but he has three words that are just as true as they've ever been.
We Burn Beautiful is a single-POV, second chance slow burn romance about two childhood boyfriends who never had the chance to shine. There's pining, there's passion, and there's a group of 80-year-old Apostolic debutantes ready to help Kent Fox find his forever.
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Excerpt
Gray was standing less than two feet away from me, his face white as a ghost. A ghost with far too much gel in his hair. A ghost with unnecessarily long lashes and big brown puddles for eyes that I absolutely did not want to go swimming in. A wraith from the pre-Atlanta period of my life with a peppering of freckles that I most certainly didn’t want to play connect the dots with, using only my tongue.
“Hi,” I said. It was the only word I could find in my drunken state. He just stood there, staring at me with a vacant look on his face. “I’m on vacation,” I blurted out, wiping drunken tears from my cheeks. “A week-long vacation. I just stopped by to see my mom.” I hiccupped. “I have a job. A good job.”
“I think he heard you say you were homeless and living with your mother,” Jeff pointed out, though no one had asked for his input.
“Yes, I realize that,” I said to Jeff, my eyes locked on Gray. “Thank you very much for the update, Jeff, you goddamn sociopath.”
Gray winced when I took the Lord’s name in vain. Just as pious as ever. I tilted my head to the side, staring at him. Twenty years, and there was still an anger deep inside of me that refused to go unheard, so I channeled that rage into insults that made no sense whatsoever.
“Your skin looks terrible,” I said, even though it didn’t. “Have you picked up an unsightly meth addiction?” I asked, even though he looked to be in perfect health. I furrowed my brow so that he would know that I meant it as an insult—but honestly, is there any way to tell someone they look like they smoke crystal meth and not mean it as an insult? He looked to be in peak physical condition, but that didn’t stop me from pointing at his flat stomach and smirking. “You’ve gotten fat.”
“Kent,” Kate whispered into my ear. “Kent, I think we should get you home.”
“I don’t need to go home. Gray and I are catching up.”
“Trust me, you’re embarrassing yourself. Let’s get you home.”
“Do you know what’s really embarrassing?”
“This. Right now. This is,” she hissed into my ear.
“Watching me get kicked out of my house and not even having the decency to say goodbye. Letting him take me that night and not doing a goddamn thing when I begged for help. That’s embarrassing.”
Kate dragged me away from the bar as Gray stared at me with bulging eyes.
“Bye,” I shouted, not caring that every eye in the bar was on me and my salsa-coated crotch. Breaking free from the grip Kate had on my wrist, I pointed at my waving hand. “Bye! Bye, Gray! That’s what normal people say when their best friend gets kicked out with sixty dollars to their name, you f*cking coward.”
Enter the Giveaway:
To celebrate the release of We Burn Beautiful, Lance is giving away a Signed Paperback copy and an e-copy of this beautiful debut!
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
About the Author:
Like Kent Fox, I'm a thirty-something gay man with a flair for the dramatic and a passion for gay romance and LGBTQ+ fiction. I write stories focusing on queer joy and families found along the way.
