Thin Ice
By Lane Hayes
The Elmwood Stories, Book 4
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Excerpt
Smitty gamely followed me to the next vignette at Pinecrest’s premiere home and furniture boutique. “It’s a coffee table, Bry. It serves two functions—a footrest and a place to leave dishes…and the remote control. Anything is fine.”
“Yeah, right,” I huffed. “Somehow I doubt the guy who couldn’t live with yellow walls and had lots of opinions about the sectional he special ordered doesn’t care about the coffee table that will go in the same room.”
Smitty darted his gaze around the store and leaned in close. “Places like this intimidate the f*ck out of me. It smells like a perfume factory and everyone is smiling…but their eyes are dead. Like they’re zombies. Is this a Pinecrest thing or a bougie thing? I don’t do well with hot cotchure.”
I burst into laughter. “Haute couture?”
“Sure, whatever.”
I brushed my hand against his in a show of solidarity, then linked our pinkies for a brief moment and pointed at a handsome dark-wood coffee table with a wide base. “What about that one?”
Smitty shrugged. “Looks nice.”
“I think so too.” I clandestinely checked the tag. “Yikes. It’s pricey. Let’s keep looking.”
“Do they have a coffee table with cupholders?”
“Absolutely not, and why would anyone want a cupholder in a coffee table?”
Smitty widened his eyes comically. “Are you kidding me? Why would anyone not want a safe place to plop a cup? You never have to worry about spilling a drink or knocking it over, and you wouldn’t have to fumble for it when you’re watching a game, ’cause your cup is right where you left it.”
“Okay, that’s a whole lot of nonsense. And thankfully, a moot point.” I glanced at our surroundings as if to be sure that was true and noticed the salesperson watching us from the register. I couldn’t remember her name off the top of my head, but I was pretty sure I’d sold her and her partner a house two years ago. I lowered my voice and added, “They don’t have such a thing, but even if they did, I’d stop you from buying it.”
“How? I’m bigger than you. And I’m fast. I could whip out my credit card in a flash and shove this f*cker into my truck before you could say ‘No, bad table!’ ”
So I have a weakness for sports romances, especially hockey romances. It shouldn’t be any surprise that I added this to my reading list as soon as I knew it was coming out. I was already pretty confident I’d be getting a good story since I’ve really enjoyed this author’s other books, and that was once again the case here with Thin Ice.
I loved both of the main characters. I always enjoy a story centered on more mature characters, and here both men are at the point in their lives where each knows what they want …or at least they believe they do. Smitty more so than Bryson has to figure out what he truly wants for his life going forward, and it was great to see him discover this as he and Bryson embark on their relationship.
The two of them together are just right, they had excellent chemistry in all areas. While they start off with the purely physical with their obvious instant attraction, things develop over time into more as they each open up to the other.
There is a fantastic cast of supporting characters from the previous books in the series, but you don’t need to have read the other stories to enjoy this one. I hadn’t had the chance to read the others before this one and had no issues following along…though now of course I want to go back and read everyone else’s stories.
Thin Ice was a great read and is getting 4.5 stars from me. I’d definitely recommend it to any M/M romance fan, and if you love age gap, mature characters, and hockey romance you will have hit the trifecta here with Thin Ice. This story is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.
To celebrate the release of Thin Ice, Lane is giving away the Winner’s choice of an audiobook or ebook of your choice from her published works!
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
Lane Hayes lives in sunny Southern California with her amazing husband, who thankfully doesn’t mind cooking, and their fabulous fox red Labrador, George, who’s pure mischief. Both provide oodles of inspiration for the low-angst, humorous books Lane loves to write.
She’s been telling stories about sexy, funny, sometimes geeky and quirky men who find love for a dozen years now and loving every minute. In her previous life, she sat at a desk and dealt with numbers, so yes…romance is much more satisfying!
Lane loves tea, travel, and chocolate…in any order. Add a book and she’s set!
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