Once in October is now live! I wasn't sure I'd have it out before the end of the year, but it's all good. I made it, and I couldn't be more pleased. Enjoy!
Kevin Scott takes life one day at a time. He learned the hard way not to plan too far ahead. He didn’t plan to return to Centerville, but here he is, back home and to his surprise, working at a dream job. Life might work out for him this time. The last thing he’s looking for is a relationship. At least, until Aaron Abbott stepped into his path. Kevin has concerns about dating a younger man, but his desire for Aaron wins over his caution. The last thing he wants to do is break his young man’s heart. What he never considered was if Aaron would break his.
Aaron’s a year out of college and still figuring out life and what he wants from it. When he meets Keven, what he wants becomes focused. The only problem he can see is that Kevin is no longer a boy, but a man with a lot of experience, the kind of which Aaron hasn’t yet had. An unexpected event separates them, but Fate isn’t finished. When a second chance is given to them, all that remains is to see if love survived.
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EXCERPT
Friday afternoon rolled around, and Mick got jumpy. After he
checked his cell phone for about the gazillionth time, I asked him what was
going on. He grinned.
“Date night. Logan is getting off work early.”
I laughed at him. “I’m letting my imagination run wild and I
bet it’s not far off.”
“Probably not. Listen, I’m expecting Red to show up with that
Javelin on the rollback. Let me show you where I want him to drop it, and then I’m
going to head home. You can lock up.”
He’d briefed me about that car earlier in the week. It was a
total restoration and the main reason he’d hired me. It would take months of
work to get it back on the road and he wanted me established before he started
the work on it.
“Good plan. You’re not accomplishing a damn thing, so go get
all ‘fluffed’ for Logan.”
“Smartass. I will.” He made a face at me, which made me
laugh harder.
We settled down and he showed me where to store the Javelin.
Then I watched him launch an old Road Runner down the street toward his house
and then got back to work.
The tow truck came and went, I finished what I’d been
working on, and then decided it was too late in the day to start something new.
I was sweeping the garage when Aaron Abbott pulled in out front. I held my hand
out to him since it was clean. He nodded, flashed me a shy smile, and shook it.
“Hi. I’m Aaron. I was here the other day.”
“I remember. I’m Kevin. Is there a problem with your car
again?”
He sighed. “Yes. The dealership says they can’t find the
problem. I don’t know what to do next.”
“Trade it.” Damn. I hadn’t meant to sound so sarcastic, but
it slipped out. I tried to salvage the moment with more polite advice.
“Seriously. If they won’t fix it, go to a different dealership and trade it in for
a newer model. You don’t need the aggravation of paying for a car you can’t
trust.”
Aaron grimaced. “Technically, it’s not my car. I mean, it is,
but my mom holds the title. I was in school, and the banks are mean if you’re
not employed, so she stepped in. I’m just grateful to have wheels, you know?”
I did know. He must be younger than I originally thought. If
he were jailbait, I wouldn’t even ask him if he wanted a free bottle of water
from the cooler. I had to know, and unfortunately, I blurted out the question.
“How old are you, Aaron?”
He stared at me,
wide-eyed and open-mouthed. His gorgeous hazel eyes narrowed. “I’m old enough.
Don’t you worry about that.”
I held my hands up in front of my chest, palms exposed. “I’m
just trying to figure you out, man.”
He blinked. “What the fuck for? Why is that any of your
business?”
Crapola. My lack of filters had landed me in it
again. “Peace, brother.”
“I’m not your ‘man’ and I’m not your ‘brother’. We’re done
here.” He turned on his heel and stalked to the driver’s door of his car. I
took a step toward him.
“Aaron, wait! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like an ass,
but obviously, I did. Let’s start this conversation over. Please?” I held out
my right hand to him again. He took a deep breath and sagged against his car.
“Maybe you should buy me dinner to make up for being a
jerk.”
Buy him dinner? Ohhhh, yeah. I could do that. He wasn’t too
young to eat a meal with me. The only thing that would be better if I’d been
quick enough to ask him first, but hey. Did it really matter? The guy offered
me a second chance and a quick test drive. “Gee, Aaron. I don’t know. What if I
say yes and you think I’m easy?’
He rolled his pretty eyes at me. “Are you always like this?”
“Sometimes I’m worse.” I grinned at him.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m a cheap dinner date. I like the
Snow White Grill.”
“So do I, but my sister and her girlfriend eat there every
Friday night. You don’t want to be seen with me. They’d consider you to be fair
game for insults and some really disgusting lesbian sexual innuendos.”
His eyes widened, and I didn’t think his social horror was
mock. “That bad?”
“Worse than your worst imagined scenario, I kid you not.”
Finally! Aaron cracked a smile! “We could drive over to
Marionville and go to Frolic.”
I shook my head. “Too noisy. Have you ever been to Casa El
Rancho? It’s surprisingly good, it’s close, and I can easily afford it.”
“I like it, too. You should pick me up in your car. We can’t
trust mine too far.” He fished a business card out of his wallet and wrote on
the back of it before handing it to me. “That’s my address and the phone number
is on the front. Be there at six, okay?”
I glanced at my watch. “Better make it six-thirty. I need to
close the garage.”
Aaron nodded and spoke as he opened his car door and climbed
in. “See you then.” With that, he swung the little car around and drove away.
He never had me look at his car.
What the hell just happened?
I had no business even having dinner with a guy who didn’t
look old enough to be let out of the house. Damn his pretty hazel eyes.
Jeez. Did I have a date? What the hell just happened!
I hadn’t been on a real date in…years. I went to clubs and
found a companion for the evening. I didn’t date! I doubted I was civilized
enough to date someone who had a bit of culture about him. If I went caveman on
Aaron, I’d probably scare him out of a year’s growth. I had to find out just
how old this guy was because I didn’t need his mother calling the law on my
ass.
The devil on my shoulder whispered in my ear he was old
enough to ask me out, and he might know all he needed to know about what a guy
like me liked.
I shoved that little bastard away from my ear.
_*_*_*_*_Book IV in the Centerville Muscle collection
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