A Flighty Fake Boyfriend (Men of St. Nachos #2) - Z.A. Maxfield Page 0,82

my forehead. “Any time.”

The table sat in the sunniest spot in our kitchen. Well, it was sunny when the morning mist, typical in St. Nacho’s, burned off. He'd left the slider open with the screen closed, letting in a breeze from the sea and the sound of birds chirping in our orange trees.

“Lila got confirmation that there’s been a disruption in drug trafficking through El Paso. No word yet if that’s because the Mexican government made headway on those manufacturing camps, but it’s good news either way.”

“A step in the right direction.” Along with drugs, there were always mules who might or might not be willing participants. The cartels ran prostitution, gambling, and pornography rings. We celebrated every sign they were slowing down as a win.

I ate the rest of my breakfast and helped Epic do the dishes.

Epic and I spent most of our time working remotely from St. Nacho’s. I still traveled for business, and we flew to Canada for face time with Lila and our colleagues when necessary.

Truthfully, working remotely had changed very little in my day-to-day work schedule. In fact, lacking commute time and creating a state-of-the-art home office meant I could spend even more hours at work than before. Epic put a firm stop to that. A moratorium. A hell no.

Over the weeks we’d spent together, I’d learned to let Epic tell me when it was time to start and stop. Like today, when he turned off the alarm so I could get a bit of extra sleep or in the evenings when sitting down to a nice dinner could be a late affair but was not optional.

Epic still made sure I wore sunscreen. He bought me hats.

When I doubted he was getting anything out of the deal, I only had to see his smile, taste his kisses, or surrender my body to the delights of our bed to know whatever we had was real, and good, and lasting.

Happy Epic made everyone around him happy. It was his gift.

“Come on. I’ll drive you to work,” he said as he opened the sliding screen door. “Get a move on.”

He chivvied me out to our back yard where Waffles, our Corgi, lay basking in the sunshine. The little dog barked happily and ran around our feet in an attempt to herd me toward the guest apartment we’d turned into a state-of-the-art computer lab.

These days, time at work passed differently. For one thing, there was a refrigerator in the office kitchen filled with healthy snacks and drinks like LaCroix and kombucha. There was a massive, down and leather couch wide enough for two-person napping and…other things sometimes.

We’d hired Waffles as our PA. She mostly sat in my lap and snored softly or chased a laser pointer because the local vet, Dr. Davies, said Corgis are prone to unhealthy weight gain.

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt tired, or hopeless, or lonely.

“Hey, don’t hog the dog.” Epic reached out with grabby hands.

“I’m not hogging." I curled around her protectively. "She wants to be here.”

“Because she’s got Stockholm syndrome from you hogging her. Let me take her for a while.”

I handed Waffles over without waking her.

“Love you,” he kissed me gently before going back to his desk.

“Love you more.” I glanced out the window just in time to see the breeze knock a flutter of fragrant orange blossoms off our trees. Tiny white petals drifted past the window like snowflakes.

I let out a huge sigh. Our life was going to be…awesome. Epically awesome.

Want to spend a holiday in St. Nacho’s? Try Winter Solstice in St. Nacho’s, a taut and tender tale of compassion, redemption, and unlikely romance featuring a character you might remember from A Much Younger Man…

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If you enjoyed Epic and Ryan’s story please leave a review. The more reviews a book has, the more likely it will pop up on other readers’ sales pages, meaning they’ll get the opportunity to enjoy it too. Reviews are the #1 way for you to help me keep writing the stories you love. Review A Flighty Fake Boyfriend today!

Feel like revisiting the original St. Nacho’s stories? Before The Men Of St. Nacho’s started finding their age gap lovers, there was Cooper and Shawn in St. Nacho’s, Ken and Jordan in Physical Therapy, Yasha and JT in Jacob’s Ladder, and Cam and Dan in The Book of Daniel.

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If you like stories about tough men and hard choices, I suggest you try The Brothers Grime Series. Life is full of dirty jobs. That doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love while doing them!

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Do you want something totally different? How about a paranormal fantasy series with romance, adventure, and a little more…bite?

Begin The Deep Series today! There's no leverage like seduction...until a vampire’s love takes a big bite out of Adin's plans.

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Acknowledgments

I could not have begun this new series without a book bible for the St. Nacho’s Series, which Susie Selva painstakingly created. Susie wears all the hats on the editorial side, and has done a fantastic job taking the noodles that come out of my brain and turning them into a book I can be proud of.

Without Susie, this book would not have been possible.

Also, another great big thank you to LE Franks, Morticia Knight, Belinda McBride, and Sue Brown for being my partners in Writerly Shenanigans. For all you do to help foster an environment of commerce, cooperation, enthusiasm, and community, I love and thank you!

Also by Z.A. Maxfield

Novels

Crossing Borders

Drawn Together

Family Unit

ePistols At Dawn

Gasp!

The Pharaoh’s Concubine

Rhapsody For Piano And Ghost

The Long Way Home

Home the Hard Way

The St. Nacho’s Series

St. Nacho’s

Physical Therapy

Jacob’s Ladder

The Book Of Daniel

Winter Solstice In St. Nacho’s

Men of St. Nacho’s Series

A MuchYounger Man

A Flighty Fake Boyfriend

The Brothers Grime

Grime and Punishment

Grime Doesn’t Pay

Partners in Grime

The Deep Series

Deep Desire

Deep Deception

Deep Deliverance

The Bluewater Bay Novels

Hell on Wheels

All Wheel Drive

The My Cowboy Series

My Cowboy Heart

My Heartache Cowboy

My Cowboy Homecoming

My Cowboy Promises

My Cowboy Freedom

Honky Tonk Hellion

The Stirring Series

Stirring Up Trouble

All Stirred Up

Novellas

Lights! Camera! Cupid!

Blue Fire

Fugitive Color

Through the Years

Holiday Stories

I Heard Him Exclaim

Lost And Found

Secret Light

What Child Is This?

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About the Author

Z. A. Maxfield is a fifth generation native of Los Angeles, although she now lives in the Inland Empire.

She started writing in 2006 on a dare from her children and never looked back. Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends.

If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four manages to find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can do if you give up housework.”

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Copyright

A Flighty Fake Boyfriend

Copyright © October 2020 by Z. A. Maxfield

All rights reserved.

This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Maxfield Publishing.

Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.