sleep this off.”
“Bed sounds good.” He reached for Nathan again, all spaghetti arms and determination, and he got a solid face-plant on the sofa. Being horizontal started shutting down some of his higher brain function, because he suddenly couldn’t quite recall why he was on the couch and not in a bed.
“Roll over.”
“Woof.”
“Jesus, you’re wasted.”
“I know you are, but what am I?”
“For fuck’s sake.”
Arms rolled James onto his back. He reached for the shape looming over him, only to get the corner of a blanket in his mouth. Flat on his back felt nice. Swimmy. Everything all swirly and floaty.
“Nothing happened with us tonight, Jay,” Nathan said. “It was all a really nice dream.”
James tried to protest, but the light went off and Nathan was gone. He was alone again, on the one night when he didn’t want to sleep alone.
Moonlight glinted off the bottle of amber liquid left behind on the coffee table. His sister’s cries filled the too-quiet room.
Just one more shot...
Don’t miss Getting It Right by A.M. Arthur,
available wherever books are sold.
Copyright © 2015 by A.M. Arthur
Also available from A.M. Arthur
Unearthing Cole,
a Discovering Me novella
He only came back to get her ashes; he never
thought he’d find a reason to stay.
Cole Alston swore he’d never return to his childhood home in rural North Carolina—until he inherits his mother’s hoarded property. He hopes to sell everything and use the money to start over in Canada, far away from his abusive ex-boyfriend. It’s a daunting task, and Cole has no idea where to start.
Luckily for him, the local antique store owner, Jeremy Collins, offers his services in sorting and selling the hoard in exchange for a fee. Their chemistry soon turns their professional relationship into a personal one, but Cole must overcome his past and his anxiety before he can accept a new man in his life.
Or the possibility of a happy future.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Lucky Break by A.M. Arthur.
Lucky Break
by A.M. Arthur
Chapter One
Shawn Matthews glanced at the kitchen clock every few minutes while he worked, watching the long hand tick down the final two hours of his first season as sous chef of the Tango Saloon, a grim reaper inching closer and closer to Shawn’s doom. Okay, so maybe doom was melodramatic, but today was the saloon’s last day open for over two months, and Shawn had nowhere to go for the upcoming holidays.
“Eighty-sixing the buffalo burger,” his boss, Miles Arlington, said from his position at the sizzling flattop. Their server, Annabelle, had just come back to fetch two slices of Vinegar pie, and she repeated what he’d said.
“I’ll hard-sell the chili and Hangtown Fry,” Annabelle said as she left the kitchen through the swinging double doors with her pie order.
Normally, eighty-sixing a dish from the menu this early, especially a dish as popular as Miles’s buffalo burger, would have annoyed them all on a Sunday afternoon. But they’d underordered supplies this weekend so they wouldn’t have too many leftovers when the saloon shut down for winter break. As it was, Shawn was down to one whole Vinegar pie, only a dozen biscuits, and three final slices of Mock Apple pie.
“Are you sure you’re okay coming in tomorrow for a few hours to clean?” Miles asked after checking the temperature of his final burger. “I don’t want to interrupt your plans, but I figured it would be easier than scrubbing the place down tonight after we’ve both cooked all day.”
“Don’t mind at all,” Shawn replied, and he really didn’t. It gave him somewhere to be for part of his day. The rest of the ten-ish weeks that the saloon would be closed? No idea, and he wasn’t looking forward to living in his car all that time. “It’ll be weird being up here without guests, though.”
“Very true.” Miles shot him a thoughtful smile. “It’ll be weird not seeing you every day, too. You’ll have to visit one weekend or something.”
That was Miles’s very unobtrusive way of inquiring about Shawn’s plans while Bentley Ghost Town was shut down to tourists, so the actors and other folks who worked there could spend the upcoming holidays with their families. Mack Garrett, the owner of Bentley, had decided to close up starting the Monday before Thanksgiving, and then open again the final week in January. The break coincided with the closure of the nearby dude ranch Mack’s grandfather owned, and where Miles’s boyfriend—nope, fiancé now—worked as head cowboy.
Miles was excited to have lots of time with his guy. Shawn just