Liam

by Candice Blake

  Shawn had possession of the ball, and his focus on the court was unwavering that night. He dribbled the ball past two players from the other team and did a lay-up, scoring two points.

  They were only down by one point now.

  I wiped my palms on my pants, really hoping the Raptors would take home the win. It would complete the perfect day Shawn and I had together.

  After we confessed our love for each other, I felt euphoric and couldn’t stop smiling. I finally felt like there was someone in the world who I could call mine.

  “Damn, the way you look at Shawn on the court makes me a bit jealous,” Damon said.

  I didn’t even realize I was staring at Shawn, but he just looked so goddamn handsome in his white jersey, his body glistened with sweat. I couldn’t wait for the game to be over so we could go back to the hotel room. I didn’t even want him to shower.

  I laughed. “You shouldn’t be jealous, you have Jesse.”

  “I know. I know. I’m only joking with you. I’m glad you guys figured things out together. Now we can go on double dates.”

  “We’ll see about that. It’ll be hard to go anywhere with people following him around all the time. But we’ll find a way to make it work.”

  The Nets called a timeout with just twenty seconds left on the clock. Everyone was on the edge of their seats.

  I remembered how much I loved this game after I’d stopped following it so many years ago, and since I was once good at basketball, I wondered if Hayden would be interested in playing when he was older.

  With Shawn around, I was sure he’d introduce the game to Hayden eventually. I looked down at him and could picture a happier future with Shawn in it.

  I knew Shawn would be a good father figure to Hayden. Shawn was much more assertive than me, and Hayden could learn a lot from someone so driven to be successful.

  The timeout ended, and the players returned to the court.

  With twenty seconds left on the clock, the players were more aggressive. One of Shawn’s teammates passed the ball to Shawn and Shawn dribbled it up the court.

  There were five seconds left.

  Shawn charged toward the net, as three defensive players tried to block his path. Shawn circled back to the three-point line which no one expected, and he spun around, shooting the ball from far away.

  The buzzer sounded as the ball left his fingers, and the light around the backboard turned red.

  The crowd was silent as everyone watched the ball arc toward the net.

  It was like everything was happening in slow motion.

  The ball bounced on the rim twice, before it went in.

  The Raptors had won.

  Damon, Jesse, and I stood up and cheered. All of Shawn’s teammates got off the bench to run toward Shawn.

  The moment was magical. Shawn’s smile lit up the stadium, and he turned toward me as he was celebrating with his teammates, giving me a wink. He walked up to me holding his head up high.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” I said back.

  Then, he did something I wasn’t expecting. He leaned in and kissed me on my lips. In front of Damon and Jesse. In front of everyone. In front of the cameras that surrounded us.

  “Are you crazy?” I whispered. “Everyone’s looking at us.”

  “I don’t care,” Shawn said. “So, what if they are? I want to show the world the man I love.”

  The crowd went silent, then people started cheering. Some of his teammates looked confused by what just happened, but Shawn was only paying attention to me, and I felt so special because of it.

  “I love you,” Shawn said.

  “I love you too,” I said.

  Shawn reached for Hayden and held him. He leaned in to kiss Hayden on the forehead, and Hayden had a big smile on his face.

  “I’m going to teach you how to play one day,” Shawn said to Hayden. “When you grow big and tall like your daddy, you’re going to be unstoppable.”

  I felt that feeling of fullness in my heart again because I was surrounded by all the people I loved most in this world.

  Bonus Scene

  Want to know what happens after the game?

  (Hint: It’s a steamy scene on the rooftop of the hotel!)

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  LIAM (Single Dads Book 2):

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  Exclusive Look

  Harry’s Baby (Everett Bros Book 2)

  Harry’s Baby

  The Everett Bros Book 2

  Harry: We were friends, then roommates, now...a baby?

  Carter and I started off as just friends who were heading up north to work at a lucrative mining job. But after a few beers one night, a fire ignited between us that neither of us knew how to put out.

  Yes, I’m straight.

  But Carter somehow manages to make me question it. I guess being gay—or bi...whatever you wanna call it—might run in the Everett family.

  Carter: I always pictured myself being a dad. But not like this...

  On my 40th birthday, I realized something—all my friends were married with kids. Me? I still lived the life of a bachelor and it was getting old quick. I guess you can call it a mid-life crisis.

  Harry came into my life as nothing more than just a friend. Let me say one thing, though. Redheads are definitely my type. But even though I've experimented with guys before, I wasn’t expecting to be falling this hard for a man.

  An accident at work leaves me and Harry with an orphaned baby. Can two men who know nothing about fatherhood figure this thing out... together?

  Warning: Harry’s Baby contains explicit sexual content not suitable for anyone under the age of 18.

  The Everett Bros focuses on three brothers who go on their own journeys to find love. Each novel in The Everette Bros series can be read on its own or as part of the series.

  1

  Harry

  My life has been kind of shitty since the beginning. Now that my brother Blue had moved out of my one-bedroom apartment, I felt even lonelier than before. I was twenty-seven, and life seemed to be only getting worse.

  I lay on the couch flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch. I was debating between baseball highlights of the game that I just watched or the tennis match. The television was a way to distract me from the fact that it was already very late and I had to go to work the next day. My only day off that week was yet again spent lying on my couch and without anything meaningful to do.

  In the kitchen, pizza boxes that I hadn’t thrown out yet were stacked on top of each other. Next to it was a pile of bills that I hadn’t paid. At twenty-seven, I knew I had to get my shit together. But it was difficult to get motivated and do something about my life when there was so little to look forward to. Maybe two days off in a row if I was lucky? Or maybe I’d catch a break and finally win that lottery jackpot that I’d been playing into for the last few years. I had come close one time, missing the jackpot by only one number. Somehow, it only netted me a free ticket and a hundred bucks.

  I looked at the clock above the television, and I saw that it was already nine, and I hadn’t left the house that day. So I sluggishly got up and decided to take the pizza boxes out to the trash, ignoring the bills next to it. The hallways smelled of marijuana as I stepped outside. One of my neighbors was just coming up the stairs holding bags of groceries in each hand.

  “Mr. Walker,” I said, putting the pizza boxes on the floor. “Let me help you with that.”

  I walked briskly towards him and took the groceries from his frail hands. I wondered how old he was. Mr. Walker was always hunched forward. Seeing him like that always made me stand up a bit taller in fear that I’d become hunched like him one day.r />
  “Thank you, Harry. You’re a kind soul.” He smiled while fumbling for his keys.

  “What in the world did you buy at the grocery store? This is enough food to last you weeks!” I said as we walked down the hallway.

  “Well, the deals were just too good today,” he said. “And you know I can’t turn down a good deal.”

  I smiled as I watched him fish his keys out of his pocket and tried to find the one to his door.

  I was curious to ask why he had so many keys. But I figured that asking him that would be unwise. There was a possibility of him going on a long tangent about which each key led to. He made at least four attempts before finding the right one. My arms were starting to ache from the weight of the groceries.

  Finally, he opened the door to his dark apartment. Our units were next to each other. They were the same size, except his was so cluttered that I could barely see any of the walls at all.

  “It’s a bit messy here,” he said.

  A bit?

  He said that every time I had to help him with something, and the piles and piles of things were only getting higher. It would take a team of people to clean this place up. I worried about what would be under all those things.

  “Where do you want your groceries?” I asked.

  “Just by the fridge is fine,” Mr. Walker said.

  I looked around, trying to spot where exactly that was, and traced the path for me to get there. Navigating through the mess was like walking through a maze. I tried my best to make sure I didn’t fall and cause an earthquake from everything toppling over.

  “Careful about not stepping on Sneezy,” he said.

  “Oh right, the cat,” I said, scanning the ground for moving objects. It was like a minefield in here. By the time I made it to the kitchen, I was sweating.

  I set the groceries next to the fridge.

  “Here is fine?” I asked.

  Mr. Walker nodded, hanging his hat on the wall.

  “Why do you keep so many things in here, Mr. Walker?” I asked.

  “Well, a lot of people throw away things that are in perfect condition. It’s a shame because if I had more space, I could salvage more of it.”

  I glanced around the room, seeing stacks of dated magazines. The covers were faded and worn out. Monitors that looked like they were from the nineties. Cans of tomato soup that stacked high on top of each other like a Warhol painting.

  “Well, when there’s too much of anything, it starts becoming...a bit less valuable,” I said.

  I fumbled over my worlds because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. The last thing I wanted to do was give him more weight on his back making him hunch even more if that was even possible.

  “You’re right, Harry,” he said. “I’ll clean this up first thing tomorrow!”

  He’d said that many times before, but it only got worse. I figured it was no use, and I had done my job to carry his groceries inside.

  “Do you want to stay for some tea?” Mr. Walker asked. “I have this new lemon green tea that’s magnificent. If only I could remember where I put it...”

  “Not tonight, Mr. Walker. I shouldn’t have any caffeine before bed, or I’ll stay up all night. I have work tomorrow.”

  “Ahh, work! Well, I shouldn’t keep you any longer, then.”

  I smiled and walked towards the door.

  “Don’t work too hard,” Mr. Walker said.

  I paused at the door and turned to him.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “When you’re my age, you’ll know what I mean. But in the meantime, just take my word for it. Don’t you have a girlfriend? I never see you bring any ladies home.”

  I felt blood rush to my cheeks, and I wondered if it looked as red as my hair.

  “No girlfriend,” I said. “Haven’t had one in years.”

  “Oh, are you one of those homosexuals?”

  I smiled. “Nope, not gay either. But my brother Blue is. You’ve met him before.”

  “Ahh yes, he lived with you briefly. He was a fine young gentleman.”

  Mr. Walker’s cat, Sneezy, appeared from the shadows, and it scared the shit out of me. I jumped back, knocking against a stack of milk crates filled with mason jars. I had to turn to steady them quickly before they toppled over.

  “Jesus, Sneezy, give a warning next time before you just appear out of nowhere,” I said.

  Mr. Walker reached down to pick her up, and the cat yawned and nudged her head against Mr. Walker’s pale neck.

  “I’m going to head out now,” I said. “Better get to bed, or I’ll be tired at work.”

  “All right, Harry. Take care,” Mr. Walker said, smiling.

  I stepped back out to the hallway and closed the door. I rubbed my eyes to adjust to the brightness of the fluorescent lights.

  I was reminded of the pizza boxes that I still had to take out. I picked them up off the ground and brought them downstairs to the garbage bins. I lived on the second floor, so it was only one flight of stairs down. I was wearing a white tank top and a pair of athletic shorts. The summer evening breeze brushed against my cock. I hadn’t had sex in so long that even a bit of wind was capable of giving me a semi-hard-on. I hoped that I wasn’t going to run into any more neighbors who could see me sporting a boner.

  When Mr. Walker asked me if I had a girlfriend, I was reminded of how single I was. Single, not in a good way. A good kind of single was being out and having a good time, meeting and fucking new girls every night. But that wasn’t the case for me. I’d never had that good kind of single type of life. People told me that I was handsome and tall, and they were right about one thing. At six foot one, I was very tall. But being tall didn’t equate to having good game with the ladies, and when it came to that, I was awkward as fuck. I guess it stemmed from being teased for my red hair my whole life. I’d even buzzed it once, but it’d only made it appear even redder when it was that short. I spent most of my teenage years and early twenties playing baseball and watching sports. People rarely saw me without a baseball cap. I made sure of hiding my hair so that people couldn’t call me names like daywalker. It had once angered me so much in high school that I’d gotten into a fistfight.

  I worked in construction, mostly because I was strong, and a helmet allowed me to cover up my hair. I knew that it was irrational to have that insecurity, but I’d never grown out of it. I was twenty-seven, and I was strong enough to beat anyone up that bothered me. No one had called me a daywalker in years, but that still didn’t make me hate my red hair any less. Both of my brothers were blond. Why couldn’t I have just been like them?

  Throwing out the pizza boxes was enough productivity for a day off. I sat on the ledge outside of my apartment to take in the fresh air and the quietness that I’d always loved at night.

  When I headed back upstairs to my unit, I heard Mr. Walker talking to his cat in his apartment. The walls were thin in this apartment. I was glad that I wasn’t having any wild sex—or any sex at all for that matter. Because my neighbors, and especially Mr. Walker, would be able to hear everything. It was a bit sad to see how lonely Mr. Walker seemed, and I wondered if anyone thought that way about me. But did anyone care anyway? It wasn’t like I had many friends who thought about me or anything.

  I went back into my apartment and straight to my bedroom, turning on the air conditioner that sat in my window. I stripped out of my clothes and set my alarm on my phone. It was going to be another long day on the jobsite, and the summer heat wasn’t going away anytime soon. I only wished that I worked nights instead. Working nights would let me sleep all day. Since I only ever left my apartment at night anyway, it would fit perfectly with my schedule.

  I lay naked on my sheets as the air conditioning cooled my room.

  I went into one of the trailers on-site and put my lunch in the fridge. I’d showed up a bit later than I should. It was after my day off, so I was feeling particularly sluggish. It didn’t help that it was one of the hottest days of the year
. Even stepping outside for one second made me sweat. It was going to be a long one, a twelve-hour shift, with a possibility of overtime. I wouldn’t know until the end of the day if I had to work more hours. It was just the way that things worked around here.

  “Harry!” someone called out.

  I turned to see who had said my name, and sure enough, it was one of the guys on my team.

  “Carter, you’re in a good mood today, for a Monday,” I said, stretching my arms out to let out a big yawn.

  “Well, every day’s a great day on the jobsite,” he said with a sarcastic smirk.

  “You’re shitting me,” I said. “I’ve never seen you look so excited unless it’s before a long weekend.”

  Carter had dark hair that I envied and tan skin from working outside in construction. I’d only managed to get more freckles. He was one of the taller guys, six foot five, and I figured he was almost ten years older than me as well. If I remembered correctly, he turned forty last month.

  “I am shitting you. But I am happy for a reason,” Carter said.

  He came up to me and squeezed me on the shoulder so hard that it felt numb afterwards.

  “And what’s that reason?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure if I can tell you right now. But I can after work. We can meet at the Tim Horton’s down the street or something,” he said, pushing me aside to open the door to the fridge. He put his lunch bag in the vegetable crisper drawer, which I thought was weird.

  “Fine,” I said.

  “We better get going,” Carter said. “We’ll get yelled at again for being late.”

  I looked at the time and nodded. We walked quickly to where the rest of the guys were. They were standing under a large concrete slab that we had just put up. The team leader, Brad, was holding construction plans in one of his hands. He faced a group of ten guys. Cigarette smoke filled the air. I thought it was a gross habit. Though I picked it up when I first started working here because I was surrounded by it all the time. I’d quit for over five years now, and I was feeling much healthier.