Warm arms encircled me from behind, a familiar voice rumbling in my ear. “You okay? Everything fine at the shelter?”
“No. I mean, yeah. Everything’s okay.”
I held out the message and phone number I’d copied down and showed it to him. Without a word, Trevor’s arms tightened around me. After a few minutes of soaking in his strength, Trevor turned and smiled at me.
“Told you your sister loves you. How about we call her after dinner? It will be good for you guys to catch up.”
“I’d like that.”
Trevor took my hand and led me over to the table, where everyone was already being seated.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving.”
Thanksgiving at Bistro 30 was something I’d never forget as long as I lived. Ethan, Jamie, Claire and I had spent days getting everything ready for it, on top of pulling extra shifts here and at Claire’s place. It had all been worth it. Ethan had invited everyone at Bistro 30 and The Greenhouse who didn’t have any place to go. When we started planning it, we figured we’d have maybe ten to twelve people to share Thanksgiving with us. Between the bussers, line cooks and waitstaff, we had double that number show up. It was a testament to how much Ethan, Jamie, and Claire treasured their staff, but even more of a statement as to how much their staff adored them.
“I’d like to have everyone’s attention, please.”
Trevor placed his hand over mine and squeezed as the room got quiet and everyone gave Ethan their attention.
“Thanksgiving is about being with family. For some people, that means biological family.”
Ethan paused and squeezed Claire’s shoulder.
“For others, it’s our chosen family.”
My heart lurched when Ethan bent down and kissed the side of Jamie’s head. Jamie turned his face and kissed him before he pulled away, earning several oohs and ahhs, along with one loud gagging noise from Claire.
“All of you in this room make our jobs easier and our lives richer. We all have a lot to be thankful for this year.” Ethan’s gaze zeroed in on Trevor and me. “So let’s all give a toast to being together as family.”
A chorus of “Happy Thanksgivings” and “Hell yeahs” echoed around the room. Two years ago I thought I’d lost my family for good. Now, here I was surrounded by people who loved and accepted me unconditionally. Like Ethan said, I had a lot to be thankful for.
A gentle squeeze of my hand brought my attention back to my main reason to be thankful this year.
I pulled his hand into my lap and squeezed it back. “Hey, you.”
Trevor’s deep brown eyes softened as he leaned forward and kissed me. It was nothing compared to the scorching kiss he’d given me in the office an hour ago, but it still made my toes curl with want for him.
“Hey, you. You guys really outdid yourselves. No wonder you’ve been half-asleep every time I’ve called you from New York.”
I looked around the table and smiled. “Yeah, but it was worth it.”
Trevor followed my gaze down the table to where Nick sat among some of the waiters from The Greenhouse. Nick was still a pretty closed-off guy, but one of the waiters, a tall, thin guy with multiple piercings had gotten Nick to talk and laugh when most people couldn’t.
“Nick looks happy.”
I sighed and looked back to Trevor. “He does, but he’s got a lot of demons locked up in that closet of his. It will take a pretty special guy to deal with it all.”
“He’ll find someone. I mean, come on, if a spoiled brat trust-fund baby like me can find his soul mate, I think Nick will be able to find someone who gets him.”
“Soul mate, huh?”
Trevor’s blush never failed to make me weak in the knees. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it made me want to drag him off to a private corner and have my way with him.
“My mom’s words. You should have heard her this last week going on and on about you. If I didn’t love you so much, I would have told her to shut up.”
“Hey. Don’t tell her to shut up. Your mom is the coolest mom I’ve ever met.”
Trevor’s smile softened as he placed a kiss against my temple. “She is.” He pause a moment, the narrowed his eyes.
“What did my mom say to you in New York? Right before she and my dad left Cielo. I’ve asked her millions of times and she won’t tell me.”
I thought back to that night and how scared I was to meet Trevor’s parents. They had wealth, prestige and social status, and who was I? Some kid who was kicked out of his house by blue-collar parents who loved their religion more than their own son. But then I’d met them and it all clicked. They were gracious and kind, and funny as hell, all the things I loved about Trevor and then some. We were saying our goodbyes when Maggie had embraced me and whispered in my ear.
“She told me she could tell you were in love with me. Then she asked me not to let you go before telling you how I felt, because she worried you were going to be stubborn like your father and wouldn’t tell me you were in love until I said it first.”
The look of shock, then amazement on Trevor’s face was priceless. “That woman never ceases to amaze me. She’s full of surprises. Like when she told me where to get this made.”
Dangling from Trevor’s hand was a shiny key attached to a silver key ring. The silver disk on the key ring was engraved with three letters in fancy script: TNT.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Trevor nodded, folding the key into my palm. “I know you wanted to take things slow, work our way up to living together, but the new condo is too cold and fucking lonely without you there. I’ll understand if you want to keep your place, but—”
“Yes.”
Trevor tilted his head to the side, and asked, “Yes, you want to keep your place? Or, yes, you want...”
Trevor was still one of the most cocky, self-assured guys I knew, but a little part of me fell more in love with him every time he let me see the shy, insecure side of him.
“It’s Ethan’s choice what to do with the apartment. As for this—” I held up the key ring, “I want it all. You, the condo, the walks in the park on Sundays and maybe one of the two point five dogs. I just don’t want you to regret moving here. I mean, are you sure you don’t want to be there? With them in New York?”
Trevor cradled my face in his hands, his expression more serious than I’d seen it all day. “When you told me your plans for Thanksgiving this year, the decision was made. I couldn’t imagine spending this holiday without you. Most days I want to kick Ethan’s ass, but he was right about family. Sometimes we’re lucky to be born with one who loves us, but we’re also lucky to find a family who loves and accepts us for who we are. The thing I’m most thankful for is you.”
Around us, people laughed and clinked glasses, but it all faded away when Trevor leaned in and kissed me. This right here. Being at Bistro 30, surrounded by people who cared about me and being kissed by someone who loved me enough to believe in my dream, this was what I was thankful for. This and all the years I knew we’d spend making each other’s dreams come true.
* * * * *
About the Authors
Eileen Griffin lives in the Southwest but loves to travel, and she has spent many summers crossing Europe with nothing but a backpack on her back. She enjoys Tex-Mex, lives for good wine and has a certain penchant for purple unicorns. She loves reading all genres of books, but her current obsession is writing M/M romance. Her past published works include both solo and coauthored novels and novellas with Nikka Michaels.
You can find Eileen online at her website, eileengriffin.wordpress.com, on Twitter, @EileenGriffin77, or on Facebook, facebook.com/eileengriffinauthor.
Nikka Michaels lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she spends her time cooking up romantic tales to sa
tisfy her craving for HEA’s with heat. A voracious reader, novice knitter and music lover, she’s been known to multitask without breaking a sweat. She loves to read and write M/M romance but believes everyone deserves a love story.
Find Nikka on her website, nikkamichaels.com, on Twitter, @NikkaMichaels, or on Facebook, facebook.com/nikkamichaelsauthor.
IN THE DISTANCE may be finished, but you don’t have to look far for more male/male romance from Nikka Michaels and Eileen Griffin!
IN THE RAW
In the Kitchen, book one
“I loved this book.”
—Night Owl Reviews, top pick
“A succulent romance with great character...”
—Publishers Weekly
IN THE FIRE
In the Kitchen, book two
“This passionate page-turner is a great balance of romance and sex, and the secondary characters support a solid plot.”
—Library Journal, starred review
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Discover more male/male romance in GETTING IT RIGHT by A.M. Arthur!
GETTING IT RIGHT
The Restoration Series, book one
“Heroes who have a lot of emotional baggage to overcome and aren’t afraid to put their feelings on their sleeves make [GETTING IT RIGHT] a page-turner.”
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Detective Nathan Wolf might just be a junior detective, but he tackles every case with the passion that he lacks in his personal life. A series of failed relationships with women has left him still single at thirty-four—because he’s too scared to admit to his longtime crush on his best friend James.
Dr. James Taggert likes to keep his profession as a psychiatrist separate from his party-animal persona. Known around the gay clubs as “Tag”, he’s the guy who screws them, leaves them, and never looks back. But James’s drinking is getting heavier, and when bad memories from the past resurface, he’s close to becoming the worst version of himself.
After a drunken blackout ends in a hot and heavy make-out session with his very straight best friend, James has no memory of the steamy affair. But Nathan isn’t sorry for the kisses that James can’t remember. Nathan finally musters the courage to tell James how he really feels, but a life-altering event might force them apart before they can ever be together.
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ISBN-13: 9781426899713
In the Distance
Copyright © 2015 by Nikka Michaels and Eileen Griffin
Edited by Alissa Davis
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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