The Second Time Around

by Rowan McAllister

  With a groan, he rolled to an upright position and swung his feet over the side of the bed. It was Saturday, Phyl was laid up, and someone had to get the place ready for the weekenders. He couldn’t wallow in the past all day. Thank God, Phyl hadn’t mentioned any scout troop or other groups coming in, because he really didn’t think he could handle it without her. Not yet anyway.

  Despite the text and the busy day looming ahead, he had a spring in his step as he went to take a shower. It would take a lot more to get him down that day.

  He loves me.

  Russ would have to say it a few hundred more times before it sank in, but every time the thought ran through Jordan’s head it put a smile on his face and a shivery feeling in his stomach.

  Fuck you, Dr. Perfect. He’s mine.

  Jordan would kick the guy’s ass for putting the moves on his man if Izzy didn’t outweigh him by a good fifty pounds of solid muscle. He could probably crumple Jordan like a soda can, so a throw-down was not going to be in the cards. Jordan wasn’t that stupid.

  Still, he wanted to.

  After peeking in on a still-sleeping Phyl and seeing someone had already left water, some fruit, and a prescription bottle on her nightstand, he wandered to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Russ had already started the pot, of course, and Jordan sighed into his first cup.

  “Hey,” Russ said from the doorway.

  “Hey,” Jordan replied with a giddy smile.

  “I’ve just come in to check on Phyl again, see if she needs anything else.”

  “I just checked on her. She’s still asleep.”

  “Okay. I suppose you and me are gonna have to figure out something for breakfast.”

  “I got mine,” Jordan responded, lifting his coffee cup, and Russ frowned.

  Jordan rolled his eyes, sauntered over to Russ, and gave him a peck on the lips to ease that frown. “Okay. Okay. I know. You’ll pitch a fit if I don’t eat enough for a small army. After last night, I will admit to being a little hungry.”

  Russ’s lips quirked, and he pulled Jordan close and kissed him again. “If that’s what it takes, I suppose I can rustle up a repeat any time you need it.”

  Jordan shivered and pressed himself closer for a second before pushing away with a groan. “It’s Saturday,” he reminded them both. “You go check out Phyl’s calendar to see what’s on for today while I grab my tablet and watch some YouTube videos on how to make breakfast that won’t kill either of us or burn the house down.”

  With a grin, Russ swatted him on the ass and headed for Phyl’s office. “Thank God,” Russ threw over his shoulder as he sauntered away. “I was afraid you were gonna make me cook breakfast.”

  “God no. You’re the one who says he hates hospitals,” Jordan teased back.

  At the stove, after replaying a few short videos three or four times, Jordan thought he might just be able to handle some scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. He’d watched Phyl enough times, and it didn’t look that complicated. He might have burned a few things around the edges, but he blamed that on Russ, who kept coming up behind him and nibbling on his neck, distracting him.

  He had to give it to Russ, though, the man choked down every last bit without complaint. And he didn’t even give Jordan shit for not eating the burned parts of his own food.

  “Should we save some for Phyl?”

  “Naw. We’ll have volunteers here most of the day, and I think Jon and Ernie plan to come in on their day off to check on her. If I know their wives, we’ll be knee-deep in casseroles before noon.”

  Russ’s grin fell away as his phone buzzed, and Jordan’s stomach lurched. “Is it him?” Jordan asked.

  “Yeah,” Russ sighed. “He texted me earlier this morning too.”

  Forcing himself not to crane his neck so he could see the screen, Jordan said, “What does he want? Or is that a stupid question?”

  Russ gave him a soft smile and took his hand. “He wants us to catch up over dinner, just the two of us.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “Not much yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”

  “’Cause that’s what boyfriends do?”

  Russ’s smile widened. “Yes. That’s what they do.” With a sigh, Russ held Jordan’s gaze. “I will need to see him face-to-face at some point. I don’t feel right sayin’ what I have to say over the phone. Are you okay with that?”

  No.

  “Sure.”

  Russ’s eyebrows lifted, and he chuckled. “Sure?”

  Rolling his eyes, Jordan got up from the table and carried his dishes to the sink. After rinsing them off and setting them in the dishwasher, he turned around and leaned back against the counter. “This adulting shit is hard. You know that, right?”

  Russ brought his dishes over, set them on the counter, and took Jordan’s hands. “I know.”

  “I really don’t want to be fair and let you see that man alone, but I know I shouldn’t stop you from what you feel is right either.”

  “You trust me?”

  “Yes… mostly.”

  “I gave you my word, and I’m a man of my word, right?”

  “Yes,” Jordan reluctantly agreed.

  “It’s you and me now, not me and him. I just want to tell him that to his face, the right way. Me and him are done. I promise. We were done almost three years ago, when he left to follow his dreams…. You see, I’m a selfish man, deep down. I want the man I love to include me in those dreams. I want to be one of those dreams, not the one standing in the way of them.”

  “Okay.” Jordan nodded and blew out a breath. “You are, you know… one of my dreams. I didn’t have any when I got here. I’d been so busy before, trying and failing to be someone I wasn’t, that I hadn’t taken any time to make dreams. But I have now. I love this ranch. I love the horses and the work we do. I love Phyl. I love you. This is what I want.”

  Russ’s deep brown eyes got all soft and shiny as he pulled Jordan in closer. “Then we’re family now—you, me, Phyl, Jon and Ernie, the ranch, and all the animals we save. This is a family. If you tell me that’s enough for you, you’ll make me the happiest man in Texas.”

  “It is.”

  “And if it ain’t at some point, you’ll tell me, right?”

  “Yes. But I don’t think I’ll ever dream of anything that doesn’t include you beside me.”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  Jordan kissed him, long and sweet. He clung to Russ’s hard, wiry shoulders, wanting to wrap the man around him like a blanket and just wallow in him, but a throat clearing from the doorway and a set of tires on the gravel drive ended the moment.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Phyl said, and they both rushed to help her to the table while Russ scolded her for being out of bed. She shooed him away. “I’ll go back soon. I just heard doves cooing in my kitchen and figured I needed to check on things.”

  Jordan flushed and Russ rolled his eyes. “Stubborn woman.”

  She grinned as car doors slammed outside. “I’m gonna guess that’s the cavalry.”

  Jon and Ernie came through the door, both carrying aluminum-foil-covered casserole dishes, and Russ threw Jordan a grin.

  Watching the three men fuss over Phyl and her grumble and grouse at them while trying to hide her smile, Jordan couldn’t help but go a little doe-eyed.

  “I can hear your gears turning from all the way over there,” Russ murmured as he set the casseroles on the counter and dished up a couple of plates for the guys and Phyl.

  Jordan bit his lip and cast a quick sideways glance at Russ as he moved to help. “Russ, you know I’m still a mess, right? I mean, I’m working on it. I’m happy… ecstatic really, that you and Phyl want me as part of your family, but I’m still kind of a mess.”

  “We all are sometimes. Nobody’s perfect. The B STAR’s here to help, if we’re willing to put the work in.” He grabbed the plates and threw a wink over his shoulder. “Besides, I told you I’d be the happiest man in Texas to call you my mess.”
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  Not quite sure whether he liked that, Jordan stood frozen at the stove frowning until Russ threw him another grin and said, “Come on, slowpoke. We got work to do.”

  More from Rowan McAllister

  Couples counselor Ted Freeman is still reeling six months after his partner left him. He desperately hopes a week of peace and quiet at a quaint mountain cabin will be just what he needs to regain his personal and professional confidence.

  Neil Kelly is a computer programmer who just got promoted to full time and is celebrating over Christmas by going on his first real grown-up vacation at the Cabins in the Pines Inn. When he runs into Ted, his longtime crush, Neil can’t believe his luck, and he vows to do whatever it takes to make Ted see him as something other than the dork next door.

  Neil wasn’t part of Ted’s plan for the holidays, but he might turn out to be exactly what Ted needs.

  Can a pickup line from a stranger completely change the way an ordinary man sees himself?

  Adrian wouldn’t have thought so, but after an ugly breakup where his self-esteem took a serious beating, he’s willing to try just about anything to repair the damage… even return to a secluded bar in rural Maryland and the intriguing stranger whose words have been on his mind since they met.

  Biker, bouncer, bartender, and tattoo artist, Wyatt is a rolling stone. After fifteen years, he is tired of a life on the run, but he isn’t sure he knows how to do anything else or if he has anything besides a physical relationship to offer.

  What’s supposed to be a one-off turns into another and another, and the relationship looks promising until the mob and the FBI come knocking on Adrian’s door.

  In Victorian London, during a prolonged and pernicious fog, fantasy and reality are about to collide—at least in one man’s troubled mind.

  A childhood fever left Arthur Middleton, Viscount Campden, seeing and hearing things no one else does, afraid of the world outside, and unable to function as a true peer of the realm. To protect him from himself—and to protect others from him—he spends his days heavily medicated and locked in his rooms, and his nights in darkness and solitude, tormented by visions, until a stranger appears.

  This apparition is different. Fox says he’s a thief and not an entirely good sort of man, yet he returns night after night to ease Arthur’s loneliness without asking for anything in return. Fox might be the key that sets Arthur free, or he might deliver the final blow to Arthur’s tenuous grasp on sanity. Either way, real or imaginary, Arthur needs him too much to care.

  Fox is only one of the many secrets and specters haunting Campden House, and Arthur will have to face them all in order to live the life of his dreams.

  Elemental Harmony: Book One

  When absentminded video game developer Jay Thurson impulsively follows his intuition westward, he never expects his rideshare to turn out to be a gun-toting madman. In an act of desperation, Jay turns to the gift he’s long neglected and feared for help and leaps from the moving car on a dark and deserted back country road.

  Running for his life leads him to the doorstep of Adam Grauwacke, a roadside nursery owner and sometime vegetable farmer, whose affinity for the earth goes far beyond having a green thumb. Adam’s world is ordered and predictable, dependable and safe, but despite having his dream farm and business, he’s always felt something’s missing. When he welcomes Jay into his home, life seems to click for both men, and together they explore their gifts and their attraction.

  But harmony has no value if it is easily won, and a crazed gunman and volatile ex might be their end if Jay and Adam can’t learn to trust the strength of their bond.

  Elemental Harmony: Book Two

  Aiden Flanagan has spent his entire life fighting who and what he is. After losing control of the power within him one time too many, Aiden flees to his parents’ vacation home on Nantucket to lock himself away as punishment and to protect the people he cares about. Getting nowhere on his own, Aiden fears he’ll never have enough control to join the world again—and perhaps he doesn’t deserve to—until an act of kindness brings Murphy Mizuuchi into his life.

  Though still grieving the loss of his partner, Murphy’s own gifts won’t allow him to ignore the strongest projector he’s ever encountered or deny the beautiful soul behind Aiden’s drama. Drawing on his own recovery, his empathy, and years of practicing meditation, he shows Aiden not only how to find a safe outlet for who he is, but to value his abilities.

  But Murphy isn’t the only one drawn to Aiden’s fire. Someone from his past followed Aiden to the island, and it will take both Murphy’s and Aidan’s powers to protect him from a man who won’t stop until he takes all Aiden has.

  Readers love Rowan McAllister

  We Met in Dreams

  “There are layers of this story. When you finish it, you will ponder on it for days, discovering nuances in the story as it haunts you in retrospect.”

  —The Novel Approach

  “Ms. McAllister has created a very intriguing, emotional as well as a sweet historical romance here and I completely loved it.”

  —Gay Book Reviews

  Power Bottom?

  “I was smiling and happy throughout the read. Highly entertained.”

  —Badass Book Reviews

  “Power Bottom? was nothing like I thought it would be—it turned out even better!”

  —Alpha Book Club

  Water and Fire

  “Rowan McAllister has become one of my go-for-comfort authors. Her writing, stories, and characters just click with me.”

  —Boys in Our Books

  ROWAN MCALLISTER is a woman who doesn’t so much create as recreate, taking things ignored and overlooked and hopefully making them into something magical and mortal. She believes it’s all in how you look at it. In addition to a continuing love affair with words, she creates art out of fabric, metal, wood, stone, and any other interesting scraps of life she can get her hands on. Everything is simply one perspective change and a little bit of effort away from becoming a work of art that is both beautiful and functional. She lives in the woods, on the very edge of suburbia—where civilization drops off and nature takes over—sharing her home with her patient, loving, and grounded husband, her super sweet hairball of a cat, and a mythological beast masquerading as a dog. Her chosen family is made up of a madcap collection of people from many different walks of life, all of whom act as her muses in so many ways, and she would be lost without them.

  Email: rowanmcallister10@gmail.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/rowanmcallister10

  Twitter: @RowanMcallister

  By Rowan McAllister

  Cherries on Top

  Feels Like Home

  Grand Adventures (Dreamspinner Anthology)

  Green the Whole Year ’Round

  Hot Mess

  Lost in the Outcome

  My Only Sunshine

  Power Bottom?

  A Promise of Tomorrow

  The Second Time Around

  We Met in Dreams

  A DEVIL’S OWN LUCK

  A Devil’s Own Luck

  Never a Road Without a Turning

  ELEMENTAL HARMONY

  Air and Earth

  Water and Fire

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Second Time Around

  © 2018 Rowan McAllister.

  Cover Art

  © 2018 Adrian Nicholas.

  adrian.nicholas177@gmail.com

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person
depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-481-4

  Mass Market Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64108-014-9

  Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64080-522-4

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017916215

  Digital published September 2018

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America