Nice Guys Collection With Added Bonus Material

by Kindle Alexander

  The investigation into his accident was still open, but Mitch couldn’t talk about it, except to say they had a few leads. Both he and Jace were shocked to learn his father wasn’t behind the attempt on Jace’s life. Which left even more questions needing to be answered, but Mitch assured them they were working hard and Colt would be called to testify when they finally made a case.

  Colt tried the doorknob to Jace’s office, which turned easily, and he stuck his head inside to see he was in a heated meeting. Everyone involved looked up at Colt’s interruption. Damn.

  “Sorry!” Colt began, ducking his head back out the door. He’d shown up unexpectedly after his daily therapy session.

  “No, we’re done, come in,” Jace said, motioning Colt forward, visibly trying to change his facial features from stern to soft. He was kind of funny to watch.

  “Yeah, come in. He’s always happier when you’re around, and we were just getting an earful. You need to stay in here!” Haley took the excuse, bounded up and on her feet, already making her escape.

  “I’ll make sure the girls are watched better,” she said as the door closed behind her and the two other coaches who had made a run for the door when he first stuck his head inside.

  “What happened?” Colt asked. Jace stayed sitting behind his desk, and Colt took the chair Haley had abandoned. The seat was warm, which meant they must have spent some time in there, clearly having Jace chew them out.

  “Nothing really. Two girls got caught going out back to smoke when they should have been practicing. I got chewed out for a full hour by their parents. Apparently parents still hate that kind of thing,” Jace stated. His brow relaxed and his whole demeanor changed. His lips lifted into that silly grin, the one that usually lit Jace’s face when Colt was around. Colt loved that smile. “What brings you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at therapy?” Jace asked.

  “I came to a decision. I’m pretty solid on it, and I wanna make sure you agree before I move forward,” Colt said.

  “All right, shoot.” Jace rose and walked around the desk to stand in front of Colt. He propped his hip on the edge and leaned back, crossing those beefy arms over his chest.

  Shit! Jace always had one hell of a hot look, but through all Colt’s therapy, Jace had gotten bigger, added more mass to his already thick frame. Every time Colt worked out, so did Jace. In fact, they did just about everything together. And damn, he wanted those arms wrapped around him right now. Colt ignored the pull and fought to stay focused on the topic at hand.

  “I think it’s time I throw in the towel.” Colt stayed seated, pretending to be relaxed, but the anxiety of the decision coursed through his mind, robbing him of even the thoughts of Jace being the hottest guy he’d ever seen.

  Everything they worked for since the accident centered on getting Colt back on the field. They’d succeeded remarkably. Jace had been like a dog with a bone, never letting Colt get down or frustrated. He pushed Colt, and through all the rehab, he finally understood why Jace had flourished in cheerleading—he was one to his core. Jace was Colt’s personal cheerleader, encouraging and supporting him like he’d never been uplifted in his life.

  With loads of rehab over the last few months, it looked as though he could possibly get back to playing some serious football. The problem he found with achieving his goal? He didn’t want to leave Jace for the extended time he’d be required to if he went back to New York. Colt just didn’t want to do it. He loved the life they’d created. He loved being here in this gym, having Jace come home to him every night, traveling when the gym traveled.

  “This is sudden,” Jace said, his brow narrowed, his smile fading. Colt had no idea what that meant.

  “Not really,” Colt interjected, keeping his relaxed stance, and damn, was that hard to do with this nervous energy coursing throughout his entire body.

  “I don’t understand. You’ve worked so hard to get back. You’re close, Colt. I know you can do it. We can work out more together. I can make time in the morning. It’s not a problem,” Jace started, but Colt lifted a hand to stop him.

  “Babe, they’re gonna officially release me this afternoon. I didn’t fight them this time. I know I can get to where I was, and I will, but that means I’m away from you. I don’t wanna be away from our life for months at a time,” Colt spoke softly. He rose and came to stand in front of Jace.

  “We can make this work. It’s different now,” Jace said, bringing his left hand up to cover his chin. Colt could see Jace silently contemplating all the options, mentally willing himself to find a way to better help Colt achieve his goals. Jace wore his wedding ring. He actually never took it off, and the resolve in Colt’s decision firmed. He wanted to be here, nowhere else.

  “Let me say this differently. If you’re all right with it, then I’m done with playing professional football. Are you all right with it?”

  “You’ll go stir crazy, Colt. I don’t want you to resent this decision someday.”

  “I was thinking about maybe doing more broadcasting. ESPN sent over the market numbers this morning. They said I did a pretty good job when I did the guest spot. I can do more of that.” Colt watched Jace intently, but his lover had gone quiet. “Babe, I want this, what we have right now. I like you videoing my progress, working with me, making me a part of this family you have here at the gym. I get told all the time that the moms like me here because the dads come talk football. I like being wanted! This is where I want to be. I just need you to agree to keep me.” Colt stepped closer to Jace, wormed his way between his parted legs. Got right up in his personal space and wrapped his arms around him. “Say yes.”

  “Okay, yes,” Jace said, doubt still on his face.

  “Perfect.” Colt leaned in and pressed his lips to Jace’s. The tender, sweet kiss deepened quickly. Jace’s tension faded, and he finally wrapped his strong arms around Colt, making this moment perfection. The squeal of young girls drew them apart, and they both turned their heads toward the commotion. All the girls were standing outside the office window clapping, and giggling, with big smiles showing on their faces.

  “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” they chanted in unison. Colt grinned as he took Jace’s face in his palms and turned his head to give a good showy chaste kiss.

  “We’ll finish this at home, cheer boy,” he whispered against Jace’s lips.

  “I’ll hold you to that, Michaels,” Jace said, kissing Colt again.

  The End

  Maple Bacon Brussels Sprout Skewers

  Ingredients

  1 1/2 lb Brussels sprouts, stems trimmed

  10-12 slices thick cut smoked bacon

  Olive oil

  Salt & pepper to taste

  1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

  1/3 cup light brown sugar

  1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

  3-4 Tbsp real maple syrup

  Directions

  Preheat the oven to 375°F

  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

  Cut sprouts in half, toss in bowl with olive oil, salt & pepper. Set aside.

  In a small bowl, combine 1/3 cup brown sugar and cayenne pepper.

  Coat each side of bacon with the brown sugar mixture and then place on baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until a little firm. Do not cook all the way. When bacon has cooled enough to handle, thread one end onto a skewer, add a Brussels sprout half, then weave bacon over top of sprout, add another sprout over the bacon layer continue weaving bacon and sprout on skewer. One (1) piece of bacon per skewer.

  Place completed skewers back on the foil-covered bacon pan.

  Place in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.

  Remove pan from oven and gently turn skewers. Try to keep your bacon skewer intact.

  Place pan back in the oven and roast for another 15-20 minutes or until the bacon has crisped up (remember it will crisp even more as it rests) and the sprouts pierce easily with a knife.

  While the skewers rest for a minute whisk together the Dijon mustard and syrup.


  Plate the skewers and drizzle the maple Dijon glaze over top.

  Cheer Dynasty

  Early Spring, 2004

  Jace Montgomery pushed the headset mute button, leaned back in his office chair, and took a deep, calming breath as he closed his eyes. They didn’t pay him near enough money to continuously take someone else’s butt chewing, but yet, here he was again, doing just that. His ears edged seriously close to bleeding from the nails-on-a-chalkboard shriek coming from the furious woman on the other end of the line.

  Her nasally tone had gnawed on his nerves from the moment he’d picked up the call, and Jace fought the involuntary shiver her voice caused as she continued to rage in his ear. She was hard to follow and completely pissed off due to a service technician’s tardy arrival accompanied by, as she put it, his rude behavior in putting his foot through her ceiling. She was certain he’d done so on purpose.

  Jace shrugged and cocked a brow at no one as the possibility of the service tech doing it intentionally took root in his head. Mainly because Jace wanted to put his foot through her ceiling too just for having to take part in this conversation.

  At the outset of the call, Jace hadn’t managed much more than an apology and the restart of a redirect to finding a solution when she’d accused him of being a “foreener” and doubting English as his first language. Technically, English was his only language, and how she’d confused his southern accent with any other country was beyond him.

  “Montgomery.” It took a full second to realize his name wasn’t coming through his headset. Jace looked over his shoulder to see his manager standing at the entrance of his cubicle. The small space he called home for nine hours every night shift couldn’t be more than three feet by three feet, not near large enough for the other man to enter like he had, or to hide the onions and garlic his manager had clearly had for dinner.

  “Yes, sir,” Jace answered.

  Between the woman on the phone still ranting about the rude behavior of the service tech and the manager standing over him, Jace decided fast food might be a better employment option. Four years of college, a summa cum laude bachelor’s degree in communications, and all he’d managed to find for work was a shitty overnight job in customer service for a company that truly sucked.

  “You know, Montgomery, if you’d ever engage with the staff, you might not hate your life so much.”

  Yeah. Another struggle in his life. Whatever Jace was sending out in the world seemed to put people off. He got it. His newly enacted emotional boundaries plus the cinder block walls he had surrounding him were the real deal. He saw for himself he was a vastly different man than before. His always positive, can-do attitude had died a tragic death ten months, three days, and—looking at the clock on his screen, doing the quick math in his head—fourteen-ish minutes ago when his ex had sat back and watched him get beat up then pushed out the front doors of the bar.

  The mental image made Jace furrow his brow and scrub a hand over his face. He wasn’t allowing himself to think about Colt. If he did, his attitude would tank, and his heart would hurt. Days would go by before he got hold of himself.

  Too late.

  Those old memories flooded through him, wrecking any hope he had of escaping the painful truth. Colt had never loved him. He couldn’t have. What Jace had thought they’d shared had been nothing more than a lie. A lie that even after all this time left him feeling lost and broken. How could five damn days of being completely played by someone be so hard to forget? And why the fuck did it still mean so much to him now?

  Remembering the look in Colt’s eyes had him more frustrated than he’d been five minutes ago. Jace jerked the headphones off his head and absently tossed the device on top of the desk. So much for keeping his attitude in check.

  “What do ya need, Mike?” Jace asked snappishly and cocked his head to see the manager’s lips shift to a firm line. All the indication he needed to know his boss wasn’t happy with his response. Maybe this was the moment his bad attitude finally got him fired. Maybe he could find a McDonald’s where the uniform was blue. Blue brought out his eyes…

  “You used to cheerlead in that college you went to,” Mike said. The redirection threw Jace off. Such an odd question. Jace just stared at the man. All his old defense mechanisms dropped into place, preparing for something derogatory to come next. “My daughter— No. My wife wants my daughter to make the cheerleading team at her junior high school.”

  “Okay.” Jace leaned forward enough to seem interested. After threading his fingers together, he took the bait. “When are tryouts?”

  “Three weeks. I’ve been told they’re early for this school.”

  Not a lot of time, but if he were just tightening her current skillset, it was doable.

  “Okay, what’s her skill level?” Jace asked, considering all the NCA requirements that many school districts were beginning to adopt for their cheerleading programs.

  “I don’t know what that means. She’s never done cheerleading or gymnastics if that’s what you’re asking,” Mike said, leaning his shoulder against the frame of Jace’s cubicle.

  Jace nodded, hoping to hide his inner groan. What the hell? Three weeks until tryouts, never been introduced to cheerleading, and his boss wanted his daughter to make the team? Yeah. Okay. Nobody ever got how much training went into becoming a cheerleader. “Mike…”

  “Look, I’ll pay you. I just need you to try. Meet her after school, get my wife off my back, and I’ll pay. What’s it cost for one-on-one lessons?”

  Jace cocked a brow. Since he seriously didn’t like his boss, and absolutely didn’t want to waste his time, Jace suggested a dumb amount of money. “Forty-five dollars for thirty minutes.”

  “Fine. Would you take sixty dollars for an hour? If you go longer, I’ll pay accordingly,” Mike offered.

  At least mentally, Jace had to pick his jaw up off the ground before nodding, then adding a second condition. “And I want to move to a daytime shift.”

  “Now, that’s too much. I don’t have any openings…” Jace spun his chair back around, turning away from Mike while reaching for his headset, trying to remember who he’d been talking to before Mike arrived. Per his monitor, the call was no longer active. Shit. That’d be another mark against him for abandoning the call like that. “She makes the team and I’ll give you days. You can have the seven to three shift.”

  Hearing those words perked Jace right up. He glanced over his shoulder at his manager and upped the ante a bit. “Add Monday through Friday and you got a deal.” At least then, maybe he could get a part-time job and finally move out of his mother’s house.

  “Goddammit, Montgomery.” Mike left his cubicle, so Jace took that as a yes. Now, he just needed the girl to have some sort of athletic talent.

  Please let her at least have a cartwheel in her repertoire.

  The day was pleasant, which was a bonus for the end of February and his mood. Jace sat on a hard bench under an old oak tree at the local park, staring at his watch, watching the minutes tick by as he waited for his student to arrive. Being punctual was added to the list of things to teach the girl about cheerleading.

  He had his foam mat spread across a grassy patch at his feet, a water bottle for each of them, and his iPod playing softly through an earbud pushed inside one ear as he scanned the parking lot, hoping the car pulling in was his trainee. As the car got closer, Jace could see something wasn’t right. The mother and daughter looked to be arguing if the wild hand gestures behind the windshield were any indication. They pulled in the empty parking spot directly in front of Jace, and he got a good look at the girl and promptly started scanning the street and park entrance again. Surely that wasn’t who he was waiting to meet.

  When no one else pulled into the parking lot, Jace took a closer look at the girl still inside the vehicle who now stared directly at him. She looked more like a character off the Rocky Horror Picture Show revival than a perpetually happy cheerleader type.

  That made
him smile until both car doors popped opened at the same time and the yelling became loud enough for him to hear. Best he could tell, the daughter would rather be dead than seen as a cheerleader, and the mother said she’d be so lucky. Whatever that meant.

  At least she had a healthy set of lungs. He was certain anyone within a mile could hear her yelling back at her mother. As Jace’s dreams of first shift began to slip through his fingers, he assessed his student. The hair was purposefully dyed jet back. Her olive skin had so much white makeup applied that her skin looked sickly, or maybe the black eye makeup, blush, and lipstick increased the starkness of her complexion. Her clothes were all black and her shoes were military combat-style boots.

  From what he could tell from all the drama unfolding a few yards away, his manager’s daughter did not want to be there.

  “Are you Jace Montgomery?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, getting to his feet, pulling the earbud free as the mother walked up to him. He extended a hand, shaking the mother’s hand while keeping his eyes on the girl who had stopped about three feet away.

  “This is Katie—”

  “I’m Catherine!” Katie said, cutting her mom off and crossing her arms over her chest as she rolled her eyes.

  “Her name is legally Katie. Catherine is nowhere on her birth certificate,” the mom said, swinging her head toward her daughter. “And she’s going to do this for me, because it’s all I’ve wanted for her since she was born. I loved being a—”

  “You lead your life, I’ll lead mine.” Katie stomped her foot, causing a small cloud of dust to settle on the top of her boot. That little outburst had Katie’s mother stalking toward the girl, pointing a finger in Katie’s face. Oh man, if they got into a physical fight, he’d have to intervene, and he’d rather poke his eyes out than get between these two.