by Shea Balik
Cedar Falls 20
Happy Endings
Welcome to Cedar Falls, a small North Carolina town nestled among the Smokey Mountains. Where the people are friendly and the men are hot.
Gabriel McCarthy came to Cedar Falls in an attempt to find his own way in this world. What he hadn’t expected was to find friends who would stand by each other no matter who tried to get in their way—or a man he could easily see spending the rest of his life with.
Lakyn Voss had just had the rug pulled out from under him when the mayor of Cedar Falls made it his mission to destroy Lakyn’s business. Determined not to fall victim to the man’s manipulations, he finds solace in Gabriel’s arms.
Warning: A battle of wits ensues in Cedar Falls as the tension rises and the date for the mayoral race comes closer.
Genre: Alternative (M/M), Contemporary
Length: 40,772 words
HAPPY ENDINGS
Cedar Falls 20
Shea Balik

Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
HAPPY ENDINGS
Copyright © 2017 by Shea Balik
ISBN: 978-1-64010-359-7
First Publication: June 2017
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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PUBLISHER
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www.SirenPublishing.com
DEDICATION
When people undermine your dreams, predict your doom, or criticize you, remember, they’re telling you their story, not yours. Stay strong.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shea Balik has always had a vivid imagination with stories running around in her head. Often her stories are taken from observations of other people with her own spin. Traveling is one of her favorite ways of fulfilling her passion of people watching. You never know, one day you may spark her imagination for her next book.
Whether at home or traveling, she is usually in front of her computer writing or curled up with a good book.
For all titles by Shea Balik, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/shea-balik
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Landmarks
Cover
HAPPY ENDINGS
Cedar Falls 20
SHEA BALIK
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Kill me. Just kill me now.
“Yes, I’m still here, Mother. I heard every word.” Gabriel McCarthy forced himself not to bang his head on his desk, not because it would hurt, but in fear his mother would hear it over the phone and make this already never-ending conversation that much longer.
“I don’t understand you, Gabriel,” his mother chastised yet again. “I raised you to be a self-starter. To set goals and achieve them.”
Gabriel just barely managed to stop himself from snorting at his mother’s understatement of the century. Being successful wasn’t an option for Elizabeth McCarthy’s only son. Even as a toddler, his mother had hired four nannies to “get him on the right track.”
Each nanny came from a different country in order to teach him other languages as well as immerse him in other cultures so he would have the “leg up” one needed in this life. When she saw that was successful, other nannies had been hired to continue his studies. By the age of ten, he could fluently speak Russian, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Farsi, Hindi, German, and Japanese.
Not that Gabriel didn’t appreciate his mother for ensuring he had an amazing education, but it had made him a freak with the other kids. Friends that weren’t arranged by his mother just didn’t happen and even then, they weren’t friends so much as a connection for the future.
“It is so disappointing to hear that you still haven’t been given your own campaign to manage.” The disapproval in his mother’s voice wasn’t new. It was rare Gabriel heard anything else.
Even when he’d graduated from Harvard, that hadn’t been enough, for he hadn’t been valedictorian. When he’d gotten a prestigious job at one of the top political campaign management companies, Campaign Inc., his mother had complained that he hadn’t come home to Michigan to run for office. That he had only been used to run errands and make calls for the numerous campaigns over this past election cycle had only cemented his mother’s disappointment in him.
“That’s not how things work, Mother. I have to pay my dues, just like everyone else,” Gabriel explained, not that he needed to bother. She wouldn’t listen anyway.
Just like he thought, she kept talking as if he hadn’t spoken. “They should be working for you. Not the other way around. I don’t understand why you won’t come home and do what I’ve been preparing you for your entire life.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. He loved his mother. He did. He just wished she would stop trying to push him into things he didn’t want. He was a gay man. Sure, things had changed and there were a few openly gay men in office, but he had never been someone who had wanted to be in the spotlight. Nor had he wanted his personal life to be used as a platform for change.
He applauded those who did. But that just wasn’t him. Why his mother couldn’t accept that, Gabriel wasn’t sure. Then again, she didn’t accept his being gay, so why would she listen to what he wanted to do with his life?
“I don’t want to be a politician, Mother,” he tried again.
“I don’t care what you want,” his mother said. “I made sure you had the best education available. The best tutors. Do you think I did all that for you to be some gofer for a campaign? No,” she said, not letting him answer. “I raised you to become the president of the United States. Now, I expect you to quit that job, come home, and run for Congress. Do you understand me?”
He knew his mother had done everything in her power to prepare him for politics but that didn’t mean he was going to be miserable to make her happy. The only reason he didn’t tell her off was because he knew she pushed him because she wanted him to be succ
essful. In her warped mind, that meant he’d be happy.
How anyone could meet and talk with politicians and think for a moment they were happy was beyond Gabriel. To him, they were tired, run down, frustrated, and miserable. He often wondered if they ever had a genuine moment of happiness.
“That’s not going to happen, Mother.” Gabriel might not be willing to tell his mother off, but she had also raised him not to be a pushover. “I’ve already explained I’m not about to become a politician so I suggest you figure out a way to deal with that or you will find yourself constantly disappointed.”
“Gabriel Evan McCarthy, I am your mother.” Like he could ever forget when she reminded him of that fact several times a day. “I didn’t raise you to talk to me in that manner.”
“Maybe, but you did teach me to stand up for myself and to not allow anyone to push me around.” He hated having to talk to her this way, but he’d learned long ago it was the only way to get through to her. At least long enough to get her off the phone.
She silently fumed for a few moments before saying, “Then I expect you to stand up to that ungrateful boss of yours and get assigned to a campaign instead of sitting on the sidelines like you have been. It was bad enough you didn’t participate in the most volatile campaign season in history but to still be content to sit there while they push you around is intolerable.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes when he heard the line go dead. At least she was off the phone and, with the way it ended, it would be at least a day or two before she called him back. He hoped.
“Gabriel, Mr. Hamilton would like you to go get lunch for him and the partners,” Tiffany said through the intercom on his phone.
Great. He knew he was low man on the totem pole but Gabriel had to admit his mom was right about his bosses pushing him around. “I’ll be right there.”
An hour later, Gabriel was glad he worked out as he carried six bags of food into Mr. Hamilton’s office. The aroma coming from the bags had Gabriel’s mouth watering. He just wished one of the many containers he pulled out to set around the conference table on the far side of Mr. Hamilton’s office were for him. But gofers didn’t get lunch at fancy restaurants. With what they were paying him, Gabriel could hardly afford the peanut butter and jelly that was waiting for him in his cubicle.
“As I already tried to explain, Mr. Grant, we just don’t do campaigns for mayors of small towns. Maybe if you were in New York or Boston we’d consider it.” Gabriel hated the derogatory way Mr. Hamilton spoke, like he was somehow better because he lived in Washington, D.C. “I’ve never even heard of…what did you call it again?”
“Cedar Falls, you pompous, arrogant asshat.” The insult, as well as the equally arrogant tone, was so unexpected it nearly caused Gabriel to forget himself and laugh out loud.
Another voice came on the line. “I don’t believe you understand the full extent of this campaign. Jesse is a gay man, running for mayor in a southern town. A town, I might add, that has quite a large gay population. You could easily receive a lot of recognition from the press.”
“Be that as it may,” Mr. Hamilton said, his tone still demeaning, “we’re going to have to pass.”
The first voice from the phone that Gabriel assumed was the client said, “You know, you might want to reevaluate who you help get into office because from what I’ve seen of politicians, they are nothing but a corrupt group with no morals and extremely low standards if they’ve hired someone like you.”
Just like Gabriel’s mother had done earlier, the caller hung up and the line went dead.
“It’s a shame Mr. Grant is only running for mayor of that small jerk-water town. He could probably run circles around any opponent we put him up against,” Mr. Hamilton said to the others in the room. Well, not Gabriel. To the men that were sitting there, Gabriel didn’t exist except to get their coffee and run errands.
If he had any hope of changing that, Gabriel needed to be more assertive. The question was: how? He’d tried approaching Mr. Hamilton several times, but no matter what he said, his boss refused to give him anything more important than making phone calls or getting his food.
No. If Gabriel wanted to run a campaign, he’d have to do something bold. Daring. Something completely unexpected.
An idea formed that would be all of those. Quickly, he finished unpacking the lunches and went back to his cubicle. A few keystrokes later, he’d booked a flight to Atlanta and rented a car for that night.
His plan might work. Either way, he’d most likely lose his job, but he didn’t care. Gabriel was tired of being the office whipping boy. It was time for him to do what he believed in. He was headed to Cedar Falls. He just hoped he could convince Jesse Grant to hire him.
Chapter Two
“Who in the hell does he think he is anyway?” Jesse grumbled as Lakyn worked an especially large knot out of his shoulders. “It was like I didn’t even matter just because I’m in a small town. Doesn’t he know it is the small towns in this country that make it run?”
Lakyn wasn’t so sure about that. Whenever he watched the news, which he was the first to admit he tried to avoid as much as possible, it seemed like only those who lived in large cities mattered to the press. The concerns of the small towns were all but forgotten by most politicians, news reports, hell Americans in general.
“I hate idiots like that,” Jesse grumbled. “If I didn’t already have enough on my plate, I’d show that idiot every person matters, no matter where they are from.”
“He doesn’t sound very nice but if you have any hope of getting these knots out, you’re going to have to relax.” Even as he said the words, Lakyn knew them to be futile. He wasn’t sure Jesse knew how to relax. The guy was a bundle of energy, who had to be moving at all times to be happy. Why he bothered coming in for a massage, Lakyn had no clue.
Just as if he hadn’t said a word, Jesse continued on his tirade. “It’s just not right that people feel they can treat others that way. When I become mayor I should enact a law that forbids people from thinking they are better than others.”
Lakyn’s hands stilled. “How are you supposed to know what they think?”
Jesse turned his head and stared at Lakyn as if just now realizing he was even in the room. “What?”
It wasn’t unusual for Jesse to forget where he was when on the massage table. He’d done it many times. Actually, most of the time. It was as if he came here to rant about the people of Cedar Falls. Well, it could be about anyone really, but he tended to focus on those who lived here.
Lakyn started to knead Jesse’s flesh once more as he repeated himself. “How will you know what people are thinking in order to arrest them?”
Jesse blinked at him, then shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? That’s law enforcement’s problem.”
When Jesse placed his face back on the headrest, Jesse continued his grumbling about people thinking they are better than others. It went that way through the rest of the session, but it was near the end that Jesse had Lakyn wondering if they would be better off with Mayor Murphy being reelected.
“They need to know what it feels like to be belittled and humiliated,” Jesse insisted. “I’ll build stocks on the corner of Main and Peachtree. That way, when someone is found guilty of believing they are better than others, everyone in town will be able to point and laugh at them as they deserve.”
When Jesse laughed, Lakyn was warming up to the idea of having Mayor Murphy stay in office. “I might even have rotten vegetables for sale for people to throw at them.”
Jesse snorted. “Considering they deserve to have rocks thrown at them, they’d be getting off easily.”
Yep. Mayor Murphy might be corrupt and not care about the people of Cedar Falls, but he really was starting to look like the better choice.
* * * *
“I’m telling you, Jesse is off his rocker,” Ethan grumbled.
Lakyn had been eating lunch at Whitney’s Diner when Ethan, Flynn, and Vail entered and sat right down
next to him. Why? Lakyn had no idea. He wasn’t exactly a part of their crowd, although that was more the fault of Lakyn then the others.
They often invited him to their homes, or a night at the casino, but Lakyn didn’t want to feel like a fifth wheel. No. That wasn’t entirely true. It was more that he hated seeing them so happy with their husbands and boyfriends while Lakyn remained alone.
That was also his fault since he turned down anyone who asked him out. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go, but Lakyn just wasn’t ready to put his heart out there again. He was tired of it getting trampled on. Yeah, sure, that was also his fault for choosing losers to date, but then again, Lakyn had always been a bad judge of character.
“I don’t know,” Vail said as he poured ketchup on his burger. “I like the public stock idea. It would sure deter people like Betty Sue and Savannah from thinking they can talk down to us.”
“By putting them in stockades and throwing rotten vegetables at them?” Ethan’s tone was dumbfounded, his eyes round as saucers. “Why not just have a good, old-fashioned lynching?”
If only they knew how close they were to what Jesse really thought. Not that Lakyn was going to say anything. He wasn’t a counselor but he felt anything said during a massage was private. Kind of like a confession in church. Massage therapists may not have the same guidelines as priests but Lakyn didn’t feel it was his right to tell tales, either.
“Oh please. Jesse isn’t going to put that law into action,” Flynn said as he rolled his eyes. “He’d be in that stockade more than anyone in this town if he did that.”