Tag-Team Review: Five Sided Heart by Max MacGowan

Noah Trevelyan has lost his moorings. Disowned over his sexuality as a teenager, he hasn’t been back to his home on the Outer Banks since his fisherman father kicked him out. But when he returns for the Old Man’s funeral, he discovers his father left him the house and boat in his will. Noah must choose whether to stay or go, but he won’t be alone. There’s Ian, working to overcome the emotional scars left by a domineering ex-boyfriend, and Ty, a cheerful housekeeper who’s struggling to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken aunt. There’s Joshua too, running from the destruction of his old life, and Gabriel, who was once beaten and left for dead, and doesn’t know how to survive on his own.

Will they find in each other the strength and courage to keep living—and learn, together, how to love again? A polyamorous relationship is the last thing any of them expected to find in the Outer Banks, but it might be what they need most, and it might even be their redemption—if they can keep their group from breaking apart under the pressure.

What Lorix thought:

"Gabriel, looking up, was as naked as a man could be, and it had nothing to do with clothing."

This was my first Max MacGowan book - and I can tell you now, it won't be my last. I'm not one to be all grabby hands at a book featuring a polyamorous relationship - or menage of any kind really. That's not to say I won't read them (obviously) but there has to be more to the story than just good naked times for it to work for me. This book won me over for two reasons; firstly I'm taken with stories where a character revisits a childhood home. There is something about the emotional mix of past and present that works for me in books. Secondly - quite simply - I liked the cover.

"Any metaphor worth extending was worth overextending, in Ian's opinion."

There was something Arvinesque about this story. I love Eric Arvin's words and this very much has that vibe as far as I am concerned. Clever prose, witty and meaningful, worked well to bring the stories of these five virtual strangers together. To lend understanding of the emotional journey that happens when embarking on an unconventional relationship, such as shared by the men in this book,  rather than just relying on some hot sex, made me, the reader, feel a part of their story.

Each character was well defined and unique - I was worried that I'd lose track of who was who with five MC's in one relationship to concentrate on, but they were easily definable. I knew who Noah, Ian, Ty, Joshua and Gabriel were. I understood their quirks and characteristics and fell a little in love with all of them.

"Everything was just half a bubble off plumb."

It was an interesting story that didn't rely on the same old tired traits, metaphors and phrases. A book I really enjoyed and an author I can't wait to read more of.

What Fantasy Living thought...

Having an orgy the night of your father’s funeral is a perfectly rational reaction to death…

But no, really, I get it. Noah wants to forget and he can’t decide which of the four hotties he has sitting in his house, to choose from, so Gabriel makes the choice for him and initiates some sort of fellacio orgy…. It is fucking hot. Seriously. Bodies are everywhere. Everyone gets lucky. Five is NOT a crowd. Promise.

See?!

In all seriousness, this was a good read. I enjoyed it immensely, and the five-way sex scenes were pretty good too.

What irritated me was the five points of view. Not necessarily their points of view, but the frequency with which the points of view changed. I felt like I barely got inside each character’s head before I was thrust into someone else’s thoughts. There was a particularly spectacular sex scene where Gabriel was getting pounded and just when I was expecting the money shot, because I needed that money shot, it switches to Josh’s point of view. I was livid.

While I got a decent background, and character development for the three locals, and Joshua, I did not get enough of Gabriel. I think his character was the one who had the most to work with, but I didn’t get nearly as much as I wanted from him.

I imagine it’s a tricky balancing act when writing a poly relationship, to ensure everyone has a decent amount of time. Plot is important, and I thought that the plot was decent to a degree. It wasn’t fantastic but it held together enough to let the relationship development work.

I just think there was too much going on. I liked all the characters, and of course they all have a past, but I found that each of them having their own plot drama held the story back a little bit.

Ian I didn’t quite understand. I couldn’t get a true read on his personality, or why he picked his ex. He was sort of a wildcard. He was put together, but made a huge error in judgement with his ex. When we first meet him he gives of a mischievous and flirtation persona, but then when we get to know him he’s somewhat conservative and a little uptight and controlling. While I liked him, his personality was contradictory and I didn’t quite get him.

Gabriel was the broken one. There was so much to work with there. Sweet and gentle, but apparently had some sort of thing… I don’t know if it was a mental health issue, trauma from his past, a neediness in his personality, I don’t really think the author knew. I thought he was a great addition to the relationship but he is still a mystery to me. I needed more from him to completely understand who he was and what got him to the place he was when he met the other men.

Ty was adorable. Goofy and light. I enjoyed him and thought he had a good back story. The boy next door, everyone can’t help but love and want to be around, his character wasn’t completely fleshed out but it was enough that I felt comfortable with the amount of information I had. He was still a bit awkward, up to the end, but I thought he belonged. He just needed a bit more nurturing to come into his own.

Noah - Again, I wasn’t quite sure what his personality was. He seemed to be the, I want to say Alpha of the group, but it doesn’t quite fit. He was definitely the one who made most of the decisions, and directed the group in a way that benefited everyone. Who he was at the funeral was not who he was when he got to his father’s house, and my head spun a bit at the difference. But he was solid and flexible with the other men.

A huge gap in the story building was the jobs. Only Ty appeared to have a J.O.B. Gabriel’s lack of employment was explained, as was Joshua’s. Ian’s profession was explained but he never seemed to leave the houses, or if he did, it was to go shopping. I can’t recall where he got his money from. Noah’s life before wasn’t really explained either. And while he inherited a house from his father, there really wasn’t anything that explained his lack of fuss over staying on the island. I just didn’t understand what he actually did, or would do. It seemed that they were all financially fine, but with no evidence to suggest this was true.

There were a fair few holes, but I still enjoyed the story. There were some great scenes, and good relationship building between the characters, some more than others. I liked all the men, and wanted their relationship to work. I enjoyed getting to know them, as much as I could, and the dialogue was fun.

The connection between Joshua and Gabriel I could see was something unique and special and I really want to explore that more. The same with Ian, Noah, and Ty. I loved their chemistry. Of course they all had great chemistry, but if their relationship ever moved on from being five, that is how I think it would go. It was clear that Ty has had a crush on Ian for a really long time, so it was great to see them together.

The conflict resolution was not believable, but because it would spoil the story, I’ll just say, ignore it, and enjoy the rest of the book for what it is.

Recommended for those who want a light-ish Poly-romance between five men.

For more information:

Dreamspinner Press

Goodreads

Booklikes

Did you check out Max McGowan's visit earlier today? See here!

Author Visit: Five-Sided Heart by Max MacGowan

We're happy to host Max MacGowan today to promote their newest novel on its release day!

Noah Trevelyan has lost his moorings. Disowned over his sexuality as a teenager, he hasn’t been back to his home on the Outer Banks since his fisherman father kicked him out. But when he returns for the Old Man’s funeral, he discovers his father left him the house and boat in his will. Noah must choose whether to stay or go, but he won’t be alone.

There’s Ian, working to overcome the emotional scars left by a domineering ex-boyfriend, and Ty, a cheerful housekeeper who’s struggling to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken aunt. There’s Joshua too, running from the destruction of his old life, and Gabriel, who was once beaten and left for dead, and doesn’t know how to survive on his own.

Will they find in each other the strength and courage to keep living—and learn, together, how to love again? A polyamorous relationship is the last thing any of them expected to find in the Outer Banks, but it might be what they need most, and it might even be their redemption—if they can keep their group from breaking apart under the pressure.

Dreamspinner Press

Hello, Boy Meets Boy! Thanks for hosting this guest post for my new novel, Five-Sided Heart.

I love polyamory. Always have, always will. The idea of an entire group of people held together by bonds of affection, passion and friendship captured my heart from the moment I first heard of it, first realized it was an actual thing that actual people sometimes actually did. All that potential, and all that love. I had to write about it.

When it came time to blog about it, I knew I wanted to introduce my characters.

Now, I know a writer’s not supposed to have favorites. But I can’t help it. I do. Ian is my soul child. Writing him was out-and-out cathartic, and it’s so funny to me because I never saw it coming. Neither did Noah, Ty, Gabriel or Joshua.



An Introduction to Ian Walker

A conservationist who bought the house next door to Noah’s father and promptly painted it an eye-watering shade of blue (Ian’s a little color blind), Ian would be the first to describe himself as Type A. He’s bold, dramatic, and bossy, and has a tendency to take everyone beneath his mother-henning wings.

He’s also spent the last few years with a partner who royally screwed his head over. Though now an ex-partner, Winston convinced Ian that he was too unlikable to be tolerated by anyone else. That his affections were cloying, his preferences immature, and his wishes only fit to be ignored.

Ian has the sense to comprehend that everything Winston told him was a lie, but the problem is putting that knowledge into action and rebuilding his life. Every time he wants to reach out, the memory of past rebukes makes him pull away. He’s started distancing himself from everyone because it just hurts less.

And yet despite a rocky start when he meets Noah, Gabriel, Joshua and Ty, everything changes once they’re in Ian’s life. To his amazement they seem to like him just as he is. They’re not put off by his ways or offended by his need to nurture. They want him as much as he wants them. The only thing he doesn’t dare ask is where this relationship is going. He doesn’t want to make them run away.

Then, a jealous Winston shows his face and now Ian has a choice. Either take the easy road and knuckle under; miserable or not, it’s the devil he knows and he wouldn’t have to risk his heart.

Or he could stand up and fight for what he wants, for a change.

I hope you enjoy reading his story, along with those of the other men of Five-Sided Heart!

Excerpt

For a man who’d been obsessed with meticulously putting every practical detail perfectly in place, Winston had the personal organization skills of a dead lemur.

Ian pursed his lips and glowered balefully at the closet he and Winston had shared until recently. He’d been at it all morning and had barely dented the surface. Every time he thought he was making progress, he found another job queuing up. What had gone through Winston’s mind that’d made him buy seventeen identical pairs of shoelaces and then store them in a vintage hatbox? And did he expect Ian to mail him everything he’d left behind?

Probably.

Maybe he could tie all the boxes up with shoelaces instead of tape or twine.

Ian raked his fingers through his hair. He had long since passed the point of caring how it looked, and knew it stuck up in deranged, sweaty spikes. Ugh. A fine layer of dust, acquired from digging through the aforementioned closet, coated his skin and made him feel grimy and sticky. Was that grit in his hair? Good Lord.

There was, in all cases, a straw sufficient to break the camel’s back. Ian dropped the packets atop a box of broken odds and ends, including but not limited to a fresh bottle of the Swiss lube that was all Winston claimed he could tolerate, a handful of recipes for homemade power bars, and three silk ties that the, er, moths had gotten to.

Tsk. Darn moths.

There were also a few love letters not addressed to Ian, which the scissors had gotten to.

Darn scissors.

Ian hefted the box onto his shoulder and marched through the house he had fallen in love with as a green graduate student seven years earlier. He supposed conservationists tended to either love their homes or be more jaded and bitter about them than Turkish coffee served without sugar. Still, no regrets. He loved what he loved. Why should anyone say they were sorry about that?

He headed downstairs then, chin up and box at the ready. Ian bypassed the kitchen, with its neat recycling bins lined up in rows. Instead he stalked outside to the steps that led down to the beach, where a half-filled garbage can with its mouth open waited below. With no little sense of satisfaction, even if the rat bastard was likely to demand reparations for the wasted lube, Ian raised the box to shoulder height and upended it, letting the contents fall like textile rain….

And accidentally dropped the box.

Ian grabbed for it, but too late. Made of sturdy cardboard, it crashed into the trash can with a resounding clang that made him cringe. Also too late, he realized he bumped a flowerpot, full of dried-out marigolds, a hair too far over the edge of the rail. Ian covered his face at the ear-splitting smash of unstoppable force meeting immovable object. A tourist walking down the beach applauded him. Smartass.

But it still didn’t rouse Gabriel from his hunch down on the sand.

Ian sighed. Gabriel been there since late morning, equidistant between Ian’s house and the Old Man’s—Noah’s. There was no doubt of his identity. The dark sweater, the black jeans, the delicate bone structure. Ian had first seen him there when he stumbled out around nine in the morning with a cup of coffee, Gabriel tucked into as small a knot as an adult human male could manage, with his knees hugged to his chest and his gaze turned toward the sea.

One didn’t live near the ocean too long without developing the ability to recognize a soul in crisis. Poor guy.

Wanting to help him made Ian’s teeth itch—to do something useful. But what?

He blew out another breath and started down the stairs. If he didn’t pick up the broken pieces of flowerpot, some tourist kid cutting through his yard would step on the shards for sure. A lawsuit was the last thing he needed.

Someone did indeed cut through his yard then, before he reached the bottom, but not a vacationing kid. Ty. He waved up to Ian as he righted the trash can and started collecting the contents. “Having one of those days?” His grin was as wide and bright as a slice of sunlight, and even if it had to be a little at Ian’s expense, it eased a cramp in his heart that Ian hadn’t known was there.

Buy Links

Dreamspinner Press
All Romance
Amazon

About the Author

Max MacGowan is a work in progress. They’ve just turned forty, and are determined not to go gently into that good night. They identify as nonbinary genderqueer, and prefer they/them pronouns. While they can be quiet, friends will tell you all that still water can’t quite hide Max’s quirky personality, Or maybe it’s the ever-present puckish twinkle in the eyes that’s really to blame.

Max has a fantastic time writing male/male romance, and is especially fond of polyamory, found families, love in unexpected places, friends who become lovers, and romantic comedies. They’re owned by two rowdy tomcats who take pains to make sure their owner doesn’t ever get the status confused.

You can find Max on Facebook or send them an e-mail at “max.macgowan.author@gmail.com”. They’d love to hear from you!

Did you see our tag team review for Five-Sided Heart? See here!

Review: Taking the Long Way by Max MacGowan

Male escort Rye Bellamy is looking for a way out. Any way out. He’s getting older, and clients are getting more dangerous. If he doesn’t find something better, he knows he won’t survive.

He sees his chance in Marcus Townsend, a functionally blind Army veteran. Marcus, who refuses to accept his condition as immutable, has a shot at seeing a specialist who might be able to help him—but that doctor’s based on the other side of the country.

When Rye and Marcus meet, they realize they can help each other. Marcus can’t drive, but Rye can. Marcus knows what Rye is, but he likes him anyway. In fact, he more than likes him. Driving cross-country with a near stranger is a daunting task, but Rye’s biggest risk is falling for the gentle, stubborn-hearted soldier—and it might already be too late to stop that.

They plan to part ways when they reach their destination, but plans change as the affection between them grows. Now neither wants their journey to end, but continuing means finding a way to bridge the distance between who they were and who they'd like to become.

Rentboy...legally blind former solider...three guesses why I jumped at the chance to read this.

SRAL: on the prowl for rentboy romances. I wonder if I could add this to my business card?

Debut author Max MacGowan's "Taking the Long Way" does literally that. Apt title is apt. Old in the tooth hooker at the age of twenty-five, Rye gets an unexpected break from his rough life and forced 'retirement' by way of legally blind, sexually straight former soldier, Marcus. Marcus encounters Rye on the street and is drawn to him. But he's straight, so it's got to be that he's worried about the life the hooker leads, right? Marcus just falls into an easy friendship and invites the stranger he barely knows to escort him to Atlanta...as friends.

A different type of premise. And readers who don't like rentboy stories to be too gritty, might enjoy this. The tone is easy to follow, the characters are light and likeable. The men leave California and embark on a road trip through Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia. Some states were more interesting than others for the men. Overall, they drive their way into love.

This is tagged as erotic romance...hmm...romantica? *tilts head* Maybe. This is low/no angst. Nothing rocks the plot into anything crazy. Just a road trip from California to Atlanta, and somehow these men fall in love. They say the right words, at decent points in the novel...but I'm still on the fence with the couple. It could be they didn't make a hard enough sell in buying their relationship in the beginning.

There isn't as much sex (less penetrative) in the story as I'd have thought in an erotic romance. But the men's connection was nice. I like the progression into gay sex for gay sex virgin Marcus. Plus, taking his disability and struggle with his diagnosis into account, it was handled well enough. But there were some stronger and weaker parts.

Interesting parts:

- Demisexualism - this story is probably going to be tagged as 'gay for you'. A man who was heterosexual all of his life is now sexually attracted to a man. Not every man, just the one, Rye. But the author makes sure to introduce the term demisexual (being attracted to a person when a strong emotional connection is formed) Marcus hadn't been sexually attracted to anyone in some time. The author also made a point that it didn't matter of about the person's gender who Marcus was attracted to without making it too technical (pansexualism - term's not introduced though or properly used). I liked that they used Jessie the kid to introduce the demisexual term and get Marcus to understand. (Though the emotional connection was a little too soon for Jessie to call it nor would Jessie be able to tell really, would she?)

- Jessie - she wasn't too annoying for an eleven year old. She was my favorite of the secondary characters. Prim and Celia, the lesbian couple from Louisiana are a close second. They helped when the story dragged.

Things that weren't as strong:

- In the beginning and other spots (but mostly the beginning): the main characters weren't distinct enough in their own voice. They shared the same thoughts. An example, 10% - both main characters are strangers and yet they see the same man and refer to him by the same nickname? It tapered off somewhere before New Mexico, which leads me into my next issue.

- The story could have been shaved some: I get it. It's a road trip and the trip is supposed to intensify the bonding especially into shorter time frames. But some of it was unnecessary to the plot. New Mexico - that entire section? Not needed. Added nothing and read like filler. I would say the same about Shadow. But...I guess it worked for the Louisiana subplot. But...something about the entire thing felt wonky to me. *shrugs* I am happy with the outcome. I am a dog lover and go crazy for the pups, so what do I know?

- The story is very low angst: but it reads too easy in some aspects. It could be the lack of depth of the main characters. But the story is serviceable, more than memorable. (Could be because my last story was bombastic.) But I just finished the story and I struggled to remember character names and parts.

For a first time novel, it's good. It brings two men together who weren't looking for love much less a relationship together. I think the last chapter was necessary. But I'm iffy on the way the story ended. Don't worry, no cliffhangers involved. Everything is wrapped up...maybe a little too neatly for my tastes.

But it got the job done.

Recommended for readers who like low angst, damaged men with baggage getting together and don't want to end up being wrecked at the end of the story.

For more information on Dreamspinner Press,  Goodreads or Booklikes!

Exclusive Excerpt: Taking the Long Way by Max MacGowan

Today is Taking the Long Way's release day! Debut author Max MacGowan dropped by Boy Meets Boy to celebrate the momentous occasion with an exclusive excerpt from their novel. We thank Max for stopping by and leaving this exclusive giftie!

Male escort Rye Bellamy is looking for a way out. Any way out. He’s getting older, and clients are getting more dangerous. If he doesn’t find something better, he knows he won’t survive.

He sees his chance in Marcus Townsend, a functionally blind Army veteran. Marcus, who refuses to accept his condition as immutable, has a shot at seeing a specialist who might be able to help him—but that doctor’s based on the other side of the country.

When Rye and Marcus meet, they realize they can help each other. Marcus can’t drive, but Rye can. Marcus knows what Rye is, but he likes him anyway. In fact, he more than likes him. Driving cross-country with a near stranger is a daunting task, but Rye’s biggest risk is falling for the gentle, stubborn-hearted soldier—and it might already be too late to stop that.

They plan to part ways when they reach their destination, but plans change as the affection between them grows. Now neither wants their journey to end, but continuing means finding a way to bridge the distance between who they were and who they'd like to become.

Book Page: Dreamspinner Press & Goodreads


Exclusive Excerpt:

Marcus held his winning cards up, face out so Rye could see them too. “Twenty-one.”

“Damn.” Rye whistled. “I thought you were kidding me.”

“I never joke about cards. I told you, I can see shapes and colors. Not enough to drive, but enough to know which cards I’m holding when they’re in front of my face.” Marcus tossed his cards down and stood, needing to stretch his legs. “Want some water?”

Rye made a noise of agreement, but other than that, no fuss, no muss. Restful. He took the bottle of water Marcus tossed him without comment, cracking it open peacefully.
Marcus opened his own next to the window. The cool glass felt good on his cheek. He pattered his fingertips against the pane, mimicking the sound of the falling rain.

“You’re really not good at sitting still, are you?” Rye asked.

Marcus looked over his shoulder at Rye, who’d chosen the bed to sit on. His back against the headboard, legs stretched out but ankles neatly crossed. Lounging. Then he took stock of himself, by the window, listening to the rain, one foot tapping quietly, and laughed. “It shows?”

“Little bit,” Rye said, casual as could be. And why not? He’d probably done stranger.
Thinking about that made Marcus more restless. Not because he didn’t like it, or didn’t approve. Everyone had to make a living. Rye wasn’t ashamed. Why should Marcus be?

No, it was something else. He just hadn’t figured it out yet. But he would.

He could feel Rye watching him. “You must have traveled a lot. Army boys all have the same look, like they’ve been places and seen things.”

Marcus let go of the tatty curtain’s edge, intrigued. The way Rye said that—he had the sound of someone who’d always wanted to wander too. “Not that much unless you count West Point as well as the tours I did.”

“West Point?” Rye whistled. “Fancy. What rank were you, a colonel or something?”

“I wish. No, I was a first lieutenant. I thought I’d make a career out of it and maybe go as high as colonel one day, but….”

“I hear you.” Rye let the awkwardness mellow, then asked, “Where were you stationed?”

“Afghanistan. I wish I had seen more of it. It’s a beautiful country, you know? The skies at night are so wide-open.” Marcus could get lost in the memory. “Like if you knew how, you could let go of the earth and go flying up into the stars. So many of them. I loved that.”

“Can you see stars now?” Rye asked. Marcus could feel the kindness and the curiosity in his gaze.

“Not in the city.”

“No one can see them in the city,” Rye said. “What about the country?”

“Haven’t been since then.”

Rye made another of those small, soothing noises. Marcus liked that habit of his. In thanks, he didn’t ask Rye why Rye had never traveled, and hoped Rye liked that about him.

“I went on a road trip once,” Marcus said. The memory had come on him unaware and almost made him laugh. “Me and a couple of high school buddies.”

“Oh yeah?” Rye sat up straighter, crossing his legs Indian style with his elbows propped on his knees. “How old were you?”

“Eighteen—barely, but we figured we were all grown up.” Marcus had forgotten that. He let himself sink into the mental images, marveling at how clear they were. “I still don’t know how we even made it past the city limits. We had a single grocery bag of clean clothes each, and we filled the trunk of my old ’81 Skylark with beer we’d lifted off the back of a truck.”

Rye’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“How we didn’t get arrested, I don’t know that either.” Marcus had warmed to telling the story now and took one of the rickety motel chairs to swing it around and straddle the seat. “But we had such plans. The Grand Canyon. Las Vegas, where we were going to make our fortunes playing blackjack. Maybe see that giant ball of twine everyone talks about. Then keep on going. Drive until we reached the other side of the country, and dive headfirst into the Atlantic.”

He fell quiet. Yeah. He remembered that. How he’d slipped behind the wheel of that old Skylark with his fingertips and his toes almost buzzing with excitement. Like anything—and everything—was possible over the horizon.

“It didn’t matter if we made it,” Marcus said into the silence. “The journey was the point.”

Rye tilted his head, and it wasn’t hard to imagine his quiet smile. “How far did you get?”

“Not very. But that didn’t seem to matter at the time.”

“Because you still had the dream.”

He did understand. “That we did.” That was what had mattered most to Marcus, then and now. The idea that they could keep going. That it was all up to them, and their choices were the only things that defined them.

It’d been a thing of beauty, those few days. And he’d almost forgotten about them.

Rye cleared his throat. When Marcus looked up, the shapes and colors told him Rye had lifted his bottle of water in a toast that would be only a little ironic. “It’s not champagne, but what the hell. To the good times.”

Marcus’s cheeks were already sore from so much unaccustomed smiling, but it was worth it. “Damn right. Past, present, and future.”

“L’chaim.” Rye drank his water, capped the bottle, and set it aside. He moved as he always did, fluidly and with an economy of grace that anyone would call striking.

The long, lean stretch of his body, even indistinct, drew Marcus’s eye too.

That kiss. Marcus touched his lips. He hadn’t expected it, hadn’t asked for it, and for a second, he hadn’t known what was happening. He’d never kissed a man before, and the surprise of it stalled his brain. Only when he closed his eyes had it become real, and then—just as quickly—it’d been over.

Gone, but not forgotten. Marcus could still taste Rye’s mouth. Could feel the light scrape of a day’s worth of stubble, smell the faint hints of coffee and soap. Deep behind his ribs, in the heart of himself, Marcus could feel a sort of warmth that hadn’t yet died down, that’d been born when Rye kissed him.

He’d never even messed around with guys. Maybe he should have. He’d let it drop because Rye clearly wanted him to, but he couldn’t help how it made him think.

What if. What if. What if.

Marcus reluctantly let it go. It’d be a hell of a thing, wouldn’t it? Repaying a new friend for his kindness by treating him like kindness could be bought and paid for. Like he thought Rye owed him, when it was the other way around. He hadn’t enjoyed himself so much in months.

Even given the circumstances. Which reminded him…. “You never did give me a real answer, before.”

“About?”

“How much trouble you’ll be in for us taking that guy down. I’m guessing it’s a lot. Just a hunch.”

Rye waved that off, as Marcus had figured he would. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t help that.” Impulse moved Marcus to sit on the edge of the bed, below where Rye’s feet landed. “Tell me the truth.”

He felt Rye study him, then heard Rye’s quiet sigh. “Marcus…. Okay. Short version is I got fired. As close to fired as someone like me can be.”

Marcus didn’t understand, not completely, but he figured he got the gist.

“They want to teach me a lesson.” Rye tapped his fingertips against his knee in a restless staccato rhythm. “They’d like to make me need their protection enough to come crawling back and beg.”

“And you won’t do that,” Marcus said softly.

Rye bared his teeth. “I’ll crawl to hell and back first.”

Rain beat steadily against the motel room window. Wasn’t as soothing a sound as it had been.

Rye cleared his throat. “Anyway. I’ll figure something out. Man, listen to it come down, would you? Hasn’t lightened up at all.”

“Not as far as I can tell.”

“Into every life, some must fall.” Rye stretched one arm and then the other, working out pops in his elbows. “An optimistic kind of guy like you would probably say the trick is finding an umbrella.”

With anyone else, Marcus knew that would have been the start of their making excuses to go. He steeled himself, ready to argue against it, but—

He was wrong. Though Rye hesitated, he gave himself a light shake and then asked, “Want to try the cards again? We could make it best two out of three, and… well.” He laughed once. “I’m in no hurry if you’re not.”

It wasn’t much of a thing to say, really. It was the way he said it. The way Marcus could feel Rye looking at him. It tipped the balance, and Marcus understood him then. Rye didn’t want this escape from their real worlds to end. No more than Marcus did.

He wanted to break away too.

Now I see.

Now he understood the way Rye made him feel. Like that once-upon-a-time road trip he’d remembered so clearly tonight. Like they were both standing on the very edge of something he couldn’t yet see.

Whether Rye was aware of it or not, he wasn’t the only one.

“We should do it. Pick up and go,” Marcus said. “You and me.”

Rye gave a startled laugh. “What?”

Marcus could see it now, unfolding behind his eyes. “I have a truck. It hasn’t been driven in years, but my cousin’s an auto mechanic, and he’s kept it maintained. If you have a license, it’s all we’d need.”

“Marcus, wait. I can’t keep up. What are you saying?” Rye unfolded his legs and hitched himself closer to the foot of the bed, nearer to Marcus. “Start over.”

“That’s what I’m saying.” Marcus gestured with both hands. “We both want to get away, don’t we?”

“Yeah, but—”

“There’s a doctor in Atlanta I’ve been offered a referral to. Someone who might be able to help me. I had thought there was no way I could make it, but this could work.”

“Why don’t you fly?”

“I can’t take the pressure changes you get on planes at cruising altitude. I get headaches, bad ones.” Marcus waved that impatiently aside. “It could work, Rye. You’ve never traveled, but I’ve got enough experience with that to get us started. We get in the truck, you and me, and hit the road. When we get where we’re going, it’s a blank page for both of us. We can start over.”

He wished he could see Rye’s face clearly. All he could do was guess at the baffled frustration he felt coming off the guy in waves.

Marcus put out one hand and rested it on Rye’s biceps. “You wouldn’t bitch about your problems if I put a gun to your head, and neither would I. But I can read between the lines. You need a fresh start as much as I do. So why not?”

*****

Author Bio:

Max MacGowan is a work in progress. They’ve just turned forty, and are determined not to go gently into that good night. They identify as nonbinary genderqueer, and prefer they/them pronouns. While Max lives in North Carolina, they daydream constantly of Seattle and Portland and all other colorful points West. In the meantime, they’ll satisfy themselves with coffee and trying every recipe that piques their interest on the Food Network. While they can be quiet, friends will tell you all that still water can’t quite hide Max’s quirky personality, Or maybe it’s the ever-present puckish twinkle in the eyes that’s really to blame.

Max has a fantastic time writing male/male romance, and is especially fond of polyamory, found families, love in unexpected places, friends who become lovers, and romantic comedies. They’re owned by two rowdy tomcats who take pains to make sure their owner doesn’t ever get the status confused.

You can find Max online via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and their website.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Max-MacGowan/100009993105655
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maxmacgowan
Tumblr: http://maxmacgowan.tumblr.com/
Website: http://www.maxmacgowan.wordpress.com

You can also send Max an e-mail at max.macgowan.author@gmail.com. They’d love to hear from you!