Impractical Magic
By MJ O’Shea
Publisher Dreamspinner Press
Genre M/M Contemporary
Buy Links:
Blurb:
Sequel to Newton’s Laws of Attraction
Physics teacher Fenton Keene is looking forward to a summer of doing nothing but hanging out with friends and maybe getting into a little trouble. With his best friend out of town, trouble seems like the best option and it comes in the form of his building’s newest temporary resident, a gorgeous fireman named Kevin.
Fen’s been attracted to men before, but this is the first time he’s considered acting on it. And act he does.
Fen and Kevin have an intense summer fling. Just in time for Kevin to go home, more feelings develop than Fen can ignore, but they don’t stop Kevin from leaving. Once Kevin’s gone, Fen can’t stop thinking about him. That’s when reality sets in and Fen faces the difficulties of distance and fidelity, while Kevin balks at Fen’s reluctance to tell his friends and family. They just need to find a way to make their magic more practical.
“The Gang”
One of my favorite parts of writing both Newton’s Laws of Attraction and Impractical Magic was creating the little band of friends that formed the core of all the main and supporting characters lives. I love how they aren’t all exactly the same but at the same time they accept each other and love each other for who they are. The guys might tease Jeremy for being boring and married, Rory for having all the teenaged students swooning over him, or Ben for sleeping around or later for pining over Rory. Fen gets his share of teasing for how much he likes to go to the gay bars when he’s (at least outwardly) straight.
The banter and unguarded affection between the group of friends is in my mind just as important, if not more so, than the romances themselves.
In this first scene from Impractical Magic, Ben is away in Los Angeles for the near future and the other three core members of their little crew feel a bit lost without him. Especially Rory, who is in love with Ben but fighting with him for some reason the other two don’t know. They’re determined to badger him into fixing it:
Fen didn’t feel any better two hours later when his friends and fellow teachers with nothing better to do showed up to hang out at his building’s pool. Jeremy chattered a mile a minute as usual, sunglasses perched on his head and holding his dark hair off his forehead, arms full of coolers and towels and magazines, but Rory hung back, quiet and morose. He looked like Ben had sounded earlier. He’d gotten noticeably thinner, his skin was pale and wan even by winter standards, and his usual bouncy caramel-colored waves looked limp. Fen wasn’t like Rory and Ben, all sad and mopey, but he still slumped in his deck chair and let Jeremy’s happy chatter wash over him. Rory sat quietly too, sipping his beer pensively and staring at nothing.
“This sucks,” Fen muttered for what had to be the tenth time that day. The pool was clear and blue and pretty, his beer was still cold and deliciously refreshing, he wasn’t even burnt yet, but everything felt off. Like sour milk in his coffee off. Ugh.
“It’s a nice day, dude,” Jeremy grumbled. “You’re at the pool. Your friends are here to hang out with you. We have all summer away from the kids. Quit bitching.”
“Not all of my friends are here.” Okay, so he was pouting a little bit. A grown-ass man pouting. Not cute. Rory looked down at his lap, but he still didn’t say anything. Jeremy elbowed Fen in the side and gave him a significant glare. Rory must’ve noticed.
“You guys can talk about Ben in front of me. I miss him too, you know.”
Sounded a lot like what Ben had said earlier. Sounded about as genuine too. He looked like he’d rather hear just about any other name, or maybe he was so desperate to talk about Ben, that to hear even tiny things about him somehow hurt. Either way, it was a mess.
“We just….” Jeremy obviously didn’t know what to say next. Fen didn’t either, especially since neither of them would tell him what the hell was going on. Other than hinting back in May that Rory had rejected him, which was a big joke seeing as how freaking in love Rory was, Ben wouldn’t talk.
“Can’t you two fix things?” Fen asked. Jeremy wouldn’t ever push, period, and Fen knew better than to push Ben, so that left pushing Rory. He kinda hated to kick Rory when he was already down, but it was time somebody took care of things.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Rory muttered. “I just… I think I fucked everything up.”
Fen nudged him with a shoulder. “Not permanently. There’s no way. Ben’s so gone for you. You can fix it.”
Rory looked like his heart had been ripped out of his chest for a minute, then he shook it off. “That’s gonna ruin our day. Let’s just hang, okay? I’m gonna swim.”
He stood and stripped his T-shirt off before silently diving into the pool.
“What’d you do that for?” Jeremy asked. He smacked Fen on the arm, kinda hard actually.
“Owww, what the hell?”
“We both know something shitty went down between them. They’ll work it out, just leave it alone. It’s not our damn business.”
Fen grumbled. He might have pouted too. “I just want it fixed already. I hate uncomfortable shit.”
“Me too.” Jeremy looked at his watch. “But I wanna have a nice afternoon and I only have like three hours before I gotta get home for dinner or Delia will skin me alive. Her parents are coming over.”
“Ugh, why do you have to be so married?”
“I was married when you met me,” Jeremy said with an ironic smile. “Kind of what happens after you propose and walk down the aisle.”
“Still, doesn’t she understand that my Ben is gone and I need you?” Oh yeah. Whining now. I couldn’t get any hotter.
Jeremy snorted. “Always nice to be appreciated.”
“I appreciate you. I just….”
“Miss him. Me too.” He gestured at the pool. “And I miss him too. I miss the regular Rory, I mean. We’ll get them back. Rory first, after we deal with whatever the problem is between them, and then Ben when his fellowship is over.”
“In a year.” Those months still felt like they stretched out into eternity. If a few weeks of summer sucked without his best friend around, he couldn’t imagine a whole school year with some rando right next door squatting in Ben’s classroom.
Jeremy rolled his eyes and took a long swig of his beer. “You’ll survive. Rory will survive. Ben will survive. Maybe.” He leaned back into the deck chair and closed his eyes. “Now, no more stressing during pool hours. It ruins my tan.”
Fen took the liberty of dropping a few lovely wet ice cubes from their cooler right onto Jeremy’s belly. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised when he ended up tossed in the pool, sputtering to the soundtrack of Jeremy and Rory’s cackles.
One of my other Favorite scenes is when Jeremy and Fen get the phone call that Rory is down in Los Angeles and he and Ben have worked things out. Even though this book is Fen’s love story, the guys were so happy for their friends that I thought it was an important moment to add.
Fen and Jeremy struggled through nine more holes before they dragged their tired, red, sweaty bodies back to Jeremy’s Land Rover.
“That was the longest game of my life.”
Jeremy punched him. “Pfft. That’s because you weren’t paying even the smallest bit of attention. Maybe next time you can actually play, and then it might go faster. Speaking of which….”
He turned on the car so his Bluetooth [1] would activate and dialed Ben’s number. It rang a few times before a sleepy, scratchy voice picked up.
“’Lo?”
Fen and Jeremy stared at each other open mouthed. “Rory? Is that you?” Jeremy asked.
Jeremy checked his phone again and showed it to Fen. Yep, he’d dialed Ben’s number.
Rory chuckled. “Yeah, it’s me and yes, I’m at Ben’s before you ask, ’cause I can hear you flipping out.”
“Put him on the phone. Right now.” Jeremy’s voice squeaked just a little. He tried to act all macho and manly all the time, but he was just as close to freak-out mode as Fen, who was about to squirm off of his seat.
“I’m here too, dork.”
Fen and Jeremy both let out loud whoops and high-fived.
“It’s about motherfucking time!” Jeremy nearly shouted. Manly emotional control flew out the damn window and around the corner. Fen was so happy. Happy for his friends that they’d finally found what had been sitting right in front of their damn faces all year and probably a long time before that. Finally.
“No kidding! When—how did this happen?” Fen didn’t even know what question to ask first.
“Fen? You there too?” Ben chuckled alongside Rory. Fen thought he might have heard kissing noises in there too, but he didn’t investigate further.
“Yeah. I’m here. One of you start talking.”
“I did something about it,” Rory said softly. “His message and then you telling me not to be an idiot—”
“I didn’t say idiot per se,” Fen interrupted.
“Well, whatever. I got the point and here I am. We’re… well, we’re together.”
Fen couldn’t stop grinning. “I’m really happy for you guys.”
“So am I,” Ben said into the phone. He sounded like Ben again: giddy, happy, sarcastic, silly Ben. No more sad face and mopey voice.
“Does this mean Finchy and I aren’t coming to visit you this summer? Are we getting kicked out of the love nest?” Jeremy punched Fen in the side for calling him Finchy. Typical.
“You better still be! This one might be coming with you though.” The smile in his voice was sappy and cutesy and indulgent. Fen had never been happier to hear anything in his life.
“I don’t think I want Rory with me if I’m coming,” Jeremy muttered.
“I heard that,” Rory said at the same time as Ben asked,
“Are you twelve?”
Fen and Jeremy looked at each other and shrugged. “Uh, yes? When exactly have we ever not been twelve?”
“Good point.” Fen still heard the smile in his voice. Sap aside, it was nice to have his best friend back.
“Hey, guys, can we call you later? We were kind of asleep.”
“What were you doing asleep? It’s the middle of the—you know what? I think don’t want to know,” Jeremy said.
“Probably a good call, man.” Ben seemed so happy that Fen couldn’t even work up a tiny bit of horror at the thought of two of his best friends getting it on.
“Love you guys,” Fen said into the speaker.
“Love you too, bro. Talk to you soon.”
Fen and Jeremy waited until they were sure the phone was hung up before they indulged in a little round of not-so-manly squealing. Only a few weird looks from other golfers walking to their cars made them reel it in.
That’s just a little bit of the friendship between Fen, Jeremy, Rory, and Ben. The four of them pull Fen’s love interest Kevin in too when they find out how Fen feels about him, after some loving teasing of course. I hope you liked reading a little bit of Impractical Magic! Thanks for having me stop by:)
xoxo
MJ O’Shea
About the Author:
I’m Mj O’Shea, author of erotic romance–well all sorts of romance actually, that’s just what’s been published so far!
I grew up, and still live, in sunny Washington state and while I love to visit other places, I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home.
I spent my childhood writing stories. Sometime in my early teens, the stories turned to romance. Most of those were about me, my friends, and our favorite tv stars. Hopefully, I’ve come a long way since then…
Right now, I have four books published through Republica Press (click on the link to visit their site), but I’m constantly working on new projects.
When I’m not writing, I love to play the piano and cook and paint pictures…and of course read. It’s nearly impossible to work on my own writing when I’ve gotten myself hooked into a great new book:) I like sparkly girly girl things, own at least twenty different colored headbands, and I have a little white dog with a ginger eye spot who sits with me when I write. Sometimes she comes up with ideas for me too…when she’s not napping.
Website http://mjoshea.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mj.oshea.5
Twitter https://twitter.com/mjosheaseattle
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3512511.M_J_O_Shea