Blog post incl Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway!: Nathan Burgoine – Faux Ho Ho

Love Bytes welcome to their blog author Nathan Burgoine. Nathan shares an exclusive excerpt of his new release with us
and brought an ecopy for one lucky winner!
Welcome Nathan 🙂

TITLE: Faux Ho Ho

AUTHOR: ‘Nathan Burgoine

PUBLISHER: Bold Strokes Books

LENGTH: 38,000 words

RELEASE DATE: December 1^st, 2019 (from Bold Strokes Books); December 10^th, 2019 (everywhere else)

BLURB:

 

Silas Waite doesn’t want his big-C Conservative Alberta family to know he’s barely making rent. They’d see it as yet another sign that he’s not living up to the Waite family potential and muscle in on his life. When Silas unexpectedly needs a new roommate, he ends up with the gregarious (and gorgeous) personal trainer Constantino “Dino” Papadimitriou.

 

Silas’s parents try to brow-beat him into visiting for Thanksgiving, where they’ll put him on display as an example of how they’re so “tolerant” for Silas’s brother’s political campaign, but Dino pretends to be his boyfriend to get him out of it, citing a prior commitment. The ruse works—until they receive an invitation to Silas’s sister’s last-minute wedding.

 

Silas loves his sister, Dino wouldn’t mind a chalet Christmas, and together, they could turn a family obligation into something fun. But after nine months of being roommates, then friends, and now “boyfriends,” Silas finds being with Dino way too easy, and being the son that his parents barely tolerate too hard. Something has to give, but luckily, it’s the season for giving—and maybe what Silas has to give is worth the biggest risk of all.

 

Buy Links:

Bold Strokes Books

Amazon

 

Two weeks after the boyfriend plan, Silas received a letter from Alberta. He warily eyed the beautiful cream envelope, silky to the touch, not sure what to expect, but nothing exploded when he undid the little gold seal. A plain white card declared him invited in embossed gold script. He flipped the card to see what he’d been invited to.

And froze.

A wedding. For Elisha.

“Oh.” The only person he cared about in his whole damn family was tying the knot. His chest tightened, and he pressed his hand against the clenching sensation.

He hated weddings. Okay, not all weddings, nor on principle, but with the Waite family, weddings meant “high class affair.” His brothers’ weddings had been about as enjoyable as grade nine gym glass. Specifically, a rainy-day grade nine gym class playing dodgeball in the gym. Silas could try avoiding notice, ducking and hiding, but people would be out to get him regardless.

Smug, tedious, heteronormative dodgeball.

With praying.

Manny’s and Micah’s invitations both said no need for a plus one with the usual Waite subtlety. Not that he’d had a plus one.

Silas sighed, lowering his hand.

But Elisha’s wedding made things different.

Compassionate, amazing, Elisha, who straight-up said what she meant, was everything the rest of the Waites weren’t. For her, he’d go. It would suck being around the rest of his family, but it also wouldn’t suck because his sister would be there. Silas hadn’t met her boyfriend—scratch that, fiancé—Craig, but from everything Elisha said about him, he treated her right.

Also, he’d gotten the impression his parents didn’t really like Craig very much. A lowly grade school teacher, Craig’s social media made it pretty clear his views didn’t align with the Waites, already a huge point in his favor.

Silas tapped the invitation against the palm of his hand, deciding.

He could probably manage another wedding with his family flying solo. It would suck huge, but—

That’s when he saw it.

The invitation didn’t say “plus one.” It didn’t say “no need for a plus one” either.

No, it had two names. Silas and…

Constantino Papadimitriou.

Why on Earth would Elisha invite Dino? She didn’t even know him. It made no sense.

Then it clicked.

Oh no.

He held up the invitation, as though elevating it would somehow change the writing. Pieces of paper fell from the envelope. He caught them in mid-air. Plane ticket reservations. First class. Two of them. An itinerary. A map…

Oh no, oh no, oh no.

*

“This is your fault.” Silas pushed the envelope against Dino’s chest the second he got home from work. Dino took it from Silas’s hand, reading while he shrugged out of his jacket.

“Huh.”

“But wait, there’s more.” Silas held up the plane tickets.

Dino took a few more seconds to parse those. Once he understood what they were, though, he grinned.

“Cool,” he said.

“Cool? We just got invited to my sister’s wedding.”

“Yeah, I see that. First class.” Dino’s eyebrows rose. “And we don’t fly back until the twenty-eighth?” He eyed the map. “A ski village? We get Christmas in a chalet? I dunno. I’m not seeing the bad.”

“You told them we were dating!” Silas’s voice was getting a little screechy.

“So?” Dino shrugged. “Solution? we break up.”

Oh. Silas blinked. Right. He could just tell his parents that he and Dino broke up. And then, he’d be alone, with his family, at his sister’s wedding. And, bonus, freshly dumped. Even if they’d never actually been dating.

That wouldn’t just suck. It would be absolutely humiliating. He could imagine his brothers. Manny especially. The looks. The comments.

His chest tightened again.

“But,” Dino said.

“But?”

“It’s just… I was thinking.”

Silas stared at him. Last time “I was thinking” involved costumes. “Thinking what?”

“What if we go? As boyfriends. And break up later. Like, around New Year’s?”

“What?”

“I’ve never flown first class.” Dino flashed the adorable boy-smile. “And… y’know, chalet.”

Silas stared at him. “Seriously? Wait. Don’t you have a massive family Christmas thing, though? There were, like, a billion people at Thanksgiving.”

“Not this year. My mom and stepdad are doing a second-honeymoon, and they’re taking my grandparents with them, which sounds like a mood killer to me, but what do I know? Olivia and Sergio are going to his family this year because his brother just had a kid, and since everyone else isn’t going to be around, Niko decided this year they’d go visit Angie’s family, too.” He shrugged. “My dad and his wife offered, but their house is tiny and my stepbrother and stepsisters all have kids, so I’d have to find somewhere to crash in Toronto, not to mention driving there after my last shift. I’d be here anyway, flying solo. Christmas Day at a chalet? I mean, I can go to the Misfits party. Fiona invites everyone every year and I’ve never gone.” He raised his hands, palms open. “But…if I go with you then you don’t have to face off against your family on your own.”

“For the record?” Silas crossed his arms. “You should have led with that.”

“Probably.”

“You really think we can fake date in front of my family?”

Dino’s eyebrows rose. “You think we can’t?”

“Would we even know how? You have a lot of fun, but I wouldn’t call it dating, and the last date I went on…” Silas paused, staring meaningfully. It didn’t merit discussion. “Also, remember when you tried to teach me poker? I am not at one with the bluff. If I’m supposed to fake-flirt, we won’t fool anyone. I can barely real-flirt.”

“Little Man,” Dino said, squeezing his shoulders. “If we so much as hold hands, your parents are going to cringe their way out of the room. We don’t have to slobber all over each other or eye-fuck at brunch. They’ll be grateful if we keep it low-key.”

“That’s…” Awful? A double-standard? Homophobic? “True,” Silas said. Holding hands with Dino? Easy. Heck, half the time they watched movies on the couch they ended up leaning on each other. Dino tended to be super-tactile, so really Silas wouldn’t have to do much more than remember to react how a boyfriend would, and…

He frowned. “What’s happening? Why am I considering this?”

“Dude. First class. A freaking chalet. Your sister. It’ll be fun. We can make it fun.”

Silas probably should have said a million things. “Have you honestly lost your mind?” chief among them. But instead, he found himself weighing the options. He could either allow Dino to come as his boyfriend to what would likely be a lavish wedding in Alberta—on his parents’ dime no less—or go on his own and suffer through all the family stuff solo.

Really? There was only one thing to say.

“Do you have a tux?” Silas said.

 

‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was “Heart” in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction. This began his long love affair with short fiction, which has seen dozens more short stories published, and his first collection, Of Echoes Born, is now available from Bold Strokes Books. Even though short fiction is his favorite, ‘Nathan stepped into novel writing, and his first novel, Light, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Triad Blood and Triad Soul (urban paranormal) are also available, as is his first YA novel, Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks. More novels, novellas, and of course short fiction is always under way.

 

A cat lover, ‘Nathan managed to fall in love and marry Daniel, who is a confirmed dog person. Their ongoing cat-or-dog détente ended with the rescue of huskies. They live in Ottawa, Canada, where socialized health care and gay marriage have yet to cause the sky to cave in.

Author Links

Website: http://apostrophen.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NathanBurgoine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apostrophen/

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