Book Title: Wheels Down (Food Truck Warriors #5)
Author: Beth Bolden
Publisher: Beth Bolden Books
Cover Artist: Cate Ashwood Designs
Release Date: September 30, 2021
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Tropes: Friends to lovers, forced proximity, found family
Themes: Forgiveness, acceptance, friendship
Length: 76 000 words
It is not a standalone story. It is the fifth book in the Food Truck Warriors series.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Shaw isn’t his friend—until Ross discovers he’s so much more.
Blurb
Ross Stanton is having a bad week—a bad month—really, a bad year. But the last thing he wants, after the betrayal of his friend and business partner, is for anyone else to know just how much he’s fighting for survival.
He’s struggling to keep his food truck and to maintain appearances, but what Ross doesn’t realize is that Shaw Finley, the bartender from the Funky Cup, has seen right through his charade.
Shaw offers the couch in his apartment over the bar, suggesting that saving money on rent might help salvage Ross’ failing prospects.
Even though he doesn’t really consider them friends, Ross discovers that Shaw is great to talk to, easy to look at, and he likes him. Late nights and lazy mornings and evenings with only the polished wood of the bar between them lead to an attraction that Ross can’t deny—and that Shaw doesn’t even try to.
But falling in love isn’t as easy as falling into bed together, and Ross isn’t even sure what he feels is love, until he figures out that it couldn’t possibly be anything else.
There was an empty stool at the bar, and Ross slid into it, before anyone else could. He’d heard a group talking, a few months back, about how prized these seats were, and it wasn’t because of the great customer service—though a spot here would guarantee it—but because the bartender was so great. Funny and relaxing and yeah, charming.
He flirted with everyone. Shaw had even flirted with him, as casually as he did anything else, Ross thought as he put his elbows onto the shining wood. Which really said it all, didn’t it?
Shaw finished up pouring two beers, and mixing what looked to be a margarita, and turned to Ross, a surprised and pleased smile emerging on his handsome face.
“Hey, man, it’s great to see you,” he said, sounding like he genuinely meant it.
That was part of Shaw’s natural charm, Ross decided, he’d learned how to always mean it.
“Hey,” Ross said.
“What can I get you to drink?” Shaw was mixing another drink now, with muddled rosemary and lime, whiskey and a splash of cherry juice. It was inventive, but then most of the drinks here were.
That was Shaw’s personal touch.
“Uh.” Ross hesitated. He rarely drank, because he didn’t always trust himself. Once an addict, always an addict, even though he’d kicked his addiction to the uppers ages ago. “A water is fine.”
“Water? How about something sweet instead?”
“I don’t . . .”
“Yeah, I know,” Shaw said, shooting him another one of those quicksilver smiles. “You don’t drink. It won’t have booze in it, I promise. But I think you’ll like it.”
“How did you know? That I have a sweet tooth?” It wasn’t like Ross’ addiction to sugary shit was a state secret, but he didn’t go around telling people out of the blue, either. He was pretty sure he’d never told Shaw about it.
“Been behind you a couple of times at the coffee shop down the street,” Shaw said, filling a glass with ice. “You always get something real sweet there.”
Shaw was right, he usually did. It was one of his only vices and so he’d always refused to feel guilty about it. But how had he missed Shaw? The coffee shop wasn’t very big. He’d have noticed the man, if only because he was so easy to notice.
But then, Ross realized, he’d been living and working and nearly breathing in a fog the last few months. Stress and anxiety and guilt swirling inside of him, making a rather toxic combination. He’d barely noticed himself recently.
Shaw poured something bright red into the bottom of the glass, squeezed in half a lime with an expert motion, and then filled it with some clear effervescent liquid from the beverage gun.
“Here you go,” he said, setting the pink swirled drink onto a coaster in front of him. “Enjoy, and let me know what you think.”
Shaw had even managed to slip, almost without Ross realizing it, a lime wedge and a cherry onto the sharp end of a little pink umbrella, and it balanced just perfectly on the edge of the glass.
A lifelong Pacific Northwester, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty-three novels and seven novellas.
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