Book Title: Life is Right Here
Authors and Publishers: Sophia Soames and Magdalena di Sotru
Cover Artist: Sophia Soames
Release Date: December 1, 2022
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Hurt/Comfort
Themes: Co-dependency, Found family
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 65 000 words
It is book two (of two) in the Life is Good series. The books must be read in order.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
“And here you are,” he said softly.
“Like you knew I would be.”
We sounded like a bad pop song from our youth. Or an even worse one from the present.
Blurb
“We’re going to have a brilliant Christmas, Andreas. Just like it was ten years ago, all of us together,” Vati said, placing steaming cups of coffee in front of us. “We’re just pointing out that you and Fredrik always had something special, and you haven’t seen each other for years. It will be lovely for you to reconnect.”
“Reconnecting is fine. We can discuss college life versus German nursing schools, drink Jägerbombs and watch weird Norwegian shit on TV. Christmas will be thrilling.”
“Andreas…” Vati warned as Lottie burst into giggles.
“You adore Fredrik. Still. I can see it in your eyes. You go all panic-stricken and weird when we even mention Freee—”
“Fredrik has a girlfriend in America. Maria hates my guts. Frank and Thomas will whip my butt for not visiting over summer, and anyway, I have to buy them a big present to bribe them to even talk to me.”
Vati smiled. “Frank and Thomas love you like a son, and they will just hug the shit out of you as usual.”
“Alongside Maria’s boyfriend, and Fredrik’s girlfriend. It will be a delightful group hug.” I snarled.
“Fredrik’s girlfriend isn’t coming. I told you that,” Vati said sternly. He was pissed off with me already, and we hadn’t even had breakfast.
“Whatever.” I huffed.
Awkward was the word I was looking for. This whole thing was going to be super awkward. Because they always were. And Fredrik? My world used to spin around the strange, blonde boy who was my best friend for a few years. He lit up my life. Then he fucked off. Well, he fucked off because I told him to. I was stupid and scared. I think he was too.
Awkward. That wasn’t even the start of what this Christmas was going to be like.
Authors’ Note:
Life is Right Here was intended to be a one-chapter Christmas epilogue to Life is Good and Other Lies.
This book is still that, an epilogue, and should be read after Life is Good and Other Lies to make sense. We hope that it will bring everything full circle and that you will enjoy, once again, following this family to their final HEA.
Trigger warnings:
Terminal and life-threatening illness. Bipolar disorder. Talk of suicide and the fear of this. Far too many sugar-laden Christmas foods.
This book has an HEA.
I just wanted to sit here in peace and quiet. It was all I’d have for a while with all these crazies around me, and I was not going to freak out over a certain someone being there. I just wouldn’t allow myself to. See? I could be chill. Totally relaxed. I would just shake his hand and talk about the weather. How’s life been treating you, old fellow? That kind of thing. I dealt with people every day; I could surely deal with my ex.
My ex. I hated thinking about him like that. He was…well, I couldn’t even describe it in my head. He was just this kid who had made me see the world in a different way. Younger than me but had his shit together. He knew what he liked, and yeah, he liked me. I liked him too. I mean, we became the best of friends during a stupid summer holiday, and then we went camping and we kind of…made out.
That should have been the end of it—something we laughed about and wrote off as a funny thing we did in our youth. Instead, it just went on, like an out-of-control speeding train. He texted me every day, and I texted him back. If he didn’t text, I would panic and ring him, and then after a while we talked every night. Then we talked every morning too. Then I saw him again, and let’s just say there was a reason the girls still teased me about mauling him in the hallway in front of his parents. That one was all on me. I had no idea what had got into the eighteen-year-old me, but I’d launched at him and eaten his face in front of Uncle Frank and Uncle Thomas, so I hadn’t only kissed Fredrik. I’d gone full-on gay on him.
I’d drifted off completely by the time Vati tugged at my jacket to get me off the tram. We walked up the now-familiar road lined with pretty houses, twinkling Christmas lights everywhere, candle arches in windows and warm star lights. It was all very festive and cheerful—and clean and bright, especially with the snow covering everything in sight. We got snow in Berlin, but not like this. There were piles and piles of it, and there were still some stray snowflakes whirling past me as I rubbed the snot running from my nose on my gloves. Proper woollen ones gifted from our gracious hosts every time we rocked up here in our apparently unsuitable German winter gear. It didn’t matter what we wore, Thomas would mock us mercilessly for our bad winter clothes and then whip out a bag from the wardrobe and ensure we all had the latest high-tech breathable, multifunctional gloves and the warmest hats known to humankind. Everything was better in Norway anyway. His words, and nobody ever dared to disagree. You didn’t mess with Uncle Thomas, and I’d known better than to reject his invitation this year.
“You okay, kid?” Papi asked as he caught up and nudged my shoulder. “Need a Man-to-Man talk?”
“Nah,” I slobbered back, my nose still running. Trust me to come down with a cold for Christmas. “I’m good.”
“I’m here if you need a freak-out,” Papi whispered and winked.
“Not having a freak-out,” I muttered back.
“Yes, you are, and it’s okay. Just drag him out for a beer somewhere public and let it all out.”
“That will drain my savings in one go, and I’ll have to spend the rest of this holiday at home doing nothing. I’m not going to a Norwegian bar with Fredrik. Nope. Not happening.”
It wasn’t, and still my heart swelled when I saw the house, a place of so many happy moments, of Christmas cheer, of laughter and…yes, all my memories. I needed to make new ones, Lottie had helpfully suggested. She’d promised to find me a nice Norwegian hook-up. Grindr or Tinder? What do you fancy? She’d said like it was a totally normal suggestion. I hadn’t even known how to answer that. To be honest, I was constantly too confused to care.
Right now, though? I wasn’t confused at all.
On the large steps outside the house stood this man, and I had to stop walking before I fell over my own feet. He was way taller than I remembered, and broader, with a fine dusting of stubble on his chin—I could tell because it was covered in frost that glittered in the light from the doorway. His hair was longer than I remembered too, falling in soft waves under his hat, and of course he had been shovelling snow like some elf-ish creature, which would impress my parents no end, not to mention putting him in his dads’ good books.
“Fredrik!” the girls shouted in unison, dumping their bags in the middle of the road so they could simultaneously tackle the dude on the steps to the ground. My sisters might’ve been pretty and elegant, but they were still feral monsters. The three of them were in a pile on the steps as Fredrik—everyone always called him Fredrik, except me—fake-screamed for them to get off him. Well, my Vati was trying to get in there to hug the poor guy too, and Papi was, as always, filming it all on his phone while I stood there like a fool wishing the ground could just swallow me up.
I’d lied when I said I was ready because I was honestly nowhere near ready for this.
About the Authors
Magdalena Di Sotru is an information security and data protection enthusiast from Norway. She is a mother of two and wife of one as well as a long-established fanfic writer. Her favourite food is (actually) salads (without mayo), her favourite guilty pleasure is fresh bakery goods (and that explains why everyone would think the salad was a lie). She knows her way around knitting, lock picking and skydiving (all at about equal skill levels – go figure). Life is Good and Other lies was her first novel.
Sophia Soames should be old enough to know better but has barely grown up. She has been known to fangirl over TV shows, has fallen in and out of love with more popstars than she dares to remember, and has a ridiculously high-flying (un-)glamourous real-life job.
Her long-suffering husband just laughs at her antics. Their children are feral. The dogs are too.
She lives in a creaky old house in rural London, although her heart is still in her native Scandinavia.
Discovering that the stories in her head make sense when written down has been part of the most hilarious midlife crisis ever, and she hopes it may long continue.
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