Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
Family Home by Blake Allwood
Coming Home Series, Book 2
Facing the past is never fun, especially when it involves seeing the man you still love. When their lives are once again intertwined, is a second chance possible?
Ash once stabbed his heart when he broke up with him, who cares if it was high school, pain is still pain. And speaking of pain, this broken foot has done nothing but keep him stuck in Crawford City.
Ash is now the town doctor after his dad retired, which means when the incredibly handsome and totally pissed off Todd comes in, Ash is the only person in town who can treat him.
Like it or not, when Ash and Todd’s dads drop a major bomb on them, the two men are forced to deal with one another.
Will they find a way around teenage misunderstandings and bad choices to rekindle a love that’s never stopped boiling, or will their pride forever keep them apart?
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I can’t do it. I just can’t watch Todd in love with someone else. Now, I understood a little too well how much my dating Jennifer and Alex in high school had hurt him.
I decided to do what any red-blooded man would do in my shoes, get drunk and try to forget what it looked like to see him with another man—a really, really handsome man.
Rather than making the situation even sadder by drinking alone, though, I opted to go drinking in a bar like a civilized person. I slipped into the Red Saloon, our local bar, and ordered three shots of tequila just to get the party started.
“Hey, Doctor Nash, what brings you here?” I heard a tentative voice behind me, and I cringed.
“Fuck, this won’t work,” I said under my breath. “Just blowing off a little steam.” I turned around and saw my nurse practitioner Rachel’s daughter, Kristin. I forgot she worked here.
“I’ve heard things have been hectic down at the clinic.”
“They have, and I don’t get out and socialize nearly enough. I also miss tequila,” I said, thinking maybe I’d somehow given a plausible reason for why I was here.
“Well, you drink up.”
When I turned around, the bartender winked, and put three more shots in front of me.
I’d managed to convince myself to just down one and maybe sip the others when, fuck me, none other than Alex Lessen walked in, looking like a million bucks.
Yeah, this just gets better.
I sucked down the other two shots and sat back to enjoy the buzz. Six shots of tequila when I hadn’t had a drink in months… that was all it took.
I watched as Alex stuck his tongue down a woman’s throat, then turned and kissed some man too. Alex was the worst player in Crawford City. I’d been one of his toys, but just once, and accepting that turned my stomach.
When he caught my eye, he winked. I turned around and paid my bill. Nope, I was not going to play that little game.
I stumbled a bit as I started walking out of the bar, and when Kristin came over to check on me, I giggled. “I’m great now. That’s exactly what I needed. I’m gonna walk home and hopefully walk some of the buzz off.”
Like fuck I am, I thought as I left the bar, and walked my buzzing ass up to Kandy’s drive-thru liquor store. I bought a bottle of brandy, not caring what brand. “It all works the same,” I said to the young woman I didn’t recognize behind the window.
At that point, I hauled my ass back to my house as fast as my legs could carry me to get drunk in private. The whole drinking in private turns you into a freaking alcoholic was a bunch of bologna anyway. Well, no, my scientific mind quickly added, it wasn’t, but fuck it. “One night of drinking while fucking Todd is fucking some fucking man of the month from some fucking sexy man-calendar is just fine.”
I didn’t realize I’d been talking out loud, until one of my patients pulled over and asked if I needed a ride home.
I blushed, which was probably impossible to see, since I was already flushed from the alcohol, before politely declining. “I’m nearly home, but I thank you.”
She shook her head before driving on. Great! Public drunkenness, that was all I needed on top of everything else.
I managed to get home before I made a bigger fool of myself, and turned the TV on, flipping the channels until I came to some cartoon I didn’t recognize. I poured myself another shot into a glass I’d snagged on my way through the kitchen, and downed it while watching some weird-looking, spiky-haired old man run around screaming about something onscreen.
I’d gotten through half the bottle, and was in the middle of a full-on pity party, when I heard a key turn in the lock and the front door open.
Fuck, I didn’t expect him home tonight. Did he bring that handsome man here to fuck in my house? Oh, hell no. I’d put a stop to that.
I stood up just as Todd entered the living room.
“Nope, get out. You are not going to fuck some hot man in my house.” I thought that was what I said, or meant to at least, but the words didn’t seem to be coming out right.
“What? What man?”
I looked around the room. “Where’d he go?”
Todd took a deep breath and walked over to sit on the sofa. “There’s no one with me, Ash. Why are you drunk?”
“’Cause you’re fucking some other man. I know you fuck other people, and I can’t stop you from fucking other people, but you don’t get to fuck them in my own house,” I said, and the tears began to flow.
“Ash, baby, I’m not fucking other people, and I sure wouldn’t fuck them here. I wouldn’t be with anyone where you could see it. That wouldn’t be okay.”
“No, it’s not okay, and I shouldn’t have done it to you. I’m such a stupid, shitty person. Why did I hurt you so bad?” I sat next to Todd on the sofa, then leaned over and kissed him, saying, “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
I felt more than heard Todd let out a deep breath, before a strong arm snaked across my shoulders.
“Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart, come on in here and I’ll get you squared away.”
“I just feel so damned bad. I feel bad all the time, Todd. I didn’t wanna lose you, and I miss you all the time. Even now I miss you all the time.”
Todd’s arm only tightened around me at my drunken admission, or maybe he was just helping me stay upright. Even if it was only a half-hug, and even though I felt like shit in more ways than one, feeling his body pressed up against mine had never felt so right.
To celebrate the release of Family Home, Blake is giving away an e-set of the Coming Home Series so far!
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About the Author:
Blake Allwood was born in west TN, then moved to Kansas City MO after attending college in Lamoni, Iowa. He met his husband in 1995 and they officially married in 2015, once gay marriage was legalized. In 2017, he and his husband sold their home, purchased an RV and began traveling the country with their two dogs. Their travels provide the inspiration and settings for many of his novels.
Typically, Blake can be found relaxing in the RV or by the fire with his laptop and their Jack Russell Terrier, Buddy, curled up between his legs demanding attention. Denver, their Siberian Husky mix is often asleep at his feet or playing tug of war with Blake’s husband.
Connect with Blake:
www.blakeallwood.com
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https://www.bookbub.com/authors/blake-allwood
