Book Title: Walking on Broken Paths
Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin
Cover Artist: Morningstar Ashley
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Tense/POV: third person, past tense
Genres: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Childhood friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, damaged hero, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 53 000 words / 210 pages
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Audiobook also available
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Blurb
Desperate to escape the pain of his brother’s death, Jesse Melnik ran—but he couldn’t outrun the grief, no matter how much distance he put between himself and his past. Now, after fifteen years of trying, he’s finally ready to face his hometown of Charlottetown again.
He expects the memories of his brother to hover in every corner of his family’s sailboat and whisper in every sea-tinged breeze.
What he doesn’t expect is Parker Willis, the best friend he left behind without a word the day he fled.
And he certainly doesn’t expect old feelings to resurface.
Parker’s been stuck in a rut since his father died three months ago. Every day is the same: try to keep his father’s dinner cruise business afloat so he can chip away at Dad’s debts, all while working a job that leaves him more frustrated than satisfied.
Then Parker’s routine shatters in the best way possible: Jesse Melnik returns to Prince Edward Island for the summer, all six feet three inches of gorgeous hockey player.
Now, that’s different.
Jesse kickstarts Parker’s heart.
Parker makes Jesse feel again.
And although both men are a little bit damaged from struggling down the broken path of loss, maybe—just maybe—if they can lean on each other, they’ll learn to move forward at last.
Content warnings: themes of grief, discussions of a parent’s death from cancer, discussions/descriptions of a sibling’s death from suicide
Jesse freaking Melnik.
Holy. Shit.
Parker sat across from his old friend in The Churchill Arms, fingers clasped around a beer bottle. On the table between them sat a nearly empty plate of nachos they’d ordered and devoured as they waited for their main course. The pub was about at half capacity—fairly typical for a Wednesday evening—and the televisions spaced around the place aired a baseball game.
Parker was at the wrong angle and couldn’t see who was playing. Not that it mattered. A juggling clown singing “This Is the Song That Never Ends” ad nauseam wouldn’t have been able to pull his focus off Jesse.
Jesse freaking Melnik.
Christ.
Parker didn’t know whether to slug him for fifteen years of non-communication, hug him, or beg for NHL tickets.
“What?” Jesse asked, gesturing at Parker with his beer. “Why are you staring at me?”
Parker sat back in his chair and kicked his legs out, poking Jesse in the ankle beneath the table. “Just . . . you look the same.” It was in the shape of his eyes and jaw, the hue of his lips, and the prominence of his nose. “But also different.” His face had filled out, matured. He’d grown a close-cropped beard that had a hint of red to it, unlike his hair, which was as thick and brown as ever. He was taller than Parker remembered and built like he could take on a WWE wrestler and win.
But then, most NHL defencemen Parker had met were big guys. Jesse was no different.
Jesse grunted. “You look like you’ve gotten too much sun lately. Your nose is peeling.”
Parker went cross-eyed trying to look at it. “Damn it. It’s not even warm yet.”
“Doesn’t mean the sun’s rays aren’t strong. Remember the time you got sunburned on an overcast day?”
“Fucking UV rays.”
“You looked like a cute little lobster.”
“Fuck you.”
Jesse chuckled, and Parker couldn’t help but grin back at him. If his future self had arrived to tell him how his night would play out, he would’ve laughed in his own face. He hadn’t thought he’d ever see Jesse again except while watching a hockey game on TV, yet here he was, six-plus feet and 220-plus pounds of every one of Parker’s fantasies come true.
Was it fair that Jesse was sexier in the flesh than when he was giving a pre- or post-game interview on TV?
No, it was not.
“How’ve you been, Jess?”
Jesse waggled his head side to side. “Okay. You?”
“Okay. What brings you out this way? Visiting your parents?”
“Yeah.” Jesse’s gaze shuttered, then cleared in the next moment. “I don’t have anything going on in Vancouver, so I thought I’d spend the summer here. What about you? Visiting your dad?”
The question was a blow to the jugular. Parker picked at the label on his bottle. “Actually, I moved back late last summer. Dad got sick and . . . Anyway. He passed three months ago.”
“Fuck. Parks.” Jesse’s voice was rough. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he squeezed Parker’s hand and muttered another low, “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” Parker said with a little laugh, surprised he could find any amusement at all. “Fuck is right.”
“How come you’re still here? Are you heading back to Montreal soon?”
How had Jesse known he’d lived there? Had he googled Parker like Parker had googled him? The thought sent a rush of warmth through Parker. “No, I’m running Dad’s business now.”
A furrow appeared between Jesse’s eyebrows. “The dinner cruises?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Can’t someone else do that?”
“I don’t see a lineup of people willing to take my place.”
Except Joel Penny. But Joel didn’t want to take his place. Joel wanted to add Parker’s ship to his own business. That wasn’t the same thing.
“But you never wanted to take over from your dad.”
Avoiding Jesse’s gaze, Parker shrugged. “People change.”
Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.
An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.
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