Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Ever since I’d come out after the night that shall not be named, Griff had designated himself my bodyguard, the way I knew he would, protecting his queer brother with his super straight-guy abilities. But he was also Mr. PFLAG brother, who would do anything for me and had a pride flag hung up in his straight bar, in a small city where being LGBTQ+ wasn’t perceived to be as fabulous as it actually was, so I couldn’t complain.
Still…it would help if he didn’t treat me like he thought I was weak, naive, and helpless.
I shoved those thoughts out of my head as the three of us made our way down the street. It was about a mile and a half from my shop to Griff’s bar, but I knew we would walk. We always did, as we laughed and talked and Josh and I rambled about our latest Grindr tricks and Nat said she was jelly. I felt so bad for the straights sometimes. They didn’t have nearly as much fun as us.
The bar was a lone building with a brick front. When we stepped inside Griff’s, it was fairly busy for being early in the evening. My brother was behind the bar as always, because he was a workaholic, didn’t know how to have fun, and in his thirty-three years on this planet—I wouldn’t say since birth because I wasn’t sure Griff was human—he’d never been serious about anything other than his work, his friends, and me.
Griff needed a life.
Griff needed a woman.
I’d tried to hook him up with Nat a few years back, but he wasn’t interested. And Griffin never dated.
“Hey, Kell, Josh, Nat,” Griff said as we approached him. The long bar was along the left of the building, with tables throughout the middle, billiards and darts on the right side, and a small stage along the back wall. Perched on chairs at the end of the bar were Lawson and Knox, who had taken Chase’s place as Griff’s friends over the years. They were hotties—Law with these blond curls that were to die for, and Knox in this daddy sort of way, with his dark hair, smoldering eyes, and the beard he always kept. Knox had been married, but was now divorced with a couple of kids, who lived with their mom. He had a local hardware store. He was a Havenwood transplant, whereas Law grew up here. Law’s parents were basically Havenwood royalty—the small population of town that had more money than they knew how to deal with and likely thought the rest of us below them. Law wasn’t like that, though. He owned a little café and spent his free time at Griff’s.
“What’s up, brother of mine. We’ve come to grace you with our presence.”
Griff rolled his eyes at me. He did that a lot. “You’re here because I give you guys half-priced drinks.”
“Lies!” I replied, but obviously, it was partly true. Who passed up cheap drinks? “Hey, Knox. Hey, Law,” I said to my brother’s friends. They were good guys and good friends to Griff, but they weren’t Chase. No one was Chase, and ugh, stop, stop, stop. It was long overdue that I stopped obsessing over Chase Hawthorne.
“Hey,” Law and Knox replied simultaneously.
Without having to ask what we wanted, Griff made three margaritas. We were simple people.
“For the three musketeers,” Griff said, which was what he called us.
“Thanks, big bro.”
We clinked our glasses together and drank.
Griff went about his business, and the three of us went about ours. We didn’t talk with Knox and Law much, but every once in a while, they’d say something to us or we to them. There was this clear separation between my friends and Griff’s. It had been like that ever since I started having friends. I was definitely glad things had changed a bit in Havenwood over the years. There were more out gay people, and I had Josh.
One margarita became two, and then we ordered fries because who didn’t need salt and grease with their alcohol?
It was after handing us our third drink that Griff had a lull in customers. “Oh, I meant to tell you something. Guess who I heard from?”
That quickly, my heart dropped to my stomach. He didn’t have to tell me who he was talking about. I knew. Still, I teased, “Santa Claus?”
Griff rolled his eyes. “Chase, you smartass. He’s coming back. He’s going to be the new patrol officer, since Tom finally retired. Can you believe that? Chase Hawthorne, a police officer in Havenwood.”
The rest of his words were a blur. Natalie’s hand immediately went to my arm, and it was a good thing, because otherwise I might have fallen off the barstool. She was the only person I’d ever told what happened with Chase. The only one who knew how I’d always felt about him.