Title: Irises in the Snow
Author: Isabelle Adler
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: November 4, 2019
Heat Level: 2 - Fade to Black Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 25300
Genre: Contemporary, Anxiety, artist, childhood friends, Christmas, contemporary, family drama, holiday, second chances, small town
Add to Goodreads
Synopsis
It’s Christmas, and Justin’s life is fraying at the edges. The family business he took over instead of going to art school is bleeding money, and his boyfriend of seven months cheated on him. Under these circumstances, family gatherings can be rough, but Justin believes he has everything under control. That is, until Elliot, his former best friend (and the first guy to ever break his heart) unexpectedly shows up at the holiday dinner party.With both of them still nursing the wounds of the past, it might take a real Christmas miracle for Justin and Elliot to learn to appreciate the art of second chances.
Excerpt
Irises in the Snow
Isabelle Adler © 2019
All Rights Reserved
The Rowel family home greeted Justin
with familiar smells of cinnamon cake and fresh pine. In his mind, these scents
had always been associated with the holiday season and long evenings spent around
the dinner table or playing Scrabble in front of the fire. They were enough to
ease some of the ache in Justin’s chest, softening his mood a tiny fraction.
“Justin!” His father clapped him on the
shoulder and pulled him into a hug, which Justin carefully returned. “I’m glad
you could finally make it.”
Despite the long remission, his father
still appeared frail—or so it seemed to Justin, who, like most children, had
grown up with the illusion his father was invincible until the universe proved
him wrong.
“Of course,” Justin said. “You know me;
I can’t say no to mom’s cooking.”
His father raised his eyebrow
skeptically, undoubtedly recalling the string of last-minute cancellations and
half-hearted excuses for not coming over in the last few weeks.
A familiar wave of guilt washed over
Justin. With everything that had been going on, he knew he’d be hard-pressed to
withstand his parents’ well-meaning inquiries into his personal life and into
the state of the family business, which had become Justin’s sole
responsibility. He couldn’t bring himself to tell them just how badly both
those things were going.
He cranked up his smile to a new level
of dissimulation, but thankfully, his mother emerged from the kitchen before
his dad could challenge his statement.
His mother wiped her hands on her apron
and reached up to plant kisses on Justin’s cheeks.
“Everybody is already here,” she told
Justin as she led him by the arm into the living room as if he’d forgotten the
way. “I love it when the house is full.” Her tone was a touch wistful as she
gave his arm a gentle squeeze before returning to the kitchen.
Justin supposed having them all together
was a rare occurrence these days. He lived in a one-room apartment above their
hardware store, and his sister Trish had recently moved in with her fiancé.
Nowadays, only the holidays presented an opportunity for Kelly Rowel to gather
all of her loved ones, and, despite having to close the shop early on Monday to
attend the day-before-Christmas-Eve family gathering, Justin was glad he could
do something to make his mom happy. But as soon as he entered the brightly lit
living room, he came to a screeching halt.
A fire already crackled merrily behind
the grate. Huge red and white socks adorned with hand-embroidered names hung
off the mantelpiece, decorated with a fake holly arrangement making its yearly
appearance in the Rowel household. The TV showed a romantic comedy set in the
Swiss Alps, as far as Justin could tell at a cursory glance. His sister Trish,
her fiancé Dave, and Aunt Marnie sat glued to the movie while Uncle Tony
fiddled with his iPhone.
None of them, however, had the dubious
honor of grabbing Justin’s attention. That belonged to the young man wearing
trendy gold-rimmed glasses and the blandest Christmas sweater in existence,
sitting ramrod-straight in Dad’s old armchair and seemingly engrossed in Anne
Hathaway’s foreign love affair.
No way. What was he doing here?
Justin didn’t know how long he stood in
the doorway, transfixed, until his father, coming up behind him, gave him a
slight nudge.
“Look who I have here!” he announced,
and everybody, including the young man and Uncle Tony, raised their heads and
turned his way.
“Hey, Justin!” Trish got up to meet him
and give him a vigorous hug.
They sure were an affectionate lot, he
thought absently as he hugged her back. Once, all that warmth was what kept him
going. Now, it seemed almost…superfluous.
“Hi, Trish,” Justin said when she let
up, and nodded to the rest. “Aunt Marnie, Uncle Tony, Dave. Elliot.”
“Oh, right.” Trish finally seemed to
recall there was someone else present. “Mom invited Elliot to spend the holiday
with us. You remember Elliot?”
Justin nodded curtly, unable to tear his
eyes away from their guest. He definitely remembered Elliot Turner.
The man in question stood up, vacating
his seat for Justin’s dad, and extended his hand in greeting.
“It’s nice to see you again,” he said.
Elliot’s voice was deeper, more mature
than the last time Justin had spoken to him. Somehow, he seemed taller too. His
gray eyes behind the shiny glasses regarded him seriously.
“Sure,” Justin said politely, shaking
his hand. “It’s been a while.”
“Five years,” Elliot said.
“I was sorry to hear about your
parents,” Justin said.
An awkward silence, accentuated by the
chatter from the TV, settled around the living room at the mention of the
tragedy. Trish and Aunt Marnie exchanged a nervous look. Really, did they
expect Justin to just ignore what had happened?
When he’d heard of the terrible car
accident last year, he tried calling Elliot in Los Angeles, but Elliot never
picked up the phone or responded to Justin’s email in which he offered his
condolences. That, above anything else, made it perfectly clear Justin was no
longer welcome in his life.
So what was he doing back, standing in
Justin’s parents’ living room?
“Thank you,” Elliot said gravely.
Suddenly, Justin was aware he was still
holding Elliot’s hand and let it go, taking an involuntary step back. He wasn’t
prepared for all the half-repressed memories dragged to the surface by Elliot’s
touch—and he certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with them in front of his
notoriously meddlesome, if well-meaning, extended family.
Elliot stepped away as well, dropping
his eyes. The sudden loss of contact felt like…well, a loss.
“Is Mark coming?” Trish asked, peering
behind Justin’s shoulder as if expecting to find his boyfriend loitering in the
corridor.
“No,” he said curtly.
“Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe he’ll join us
tomorrow, then?”
“I don’t think so. How are your studies
going?” he asked Trish, desperately trying to divert her focus elsewhere.
“I’m doing great. Passed all my
midterms.”
“With flying colors,” Dave said.
He rose from his seat to shake Justin’s
hand as Elliot stepped aside to make room for him and plopped back down, taking
over half the couch in a casual sprawl. Dave was a big guy, tall and built like
a quarterback. Trish was taller than Justin by an inch, and nearly as broad in
the shoulders, but Dave made her seem petite in comparison.
“That’s terrific,” Justin said, his
voice warming.
His plan of going to art school had gone
up in flames and then slowly fizzled over the years as other considerations
took precedence over the illusions of youth, but at least it hadn’t all been
for nothing. With her athletics scholarship, Trish had been accepted to UIndy,
and as long as she got to achieve that dream, he was happy to do anything he
could to support her.
“I can’t believe you got even paler,
though,” Trish said, casting a critical eye over him. “And thinner. Are you
auditioning for the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past?”
“You’re the one to talk, Trish,” Aunt
Marnie observed primly. “That’s the trouble with young people today. You can’t
be bothered to take care of yourselves. Eating sandwiches in front of the TV
instead of sitting down for a proper meal, chugging all those soft drinks,
always on your phones instead of having a nice long conversation over the
dinner table.”
She glanced disapprovingly at Uncle Tony
as she said it. Justin couldn’t tell whether her dissatisfaction stemmed from
his being effectively absent from the proceedings, or that his preoccupation
with his own mobile device undermined her point of it being the affliction of
solely the younger generation.
Justin rolled his eyes and caught a
glimpse of Elliot doing the same. He pretended not to notice.
“Oh, shush, Marnie.” Justin’s dad, John,
tsked in annoyance at his sister-in-law as he settled comfortably in his shabby
armchair. “Leave the girl alone. The last thing she needs is your dieting
advice.”
“Just so you know, I eat healthier than
all of you,” Trish said, sitting back down on the sofa beside her fiancé.
Thankfully, she wasn’t ruffled by her aunt’s comment. Unlike Justin, she had
always boasted a sunny disposition and staunchly refused to let bullies of any
variety upset her. “And I drink nothing but fresh juice and water. Carbonated
for special occasions.”
Dave snickered and petted her arm
lovingly.
“Yes. Well. You must be tired, dear,”
Aunt Marnie said, changing the subject and addressing Justin. “Why don’t you
sit, put your feet up for a bit? Now, are you sure your young man isn’t coming?
I had such a nice chat with him when you brought him over for Thanksgiving. Did
you know—”
“I’m sure,” Justin interrupted her.
Elliot’s gaze was like a laser beam trained on him, but he refused to meet it
head on. “Actually, I think I’ll go see if Mom needs any help in the kitchen.”
Justin beat a hasty retreat before they
could all start bickering again—and before he had to explain his current
heartache in front of the man who was the first to ever break it.
Purchase
NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Meet the Author
A voracious reader from the age of five, Isabelle Adler has always dreamed of one day putting her own stories into writing. She loves traveling, art, and science, and finds inspiration in all of these. Her favorite genres include sci-fi, fantasy, and historical adventure. She also firmly believes in the unlimited powers of imagination and caffeine.Website | Twitter
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment