Small towns thrive on gossip, and as the owner of the local bar I consider myself keeper of those secrets. The bar is like a confessional, a place to unload. My sanctuary where my secrets stay hidden and the focus is never on me.
I keep my world orderly. None of the bad touching the good. Little dividers allow me to live with myself, which isn’t easy in Arrowood.
It worked until my one lapse in judgement showed up to bite me in the ass.
My best friend’s arrogant, moody, and persistent little brother who just won’t take no for an answer. I’ve never wanted and hated someone so much in my life. He’s determined to pull my secrets out of me—I’m determined to resist him.
Title: Crossed Hearts
Series: Arrowood, Book 3
Author: J.R. Gray
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All of a sudden he picked me up and flipped me over his shoulder like some beast of a man, carrying me out of the kitchen.
“Adam!” I pretended to protest but anyone who’s ever watched Beauty and The Beast wants to be manhandled by the massive man in the scary forest, and don’t tell me I’m lying.
Bitches want libraries and a man who knows how to take charge.
When he turned towards the stairs, I yelped. I was no small boy. I weighed nearly as much as Adam did, I was sure, and mine was not as well placed as his.
“You’re going to fall down the stairs and kill us both!” 
“I’m not.” He laughed, taking them.
“I will never forgive you if you cause my premature death! I’m your size. This is something you do with twinks.”
“You’re in shape. Are you telling me you don’t think I could carry a man up the stairs? I’ve carried people off the side of mountains.”
“I’m not in ‘rescue people’ shape. I’m in Grindr shape. This is all specially sculpted by a six-hundred-dollar-an-hour trainer so I can still drink a lot, but my pictures still look good enough to not get laughed off the app.”
“That sounds like a lot of work for not a lot of rewards.”
“Sex and alcohol aren’t rewards?” I don’t know what planet he was living on, but to me, they were the reward.
“The hiking is the reward. My body is a bonus.” He stopped at the top of the stairs. “See, I win.”
“It is a bonus.” I grabbed his ass for rubbing in my face what he did.
He pushed me into a bedroom and tossed me down on the bed. He pointed at my pants. “You going to take those off? Or are you going to make me pop more buttons?”
Gray is a cynical Chicago native, who drinks coffee all day, barely sleeps, and is a little too fashion obsessed. He writes realistic and damaged characters because everyone deserves a happily ever after.
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