About The One That Stayed

by TC Blue
81 pages / 37000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-937-8
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, and Sony Reader pdf

Life can throw a man all sorts of curve balls, as David discovers when a senseless act of violence tries to deprive him of his lover of two decades. They've had their good and bad times, but it's the good ones that David remembers and wants to hold on to. In fact, he wants more of them, wants to experience more than just the memories that fill his mind as he waits to discover Russell's fate.

Between meeting Russell for the first time and the horrific instant that tries to take Russell away, their lives have been a series of moments, ranging from awkward to amazing. David wants to believe that their love will conquer all, because he can't let go. But does Russell feel it, too? Can Russell hold on as tightly, through the surgery that will either save his life or end it? Does Russell love David enough to stay?

Review

Mychael Black, co-author of the 7 Anthology, writes: David and Russell have been together through good times and bad for twenty years. They have a large, loving family, and they’ve worked hard for the wonderful lives they lead. But sometimes, fate can make a person take stock of everything in a very brutal way. When a hate crime nearly rips Russell out of David’s life forever, it changes the two of them. Can they hang on to what they have? Is their love strong enough for David to hold on and for Russell to make it through surgery?

The One That Stayed starts romantically and sweetly. I dove in, loving the fact that these two men have been together for two decades and still love each other so deeply. Then… I got hit with the mother of all curveballs. While not as shocked as David, obviously, it certainly made my jaw drop.

The story thereafter ranges from sexy to sweet to tense to… utterly heart-wrenching. There were several times I cried, but many more times I smiled. While it shows just how horrible hate crimes are, it also shows how loving and caring complete strangers can be. By the end (which is a very happy ending!), I desperately wanted to go back and read the other two books in this series!
 

Sample

Two and a half weeks since he’d been back at work, and Dave was almost obscenely proud of himself.

Work had been hard at first, but while the guys had been sympathetic about Dave’s "mugging", they hadn’t treated him like an invalid. Sure, they’d helped out when it had been obvious that Dave couldn’t quite manage to lift something or move as many cases of shit as he’d been able to before, but they hadn’t been all smug and snide about it. Just "hey, I’ll take that if you’ll carry this", which was… damned fucking cool, Dave thought.

It was good to be back. Good to be feeling the stretch and burn in his muscles, even if Dave thought he should be used to it again, by then. He was working again, doing his job pretty much as well as he had from the start, with the minor exception of not being able to lift things the way he’d done before. Even that would be back to normal in another week or so, though, so what did he have to complain about?

Nothing, Dave growled to himself as Russell wandered through the site in hard hat and work clothes. Nothing, except… God, it had to be his imagination. There was no possible way that Russ’ pants got tighter every day. There was no chance that Russell was spending more and more time out of the trailer, "inspecting" things near wherever Dave happened to be working that day.

And there wasn’t even a single snowball’s chance in Hell that Russell was deliberately posing against the steel girder across the way for Dave’s benefit. It just wasn’t possible, except…

Those blue-blue eyes were looking in his direction, and while Russell’s thumb was hooked in a belt loop of the man’s jeans, the rest of those long, elegant fingers were sort of stroking over Russell’s groin, and when Dave really looked, he noticed that Russell was not just staring his way, but staring at… well, something a good two feet or so below Dave’s face.

And there was definitely something there for Russ to look at, Dave admitted with what he thought was a silent groan. He just hoped none of the guys noticed.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Manny grunted, giving Dave what seemed like an amused but irritated smile. “Just get a room, okay? Maybe then we’ll be able to get some actual work done. Because this whole ‘you watching Russ, Russ watching you’ thing is starting to get tired. Besides,” and this time Manny’s grin was less annoyed and more laughing, “the pool’s up to about five hundred bucks, and Joyce has her heart set on a rabbit fur jacket. So get a move on, Dave. I’ll be really pissed if Jonas beats me by a day.”

It was the first hint Dave had that at least some of his co-workers suspected--knew--what he was, and it was… terrifying. But also not, considering what Manny had said about there being a…

“Pool?” Dave snarled, “There’s a ‘pool’? Why would you even think I was…” Jesus. A pool. On when he and Russell would fuck. Christ.

Then Manny was snorting and shaking his head, even while shouting out for Jason to start measuring a second time. “Calm down, kid,” he said, and Dave couldn’t even make himself try. “Everyone knows which way the boss swings. Didn’t take more than a month of you not going out to the titty-bars with the guys for us to wonder. Then Rob saw you heading out from that fucking shit-hole you live in, about a week later, and…”

Manny shrugged. “Look, kid. No harm, yeah? You’re cool. Good at your job. You don’t hit on anyone here, or even stare like you’re interested. And this crew--Russ’s crew--isn’t made up of fag-hating assholes, okay? Shit, the boss saw to that after his Dad died. And if you wanna know the truth, Tom Hartwell didn’t stand for that kind of shit, either. Not even before Russ owned up and did the right thing by getting divorced.”

Dave’s head was swimming for the rest of the day, and even though he knew he’d worked, he couldn’t have said what all he’d done, even if his life depended on it. All he knew was…

Manny had noticed his attraction to Russell.

Russ had been looking at him. Possibly more than Dave thought.

And Russ had been standing just a hundred or so feet away that afternoon. Standing and staring and rubbing his cock through his too-tight-for-work jeans.

There was a fucking pool, for Christ’s sake! And yet…

And yet…

About the Author