About What You Can't Live Without

by Eden Winters
40 pages / 8000 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

A flashy car, a trendy apartment, membership at a swanky country club -- Dr. Mitchell Rollins has it all, except someone to share it with. Dr. Arnulfo Oliva doesn't share his materialistic views and has no use for expensive toys. Turning away from all the U.S. has to offer, Nulfo returns to El Salvador, where he feels truly needed.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocks El Salvador and both men. Desperate to find his former lover, Mitch joins a mercy mission to the devastated country, coming face to face with the man who left him behind. Can two men from different worlds find common ground after the crisis?

Sample

"Come with me," Arnulfo said, rising and holding out a hand. They paused at the edge of the village where Nulfo retrieved a long, wickedly sharp machete. He sliced a path through thick undergrowth, leading Mitch deeper into the jungle. They came to a halt at a cliff that overlooked a bright, green valley. It was breathtaking.

From where he stood Mitch could see monkeys playing in the trees, and watch brightly colored parrots fly by. When the earth shook he stood his ground, willing down his fear. If Arnulfo could endure, then so could he.

"My country isn't all earthquakes and poverty, Mitch. There is great beauty here, too. If you look there--" he pointed with the machete to what looked like a pile of rocks on an adjacent hillside. "You'll see the remains of a pyramid. I played there as a child." He smiled, looking so much like his old self that Mitch's heart twanged.

In that moment, Mitch realized that the man standing before him was more that just a status symbol, someone with whom to impress his parents, or an equal to share a life with. This was the man who had stolen his heart. Standing on the edge of nowhere, he couldn't resist sweeping the man he still wanted into his arms. "I think I understand now," he said, "not just about your reasons for living, but my own. The car, the condo, they were all trappings, lures to get what I really wanted."

"And what did you want, Mitch?"