Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
In his mid-forties, Vincent O’Brien is starting over in the small town of Harmony. After being cheated on, again, he’s sworn off ever falling in love. As fate would have it, Vince needs a place to stay, and Colby has a spare room.
With an immediate connection that shakes up Colby’s sheltered world, neither man expects their friendship to blossom so fast…or for a semi-public hookup to make Colby realize he’s bi. Friends with benefits is perfect. It’s easy, it’s fun, they trust each other, and neither Vince nor Colby wants anything serious.
But the more their lives intertwine, the more Colby starts to feel something he’d thought himself incapable of. Something like love, with Vince…the man who will never feel—or want—the same.
Covington Acres is a small-town, bisexual/demiromantic awakening, friends-with-benefits romance with mature characters, home-brewed beer, and secret kisses.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
Colby
Two and a half years ago
Pinks and oranges started peeking out of the skyline behind the shadows of trees, barns, and the house Colby had lived in his whole life until he got a place of his own in his mid-twenties. He was thirty-seven now, so that had been a long time ago, but in every way that mattered, Covington Acres was his home. It was the place that held his most cherished memories. Where his family lived and where he worked. And looking out at it right now as dusk began to lead them into night, Colby knew it was one of the most beautiful places in the world.
He loved it…
But he also didn’t.
No, that wasn’t true. He completely loved it but sometimes resented it. Sometimes he didn’t know if it was what he wanted, mainly because he’d never had anything else. He’d never been given the chance to see if there was anything else out there for him, to find his passion or even if he had one. The older he got, the more that weighed on him. The more he wondered if this was who he was or if he was just really fucking sad and didn’t have a damn clue about himself.
Colby sighed, hating those feelings that had been growing for years. The ones that made him restless and added fuel to the fire of all the other confusing feelings he’d been having lately.
He didn’t feel right…didn’t feel “normal”…as if he wasn’t built the same as his parents and his siblings. His dad had been given this farm by his own father, and it was all he’d ever wanted. Colby’s dad had started dating his mom when they were in high school. They got married at nineteen and had been happy ever since. They had four kids, Colby being the baby of the bunch, all close in age, all working this farm, raising their families and being happy. A family and Covington Acres were all his parents had wanted.
Colby’s brother Dennis and his sister, Jackie, both had spouses and kids. They worked the farm too. Dennis lived and breathed Covington Acres just like their parents.
His oldest brother Roe was the only one who wasn’t married, but he had a teenage son with his best friend, and now was in a committed relationship with Holden. Roe had been the only one to leave Harmony, in Briar County, North Carolina. He’d left right after high school. Roe was gay and wanted to experience life outside their hometown, and their parents had supported him. But Colby figured everyone knew Roe would come back. Roe was a family man, this town was in his blood, and maybe it was in Colby’s too, he just wasn’t sure.
Even though Roe had left, it had always been assumed Colby would stay. That he would want exactly what his parents did—the farm and a family—and that’s just the way it was because that’s what Covingtons did. He thought maybe his parents had understood more with Roe than they would with him due to Roe’s sexuality—there hadn’t been much of a chance for Roe to find a partner here all those years ago.
But what they didn’t realize, what no one knew, was that Colby was pretty sure he was broken. That he didn’t know how to be in love with someone at all.
That truth was making it harder and harder to keep things going with his girlfriend, Lulu. She was getting anxious, wanting to settle down, get married and have kids. Colby had hoped she would be different, that he would feel for her and want to give her all those things, but it wasn’t happening.
It was wrong of him to keep stringing her along, which meant tonight he would be breaking Lulu’s heart, and tomorrow, when his mama found out, he’d be breaking hers too…and disappointing his dad and brother Dennis. How many times had they told him that at his age, it was high time he settled down? That by the time Colby had kids, their cousins would be much older than Colby’s kids. The idea that he might not want them at all never crossed their minds.
With a sigh, Colby stood from the picnic table where he’d been sitting and went to his truck. Even after a hard day of work on the farm, he didn’t go home to shower before heading to Lulu’s. He’d put this off long enough. He might not be built like the rest of them, but he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted to hurt anyone, and the longer he tried to feel something for Lulu that he couldn’t feel, the harder it would be on her.
He knocked on her door, and she opened it with a huge smile on her face. Lulu was a beautiful woman, with long blonde hair and curves in all the places he loved. She was kind and funny. He enjoyed talking to her, spending time with her, fucking her. Why couldn’t he be in love with her?