Hi everyone, happy Friday to you all. This week, I’ve had my nose buried in my current WIP, because I have a deadline looming not far on the horizon (next week – gaaah!). This means I haven’t had time to write Alan and Jon. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know they’re popular, but to compensate I have a really fun thing planned for them next week. So tune in next Friday when Alan will make a little cameo somewhere else…other than here. 😉

But to not deprive you of my excellent writing (heh!), I thought I’d post the beginning of my WIP. It still hasn’t got a name. I got stuck on something that doesn’t really work (it’s on the clunky side) so I have to unstick my mind and solve the name problem this weekend.

Anyway, this excerpt is told from Beckett’s POV and it’s unedited. I hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 1 – Beckett

“Hi Becks. What’s so funny?”

I looked up from my phone and was met by my best friend’s smiling face. “Matt. You’re late.” I gave him a mock frown to remind him about my opinion on people not being on time, but my smile lingered and made it difficult.

“I know. Sorry. But I had to rescue him—” Matt pointed his thumb over his shoulder, “from the Hell Sisters and it took a while.”

I peeked over his shoulder to see who he was referring to just as the ‘he’ in question lightly punched Matt’s upper arm with a scowl.

“Sorry, sorry,” Matt said and threw himself down on the chair across from me. To me he said, “I’m not allowed to call them Hell Sisters even though they’d make Lucifer seem well behaved.”

Matt’s company joined us at the table and I swallowed. Hard.

Levi Byrne. Matt’s little brother. Or one of them at least; the Byrne family consisted of eleven kids, Matt being the eldest.

And Levi…Levi was three years younger than us and the spitting image of his brother. Except that Levi was cute. Very cute. His nose was maybe a little too long for his face and his hairline showed signs of receding at the tender age of twenty-three. But none of that mattered. When I looked into his eyes, every blemish disappeared and all I could see was kindness. He had the gentlest eyes I’d ever seen, in a deep caramel brown as if the caramel was made from dark muscovado sugar. Sometimes I thought I could detect a twinkle of mischief in them, but it could be my imagination. Levi was the quiet sibling. When all the other Byrne-kids spoke louder to make their voices heard in a sea of children, Levi did the complete opposite. He grew silent.

I’d had a crush on him for years, but he was Matt’s little brother, and besides…what would he see in someone like me?

I pulled in my stomach and sat a little straighter. Not that it helped. My belly couldn’t be hidden.

“Becks! Where’d you go?”

“Huh?” I blinked and turned my attention to Matt. “Sorry.”

“Whatever. You gonna tell me what was so funny just now?”

We were interrupted by the waitress before I had time to answer. For a second, I considered ordering something healthy, like one of those fancy avocado sourdough sandwiches that were so popular. But Matt would have a million questions if I did, and I’d always been a terrible liar and would never be able to fool him. So, I ordered my usual: a stack of pancakes with half a pig’s worth of bacon on the side, and their biggest mug of hot chocolate to top it off.

After taking our orders, the waitress brought us our drinks and Matt asked again what I’d been laughing about when they arrived.

“What’s your sign?” I asked.

Matt gulped down some of his coffee, grimaced, and started fanning his mouth. Levi smiled at me and shook his head. Matt never learned.

“Your birthday is in July. So, you’re…what? Cancer?” I asked when he’d calmed down.

“Oh! Yeah, I guess.”

I woke up the screen on my phone, cleared my throat and started reading out loud. “Until the end of the year, Jupiter continues to bring fullness to your life in the areas of creativity and romance, and this influence is extra strong tonight. So maybe take what your boyfriend offers this evening and leave the extra-large dildo in the drawer for once. You’ll be stuffed enough tonight without it.”

Matt’s eyes grew wider and wider as I read, and when I finished, he was staring at me as if I had emerged from the depths of Hell. “Dude! What the eff?” he choked out.

I glanced at Levi. His face flamed bright red and he bit his lip, looking everywhere except me or Matt.

“What the heck are you reading?” Matt asked and rubbed his ears as if he was trying to erase what he just had heard.

I held up my phone so he could see.

QX – your guide to all things LGBTQ+

Matt squinted, and then turned to Levi. “You programmed that site, didn’t you?”

Levi nodded. He was a computer wizard and had started programming almost before he could read and write. He’d designed his first webpage professionally in his freshman year in high school and if his parents hadn’t been adamant he had to graduate, he would have dropped out and started his business before his junior year.

“Why are you reading…that?” Matt hissed out the last word.

The waitress took this moment to arrive with our food. As she placed pancakes and bacon in front of all of us, I stared at him. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s a site for gay people.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s for everyone within the LGBTQ+ spectrum,” I said, unable to keep an annoyed edge from my voice.

“Yeah, yeah.” Matt stuffed his face full of pancakes. “But you’re not…that.”

That? I rolled my eyes. Matt could be such an idiot sometimes. “No, but I am bi.”

“But I thought…” He shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth, luckily stopping himself from saying anything even more stupid.

“You thought that because my last partner was a girl, I’m straight. Is that about it?” I was so fucking tired of this topic. If it wasn’t Matt, it was someone else. Like Mom.

“Yeah,” Matt muttered with his gaze downcast. His reply earned him a sharp elbow in the side from Levi. “Hey, don’t you start, too,” he said to his brother.

“Get off your brother’s case, Matt. Don’t be an ass.”

He looked at me as if to say ‘what’?

“We’ve had this conversation a million times. Don’t be a bigot. Your own brother is gay, for fuck’s sake. And when your mom found out, what did she do?”

“Switched churches.” Matt’s reply was barely audible.

“That’s right. Your very religious parents accepted Levi’s identity and moved heaven and earth to make him comfortable. But you…” I threw my hands up in the air. “Stop. Just stop, okay?”

Matt rubbed his ears again. “Yeah, okay. Sorry.” He nudged his shoulder against his brother’s. Levi nudged back and then gave me a wide, grateful smile, making the tip of his nose turn down slightly. Swoon.

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Beckett is my first bisexual character, but he won’t be the last. March is Bisexual Health Awareness Month, and I’m sad that bi erasure is still a thing in 2018. We, the B, is right there in the acronym. Click the image to learn how to be an ally.

Title: Leaning Into the Look
Series: Leaning Into Stories, #6
Author: Lane Hayes
Publisher: Lane Hayes
Release Date: March 23
Heat Level: 4 – Lots of Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 82000

Genre: Romance, friends to lovers, San Francisco, humor, businessmen

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Synopsis

Grant Kostas made a career based on his looks before joining his family’s real estate firm. He may not love his job but he’s better at sales than he thought. And when he’s poised to bring in the biggest account of the company’s history, even his father is impressed. Unfortunately, the extra attention highlights Grant’s personal life. His parents accept that he’s gay. They just wish he’d meet a nice Greek man.

Miles Harrison is a fabulous red head going through a rough patch. Between getting dumped by his long-term boyfriend and finding a new place to live in the city, he’s nearing his wits end. He’s not sure why he thought rooming with his boss’s friend was a good idea. Miles has had a crush on Grant for years. However, he knows attractive people aren’t always pretty on the inside. As the two men grapple with external problems, they form an unexpected bond of friendship and trust that feels like the real thing. The only way to know for certain is to let go of fear and lean into the look.

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Excerpt

I stopped short when we reached the other side of the street and then backed him against the brick façade of a bank building and pressed my lips over his. It was a bold move and not one I’d ever tried on any man in public before. But I couldn’t help myself. It felt oddly freeing to share one of the bleaker parts of my past with him. I wanted to thank him somehow but that seemed awkward so I kissed him instead. I held his head and glided my tongue alongside his, loving the moment when he flung his arms over my shoulders and responded with fervor. When we broke for air, I rested my forehead on his and grinned.

“Your ass is pretty spectacular too, Mi.”

He chuckled good-naturedly. “Thanks.”

“No really. I think I’m love with it.” I lowered my hands down his back and squeezed his cheeks as I molded his pelvis to mine.

“That’s kind of romantic. But if you’re thinking about falling in love with me too…don’t.”

I backed up slightly to get a better look at him. “Okay. I won’t.”

“Pinky promise.” He held up his right hand and wiggled his fingers.

“What makes you think you’re so irresistible?” I asked, wrapping my pinky finger around his.

“I’m not and you’ll figure it out sooner or later. But I like you and I want you and…”

“And what you’re really saying is you don’t want to fall for me.” I kept my tone light, hoping a jocular vibe would steer us from turning this into an uncomfortable conversation.

“Maybe.”

“Look, Mi. I’m not—”

“No. Listen. Don’t make this into a big deal. It’s not. We’re going to have a grand adventure. Just me and you. We’ll do incredible things and have amazing conversations and lots of sex. And when it’s time to say good-bye, we won’t ruin it by pretending we were ever in love. What do you say?”

Nothing. I had nothing to say. All I could think was maybe he really was crazy because who said shit like that?

But when I looked past the lighthearted swagger I saw the cracks in his armor. He was scared and battered and raw on the inside. Kind of like me. And somehow I had a feeling it wasn’t an ex-lover that made him so cautious. I only knew he was right. We were a couple of oddballs who unexpectedly found ourselves inhabiting the same circle. Temporarily.

But love? I should have walked away. Or at the very least, laughed at his wild leap. Instead I cocked my head and squinted. “What kind of adventures?”

Miles grinned. A slow-moving, gorgeous upturn of the lips that morphed into something celestial. He literally took my breath away. I hoped the dizziness faded before I gave him a reason to think it was a good thing he’d issued a warning about getting too attached.

“All kinds! We’ll turn this town upside down being one hundred percent ridiculous.”

“Okay…” I gave a half laugh and pushed a stray lock of hair behind his ear. “What do you have in mind? Dancing, parties—”

“No. More like Trivial Pursuit marathons, Netflix binge-watching fests in our Pjs, the compare and contrast game and—”

“The what?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll have fun. You’ll see,” he assured me earnestly as he laced our fingers together and pulled me away from the wall.

I glanced down at our joined hands and briefly thought about joking that he should be careful about giving me mixed signals. But I knew my limits. My comedic timing was crappy and the last thing I wanted was to push him away. I might not love Miles but I liked him. A lot. And holding his hand while we wandered through town under a sea of rainbow flags on a random Sunday felt special. The way new beginnings sometimes did.

Meet the Author

Lane Hayes is grateful to finally be doing what she loves best. Writing full-time! It’s no secret Lane loves a good romance novel. An avid reader from an early age, she has always been drawn to well-told love story with beautifully written characters. These days she prefers the leading roles to both be men. Lane discovered the M/M genre a few years ago and was instantly hooked. Her debut novel was a 2013 Rainbow Award finalist and subsequent books have received Honorable Mentions, and won first prize in the 2016 and 2017 Rainbow Awards. She loves red wine, chocolate and travel (in no particular order). Lane lives in Southern California with her amazing husband in a newly empty nest.