Will three men from very
different backgrounds find a home and a future together?
After losing his husband
to cancer, Oscar Kennedy has his hands full with their four girls, the house,
his job, and his mother-in-law. When he loses his father too, keeping Stable
Hill, the old horse farm where he grew up, becomes impossible. Oscar hires
Jeffrey Stokes, a slick-looking real estate broker with a roll-up-his-sleeves
work ethic, to get it on the market.
Russell White manages the
day-to-day at Stable Hill. Russ had loved Oscar’s dad like a father, and took
on even more responsibility when the old man fell ill. He is shocked and
saddened by Oscar’s decision to sell.
All three men have a stake
in Stable Hill, and it’s not long before they start to invest in one another
too. But their complicated relationship doesn’t make having to sell Stable Hill
any easier. Will the fragile triad they’re building last when the farm that
brought them together is gone?
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Cat gives
this one 5 Meows with a 3 Purr heat index..
Oscar has lost his husband
a couple of years ago to cancer. He is raising his husband's four daughters
with the help of his mother in law. Now his father has passed about six months
ago and Oscar has to deal with the decision of selling the family farm. He is
conflicted, since it has so many memories but so does the house he lives in
that is his daughters'and mother in laws and he doesn't want to sell it and
move the girls away from their friends and schools, so he chooses the farm so
he can put the girls through college. A friend of his father gave him the
number of a good realtor that helped sell his and to another farmer. That is
Oscars one wish is to keep it a working farm.
Jeffrey is a single
Realtor and likes his hookups and freedom. he doesn't do recurring hookups,
except one twink he meets every now and again in a bar and they get down and
jiggy in the back of the man's truck.
Russ is the barn manager
on Stable Hil. He has had a thing for Oscar since he met him but knows Oscar is
grieving. He was close to Oscar's dad and Stable Hill is more than a job it is
his home.
So you can see how the
three meet... basically through the selling of the farm. This story has so many
feels. There is the grief of Oscar, his love of the girls, The love of the
Mother-in-law, then the budding relationship between the three men and how they
get there. A relationship is not easy and three men in one are even harder.
Jodi Payne did an amazing job with making this relationship work. I liked that
it was not an established couple taking in a third, I liked none of them were
really close so they came in on even footing. I absolutely loved the age
differences and how it kind of blended them all together... Russ's youth being
the glue.
I loved this
Mother-in-law. everyone needs a Rose in their life, and I adore books with children
and loved that these girls all had some bigger part of the story, not just arm
candy most kids are.
I found the story gripping
and intriguing and hard to put down.
I love cowboys, friends to
lovers (Russ and Oscar kind of) Boss/client (Oscar and Jeffrey) age gap. all
three of them staged out Oscar being the oldest, kids, angst, horses, second
chance at life... so this ticked off lots of boxes for me.
I will say that at times I
felt like I was missing a story like maybe this was a sequel and somewhere was
Oscar and Emmett's story. If not there should be...I'd be the first to snatch
it up.
Excerpt… Chapter
One
OSCAR
KENNEDY sat at his dining room table and stared at his cell phone, then glanced
again at the business card beside it on the table. He’d read the card so many
times in the last month, he didn’t need it anymore—he had the damn number
memorized. There was no reason not to make the call, but he’d procrastinated
for weeks anyway. He’d asked himself why a hundred times over and hadn’t found
an answer. Maybe it was because he’d grown up in that house. Maybe he wasn’t
ready to close the book on his father’s life. Maybe he didn’t want to let
anything else he cared about go.
But ready
or not, without Dad living there, the old farm was costing him money in
utilities, wages, taxes, and general upkeep every month it sat empty, and he
had mouths in his own house to feed. He’d thought about it long and hard. He’d
even thought about moving the family out there, but he just couldn’t find a way
to make it work.
All
right. Enough. He had to make the call. He took a deep breath, picked up his
phone, and dialed.
“Jeffrey
Stokes Realty. This is Janie. Can I help you?”
Jesus,
that was quick. The phone had barely rung on his end. He fought a strong urge
to hang up, and cleared his throat. “Uh, yes. Hello. My name is Oscar Kennedy.
Bob Keller gave me one of Mr. Stokes’s business cards and suggested I call him
about selling my father’s farm out in Lancaster County. Is he available?”
“One
moment please, Mr. Kennedy.”
The
Realtor’s hold music wasn’t bad. It sounded like the actual radio, tuned to an
eighties rock station. Oscar tapped his fingers—decorated with pink sparkly
nail polish—in time to Duran Duran and smiled as he discovered he remembered
all the words.
The
receptionist picked up again, and the music ended. “Mr. Kennedy?”
“Yes?”
“May I
please get your number? Mr. Stokes is on another call, but he would very much
like to speak with you.”
“Uh,
sure.” He gave her his cell number, thanked her, and hung up with a sigh.
Wasn’t
that just his luck? He’d finally gotten up the nerve to make the damn call and
the Realtor wasn’t available. Now he’d have to find the courage all over again
to actually pick up the phone when the guy—if the guy—called him
back.
“Dinner
will be ready shortly, Oscar.”
“Thank
you, Rose.” Oscar stood and stuffed his phone and the business card into his
back pocket.
“So… were
you able to reach the Realtor?”
He knew
she was going to ask. Hell, that was probably the only reason she’d come into
the dining room. He leaned toward her, smiling indulgently. “Yes, Rose. I made
the call.”
“Honestly,
that wasn’t what I—”
“That was
exactly what you meant,” he interrupted, smiling at the woman he’d come to
think of as his own mother. “You and I both know it.” He bent down and kissed
her on the forehead. “Hopefully he’ll get back to me. He wasn’t able to take my
call.”
“Oh, I’m
sorry, darling. That is frustrating.”
Oscar
shrugged. “It’ll get done. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to visit the nail
spa.” He waggled his pink fingers at her.
“You’re
such a good sport.”
“The
things I do for love.” Oscar left the dining room and headed through the living
room and upstairs. “Riley, honey? Did you find the polish remover?”
“Yes! You
want me to bring it downstairs?”
Oscar
stuck his head into the twins’ room. “Nope, I’m here.”
“Oh! Come
sit, Oz,” Riley said, smiling and patting the little stool that went with the
vanity the girls shared. “Sit, sit. Right here.”
“Zoe, go
on down and help your grandmother set the table for dinner, please?”
“It’s not
my turn. It’s Sophie’s!” Zoe pouted at him.
“Well,
all right, then. Please go tell Sophie I asked her to do it?”
“Okay!”
Zoe ran out of the room, shouting Sophie’s name, and Oscar carefully took a
seat on the little stool and let Riley start to remove his nail polish.
“I’m
sorry you didn’t like the pink.”
“Oh, no.
I loved the pink. I just have a meeting tomorrow, and I don’t want to distract
my client with the beautiful sparkles.”
Jodi Payne spent too many
years in New York and San Francisco stage-managing classical plays, edgy fringe
work, and the occasional musical. She therefore is overdramatic, takes herself
way too seriously, and has been known to randomly break out in song. Her men
are imperfect but genuine, stubborn but likeable, often kinky, and frequently
their own worst enemies. They are characters you can’t help but fall in love
with while they stumble along the path to their happily ever after.
For those looking to get
on her good side, Jodi’s addictions include nonfat lattes, Malbec, and tequila
however you pour it. She’s also obsessed with Shakespeare and Broadway
musicals. She can be found wearing sock monkey gloves while typing when it’s
cold, and on the beach enjoying the sun and the ocean when it’s hot. When she’s
not writing and/or vacuuming sand out of her laptop, Jodi mentors queer youth
and will drop everything for live music.
Jodi lives near New York
City with her beautiful wife, and together they are mothers of dragons
(cleverly disguised as children) and slaves to an enormous polydactyl cat.
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enjoyed the excerpt!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review and excerpt!
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