After a night at the
movies in Albuquerque, NM, Brantley’s best friend, Matt, is shot right in front
him during a robbery. Stunned and devastated, Brant tries to help Matt’s
husband, Travis, deal with the funeral details even as he struggles with his
own grief and Travis’s blame. When Travis’s best friend arrives, Brant is both
annoyed and grateful, because he is so darn tired and can use the help.
Lex Espana is ashamed to
admit he hasn’t seen his childhood best friend since Travis’s wedding. He’s
even more amazed that he barely remembers Brant from that wedding, because he’s
sure interested now. While it’s weird to fall for someone at a funeral, his
feelings for Brant are real and make him long for a life he didn’t realize he
was missing.
Neither Lex nor Brant
knows how to be part of an us, though, and they both have a lot to work through
before they can settle in. To become a real couple, Brant and Lex will have to
dig deep to get past the roadblocks in their relationship.
Buy links: Dreamspinner Amazon
Cat gives this one 3 Meows with a 4 Purr
heat index...
Ammo and Enchiladas Is
book two in the series but it did read ok alone. You may want to read Bombs and
guacamole to meet Nate and Dusty and Lex as well.
Lex is a cop and receives
a call from his best friend in Albuquerque that his husband has been killed.
Travis goes to see how he can help.
Brant was with Matt when
he was killed and there was nothing he could do to help. He is taking his
friend's death hard. Lex and Brant are immediately attracted and become friends
while trying to console Travis.
The story is very angsty
and sad. After the funeral part is over, it moves on to the blooming
relationship of Brant and Lex. There is also lots of hot man-sex. The story had
a great premouse, especially with the title.
I guess I just expected more from the story. Something that tied in the
ammo part of the title. Mostly it was a
lot of great food, sex, and bonding which don't get me wrong as a good story. I
just expected some action and answers. I did like the book, the characters, and
romance. I also thought the book ended kind of abruptly.
If you like angst, insta
lust/love, cops, nurses, best friends, teachers and a happy for now at the
least ending you will like this.
Excerpt…
Chapter OneTHE CALL came in at about 2:00 a.m., which was about half an hour after the swing shift coffee had worn off and Lex Espana had staggered to bed. He’d been on 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for two weeks, barring days off, so switching to swing had him blinking and feeling brain stupid.
He groped for his phone on the nightstand and hit the button to answer just in time to keep it from going to voicemail. “’Lo?”
“L-Lex? Lex, honey?” The words dissolved into sobs on the other end of the line.
He sat up, reaching again to turn on the light. “Travis?” The voice was a bit of a blast from the past, the kind that came with calls on holidays and birthdays mostly. “What’s wrong?”
“Matt. There was a shooting. Please. Please, I don’t know what to do.”
It took a second to put all those words together in a way that made sense. Matt was Travis’s husband.
“A shooting? What? Tonight?” He hopped out of bed. “Is he okay? Is he in the hospital?”
“He’s gone. He was out with a friend—a movie. I had to grade papers. They stopped for gas.”
“So a gas station.” Ask leading questions. They taught cops that. Let people babble and give information.
“Yeah. At the Smith’s. They were getting gas, and someone tried to rob them.”
“Oh God. Wait, did you say gone?” Lex went still, his whole body freezing. Gone as in dead. Holy shit.
“Uh-huh.” There was a long, horrifying silence.
“Oh, Trav. Oh, honey, what do you need? I can come up.” He’d known Travis Garcia since sixth grade. He’d been Travis’s wingman. They’d been each other’s experimental lovers. Confidants. And now Travis’s husband was gone. Just like that.
He’d been Travis’s best man at their wedding, for fuck’s sake.
“Can you come? I don’t know what to do next. I have no idea.” Travis was so choked, Lex barely heard him.
“Of course I can. I’ll be up in about three hours.” This time of night, no one would be on the road, so he could fly. “I’ll bring coffee and sausage biscuits. You at home?”
“Yeah, they…. He was dead from the get-go.”
“Oh, hon.” He tossed clothes into a bag, then his kit bag and his phone charger. “I know platitudes don’t help, so I won’t say them.”
“Just come? I feel so lost.”
“I’m on my way.” God, this was…. He would call in to work on the road. He had time off coming to him, and Travis was as much family as any of the dozens of blood relatives he could pull out of the woodwork.
“Thank you. Lex, I’m freaking out.”
“Okay. It’s okay. I can stay on as long as you need.” He would just put on the hands-free in the truck.
“No. No, I need to…. What am I going to tell his parents?”
“I don’t know, but you have to call them before someone else does.” The cops might not, since Travis was the next of kin, but word got around. Someone would call to offer condolences.
“Right. Right, God. How do you do it, honey? Seriously? How do you manage?”
“I don’t know, Trav. I just do. I guess it’s a calling.” He never questioned his need to help people.
“But how do you tell someone their… their person is gone?”
“You just do. It’s the worst part of the job, even if it doesn’t seem like the cop feels anything.” He grabbed his bag, then looked at his one houseplant. He could ask the guys to come water it, he guessed. Dusty had given it to him, saying he needed to commit.
That was it.
Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy's Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds and her beloved wife, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she's not doing that, she's writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing Pinterest in the name of research. BA's personal saviors include her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.
Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but has heard the call of the high desert and lives in the Sandias. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery ménages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the voices in her head.
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great excerpt
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