Shake the Stars

  V.L. Locey

  MM Contemporary Romance

  Blurb

  Spending time in the Poconos with his family was the last thing Dane Forrester wanted to do over the summer. He had dreams of spending his last break touring Europe and gathering story ideas for his upcoming creative writing classes before heading to college. Maybe even finding that elusive first love in a small café in Paris, or along the Rhine, or even in a sultry villa in Italy. But no, he was stuck at the Silver Fir Lodge with his family where his dreams of romance and passion would wither and die a slow painful death, or so he imagined.

  When all seemed lost, the budding wordsmith is saved—in more than one sense—by Khalid Novak, a lifeguard at the lodge’s pool. Khalid is two years older, a bit more sophisticated, and the most incredibly alluring thing Dane has ever seen. The two young men find themselves joyously wound in a searing romance that teaches Dane that love can be wildly intense yet fleeting so one should revel in it when the discovery is made.

  Can this summer romance survive the chill of autumn as well as the winds of time?

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resale or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file-sharing peer-to-peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of U.S. copyright law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any other way or by any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  A V.L. Locey MM Romance

  Shake the Stars

  Copyright © 2018 V.L. Locey.

  First E-book Publication: July 10. 2019

  Cover design by: Designs by Sloan

  Edited by: Kathy Krick

  All cover art and logo copyright © Designs by Sloan

  Acknowledgments

  To my brilliant and poetic daughter, Stephanie, for penning the hauntingly beautiful lyrics to “Icarus”.

  To Nickie Sène for all of the insight she has passed along on Islam during her sensitivity read of this novel.

  To my family who puts up with all my quirks and foibles, even the plastic banana in my holster.

  To my alphas, betas, editors, and proofers who work incredibly hard to help me make my books the shiniest we can make them.

  To Rachel who helps keep me on time, in line, and reasonably sane.

  To lovers and music and the power of a song to rekindle a romance.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  If you want to keep up with all the latest news about my upcoming M/M releases, sign up for my newsletter by visiting my website:

  http://vlloceyauthor.com/

  Chapter One

  Summer 2008

  Watching the city slowly drift away filled me with remorse. Sure, I’d wanted to see Philly disappear, but from the window of a plane, not through the back window of our car. I sighed yet again and turned to face the front. Sitting next to me, my younger brother James was prattling on about this event and that event at the lodge. I tried to tune him out, but he had this kind of nasally way of speaking that was grating my already ragged patience.

  Mom looked back at us and smiled. I gave her a grin in return even though I wanted to weep in frustration. She’d meant well. I knew that. And how long had she saved up for this summer at Silver Fir Lodge? Years probably. At eighteen and recently graduated from high school, I was old enough to appreciate the gesture. But three months in the mountains bored out of my head with James as my only companion? Ugh.

  “I’m so excited about this!” Mom said, her green eyes glowing with pleasure. “Dad will only be able to stay on the weekends, but we’ll be just fine during the week, won’t we?”

  “Sure, you will,” Dad interjected, his gaze a dark blue. James and I both had hazel eyes that kind of lacked the spark of either blue or green. Which was rather how I best described myself. Dane Forrester. Talked into saving the money gifted to him by his grandparents for graduation from high school for books and food and other important and responsible things for the fall semester at the University of Pennsylvania. Dane Forrester lacked spark. He was devoid of spark. Sparkless. I wasn’t sure that was a word, but it fit well so I’d use it. Creative writing was all about originality or so my English teacher, Mrs. Crafton, had told me. “With these two big tough men to protect you.”

  “I highly doubt I’ll need protecting.” Mom giggled, looking back to Dad. I slumped down in the seat and frowned at my brother. James flipped me off. I was too depressed to slap him upside the head. Also, men headed to college in the fall did not slap their brothers upside the head. At least not when they’d get caught. “The online information said this is one of the premiere lodges in the Poconos! They even had headline comedians during the summer like Don Rickles, Foster Brooks, and Lenny Bruce. You don’t get names like that if your lodge is crime-ridden.”

  “True, true,” Dad said as we merged onto Route 476. I felt as if I’d been mysteriously thrown into a time warp that had dropped me into the sixties after I googled who the hell Foster Brooks and Don Rickles were.

  “I swear if there’s a sexy dance instructor and some girl named Baby at this lodge I’m coming back home with Dad,” I mumbled then shoved my earbuds in to listen to some Daughtry and Usher. You know, music from this century.

  Mom reached back to pat my head. Dad gave me a look in the rearview mirror. I settled into the seat and tried to be less the petulant child and more the man everyone now expected me to be. It wasn’t easy, but by the time we stopped for a piddle break—Mom’s words not mine—midway through the two-hour trip, I’d managed to work up a little enthusiasm for this endless summer vacation. If nothing else, I’d be able to write. I had all summer. Hell, I could probably pen a damn novel in those tedious ten weeks stuck at Silver Fir Lodge. Thank God I’d packed my laptop.

  “Can I have a word?” Dad asked as we stretched at a rest stop. Mom had disappeared into the ladies room and James was trying to decide what kind of candy bar to buy from the row of various vending machines. It was a beautiful June day. Low humidity, temps in the mid-seventies.

  “Sure.”

  He walked over to stand beside me on the curb.

  “Look, Dane, I know this isn’t exactly the summer that you’d planned.”

  I glanced at the tall, lean man in a polo shirt and tan shorts. I was nearly as tall as him now. That never ceased to amaze me. As a little boy, I’d wanted nothing more than to be as big and strong as my father. I was almost as big and probably a little stronger now but that was probably all we had in common.

  “No, not really,” I confessed as a soft wind moved over us, stirring up a little dust devil that whirled around the parking area for a second before dying out.

  “I get that. Europe would be so much more fun than spending all summer in a dusty old lodge whose heyday was back when Sammy Davis Jr. was hot, but your mother saved and scrimped for this for you since the day you entered kindergarten. All her extra cash went into the “Boy’s Big Trips Jar” hidden inside her sewing chest. She’s not handling you two growing up well.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my cutoffs and rolled up to my toes.

  “James will be fourteen next month and you’re going away to college. She’s feeling a little lost and unneeded.”

  “I’m like fifteen minutes from home,” I reminded a parent for the eight thousandth time and got that soft eye roll of his.

  “I know and that’s a help, but she’s struggling. She’s invested everything she is into you two boys. She gave up teaching to raise you both.” I closed my eyes and soaked up the warmth of the early summer sun on my brown hair. “If you could just try to be a little less cranky about her graduation gift to you, it would mean a lot to her…and to me. Sometimes being an adult means that you have to set aside your own wishes to make others you care about happy.”

  I blew out a slow breath through pursed lips. “I know. I’m sorry I’m being such a jerk. I’ll try to act happier for her. I do appreciate the trip. I really do. It’s just…”

  How do I tell him that I’d been hoping to find a cultured, sexy European guy to fall in love with? They had no clue that I was gay. No one did. The Catholic school that I’d attended really didn’t have any kind of LGBT counseling or groups to attend and learn how to tell your folks you were gay. And if any of the other kids were like me, they hid it as deeply as I had. I had no peers who were gay and no friends who were either. Which was why the trip abroad was going to be me breaking free of my shell as I began to learn who Dane Forrester really was.

/>
  “I get it.” He draped an arm around my shoulder. “But you’ll have plenty of time to chase girls once you’re living on campus.”

  “Girls. Yep. Want to chase them girls.”

  Ugh. Just ugh. He tugged on my shoulder roughly. “Thanks for being such a good son, Dane. Your mother will treasure this summer.”

  She then appeared, smiling at Dad and me, her brown hair shining and her smile wide. She was summery and slim, her dress bright yellow and her sandals white. She was still so pretty and so giving. I was a greedy dick for sulking and whining like a four-year-old. Dad was right. Growing up meant we had to stop thinking about our wants and needs all the time.

  “Look at you two. So tall and handsome.” She took my face in her hands and pressed a kiss to my nose. “This is going to be the best summer ever, Dane. We’ll get to be so close before you move out.”

  Her green eyes were brilliant and wet with unshed tears. I gave her my best smile and gathered her into my arms for a hug. Dad beamed at me. James started kicking the shit out of a vending machine that had robbed him. It was going to be okay. I’d just have to stop thinking about sex and falling in love and expressing the true Dane for another two and a half months. Hell, I’d hidden who I was for eighteen years. What was another ten weeks?

  It was all going to be okay.

  ***

  It was not going to be okay.

  I was scouring my word bank for a fitting descriptor for the Silver Fir Lodge. The only word that popped up was dingy, but that wasn’t quite right either. The huge lodge wasn’t actually gray or mottled with mold it was just…just…

  “This place reminds me of the lodge in The Shining after the bad shit started going down,” James whispered as we were treated to a tour of the massive main lodge.

  “Yeah, it really does,” I whispered, pulling a sickly kind of smile from my brother. Aged. That was the word I’d been looking for. The lodge was clean and recently painted and papered, but it was showing its age. Kind of like those old women who cling tenaciously to their long-lost youth by dressing in short skirts or applying far too much makeup. This lodge was my great aunt Bitty only a draftier.

  “Boys stop nitpicking. This place has character and history,” Mom shushed as we followed behind our bags and parents.

  “Yeah, James, it’s called history and character,” I whispered to James who did a pretty good “Here’s Johnny!” Nicholson imitation before my father’s head craned around to give us a dark look.

  “Sorry,” we said it in unison then smirked at each other. A young woman led us through the main hall and past dining rooms that were built when Ulysses S. Grant was a young man. She smiled a lot. At me, which made me pay more attention to the lodge.

  “…you’ll also find an Olympic-sized swimming pool with on-staff lifeguards, tennis courts, basketball courts, and an 18-hole golf course.”

  Our guide was tiny, blonde, dark-eyed, and slim. Her name badge said to call her Bonnie, which was a cute name for a cute girl. As we clattered along outside, a bellhop tugged our bags on a luggage trolley. Bonnie’s brown eyes flickered to me then to the gravel path and then back to me. I decided to enjoy the lush grounds. Whoever did the landscaping here was top notch. The beds were neat, thick with bark and flowering bushes of pink and white. Flowers swayed in the summer wind, as did long tendrilled willows along the creek bank. I could easily imagine myself seated by the water, laptop on my thighs, working on what would be a best-selling novel.

  “And down here by Cranberry Creek are the guest cabins. Yours is number four and Rob here will make sure you’re all set up.” Bonnie turned the key in the lock. Yes. Key in the lock. No keycards here. I rolled my eyes as she fiddled and jiggled. My mother was close to bouncing up and down with excitement. “Darn things get rusty when they’re not used,” Bonnie said over her shoulder, her smile a bit too wide.

  The lock finally freed and the door opened. I gave James a worried look. He pretended to be hanging from a noose. My father flicked his ear soundly then gave me a firm look.

  “There we go!” Bonnie dropped the key into my father’s hand then waved us in. Walking past her, I picked up the smell of her flowery perfume. It was nice and feminine. “Please feel free to call up to the main lodge for anything. Just ask for me.”

  Bonnie batted her lashes at me then bounced off. I watched her, hoping that the vibes I was picking up from her were just her being friendly to the new guest’s vibes. God knows I knew little about the opposite sex aside from the fact that they giggle and are supposedly very soft to cuddle. Never having had a cuddle with one I didn’t know. Well, I mean I cuddle with my mother and she’s soft but she’s not a girl. She is a girl, but she’s not a cuddle girl. Dad probably thinks she’s nice to cuddle with, of course. Okay, this was looping out of control.

  “I think she likes you,” Mom whispered in my ear before pulling me deeper into our cabin. Ah, Lord. No. Not that. Anything but motherly matchmaking. I scurried over to stand by the porter unloading our bags from the trolley. He felt safer and less prone to try to hook me up with Bouncy Bonnie. Hands behind my back, I scoped out the cabin. It was okay. Rustic sort of, but that was probably the look they’d been going for when it was built back in the day.

  “I think George Washington probably slept here,” James announced, breaking the tight silence that had fallen over the cabin.

  “Don’t be silly, James. The main lodge was built in the early twenties and the guest cabanas shortly before World War II.” Mom thanked the porter and slipped him a small tip. He nodded then rattled back out onto the gravel walkway. Dad closed the door behind him. “If you two monkeys had been listening to Bonnie you would have known those facts.”

  “So close to George Washington time then,” James mumbled then began opening doors. Seems we had one bath, a rather large one with indoor plumbing I was thrilled to see, and two bedrooms. One with a huge bed with a dark cherry headboard and a wardrobe the size of a walk-in freezer. The second had a single dresser and a bunk bed crammed into it. James claimed the top, which was fine, heights made my head spin. Our room, small as it was, did have a door that opened out to the creek flowing behind it.

  “Okay, this is pretty,” I said to James as we stood there watching the water flowing past. The willows were thick, the water blue as a sapphire, and the birds flying over the creek varied. They sang and trilled. Bugs hummed, and the gentle sound of water moving over rocks entered your soul and calmed it.

  “This sucks,” James moaned and stalked back inside to complain about the lack of internet at the cabins. I lingered a bit longer on the patio, my gaze moving to the tennis courts across the river. You couldn’t hear the sounds of the people playing tennis, the creek covered the thunk of racket meeting ball, but their white shorts and skirts stood out sharply. From where I stood the fence around the pool that sat adjacent to the tennis courts was barely seen. I could make out a high dive, but that was it. My head swam just thinking of climbing up those ten feet or so then having to look down at the pool. A familiar tightness gripped my chest, and I ripped my sight away from the diving board, the heavy thumping of my heart inside my ribs calming after I shut the door to the outside world behind me.

  “I think we should unpack and nap.” I heard Mom saying as I sauntered into the living room area. James was spread over the couch, his eyes shut, his mouth slack. It was the perfect picture of a kid bored out of his mind. He’d only been here offline for fifteen minutes. Maybe my brother was going to have a harder time of this mother/sons bonding trip than me. At least I had my laptop. I could lose myself in one of several books I had going. Which would serve me well since I tended to be reclusive while James was the outgoing one. He’d probably end up with a pack of kids his own age to pal around with and I’d be here, with Mom and my laptop, making up fictional lovers.

  “Would it be too cliché for me to throw myself into the river?” I asked but no one heard me. Mom and Dad were already lugging suitcases into their room, chatting about dinner and the show that would follow. James gagged and twitched when Mom said something about show tunes. I walked back to our room, bags in hand, and dumped my clothes into the two top drawers. James might get top bunk, but I get top drawers.