Standalone

Sullivan Haines knows exactly what he wants out of life. Fame as a Broadway dancer and to find the man of his dreams. Sadly, his love life is a dismal mess, his roommate is PMS personified, and working at a dingy dance studio teaching old people how to tango and foxtrot is not exactly the bright lights. Actually, life in the Big Apple is pretty rotten, until he and his dog run into tall, dark, and oh-so-handsome Duane Hart in the park. Their pooches hit it right off, but can the two men find romance along the park’s winding paths?

Duane Hart hasn’t had a lot go right in his life. His girlfriend recently broke up with him, taking everything that wasn’t nailed down or in his roommate’s name. Well, everything except the Yorkshire terrier that he didn’t want to get in the first place, and that she now refuses to take back. However, when he meets a handsome stranger and his pit bull in the dog park, will the blooming heat in his chest be able to convince him to start dating again? Or will fate prove love isn’t a walk in the park, after all?

O’Malley Ramsey, math aficionado, grew up next door to Garrison Rook, All-American athlete. While O’Malley dreamed of numbers and kissing Garrison, Garrison’s tastes ran to home runs and hot chicks. During a family celebration the night before both young men were heading off for college, O’Malley joyously discovers that Garrison isn’t quite as straight as the star athlete had been pretending to be. Vows to return to each other quickly followed a few clumsy kisses in the old treehouse in the Rook’s backyard.

O’Malley came home to Garrison. Garrison never returned to O’Malley.

Four years later, the two ex-friends meet up at a summer camp where O’Malley is serving as a counselor. Garrison is desperate to make things right with his childhood friend, but can O’Malley, still nursing the pain and mistrust of Garrison’s betrayal, ever forgive or love Garrison again?

There’s always that chance that your heart’s desire is one click away. 

Someone needs to pinch web designer/humor blogger/Pittsburgh Ravens mega fan Mike Kneller. Hard. For years, Mike has been living his life for his younger sister Kelly and his four-year-old nephew Liam. He’d opened up his home to Kelly when she found herself pregnant at sixteen and facing having a baby alone. Sure, his days are filled with skinned knees, snotty noses, and the occasional mishap with stuffed superheroes, but he’s perfectly happy because he loves Liam as much as he loves his baby sister. Giving up a social life and going to bed alone is a small price to pay. Little does he know that someone on the Ravens is about to show Ravens goalie Bryn Mettler one of his vlog posts. Of course he’s not going to believe it when his phone rings and the world-famous netminder—and his goalie crush—is on the other end. I mean, life doesn’t work that way for ordinary, hardworking uncles like Mike. Does it?

Bryn Mettler is a superstar athlete and a major part of the Pittsburgh sports society. He seems to have it all. He’s well-dressed, handsome, wealthy, an elite goaltender, a famed philanthropist, and the holder of numerous medals and trophies. To date, there are two things that have avoided him: lifting that big shiny silver cup over his head and finding a man to settle down with. Now that he’s over thirty, Bryn is finding the gay club scene is wearing thin. His teammates’ wives have decided it’s their duty to the team—and to Bryn—to find him Mr. Right. He’s relatively sure the man who’ll capture his heart surely won’t be found on a humor blog. Funny how life likes to take the things that you’re most certain about and flip them—and you—on its ear. When Bryn meets Mike, he is instantly drawn to the warm, funny, sexy man who shares his hectic days with thousands of Pittsburgh natives. Now he just has to convince Mike he is who he says he is so he can get to know him better. Thankfully, Bryn isn’t a quitter. But does he have what it takes to leap into life with Mike, Kelly, and Liam?

Will the night skies be forever changed?

Those upon Earth would assume the life of a Greek god is a walk through Elysium. They would be terribly wrong. Apollo, the golden son of Zeus, is far from home, banished from Olympus to live and train with the Titan, Helios. To compound his misery, Apollo is still mourning the loss of his first love, Hyacinthus. Life becomes a daily routine of shame, drudgery, and abuse until the hunter Orion appears at the eastern end of the world, seeking the healing touch of a Titan.

Sometimes a man’s biggest blunder can turn into his greatest triumph.

Orphaned at fourteen, Crow Poulin now has to hunt and trap the White Mountains of Arizona, as his father had taught him, all alone. It’s a lonely existence, until one morning, while checking his trap line, Crow finds more than a rabbit in a snare. He stumbles across the outlaw Jack Wittington lying half dead in the wilds. He takes the wanted man in, heals him, and in return for saving his life, the smooth-talking criminal invites Crow to join his family. Starved for human interaction and a father figure, Crow leaves the mountains behind for what he assumes will be a brighter future.

Six years pass. Crow is now a man, as well as a member of the Wittington Gang. He may be considered an outlaw, but his father’s morals are warring loudly with the lifestyle of his adopted family. When the gang decides to rob a train, Crow has no choice but to go along to keep a tight rein on the more bloodthirsty members.  It doesn’t take long for the scheme to go horribly astray.

Instead of gold-filled coffers, the gang finds Spencer Haughton, son of cattle baron and railroad tycoon Woodford Haughton, cowering in the family’s opulent private car. The outlaws grab the sickly heir in hopes of ransoming him off. Things then go from bad to worse for them when the law rides down on the Wittington hideout and Crow is given Spencer to hide until the ransom is paid. The pretty young man is nothing at all like anyone Crow has ever met before. Delicate, refined, well-educated, and possessed of a singing voice to rival the songs of the birds in the trees, Crow slowly finds himself falling for the winsome rich boy. But can two such opposite souls find the love they’re both seeking in each other’s arms?

Is it possible that the soft smile and furtive looks from Bailey are flirtatious, or is Hadley just living in a floral fantasy world?

It was supposed to be just another day in the life of Hadley Burton.

Wake up alone, go to work at his flower shop, go home, eat a frozen dinner, play his favorite online fantasy game, go to bed. Alone. So when his shop gets a frantic call from a harried guy from the Albany Beavers hockey team, looking for flowers for the annual Mother’s Trip wrap-up dinner, he’s stunned and thrilled. Working like a madman, Hadley and his lone employee burn the midnight oil and arrive at the arena just in time to place the centerpieces and meet a few of the players.

Thinking that this business boon was the best thing that could happen to him, he’s not at all ready to run into Bailey Rust, the considerably younger phenom forward of the Beavers. Nor is he prepared to discover that Bailey is a huge gamer and is the prettiest thing he has seen in years. After an hour spent talking gaming, the two go their separate ways. Until Bailey shows up at the flower shop the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that…

In a tiny Vermont town, two men are about to discover the joys of falling in love all over again.

Taliesin Wadleigh has lived in Couton-on-the-River for his entire life. Six of those twenty-six years he spent with the first man who had ever captured his heart. Those times were the happiest of his life and then, without warning, his fiancé was taken from him. Physically, at least. Spiritually, Carmichael is still in that whimsical shop with his beloved. Having a charming spirit close at hand to share late night tea with has helped heal Taliesin’s aching heart, and he’s happy spending his days selling antiques to tourists and avoiding the outside world and all those who inhabit it. Or so he tells himself…
Then a tall, handsome stranger walks into his shop and Taliesin, as well as Carmichael, senses that their life—and perhaps their afterlife—is going to change dramatically.

When Eason Dunne retired from professional baseball two years ago, he had plans. Amazing plans. Happy plans. Two years after he hung up his cleats, all those glorious ambitions have fizzled. He’s now divorced and flitting from one project to another, hoping to find…something special. Inheriting an old inn in some one horse—pardon him, one moose—town in Vermont was not at all something special. Lacking anything else of meaning in his life, he makes the trip from Las Vegas to Couton-on-the-River to try his hand at innkeeping. It’s in this little tourist trap that he wanders into the local antiquity shop and meets the eclectic, bespeckled, adorable owner. A man with somewhat offbeat taste in furnishings, a cross-eyed cat, a seemingly haunted radio, and one rather protective ghost.
Eason isn’t sure what to make of the situation or his attraction to the skinny man in the bow tie, but when danger threatens Taliesin, both men who love him are going to have to work together to save him.

Spiritual Whispers is a standalone small-town gay paranormal romance with a lovely age gap, a quirky antique shop owner, a disillusioned retired baseball player, a ghostly protector, a lazy shop cat, lots of tea, the occasional moose, and a happy-ever-after.

One fake date, one weekend awards ceremony, and one new love about to be neatly sewn up…

It’s been one hell of a season for Chicago Steelheads captain Paul Rocha. His team won it all, his name was announced as a finalist for a prestigious award, and his ex-boyfriend—a player in the league as well—left him for another man. So yeah, a season of ups and downs. Now he’s faced with attending an awards ceremony in West Palm Beach alone, something that would put a damper on what should be a joyous occasion. He’s about to cancel the trip when his PA whispers in his ear the name of an exclusive agency that can provide the superstar with a tasteful companion for the weekend. Dreading the thought of showing up stag when his ex has his new man on his arm, Paul contacts Elite Connections for a discreet date. His match is a man who turns his structured world on its ear in all the best ways possible.

Roth Morrison needs cash. Like yesterday. The young sewist has just lost his job as a barista at a coffee shop in his sleepy New Hampshire neighborhood. No job means no rent being paid, no food in the fridge he shares with four other struggling college grads, and no material to create more outfits. His online shop is struggling despite the accolades from people who have purchased his quirky matching outfits for them and their pets. Knowing his options are limited—and the rent is due in two weeks—Roth gives in and applies for a position at Elite. To his amazement, he’s quickly matched to some jock seeking a date. The payment and destination are enough to have him packing his tiny swimsuit and matching beach hat before he can reply to the email properly. Roth’s not at all prepared for his “date” for this testosterone-fueled weekend to be so tall, so handsome, and so utterly charming.

Darts and Dashers is an age gap, low angst, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine M/M romance with a rather set in his ways hockey player, a bubbly pet modiste, a weekend filled with luxurious settings, copious amounts of smiles and sunscreen, incredibly bright beachwear, and a perfectly fitted happy ending. 

*This novella was previously published in the Elite Connections Charity Anthology. No additions or revisions have been made*